The number of child labourers is increasing alarmingly in the coastal district of Patuakhali as poverty forces them to work for earning livelihood, according to a study. At present, over 21,000 children below 12 years of old are engaged in different odd jobs in the district, says the study conducted by Human Development Association, a non-governmental organisation. Poverty is the key reason for the continued rise in the number child labourers in the district as poor parents send their children to work to earn livelihood, the study says. Almost every year, the coastal district is devastated by natural calamities such as flooding and cyclone, resulting in economic hardships of a large number of people. The children belonging to the poor families work at hotels, welding shops, workshops, ice factories, bidi factories, garages, brickfields and construction sites to supplement income of their parents. Many children work as domestic help in the houses of well-off families, pull rickshaws, clean buses, cars and trucks as a means of livelihood. Most of these children are found sleeping at bus and launch terminals and under shade of shops and abandoned houses and they often get attacked with various diseases due to malnutrition and unhygienic living condition. A good many children are also engaged in smuggling and drug peddling, according to officials of some other NGOs. Employment of minor boys and girls is a punishable offence as per law but the law only exists in books, they said. The minor boys and girls, who work as domestic help, are often tortured by the family members of the respective houses. Although there is a court in every district to deal with child and women repression, the victims cannot to go there for legal action due to lack of money, the NGO officials said. Besides, there is a legal aid organisation called Bangladesh Legal Aide Services and Trust in most of the districts. But the members of the organisation hardly come in aid of the victims. Golam Wahid Chowdhury, former president of the Patuakhali Bar Association, said laws alone cannot help to eradicate child labour.