By Alastair Lawson BBC correspondent in Dhaka

A seminar on child labour is being held on Thursday in the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.

[Child labour] is also the fundamental issue of poverty alleviation D Bhattacharya, seminar organiser

It is discussing recent proposals put forward by the government to eliminate the problem.

It is estimated that almost a quarter of the total population of 130 million are children aged between five and 14 who are involved in child labour.

Members of the government and local and international aid agencies are attending the seminar.

The government acknowledges that abolishing child labour is a huge task.

Poverty alleviation

Millions of children are employed all over the country. They work in factories, on farms and in the service sector.

Children work all over Bangladesh

Official figures show that nearly a quarter of all families in rural areas have children who are employed.

The figure is only marginally lower in urban areas where the influence of the middle class is greater.

The organiser of the seminar, Professor Debapriya Bhattacharya, argues that a change in people's culture is needed if the problem is to be eradicated.

"It is also the fundamental issue of poverty alleviation," he says.

"As long as there is a reason for the households to think it is much more beneficial for the children to go out into the field and work than to go to school, that incentive itself is going to perpetuate the child labour in this economy."

Decades away

The Bangladeshi government says it is determined to tackle child labour.

It is introducing legislation in parliament that will make it far harder for employers to employ children.

Ministers realise that foreign trade and the country's international image will be damaged when there are so many children in the work force.

But in a country where just under half the population lives below the poverty line it will take decades rather than years before child labour is fully eradicated.