Child Rights in Bangladesh
Child Rights in Bangladesh
Abstract
Bangladesh is
a densely populated country with populations about 160 millions. About half of
the populations of Bangladesh are under the age of 18 who are considered as
children and more than 20 million of them are under the age of 5. About 73% of
children live in the rural areas and 27% live in the urban areas. One-third of
these children continue to live below the international poverty line. The
violation of child rights is a common matter in Bangladesh. The children have
basic rights to education, balance diet, health and nutrition, protection,
participation, recreation, safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. Most of the
children of Bangladesh are deprived from these basic rights. The GoB with UNICEF
has taken steps for schooling all the children and to decrease child labors and
other child abuses. An attempt has been made here to discuss the aspects of
child rights to create a child-friendly environment in Bangladesh.
Keywords: Child labor, child crime, child oppressions,
GoB, street children, UNICEF,
violation of child rights
1. Introduction
By naturally the children
are human beings who need moldings to become adults through learning and life
experiences. The social structures of Bangladesh have failed to give all the
children a natural opportunity for growth. The age for admission to employment
under different existing laws varies from 14 to 18 years under the new labor
law, enacted in 2006.
About 13% of the children
of Bangladesh are involved in child labors and they are deprived from education
and other child rights. Sometimes the children are involving crimes of carrying
arms, drugs and other illegal materials.
In 2003 more than 12,000
children under 18 were imprisoned in Bangladesh. Some of them were accused of
crimes; some were vagrants, while others were simply reported as lost.
Bangladesh has one of the lowest rates of birth registration in the world that
makes difficult to protect children from trafficking, child labor, child
marriage and other child oppressions (Mohajan 2012a).
In Bangladesh about 30% of
the people live in extreme poverty and many families are quite unable to
fulfill the basic needs which compel them to engage their children in risky
works. About 22% of the children in Bangladesh are illiterate, 30% know how to
signature their names, 36% of the children have primary education and only 10%
have secondary education. Approximately 80% of students enrolled in grade one
complete primary school. High drop-out rates due to poverty and poor quality of
teaching and learning are serious problems for primary schools. Only 46% of
boys and 53% of girls attend secondary school. About 50% of primary and 80% of
secondary level students drop out of school in Bangladesh.
Due
to poverty and social structure children rarely have opportunities to express
themselves. Most cases expression of independent opinions and participation in
decision-making are impossible because parents often control them to work or
study hard. Most of them (even who are from rich family) especially who live in
the cities, find no support to perform their physical fitness by taking parts
in various sports in the open field and some of them cannot enjoy in various
traditional festivals.
Deprivation of seven human
needs such as health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, shelter, and
information are higher among children living in the income poor families than
their counterparts.
Children oppression is a
frequent matter in Bangladesh. It is due to the unwillingness of the Government
to identify the priorities or issues that require the most urgent attention
either with regard to the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child or promotion and protection of human rights in general (Asian Indigenous
& Tribal Peoples Network, AITPN Report 2003).
In Bangladesh neonatal
death and maternal mortality rates are very high, because most deliveries are
taken place at home with the help of unskilled midwives and without access to
proper medical care. About 22% of infants are born with low birth weight and
about 46% of children under-5 are underweight due to malnutrition.
Bhattacharya (2007)
discusses about child labor and child abuse and Sharma (2007) tried to find the
linkage between child labor and trade. Kabeer (2001), Kabeer et al. (2002) and
Ray (2001) have found the linkages between child labor and educational issues
and Castle et al. (2002) show the domestic and international initiatives to
reduce child labor. Khanam (2006) discussed that the trend and incidence of
child labor has been increasing in Bangladesh even though child labor is on a
declining trend in other southern Asian countries, which she explains with the
irrelevance or inadequacy of existing child labor laws in Bangladesh.
To improve survival,
development, protection, and participation of children and women both, The
United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the
Government of Bangladesh (GoB) have taken the Convention on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
and the Millennium Declaration (United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF 2009).
Bangladesh experiences
continuous natural disasters such as, floods and cyclones, which devastate
communities and increase the vulnerability, risk of abuse, neglect,
exploitation, family separation, migration and trafficking of children (Mohajan
2012a).
2. Objective of the Study
The objective of the study
is to discuss the child rights of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a developing
country in the southern Asia. The people of this country are not conscious
about child rights. In this paper we have tried to show who are children, what
are their rights, how to decrease child oppressions, and the benefit of the
country if the child rights are implemented properly. We have stressed on child
trafficking and child crimes, and have tried to discuss aspects of negative
effects of these two items. We have emphasized to remove these two heinous and
criminal activities from the society.
3. Definition of Children in Bangladesh
Children in Bangladesh are
different in different laws. The Employment of children Act of 1938 does not
allow the employment of children below 12 years in regular jobs, with the
exception of apprentices; while the Factories Act of 1965 prohibits employment
of children below the age of 14 years in any factories. The age for admission
to employment under different existing laws varies from 14 to 18 years under
the new labor law, enacted in 2006. The United Nations (UN) Convention on the
Rights of the Child (UNCRC) defines a child as an individual less than 18 years
old, where The Children Act of 1974 defines children as less than 16 years old
individuals. The Anti-women and Children Oppression (Amendment) Act, 2003
regards a person not over 16 years of age as a child. According to the Court of
Wards (Amendment) Act, 2006 any orphaned child who has reached 18 years has the
right to claim the property or sell it which he/she is supposed to be legally
inheriting (Mohajan 2012a).
Under
national Muslim law, a child becomes an adult on attaining the teenage, which
is usually set at the age of 12 years for girls and 15 or 16 years for boys
(Siddiqui 2001).
4. Basic Rights of the
Children
Children
have basic rights to education, balance diet, health and nutrition, protection,
participation, recreation, safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Unfortunately
these rights of children are violated in Bangladesh. The rights of children are
violated due to poverty, ignorance, lack of social consciousness and
discrimination. The majority of children are deprived of food, shelter,
adequate sanitation, information, and education.
4.1. Rights of Food
Bangladesh is a developing
country in the world. About 26% of its populations still live below the poverty
line (less than $1.00 a day or unable to afford to buy food providing a daily
intake of 2,100 kilocalories).
The Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO)/ World Food Programme (WFP) study in mid-2008 expressed that
natural disasters and rising food prices had increased the number of poor
people by 7.5 million, to a total of 65 million and real household income had
dropped by 12% and one in four households had become food insecure, with
female-headed households hit hardest (FAO and WFP 2008). Later the food price
decreases but the children who are excluded from school could not return to
school due to irregularities in the school.
4.2. Rights of Nutrition
Well nourished children
perform better in school, grow into healthy adults, and can serve the country
better than malnourished children. Rural children are more likely to be
malnourished than urban children. Undernourished children have lowered
resistance to infection and are more likely to die from common childhood
diseases, such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infections. In Bangladesh
about two-fifth of children under-5 are underweight, and nearly half of them
suffer from chronic malnutrition. A conservative estimate of the number of
under-5 children suffering from wasting (weight-for-height) in Bangladesh is
2.2 million. More than half a million of these children are in the severe
category of acute malnutrition and face elevated risks of mortality. Some
children of wealthy families in urban areas of Bangladesh are over weighted
because of taking excess fibreless junk food. These children are not actually
healthy. In real life obesity is a major disease which creates Type 2 diabetes
and cardiac attack. Iodine deficiency disorder (IDD), the world’s leading cause
of preventable mental disability and impaired psychomotor development in young
children. The vitamin A supplementation programme for children is a success
story in Bangladesh. Vitamin A prevents the children from night blindness
(Mohajan 2012a).
4.3. Rights of Health
People lacking access to
safe water, hygienic sanitation, and hygiene awareness also lack the good
health and social resources needed to pull themselves out of poverty (The
United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF 2007). The National Strategy for
Accelerated Poverty Reduction II (Fiscal year, FY 2009–2011) acknowledges the
links between poverty and children’s rights.
It
realizes that “the survival and
development of many Bangladeshi children is still threatened by malnutrition, disease, poverty, illiteracy, abuse,
exploitation and natural disaster.”
Bangladesh is successful
in immunization, and vaccine-preventable diseases are not major causes of child
death. The following are the examples of this success in the period 2005–2007
(UNICEF 2009):
Full immunization coverage
of one-year olds with valid doses of all recommended antigens increased from 64
to 75% nationally.
The proportion of
one-year-old children immunized against measles, an MDG indicator, rose from
71% to 81%. In 2006, the world’s largest measles campaign achieved 98% coverage
of children of ages 9 months to 10 years. No measles outbreaks were reported in
2007.
Neonatal tetanus elimination was confirmed in
2008.
After importation of polio
in early 2006, polio-free status was regained by the end of the year and has
been sustained.
The central cold chain
capacity doubled, and a control room was established to electronically monitor
the cold rooms 24 hours a day.
4.4. Rights of Education
Bangladesh has made
remarkable progress over the past two decades in increasing primary enrolment.
The absolute number of children enrolled nearly doubled between 1985 and 2005.
The national Household Income and Expenditure Surveys (HIES) show net primary
enrollment rising from 75% to 80% between 2000 and 2005. Although the
enrollment rates in school are increasing but drop out of students is also a
common situation in Bangladesh. In 2008 about 14.5% for Grades 1–4 and 5.2% for
Grade 5 dropouts. In terms of dropout, the official data collected from schools
indicate that about half of the children who enroll in primary school fail to
complete Grade 5. A child who completes primary school can easily enter in the
secondary school. The official estimate of the transition rate to secondary
school was 95.5% in 2006 but Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) (MICS
2006) found a transition rate of 89%. Transition rates are consistently higher
for girls than for boys. The secondary school net attendance ratio was 38.8%,
with girls (41.4%) having much higher net secondary attendance than boys
(36.2%), (UNICEF 2009).
5. Child Laborers in
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh child
workers are less expensive than adult workers. Many employers consider children
capable of hard work, easy to control, and less demanding. Some reserve dirty
or low status works for children because adults are unwilling to do them. The
rates of child labor are higher among boys than girls (17.5% vs. 8.1%) and
slightly higher among children living in rural areas relative to those in urban
areas. Child labor is also exceptionally high in the indigenous communities
(18%). About 45% of child laborers do not attend school. A large proportion of
children’s works such as domestic work, commercial sex work, and smuggling in
Bangladesh are hidden and therefore unlikely to be captured in the official
figures. Children also provide services that are unlikely to be defined as
work, such as housework, caring for younger children, running household errands,
collecting water and fuel wood, looking after livestock, and contributing to
household crop production (UNICEF 2009).
In Bangladesh poverty is
the main reason of child labor. Poverty is strongly positively correlated with
child labor. Free and compulsory education of good quality up to age 20 year to
enter into employment is a key tool in preventing child labor. Poverty is
multidimensional and can be considered from different perspective as follows
(Mohajan 2012a):
absolute and relative poverty,
below $1.00 per person per
day poverty, human poverty,human dignity/human
rights-based approach to
poverty, poverty and squared poverty gaps, people’s own
perception-based poverty, and endemic/widespread and sudden poverty.
The children of poor
families of Bangladesh suffer from hunger and mental agony which harms a child’s
development. Some of the children from these families have to go in works
instead of going to school, which is against child rights. About 40% of the
siblings and the children in Bangladesh are earning members of the family.
They are
involved in unskilled manual works like rickshaw-pulling (17%), day labor
(18%), transport work (12%), agricultural activities (10%) etc. Child labor is
declining in other southern Asian countries but it has been increasing in
Bangladesh which is a failure of both GoB and civil society (Mohajan 2012a).
Cain (1977) first focused
on children’s work activity in rural Bangladesh. He studied the economic
contributions of children to the household economy and attempted to determine
their productivity while living as subordinate members of their parents’
household. He found that children in rural Bangladesh contribute to their
family’s income as early as five years of age.
The GoB estimates that
about 6.6 million children whose ages are between 5 and 14 years work in
various sectors of the 22.8 million work places (Khair 2005). Working children
were found engaged in 200 different types of activities, of which 49 were
regarded as harmful to children’s physical and mental well being. Child workers
represent about 12% of the total labor force of the country. Many child workers
are not paid regular wages and sometimes are paid very low wages. Most of the
cases the girl workers are not paid and the employers only pay food of low
qualities, especially in domestic works in rural areas.
The emergence and
widespread of garment industry in Bangladesh during the 1980s and child labor
increased alarmingly in this industry. In 1990s garment factories topped the
list with the highest numbers of child laborers, then the USA and other foreign
buyers refused to import garments from Bangladesh as long as child labor was
being used by this industry. After this situation the Bangladesh Garment
Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) sign the Memorandum of with
International Labor Organization (ILO) and UNICEF. According to agreement about
50,000 children were dismissed from garment factories immediately but later
these dismissed children compelled to join in more hazardous and exploitative
occupations than the garment industry (Rahman et al. 1999). Some of the
dismissed girl laborers were victim of child marriage and some were trafficked
in the Middle East, India, Pakistan and other counties of the world, some took
the domestic works and others became laborers in the risky and more difficult
jobs and the BGMEA or the Government took no steps to assist for these
dismissed poor laborers.
An increase in working
hours increased the likelihood of health complications, children working in
more hazardous sectors face more health problems than those working in
comparatively less hazardous sectors, and children that enter into work at an early
age face more health complications than those are entering work at an older age
(Mamun et al. 2008).
Many child workers
actually like their work and take a lot of pride in what they do, though many
of them do not realize the negative long-term effects of their early work has
(Ehsan 2001).
Of the total child
workers, 2.89% are engaged in domestic services. The girl domestic working
children are also subjected to sexual abuse, harassment and torture. If money
or any valuable things or ornaments are missing, first the blames come to the
domestic workers and are tortured mercilessly. Most of the cases they are
innocent. The domestic working children have to work from morning to mid-night
without any break and find very low qualities of food and also very low
qualities of dresses. SHOISHOB, an organization working with child domestic
labor in Bangladesh, estimates that there are between 250,000 and 300,000
resident child servants in Dhaka city and more than 20% of child domestic
workers were between 5 and 10 years old.
In the construction
industry in Bangladesh, children are used in stone breaking. In the
construction or welding sectors about all employers eager to employ the
children, as these risky works are often avoided by the adults with low wages.
It is estimated that 30% of construction workers are children. The total number
of bidi (cheap rate cigarette) factory child laborers is 15,544, where usually
they have to work from morning to 11 pm.
5.1. Worst Form of Child Labor
The worst form of child labor
(WFCL) or hazardous work is a common situation in Bangladesh and the employers
find no punishment for engaging the children in these types of works. Hazardous
works includes all the works are done by children which are hazardous either by
the nature of the work itself, such as work with aggressive chemicals or sharp
tools.
Hazardous
circumstances would include long working hours (in excess of 43 hours per
week), work in restricted conditions or under poor lighting, or work at night.
The unconditional WFCL includes the most abusive and damaging, such as
trafficking, forced or bonded labor, child soldiers, use of children in
prostitution or pornography etc.
The National Child Labor Survey
estimated that about 1.3 million children were engaged in hazardous works. The
worst forms of child labor in Bangladesh include child domestic work,
commercial sexual exploitation, waste picking, employment in construction, bidi
(cheap rate cigarettes) and match factories, hotels, restaurants, brickyards,
and workshops for welding, automobile repair, lathe operations, the repair of
electrical appliances, tannery, battery shops, helpers in buses and tempos,
porter and rickshaw pulling. A recent Non-Government Organization (NGO)
supported study found that the ship-breaking industry, where labor is extremely
hazardous, also employs some children. The employers do not take any
responsibility when the child workers are wounded at the time of doing risky works
(UNICEF 2009).
5.2. Domestic Child Workers
Child domestic work can be
defined as the engagement of a child less than 18 years of age in doing
domestic everyday jobs in another’s household, regardless of the amount wages.
According to surveys supported by ILO and UNICEF in 2005–06, Bangladesh has
more than 420,000 child domestic workers, and more than three-quarters of them
are girls. The common tasks for domestic girl workers are washing dishes,
cooking, serving food, washing clothes, babysitting for their employers’
children, and cleaning floors. Among boys, the most common tasks are purchasing
daily essentials, cleaning floors, raising cattle and gardening. Almost all
child domestic workers live at their employers’ homes and work seven days a
week at an average 10 to 12 hours per day and find three meals a day. More than
90% said that they received some kind of medical treatment when they were sick,
though one-third reported that they had to work while they were ill and only
37.5% of employers said they had given them time off due to illness. Among them
only 11% find opportunity of going to school. The parents of 80% of these
children had no formal education, and the parents of only 6% had primary level
education or above (UNICEF 2009).
Child domestic workers are
highly vulnerable to abuse. A qualitative study of 80 child domestic workers in
Dhaka found that half of the girls and one-third of the boys considered
themselves to be physically abused by their employers (Blanchet 1996). In the
ILO-supported survey, 19% of child domestic workers said they were slapped or
beaten, and 0.8% of the girls reported that they experienced sexual abuse. The
vulnerability of child domestic workers to sexual abuse is widely recognized in
Bangladeshi society but parents of victims are hopeless and have no alternate
ways to send their daughters to another suitable work, and some are orphans.
Most cases sexually abused girls remain silence due to the stigma. Most
employers called the domestic girl workers with a common detestable name Bua instead of their original name.
Domestic child workers
also face restrictions on their movements and freedom of association, and
employers often forbid them from interacting with the servants of other
families. Blanchet (1996) realized that many employers locked their domestic
servants inside their homes because of fears that they would steal from them,
reveal private household matters, and develop networks that would empower them
to challenge their employers’ authority.
5.3. Child Labor Law
There are 25 special laws
and ordinances in Bangladesh to protect and improve the status of children. But
there is a lack of harmony among laws that uniformly prohibit the employment of
children or set a minimum age for employment (US Department of Labor, US DOL
1994). In 1993, the GoB established a National Labor Commission to revise and
harmonize labor laws. Current laws include The Employment of Children Act of
1938, The Factory Act of 1965, Shops and Establishments Act 1965, Children’s
Act 1974 and Children’s Rules of 1976. The Employment of Children Act of 1938
prohibits children as young as 12 years from being employed in leather tanning
workshops and in the production of carpets, cement, matches, and fireworks,
among other items (US DOL 2002). The Factory Act of 1965 also prohibits the
employment of children below the age of 14 in any factory. This law further
adds that young workers are only allowed to work a maximum of five hours day
and only between the hours of 7 am and 7 pm. The penalty for violation of this
Act (Article 44(1)) is a fine of Tk.1,000 (US DOL 1994).
The
Children’s Act of 1974 prohibits the employment of children less than 16 years
of age in begging, and the exploitation of children in brothels (US DOL 2003).
Bangladesh’s labor law
does not make any reference to the problem of child labor in the agricultural
sector. About 65% of the total child labor force of Bangladesh works in this
sector. Also small-scale business informal sector and household employment are
exempted from these laws. Hence more than 80% of the economic activity of
children falls outside the protection of the labor code (Khanam 2006). The GoB
must take necessary steps to enact labor laws in these sectors.
5.4. Physical Health of Child Laborers
Childhood laborers cause
serious physical health problems which negatively affect the children’s
physical growth. Most of the child laborers come from very poor families and
they are physically unfit due to malnutrition. Hence risky hard working of the
children creates various diseases and they cannot take proper treatment because
of financial crisis. About 60% cases they have to work on an average of 14
hours daily, which must create both short-term and long-term health problems.
In the welding and construction sectors child laborers face skin diseases and
eye sight problems and theses children may attack by danger disease such as
cancer if they work in the long-term. More than 90% child laborers are affected
by physical pain during working hours or afterwards (Mohajan 2012a).
5.5. Psychological Condition of the Child Laborers
The child laborer’s
psychosocial growth cannot build up properly. Among them who are in risky jobs
their mental feelings of frustration and insufficiency are grown very rapidly.
Sometimes their psychological immaturity and abnormal psychological problems
are created if they remain in risky jobs for a long time. They have no
opportunity to build up their natural psychosocial development as they are
deprived from about all the scopes of mental development. They cannot mix with
the children of high societies, because they are detestable to the children of
the civil societies. They have no opportunity to take part in sports and
recreational activities. Actually the child laborers find no proper care of
their mental development in Bangladesh (Mohajan 2012a).
6. Street Children of
Bangladesh
Ahmed Ishtiaque, the head
of the Apareyo Bangladesh (AB), expresses that there are main two reasons that
the children become street children. First one is the poverty, which leads
children to migrate from the villages to the urban sectors for searching jobs.
The second factor is the massive unplanned urbanization in Bangladesh.
UNICEF assessment of
street children, 2012 defined street children as those boys and girls aged
under 18 for whom the street has become home and/or their source of livelihood,
and who are inadequately protected or supervised. In briefly, street girls are
those girls who live, feed and work in street or sometimes work as sex worker.
Of an estimated 400,000 street children in Bangladesh, about 10% have been
forced into prostitution for survival. We can assume that a great proportion of
these street children are street girls. From human rights perspectives street
girls are fully excluded from enjoying declared universal human rights
(Mozdalifa 2012).
Many children live and
work on the streets in urban areas. Some of them are separated from their
families and have no one to care for them, some have parents who also live on
the street and some work on the street but live with their families in slum
areas. Street children are especially vulnerable to violence, sexual abuse, hazardous
work, conflict with the law, and trafficking. They also suffer from abysmal
sanitation and hygiene conditions, poor health, and limited access to any kind
of education. Street children have no education and they are not allowed to
attend school because they wear dirty clothes. They faced various problems such
as, cold weather in the winter, wetness during the rains, sleep deprivation,
exposure to mosquitoes, theft while they sleep, and sexual abuse. Street
children in all areas of work are victim of police abuse and are driven them
away (UNICEF 2009).
Street children are
abandoned, orphaned, or rejected by their parents and they choose to live in
the streets because of mistreatment or negligence of the general people and
employers. They also work in the streets because their incomes are needed for
their families (Mozdalifa 2012). The street children are increasing in the
developing countries (Pare 2003) and world’s one billion children are suffering
from deprivation of basic needs (Gordon et al. 2003).
Most
of the street children survive by begging in the cities. Others involve in
rag-picking and selling various goods and some were drawn into smuggling or
political activities. Sometimes they are torture or harassment from the police,
and they have to pay bribes to traffic police. Many girls are victims of sexual
abuse and exploitation by rickshaw pullers, hoodlums and the police.
About 37.50% street
children are flower sellers. They buy flowers from whole sellers and sell them
to the passerby and earn some for them. Furthermore, 18.8% are prostitutes,
6.25% are garments worker, 6.25% are beggars, 12.50% are shopkeepers and 6.25%
are paper hawkers.
7. Violence of Child
Rights in Bangladesh
Violence of children is a
common matter in Bangladesh but rarely reported to the related authorities for
justice. Official data and media accounts provide little information on the
nature and extent of the abuse that children experience. Bangladeshi children’s
like and dislike are depending on according to adults like and dislike, though
Government make laws to say ‘yes’ to the children. Physical, verbal,
humiliating, and threatening forms of discipline or punishment are the adult
behaviors which children most dislike. Unfortunately, most children are
subjected to these behaviors, and many forms of child abuse are accepted in the
civil society, even by children themselves. Because, they have no alternative
ways to get rid of from these violence and they are adopted from the childhood
(UNICEF 2009).
7.1. Oppressions on Girls of Bangladesh
Girls often face
gender-based discrimination that puts them at risk of poverty, violence, ill
health and a poor education and deprive from basic human needs. UNICEF
discussed about current situation, deprivation and exploitation of girls from
diverse perspectives in Bangladesh, they are fed last, and less than their
brothers. They are more vulnerable to trafficking, sexual abuse, rape, acid
throwing and other forms of exploitation, including child labor and child
prostitution. Many are married by age 15 and their families must pay heavy
dowries. Dowry violence, such as murder and induced suicide, still poses real
threats to girls of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Health and Injury Survey
reported that more than 2,200 children committed suicide in one year and
suicide is the biggest killer among this age group (UNICEF 2005).
7.2. Abuse to Children
Child abuse takes place in
homes, schools, workplaces, institutions and public areas. Among child abuses
sexual abuses are difficult to assess because of the sense of shame they create
and the risks children face in reporting them. In child beating Bangladesh is
in the top position in the world and physical punishment starts in their homes.
The main reason for violence against children could be the conflict of interest
and power between adults and children. Parents often hit their children out of
anger and frustration, as they have no idea about the adverse impact of
physical punishment. Among school-going children, 91% reported that it takes
place at their schools. The majority of teachers believe that physical
punishment is the best means of discipline and they are not aware about the
negative impact of physical punishment. About two-thirds of teachers, both male
and female, punish students physically. Teachers hit them with a stick or belt
or other object; kicking, shaking, or throwing children; scratching, pinching
or pulling their hair; and locking or tying them up are some of the most common
examples of physical punishment and twisted their ears. A child who is
constantly exposed to physical punishment faces a risk of losing his/her
self-confidence and self-esteem, and as a result may develop negative
personality traits such as being excessively aggressive. Sometimes the female
students become victim of sexual behavior from their male teachers. The
students from rich and masterminded families find low punishment or find no
punishment. Some teachers who are involved with private tuitions punish only
those students who do not involve with private tuitions. Physical punishment is
slightly more common in primary schools than in madrasas and less common in NGO
schools (UNICEF 2009). Recently the GoB prohibited physical and mental
punishment to the children in schools.
Among those who were
working, one-quarter reported that physical punishment occurs in their
workplaces. The employers often tortured physically and sexually abuse the
child workers. Sometimes the employers do not pay their wages or pay very less.
The employers beat mercilessly the workers in the pretext of theft or when
something is broken carelessly by them (Mohajan 2012a).
Children become victim of
physical abuse during arrest and interrogation, and children accused or
convicted of crimes are often held with adult prisoners from whom they are
vulnerable to abuse. Street children and child sex workers always falls victim
of verbal, physical, and sexual abuse from police, gangster and the general
public (Mohajan 2012a).
7.3. Gender Discriminations
In most of the families of
Bangladesh male child finds more facilities than female child. Some parents
prohibit the adolescent girls to play in the open fields, dance and sing but
these are open for boys. NGO-supported schools have opportunities of all kinds
of recreational facilities such as reading books, playing games, learning life
skills and raising their social awareness. Parents give especial social and
religious training to prepare them to behave in their in-laws’ homes in a way
that enhances the reputation of their natal families. Rich families spent more
for the boys and they think that the boys will give more fortune to the
families in future. They spent low for the girls, as they will develop their
laws’ house in future. After marriage laws’ members engage them in household
works and to give child birth (Mohajan 2012a).
7.4. Eve Teasing to Girls
The people of Bangladesh
are facing many problems such as economic, political, corruption etc. and eve
teasing is one of them which means teasing girls who are at their early age of
youth or at the early stage of their sexual growth. Eve teasing is a kind of
sexual harassment which is a common situation to girls of Bangladesh which is
destroying the social balance. Almost every young girl is a victim of teasing,
especially by the local young teaser. Eve teasing contributes to maintaining
the low status of girls which hinders girls in participating in the formal
employment sector. The teasers wait in schools, colleges or outside the house
gate and as soon as girls walk passed by them they start teasing with ribald
comments, dirty jokes, coarse laughter, sly whistles and even offensive
revelation. Many girls are committing suicide to save them from the teasers
which is not only frightening but threatening as well to us. If this eve
teasing problem exists for a long time, Bangladesh will let down from worse to
worst in terms of female education (Mohajan 2012a).
Very recently it has
created a various kind of irritate among the girls students due to the over use
of the modern technology which employed by eve teasers. For example, making
sort video film and other off Sean images recorded by the eve teaser and is
spreading it in the various websites in the internet. When the recorded video
of the girl will be watched by everybody then cannot go outside freely and
ultimately will be self-killed from to live of shame of eve teasing. Some
socially conscious people who publicly protested against the harassment have
been killed brutally (Mohajan 2012a).
According to the
Bangladesh National Women’s Lawyers Association, BNWLA (2008) 90% of girls aged
10–18 victim of this heinous crime. In 2008 at least 12 girls have committed
suicide due to eve teasing. The girls who are subject to sexual harassment, the
experiences are distressing and can leave deep psychological scars. Due to eve
teasing girls have to drop-out from school and the drop-out rate of female
students is increasing day by day. Because, parents concerned about their
daughter’s honor or safety sometimes keep their daughters home and/or compel to
marry them off at an early age before they are physically or mentally prepared.
Mothers in aged 15 to 19 face a 20–200% greater chance of dying in pregnancy
than women aged 20 to
24. In Bangladesh between 2002
and 2006, there were over 5,000 reported incidents of eve teasing and raping of
girls. More than 2,000 of those rapes were of girl children and 625 of the
victims were killed after they were raped and 69 killed themselves. Hence eve
teasing in Bangladesh has reached its maximum range which is against the women
rights (BNWLA 2008).
Adolescent girls often
experience in public areas of eve teasing
by the evil boys. Eve teasing can involve throwing letters (full of illegal
sentences) or flowers to girls, singing rough songs, proposing sexual activity
and/or marriage, whistling, making inappropriate or vulgar comments,
threatening them, touching them, or trying to come close to them on public
transportation. Boys of wealthy or influential families prey upon girls from
poor or middle-class families and the victims are threaten not to file any case
or complain against them. Adolescent girls often do not tell their parents
about the eve teasing because they believe that their parents would react by
taking them out of school immediately. Sometimes the victim girls take the way
of suicide due to intolerable shames (UNICEF 2009).
Article 76 of the Dhaka
Metropolitan Police Ordinance and Article 509 of the Penal Code of 1860 affirm
that any acts, conducts, or verbal abuses are considered as eve teasing. Eve
teasing that is used to disgrace girls and women are punishable by law (Rashid
2007). Although eve teasing is a crime but the law enforcing authorities have
failed to protect women and girls from eve teasing. The GoB must be strict to
protect eve teasing by enforcing the laws, arresting the perpetrators, and
bringing them to trial.
The Government has taken a
step against the eve teaser and has started judge by mobile court, sending to
locker and demanding money yet social revolution should be made by the media
for opposed the eve teasing and will be assumed which are good to society. The
13 June has been designated ‘Eve Teasing Protection Day’ by the education
ministry in Bangladesh (Mohajan 2012a).
The GoB and various social
organizations have taken various steps against eve teasing but these are not
enough to protect eve teasing. UNICEF and its partners are working to create
awareness by establishing and supporting local adolescent groups called ‘Kishori
Clubs’. The aim of the clubs is to provide a safe environment where girls and
boys can come together and socialize in positive ways. Club members participate
in a variety of activities and information sessions and are empowered to become
agents of change. There are now close to 3,000 Kishori Clubs operating in
approximately 30 districts across Bangladesh (Mohajan 2012a).
8. Effects of Child
Marriage
Once the child marriage
was compulsory in Bangladesh but the practice of child marriage has decreased
over the last 30 years, and it remains common in rural areas and urban slums,
especially among the poor. Parents of girls support early marriage due to
financially beneficial for her family and she remains no longer a financial
burden, and the marriage of a younger daughter often requires a smaller dowry than
the marriage of an older daughter in Bangladesh. A girl as young as 12 years of
age is eligible for marriage and a man very eager to marry such a girl without
dowry and the parents of the girl take this opportunity. Sometimes traffickers
marriage a young girl without dowry and later sell her in the brothel or
traffic her in other countries. Child brides are often exposed to serious
health risks such as premature pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections
(UNICEF 2009).
Early marriage of both
girls and boys is a violation of child rights. Most of the parents are not
aware about the negative impact of early marriage and parents do not hesitate
to arrange early marriage. Various studies show that in 2001, women who were killed
by their husbands were aged between 13 and 18 years (Mohajan 2012a).
9. Disasters Affect the
Children
Every year Bangladesh
faces natural disasters such as heavy flooding, tornados and cyclones which
cause homelessness and displacement of millions of people as well as death.
During emergencies, traditional care arrangements are not functioning well and
weakened due to the breakdown of family and social structures. Due to natural
disasters children become more vulnerable, facing higher risk of abuse, neglect
and exploitation, including further family separation, migration and
trafficking.
The UNCRC reported that
disasters adversely affect all aspects of children’s daily life. Children’s
rights to survival, to protection, to clean water, sanitation, food, health and
education remain in serious threat due to disasters. Infants, young children,
and pregnant and lactating women are vulnerable to malnutrition and
micronutrient deficiencies. Due to disaster they cannot find balance diet. It
is observed that children are in more vulnerable situation in every disaster. A
number of children drowned as a result of swimming in flood areas every year.
Most of the people who died and/or injured during the Cyclones were women and
children (CDRRAP 2010).
10. Child Trafficking in
Bangladesh
The UN Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons defines trafficking as
follows:
“Trafficking in persons’
shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of
persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of
abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of
vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve
the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of
exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the
prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or
services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of
organs.”
The US Government definition of trafficking
in persons is as follows:
“All acts involved in the
transport, harboring, or sale of persons within national or across
international borders through coercion, force, kidnapping, deception or fraud,
for purposes of placing persons in situations of forced labor or services, such
as forced prostitution, domestic servitude, debt bondage or other slavery-like
practices.”
The United Nations (UN)
protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially
women and children, supplementing the UN Convention against Transportational
Organized Crime, trafficking is defined as any activity leading to recruitment,
transportation, harboring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of
force or a position of vulnerability. Trafficking in people, especially women
and children, for prostitution and forced labor is one of the fastest growing
areas of international criminal activity and one that is of increasing concern
to the US Administration, Congress, and the international community (Miko and
Park 2002).
When the methods of
trafficking may be such as coercion, luring, duping, abducting, kidnapping etc.
then these happens due to social and economical constraints of the victims
which make them vulnerable. Human trafficking is considered as the third
largest source of profit for organized crime, following arms and drug
trafficking. Trafficking is performed for various purposes such as labor,
prostitution, organ transplant, drug couriers, arm smuggling etc. (Miko and
Park 2002, Sarkar 2011).
The United Nation’s former
definition of a ‘victim of trafficking’ perceived women mostly as a group which
surfaces as a variable only under specific circumstances. This has been visibly
appropriate in the adaptation of the 1949 Convention for the Suppression of
Traffic in Persons and its further development is found in 2000. After much
debate, an internationally agreed definition of human trafficking now exists in
Article 3 of the Palermo Protocol.
This definition focuses on
exploitation of human beings, be it for sexual exploitation, or other forms of
forced labor, slavery, servitude, or for the removal of human organs. As per the
definition, “trafficking takes place by criminal means through the threat or
use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of positions of
power or vulnerability” (DeStefano 2007, Mohajan 2012b).
Recently trafficking of
human being increased alarmingly due to globalization and liberalization.
People tend to migrate in search of better opportunities to make themselves
rich and wealthy which is a positive trend the people for developing countries.
But it sometimes creates problems such as smuggling of people across borders
and unsafe migration by unscrupulous touts and agents. Increase trafficking
also creates an adverse impact on the problem of human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). The girls migrated for
better ambition but at last they are sold in brothel by the traffickers and
they have to confine for longtime in the brothel which sometimes cause HIV
infection due to poor negotiation for safe sex methods. If a girl is HIV
infected then she may be return to his own country and her country has to spend
huge costs for health and rehabilitation sectors. The UN estimates that about 4
million people trafficking in a year are treated against their will to work in
some form of slavery, many of them are children. It is roughly estimated that
in the last 30 years trafficking in women and children for sexual exploitation
in Asia alone has victimized more than 30 million people (Mohajan 2012b).
Due to absence of social
protection, economic security and legal support, an alarming number of women
from the poor families become easy victims of trafficking. As trafficking and
sexual exploitation is a crosscutting issue in this subcontinent, it has become
a growing concern especially across borders. The problem is more acute for a
country like Bangladesh that shares a porous border with India. As there is a
heavy demand of girls, traffickers takes trafficking as a highly profitable
business. The organized gangs of traffickers often lure young women and girls
with false promises of better jobs or false proposals of love and marriage.
Bangladeshi and Nepalese women and girls are more innocent and attractive, so
that they become the first target of traffickers. Victims of trafficking are generally
trafficked for forced prostitution, for purposes of organ transplants and slave
labor. Accurate statistical data about the number of women trafficked from
Bangladesh to serve the sex trade in neighboring countries is absent.
The trafficked victims end
up in brothels where they are sold for sexual exploitation or serve as street
sex workers in India, Pakistan and the Middle East. Although the government has
enacted stringent laws and implemented various policies to combat this menace,
trafficking continues to be a significant problem in Bangladesh (Farouk 2005,
Mohajan 2012b).
In Bangladesh trafficking
becomes an importance issue regionally, nationally and internationally. There is
well organized channel of trafficking in women and children constituted by the
traffickers of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Middle East. Bangladesh is a
poor developing country in the world, the density of population is very high,
most of the populations are illiterate, natural disaster is recurrent, gender
inequality prevails in every society, erosion of river bank due to over flood
make shelter less women and girls. The traditional social structure, economic
system, cultural condition and geographical setting of Bangladesh are
vulnerable. As a result Bangladeshi children become easy victim of human
traffickers. Easily crossable boarder with India which extends over 4,222 km is
one of the contributing factors for trafficking in women and children to India.
The women are generally instructed to wear a particular band or amulet on their
arms for easy identification at the transit points and destinations. At the
border, the women and girls are kept in particular houses for prearranged fees
and then simply walk across fields adjunct to the border at a convenient time
(Paul and Hasnath 2000). Due to monetary gain and individual sexual favors, a
number of dishonest border police in Bangladesh assist in carrying trafficked
women across the national border (Momen 1998). Western border districts of
Bangladesh, particularly Jessore and Khulna are widely used by traffickers for
trafficking purposes. A small number of women are taken directly by air from
Bangladesh to Middle East and European markets. Corrupt officers at the airport
and travel agents are involved in issuing the documents necessary for
international air travel for a specified amount of money (Sarker and Panday
2006).
About 40,000 to 50,000
young women and children are being victim of trafficking every month from
Bangladesh. About 600,000 women and children per year are being victims of
trafficking to India, Pakistan, Middle East, Africa (especially in Libya),
Europe and the USA in search of work and they become vulnerable to exploitation
and unprotected law due to their illegal status. Many of them are forced to
work for extremely low wages, while other auctioned for sex work to develop
tourism or forced marriage, which is often a form of slavery. The traffickers
lure the poor families of the rural area of Bangladesh with the false promise
of employment, marriage without dowry and better quality of life. The
traffickers use the technique of illegal border crossing. The trafficking women
and children are compelled to involve in sex-trade with the probability of
HIV/AIDS infection, domestic work, harmful industrial work, debt bondage labor,
forced marriage, forced begging, camel jockeying, adoption trade and sometimes
trafficked victims are killed for organ harvesting.
The illegal trafficking of
Bangladeshi women have started for the first time when the large scale
migration of both male and female laborers to the Middle East commenced in
1976. In 1981, a presidential order was announced, allowing only professional
women to migrate. An organization of migrant workers in Kuwait together with an
Islamic organization in Bangladesh forced the government to stop the migration
of women. They argued that women’s honor could only be protected if women were
not allowed to leave their families, their communities and their home (Sarker
and Panday 2006). Many women who legally entered in the Middle East prior to
1982 face the ill-treatment and offensive behavior included overburden,
whipping, dishonor, insufficient food, sexual persecution and rape (Hossain
1993, Paul and Hasnath 2000).
The trafficking strangely
and instinctively exaggerated in early 1982, when the GoB in response to the
problems generally faced by maids employed there, passed protective legislation
to dissuade the migration of women workers to the Middle East.
Bangladeshi police
estimated that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 children engaged in street
prostitution. About 10,000 girls are active in prostitution inside the country.
Over the last decade, 200,000 Bangladeshi girls were lured under false
circumstances and sold into the sex industry in nations including Pakistan,
India and the Middle East. About 40,000 children from Bangladesh are involved
in prostitution in Pakistan. Bangladeshi girls are also trafficked to India for
commercial sex trade. About 10,000 Bangladeshi children are in brothels in
Bombay and Goa of India (Mohajan 2012a).
10.1 Anti-Trafficking Policies
Bangladesh government
accepted to the UN Optional Protocol to the convention on the elimination of all
forms of discrimination against women. The government has promulgated a numbers
of laws and formulated policies to prevent trafficking in women and children.
The Suppression of Immoral Trafficking Act of 1993 provides stringent penalties
for forcing a girl into prostitution. The Children Act of 1974 and 1993, seek
to protect children from exploitative and hazardous conditions. The
Anti-Terrorism Ordinance of 1992 makes all types of terrorism including the
abduction of women and children a punishable offence. The Penal Code of 1860
contains strict provisions and penalties for kidnapping.
The Women and Children
Repression Prevention Act of 1995, which was replaced by the Women and Children
Repression Prevention Act of 2000, act specifies that trafficking a woman for
prostitution or unlawful or immoral purposes or import or export or buying or
selling or renting or engaging in any other form of transportation of women is
a subject to life imprisonment and fine. Kidnapping a woman for illegal or
immoral purposes such as prostitution, non-consensual marriage or forced or
falsely enticed coitus is an offence punishable by life punishment, 10 years
rigorous punishment and fine. Illegally importing, exporting, buying or selling
a child, keeping a child or transferring a child to another is subject to the
death penalty or life imprisonment. However, enforcement of these laws is weak,
especially in rural areas. The Government also has enacted laws specifically
prohibiting certain forms of discrimination against women, including the
Anti-Dowry Prohibition Act of 1980, the Cruelty to Women Law of 1983 (Sarker
and Panday 2006).
The GoB has introduced
National Action Plan in consultation with NGOs which gives priority in 14
ministries and divisions under initiative of The Ministry of Women and Children’s
Affairs. Besides, UN Task Force in Bangladesh, UNAIDS in Bangladesh, Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations
Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), ILO–IPEC supports NGO program,
International Organization of Migration (IOM), United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA) and World Health Organization (WHO) are involved for combating the
trafficking of women and children.
Many international NGOs
such as, Save the Children Alliance, The Asia Foundation, Plan International,
Action Aid, etc are working against human trafficking. In addition, some major
INGOs and donor organizations such as Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), Swedish International
Development Agency (SIDA), OXFAM, CEDPA, Population Council, United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), Red Barnet, Trafficking Watch
Bangladesh, etc. are involved in anti-trafficking programs (UNIFEM 2003, Sarker
and Panday 2006).
The GoB established a Police Monitoring Cell
at the Police Headquarters in
Its functions include
collection of information and intelligence regarding human trafficking
specially trafficking in women and children, and the monitoring of the movement
of criminals involved in human trafficking, arrest of criminals, rescue/recovery
of trafficked persons, assisting in prosecuting relevant cases, rehabilitation
of trafficked persons and subsequent follow up, and regularly following up the
progress of disposal of such cases. The Monitoring Cell at the Police
Headquarters maintains the database of cases related to trafficking. A
monitoring unit has been formed in each of the 64 district headquarters and it
sends updated statistics to the police headquarters (Bangladesh Country Report
2007).
The Border Guard of
Bangladesh (BGB), the Bangladesh Police, the Bangladesh Coast Guard and also
the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) have been given strict instructions to prevent
any trafficking in women and children, and apprehend the traffickers. About 407
traffickers have been arrested since 15 June 2004 to 15 February 2007 and in
this connection, 373 cases were instituted in different police stations
(Bangladesh Country Report 2007).
A monthly meeting is held
regularly in the Ministry of Home Affairs with the representatives of the US Mission
in Bangladesh wherein updated information is given on different aspects of the
problem and ideas are exchanged. The US Mission officials have also attended
inter-ministerial meetings and the meeting with the NGOs to see the working of
such committees. As a result of the endeavors so made, Bangladesh was cited as
a positive example in combating trafficking in persons in two hearings before
the US Congress.
Again in an interim
assessment report prepared recently by the US State Department, it has been
mentioned that Bangladesh has made clear and significant progress in combating
trafficking in persons (Bangladesh Country Report 2007).
11. Child Crimes in
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh an estimated
35,000–45,000 children are believed to be involved with criminal gangs engaged
in arms and drug trading. They carry pistols, revolvers, bullets, pipe guns,
short guns, cut-rifles, AK-38’s, SMG’s, hand bombs, knives, swords and razors.
The children who live on
the streets, in squat or in low-income settlements involved with activities of
carrying firearms and these children are stigmatized by the society. Adult
criminals and organized crime syndicates use children to carry out such acts
and they confront the law and punishment. More girls involve themselves with
criminal activities than boys due to poverty. The children face difficulties to
manage a suitable work as they are unskilled. Sometimes they have to starve due
to unemployment and compel to involve themselves in criminal activities. Some
street children have no parents or guardians and they have to manage food,
shelter and clothes for themselves by any necessary means. The criminals try to
allure them into committing criminal activities in exchange for food, shelter,
and money. The drug smugglers give the children more money than they get from
daily labor and more cases they became addicted to drugs. Sometimes the
criminal groups engaged the children in theft, vandalism, and mugging. Some
involve in criminal activities because their senior family members are already
involved with these activities and they (children) are encouraged to do the
criminal acts. Common criminal activities include drug addiction (44%), theft
(21%), trafficking (14%) etc. In the big cities the poor children see that some
people became rich by the criminal activities and they are honored in the
society. Some children take criminal activities to become rich in illegal ways.
To keep the children free from criminal activities we need to take the
following steps (An Assessment Study for Children at Risk of Coming in Contact
With Criminal Activities 2008):
1.
To identify the manner in which children get involved in crime
related activities and the reasons why such undesirable associations occur at
all.
2.
To analyze the factors that encourage children’s involvement in crime
related activities.
3.
To
identify the people who encourage such children.
4.
To
devise achievable recommendations to combat the problem.
The minimum age of criminal
responsibility was raised from 7 to 9 years in 2004, but it still falls far
short of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) Committee’s
recommended age of 12, and the death penalty can be imposed on children who are
16 years of age or older. Arrest, detention and sentencing of children are
often arbitrary and sometimes illegal. Physical abuse and torture have been
applied during arrest and interrogation. The law requires separate detention
facilities for children and adults, but many children including those detained
while awaiting trial are imprisoned with adult prisoners.
The
Children Act 1974 requires Courts at all levels to follow special juvenile
court procedures when hearing cases involving a child under the age of 16
(UNICEF 2009).
12. Attempts to Establish
Child Rights in Bangladesh
The GoB and UNICEF have
cooperated in promoting children’s rights since Bangladesh attained
independence in 1971. The Government is now preparing a Five Year Plan
consistent with a long-term vision of economic growth, poverty reduction, and a
more inclusive and equitable society.
The GoB has various social
safety net programmes which address the particular gender needs of women along
with their children. For ensuring social safety net protection for extremely
poor vulnerable women, Vulnerable Group Development Program (VGD) is being
implemented. This programme is providing extreme poor and distressed women with
food assistance at the rate of 30 kg rice or 25 kg fortified wheat per woman.
Women are participating in microcredit programs which are helping them to
develop self employment (Children and Disaster Risk Reduction in the Asia
Pacific, CDRRAP 2010). Due to above steps the children of these families find
opportunities to take education and need not do risky jobs. The GoB is also
vigilant about the children of the aided families.
Vitamin A, zinc, worm
killing tablets and iron foliate are providing freely to the children and
mother of Bangladesh to create healthy nation. After cyclone Sidr in 2007, 240
Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs) and after Aila in 2009, 140 SFSs were opened in
the affected areas with UNICEF assistance. Since June 2009, more than 8,000
children aged 6–12 and 200 adolescents have benefited from this programme.
In the CFSs children,
teenagers, pregnant and lactating women receive the following services (CDRRAP
2010):
§ Two meals a day, one in
the morning and one hot meal, access to clean drinking water, recreation,
medical and psychological care and hygienic latrines.
§ Birth registration of all attending CFSs.
§ Ensure that the affected children resume
their study in schools.
§ Psychological training to teachers.
§ Not engage the children in child labor.
§ Psychosocial and child protection in
emergency training to child facilitators.
CFSs provide safe spaces
for children to play, learn and socialize with a provision of hot meals, access
to clean drinking water, medical and psychosocial care and hygienic latrines.
It has helped in re-establishing normalcy and improving psychosocial well-being
among children affected by natural disasters in the immediate phase. It has
also offered families the opportunity to concentrate on rehabilitating their
homes and rebuilding their livelihoods while children are playing and learning
in a safe space.
The Ministry of Women and
Children Affairs, UNICEF, NGOs and other civil societies and humanitarian
organizations have agreed to establish the Child Protection Cluster (CPC)
network in Bangladesh at national and local levels. The children in the
disaster affected areas are helped by providing books and study materials often
free of cost, waiving examination fees and rescheduling public examinations.
15. Recommendations
The GoB and social
organizations must be conscious about the rights of the children. The most
important integrative measures for the child rights would be as follows (Uddin
et al. 2009):
v take measures to improve basic education in
order to reduce child labor,
v take the particular
contexts of poor families into account by creating a non-formal education
system parallel to primary education,
v create awareness among parents about the
consequences of risky child labor,
v provide allowances for the poor families,
v accelerate the food for education program at
a large scale,
v improve the health
services for children in areas where it is known that child workers are living
and working,
v improve the health services of rural health
centers, and
v create mobile medical teams that visit and
treat child workers at their work places.
Compulsory schooling for
children, food security for the children, school enrolment subsidy, free study
materials, improvement of school infrastructure and the quality of education,
flexibility in school schedules and adult literacy campaigns make the awareness
of child rights in the society (Khanam 2006).
To prevent child
trafficking we need to create aware of its negative effects through seminar,
symposium, movies and leaflets, strength the security patrol at the border
areas, provide special training and motivation to the police, exemplary
punishment to child traffickers (Mohajan 2012a). Employment opportunities must
be created, so that no parents want to leave their children and send their
children to school. At the same time, gender violence should be eradicated from
family and the societies. Education for all must be ensured through initiative
of compensation and subsidize for those street children (Mozdalifa 2012).
The GoB must ensure
protection of children from all forms of abuse, violence, discrimination and
exploitation. It creates an environment to secure the well-being of children,
including those who are vulnerable. It also takes recovery and reintegration
steps into the society for child victims and children of adult victims of
abuse, violence, discrimination and exploitation. It identifies and addresses
the root causes of children’s vulnerabilities, which lead to sexual abuse,
discrimination, violence and exploitation, and devise and implement preventive
strategies (National Plan of Action for Children Bangladesh 2005).
Employers should not
employ the children in the risky works. They must know all the laws and
policies related to child labor. They also responsible for treating child
workers with dignity and respect, providing them with adequate compensation,
honoring all contractual arrangements with them, ensuring that their work is
safe and suitable to their ages and abilities, ensuring their access to
education, and providing vocational skills that will help them in their future
lives (UNICEF 2009).
14. Conclusion
Bangladesh is a poor
densely populated country with populations about 160 millions and most of the
people are illiterate. In Bangladesh child abuses are common matters and both
children and parents are not aware about the child rights.
Bangladeshi children are
deprived from basic rights to education, balance diet, health and nutrition,
protection, participation, recreation, safe water, sanitation, and hygiene. The
rights of children are violated due to poverty, ignorance, lack of social
consciousness and discrimination. The laws and policies regarding child labor, physical
punishment, violence against girls, sexual exploitation, imprisonment of
children with adults, trafficking, child marriage, and other aspects of child
protection are routinely violated. In most cases, people are not aware of the
laws and take these violence as common matters. Street children are more
vulnerable, as they to manage their own foods, clothes and shelter. They find
no treatment when they become sick. The GoB and the national and international
NGOs have taken various steps, such as free primary education, cash transfer
for children, nutrition, registration of birth etc. to save the children.
Educating girls achieve a multiplicity of benefits, including marriages in
matured age, reduced fertility rates, decreased infant and maternal mortality,
improved health and nutritional status, and greater participation of women in
political and economic decisions. The GoB has taken many steps to educate the
girls to empower them in the society.
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