Our Children
Sheikh Iraj
Children are our future. No matter what background a child comes from, every one of them has the same rights. The government as well non-profit organisations are working towards securing child rights in this country. They are striving to ensure that our children have access to basics like food, shelter, health, education and playtime, while fighting to end child labour and all sorts of violence and discrimination against them. Over the past four decades, Bangladesh has managed to reduce infant mortality, increase vaccination coverage as well as primary school attendance, and most importantly, narrow the gender gap. Nowadays, girls are leaving their mark and proving their talent in every sector, from public exam results to achievement in sports. However, there is still room for improvement in areas like malnutrition, school dropouts, child labour, abuse, early marriage, etc.
To highlight childrens issues, Child Rights Week is normally observed between September 29 and October 5 across the country. But due to Durga Puja and Muharram holidays this year, the special week will be observed from October 11 to 17. This week, YI spoke to some students, parents, teachers, government officials and NGO workers to hear their thoughts on child rights, the state of our children and future plans to ensure that our next generation thrives and becomes worthy citizens.
Abul Hossain, Programme Director, Street Child Rehabilitation Programme, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, told YI: Due to Puja and Muharram holidays this year, we are going to celebrate the Child Rights Week from October 11 to 17. On October 11, we will organise a programme at Dhaka University, where a thousand underprivileged children will participate. There will be seminars and talks on issues regarding underprivileged children and discussions about possible solutions. On October 12, we will observe Child Marriage Prevention Day, along with different non-government organizations (NGOs), children and parents. On October 13, National Girl Child Day will be celebrated. On that day, the government and a forum formed with some NGOs will bring out a rally from the National Museum to Bangladesh Shishu Academy. The name of the forum is National Girl Child Advocacy Forum (NGCAF). At the Shishu Academy auditorium, we will hold seminars addressing girl child rights issues. Besides children, parents will take part in the event. There will be a segment called Listen to Us where the children will get to speak their minds. On October 14, we will organise an event on children who are engaged in informal labour. We will invite some working children. On October 15, an event on autistic and special needs children will be organised. On October 16, a programme on early childhood will be held and on October 17, the closing ceremony will take place.
Today, the government is working relentlessly to make sure children get to enjoy their rights. When it comes to girl child rights, we are extra careful about the matter. Based on different criteria, the government is providing scholarships to girl students up to HSC (Higher Secondary Certificate). We have started Kishor-Kishori clubs, where children and teenagers can meet and discuss their problems. Discussions on child marriage, health, education, etc, take place in those clubs. We have 4,500 unions (administrative areas) and we hope to build 4,880 Kishor-Kishori clubs throughout the country. The purpose behind creating these clubs is to develop our youth. We have already made many changes. For example, we are culturally motivating our youth who are studying in madrasahs, schools and colleges. We are bringing changes in the textbooks about culture, health, etc. Indicators show that we are improving in every sector. Data from the World Bank and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) prove that. One can go to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of Finance websites and check the figures there, Hossain added.
Jamiul Rahman, father of a seven-year-old, said: My wife and I have a daughter and she means everything to us. I want her to grow up with confidence. No negative thoughts, like girls are not equal to boys, should ever enter her head, and we try to make sure that she understands that. His daughter, Rumana, is a student of Class 1 at Shaheed Anwar Girls College. I can do anything I wish, my parents do not stop me. I have many friends and we all play cricket, football, and many other games together, said Rumana, who also loves to paint.
Shakil Faishal works as an assistant teacher at Dolphin Kindergarten School. We do not organise any programme during Child Rights Week. To be honest, I think many school teachers do not know about it. Our school is at Mirpur-1 and we have contact with most of the schools in our area. I have never known any of them doing anything during the special week. As far as our school is concerned, we observe Girl Child Day on September 28. We have one of the largest open fields in Dhaka, the Ward No 10 community field, better known as Boro Maath. There, we organise different events for Girl Child Day. Other schools and their students also participate in our programme. We arrange different games and competitions. We, the teachers, often discuss issues of child rights. We try to motivate the parents and make them understand that both boys and girls have the same rights. We try to help if we see any girl student is not able to pay the school fee or cannot buy books.
Today, girls are able to enjoy their rights as boys do, the teacher said, adding: But sometimes, parents dont always want their daughters to participate in the same sports as boys. For example, they do not want girls to take part in the long jump or in the 100-metre race. Nevertheless, we always try to motivate them.
Jahid Hasan, a teenager aged 14-15, cannot remember when exactly he came to Dhaka. He has no contact with his family. He does odd jobs to earn money and survive in this city. Sometimes, he works as an assistant in tea shops; sometimes, he works as a porter at Mirpur kitchen market. He doesnt have a place to stay, and at night, he sleeps on the stairs of the shops located near Shah Ali Bogdadi Mazar at Mirpur. But that doesnt come for free. He has to pay Taka 20 to 40 per night to the caretakers of the shops for his lodging. When asked whether he would like to go to school and his plans for the future, he told this reporter: I want to become a contractor when I grow up. As he began to talk more freely, he admitted that he wants to become a contractor because he has seen them making a lot of money. About going to school, he thinks he is too old for that now. Like him, many other boys and girls live on the streets near the mazar (shrine). They are vulnerable to abuse and some of them were seen engaged in taking or selling drugs.
Salma Ali, Executive Director of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association, said: We see a lot of activities taking place when occasions like Child Rights Week come around. I believe it is really very important to observe such days because they give us a platform to address different child-related issues. We have child policies and laws, like Women and Children Repression Prevention Act (amended) 2003, and we are a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). But in reality, the implementation of such laws is taking place very slowly. Today, we see even three-month old infants being abused. Many children who live in slums or word as domestic helps are regularly abused. Female children are the victims most of the time. They are abused multiple times and often, their parents or guardians refuse to make a complaint or go to the police. This is because we do not have a strong witness protection mechanism and no precise law on the matter. The victims are afraid that if they make any kind of statements, then they will have to suffer more. In some cases, the victims are abused by their own family members. The internet and easy access to adult content are some of the reasons behind these crimes, or at least motivate some to step in the wrong direction. We do not have much coordination among the stakeholders and the organisations working on these issues. For example, rescue and raid are two different things. When we go to rescue victims, then we must have a plan in place on what to do with the rescued persons. They must receive support service within 24 hours. Most of the time, the guilty parties find a loophole or resort to corruption to save themselves. Preventing child marriage is another thing we are working on.
Mizan Uddin Ahmed, General Secretary of Shornokishoree Network Foundation, told YI: There are 491 upazilas across our country and in every upazila, we have established a club. In those clubs, we have 40 million members, half of them are girls and half are boys. Most of our members are young. We work on different issues like child marriage, leadership development, child rights, nutrition, gender equality and so on. We have four approaches. One is school-based clubs, where we educate students from class 6 to 10 on different issues. We record some of those training and discussion sessions and broadcast those on a private TV channel every Friday and Saturday. We have some studio-based programmes that mainly focus on child rights and nutrition, etc. Every week in all our clubs, 30 members meet and they discuss various problems they are facing. After the meeting, students and teachers who take part in the session go back to their respective schools and talk about what have they discussed and learned. The interesting thing is that in those club meetings, many who are not our members come and participate. We also work with community-based education.
Every year in December, we organise a national convention. This year, 5,000 girls are going to participate in the convention in Dhaka. At least 10 government ministers will be present at the event and the girls can ask them any question they want. Our members, without any hesitation, talk about the problems they are facing in their areas, for example, why there is no separate toilet for girls in their particular school. Many of our members also get the chance to go abroad on exchange programmes, Ahmed added.
BRAC, a development agency, works on ensuring that the schools they run have at least 50 percent girl students, and that their dropouts are minimal.
Its adolescent development programme educates girls on financial literacy, teaches them entrepreneurship skills, offers them space and training on sports, English and ICT, while making them aware about their health and rights, the organisation informed YI in an email.
We are part of the Girls not Brides secretariat of Bangladesh and are actively involved in Girl Child Rights movement. Our staff intervene whenever they get reports of child marriage, the email added.
The overall objective of the Right to Protection programme of Plan International Bangladesh is to ensure vulnerable and excluded children, particularly girls, have the power to take action and make decisions about issues that affect their lives.
Plan International supports boys and girls to be active drivers of change in their communities and contribute nationally as active citizens. Our goal is to ensure that children and young people, especially the most vulnerable ones, are better protected from all forms of violence through inclusive and effective community-based child protection mechanisms, the organisation said in an email.
The main objectives of the Right to Protection programme include supporting a functioning national child protection system; protecting children from abuse, violence, early marriage, labour and trafficking through advocacy; ensuring effective implementation, monitoring and reporting on international conventions like CRC and SAIEVAC (South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children) by strengthening childrens and youth groups and bringing in the voices of marginalised children and young people.
Photos: File, Courtesy
