More initiatives needed for rehab of street children
Many children are now growing up on different footpaths in Bangladesh, particularly in the capital, without any care-attention. Many of them dont have parents and home. There are initiatives for rehabilitation of the street children. But those are not enough for rehabilitation of 11 lakh street urchins. More initiatives will have to be taken up through proper planning for the rehabilitation of the street children, said experts. According to the UNDP, the children who have no family, all along with the family live in street, go back home at night or live in the streets or take shelter to the house of others are called street children. A survey was conducted on the street children under the Appropriate Resources for Improving Street Childrens Environment (ARISCE) project of the Department of Social Welfare in 2005. According to that survey, there were 6,79,728 street children in Bangladesh. The highest 2, 49, 200 street children were in Dhaka, 55,856 in Chittagong and 9,771 in Barisal. For survival, they get involved in theft, snatching, drug selling and even the female children are engaged in prostitution. According to the information of the Department of Narcotics Control, about 25 per cent of those children are involved in drug trafficking. Different projects are being implemented at the government-private levels for the rehabilitation of the street children. The Ministry of Social Welfare has been implementing two projects for rehabilitation of the underprivileged children through the Department of Social Welfare. The scheme was launched in January, 2012 and its tenure will end in December, 2016. A non-government development organization, Aparajeo Bangladesh, has beenworking with the government on this issue. The government is also framing a plan in consultation with the representatives of non-governmentdevelopment organisations. Amina Khatun, assistant director of Aparajeo Bangladesh, said a survey hasbeen conducted on street children in Dhakas Karwan Bazar and Kamalapur as per the new plan. She said Aparajeo Bangladesh has been running 12 shelter homes for street children under Child Sensitive Social Project. We have been implementing the project with the financial assistance of the Unicef and the cooperation of the Ministry of Social Welfare, she said. She said there is sufficient support from the governments side. But the assistance does not reach to hardcore poor in many cases. It is also creating disparity. For this reason, creation of social awareness about the government-private initiatives is needed.
