Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Street Children in [Bangladesh Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children People’s Republic of Bangladesh [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The People's Republic of |
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Gender, Country ( UNICEF - The
Big Picture U.S.
Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are also often found working in a variety of potentially
hazardous occupations and sectors, including bidi
(hand-rolled cigarette) factories, construction, leather tanneries,
fisheries, automobile repair, welding, bangle-making, rickshaw-pulling,
matches manufacturing, brick-breaking, book binding, and the garment
industry. In urban areas many children
work as domestic servants, porters, and street vendors, and are vulnerable to
sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation. In addition, many children are also
reported to be involved with criminal gangs engaged in arms and drug trading
and smuggling.. Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 CHILDREN - According to a 2002 report
published by the government news agency Bangladesh Shongbad
Shongsta, there were approximately 400 thousand
homeless children, of whom as many as 150 thousand had no knowledge of their
parents Few facilities existed for children whose parents were incarcerated.. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2003 [75] The Committee notes the efforts
undertaken by the State party to provide children living or working on the
streets with access to health services and education. However, the Committee is concerned at the
large population of children living or working on the streets and at the extremely
difficult conditions under which this very
marginalized group is living, and at the lack of sustained efforts to address
this phenomenon. The Committee is
further concerned at the incidence of violence, including sexual abuse and
physical brutality, directed at these children by police officers. “In reality people in our society
are not much concerned about drug addiction among street children because
they are kept out of sight and so are out of mind. The upper and middle
income groups and the educated section of the society are not directly
affected by this problem,” she said. “The direct impact of the problem is that by
losing these children, who will soon become adolescents and teens, Bangladesh
will lose a portion of her young workforce. We will lose our potential
resources and they will become a national burden,” said the sociologist. Zooming in on
people living on the fringes of society Another noteworthy film by Nipa was a series of five documentaries on street children
in Dhaka. Chena Mukh Ochena Chobi focused on the
unheard stories of street children -- addicted to drugs, taken to
prostitution, begging, selling flowers -- and the usual tokai.
The film reveals that hundreds of street children in Karwan
Bazar are engaged in substance abuse. Nipa explores the reason behind their addiction, their
background and their likely future, in the documentaries. According to U M Habibun Nesa, head of the child
protection programme of Save the Children UK, the
underprivileged vagrant children are 'socially disabled' and they could
otherwise be assets of the society. "While growing up, these
children usually experience severe malnutrition, social repugnance and
considerable vulnerability. As a result, they often grow hostility, hatred
and distrust towards the society. This hatred and distrust draw these naďve
children toward criminal activities -- tainting the society in the process,"
said Habibun Nesa. "With rapid increase in the
number of vagrant population and if the present situation continues, it will
be a social disaster in the near future," she added. Call for
adequate budget allocation for street children A large number of children are
driven to the capital city and other towns for their survival as they face
immense suffering due to broken family and natural calamities and take
shelters in the streets in different cities and towns, including Dhaka and Chittagong.
"It is impossible to figure out accurate number but it is assumed
that about two million children are living in the streets", Ratan Sarker said, quoting the
report of government's Arise Project 2002 and the United Nations. Nasima was brought up at her
grandmother's house along with four sisters when her mother died when she was
very young. Her father remarried. Due to physical torture and abuse by her
stepmother, she ran away from the house and came to Dhaka where she started
working as a domestic help in two houses. But she could not bear the heavy
load of works. She came to street and survived by picking waste paper. She met the staff of Aparajeyo Bangladesh (AB), a NGO, which has street
children's club at Arambag in the capital. She was
enrolled in the center and showed interest in her education and became an
active member of the center. Due to her self-motivation and personal
development, she was transferred to AB's girls' hostel. Nasima, 15, now student of Class VIII,
is a talented dancer and orator. She completed a beautician course on April
2005 through the assistance of ARISE (Appropriate Resources Improving Street
Children's Environment) which is a joint project of Ministry of Social
Welfare and UNDP taken for ensuring the welfare of
street children. Bangladeshi
president postpones election and imposes state of emergency Another indicator is the increased
use of child labour. A survey conducted by UNICEF
and the Bangladesh Ministry of Labor and Manpower released in 2004 found that
there are 7 million child workers in Bangladesh, including a large number in
hazardous industries. One fifth of the total workforce consists of children
aged 15 or under. The BBS and International Labor Organisation surveyed children aged 5 to 17 working in
the five worst industries: welding, auto workshops, road transport, battery
recharging and recycling; and street children. It found that 149,000 children
in these sectors worked an average of nine hours a day. The majority of those
questioned said they worked six or seven days a week for little or no wages.
Children recharging and filling batteries had an average monthly wage of 313
taka ($US5.30). Street children earned an average monthly wage of just 288
taka ($US4.85) by collecting old paper, street selling, shining shoes, portering or begging. Those in the transport sector
received an average 1,417 taka ($US24) a month. Blockade forces street children into begging Street children, who collect
recyclable goods from the streets to make a living, were forced into begging
as the streets were the arena for political violence over the past
weeks. Due to increased police
vigilance over the opposition blockade programme,
these homeless children were also subjected to police abuse and repression. "Whenever I go out to collect
bhangari (recyclable goods) with a sack on my back
the police beat me up suspecting that there are cocktails or other explosives
in the sack," said Rana, a 12-year-old boy who
has left home to live with other street children at Paltan
in the city. "As I cannot go out
for work I use to beg money from people and sometime beg food from shop
owners and hotel workers," he said. UNESCO:
Street Children - Bangladesh The Consortium of Street Children
feels that the inexperience of the Bangladeshi government in dealing with
street children and their tendency to mix the characteristics of
disadvantaged children with street children has however resulted in the
design and implementation of costly, improper, and ineffective methodologies.
The number of street children in Bangladesh continues to rise and it has
become clear that current programmes are inadequate
and are failing to successfully address this issue. Fears
for Bangladeshi street kids Latest figures show there are now
670,000 homeless children living there, a third more than there were in 2000 Rippon has been living in a railway
station for a year since his mum died. He doesn't know how old he is. Every day he sits on the steps of the
railway station hoping to earn tips from carrying people's suitcases and bags.
Security guards often try to move him on. He said: "I don't feel good.
The police disturb us at night. They beat us. And there's no food here. "If I'm hungry I drink water and try
to go to sleep." Nasima was brought up at her
grandmother’s house along with four sisters when her mother died when she was
very young. Her father remarried. Due to physical torture and abuse by her
stepmother, she ran away from the house and came to Dhaka where she started
working as a domestic help in two houses. But she could not bear the heavy
load of works. She came to street and survived by picking waste paper. Concern
over sexual exploitation of street children Child rights activists yesterday
expressed concern over the sexual exploitation of street children, saying
that vested quarters are using them in pornographic movies. There is an alarming rise in the victimisation of street girls aged between 9 and 18 by
pornographers, they said and called for combined efforts of the government
and NGOs to combat it. Plight
of Bangladeshi street children worsens as targets fail The plight of hundreds of
thousands of street children in Bangladesh has worsened in the last five
years as their numbers increase and efforts to rehabilitate them fall far
short of targets, reports said on Saturday. A survey carried out by the
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, an autonomous think tank, revealed that the number of street children across
the country soared to 674,000 in 2005, up by over 244,000 from 2000. Street children continue to be victims of abuse Even the boys are not safe in the
streets. According to a survey conducted by Incidin
Bangladesh on 100 street boys between seven and 12 years at Kamalapur last year, it was found that at least 94
percent children were victims of molestation. Ground-breaking
surveys expose plight of Bangladesh's working children The most detailed picture ever
compiled of the conditions endured by Bangladesh’s most disadvantaged children
- those working in what are classified as the worst forms of child labor –
has revealed that many are working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, sometimes
for only food and a bed. The youngest
economically active children surveyed were the street children. On average
they started their first job aged just seven; a quarter of those interviewed
were aged under 11 and 73 per cent under 14. Bangladesh
street children face bleak future Every morning as the sun rises a
host of children walk across this vast mound of rotting rubbish scavenging
for used plastic water bottles or similar rubbish. They can sell these items for a paltry fee
to a second-hand shop that operates on the outskirts of the dump. There are least 20 children who live in the
dump. Bangladesh facing
street children problem They face a daily routine of exploitation
and violence and like other street children in the world often end up in a
life of crime. The report says it is
impossible to calculate exactly how many street children there are in total,
but it is generally thought to be approaching two million. Street Children
Suffer Sexual Abuse "These men can easily lure the
children with food, money and kind words and eventually abuse them sexually.
This happens to boys and girls equally," he says. Homosexual practices, too, are very high
among the boys." Disease haunts lonely
street children of Bangladesh "I had scabies all over my
body and they bled due to scratching, but I didn't have any money to go to a
doctor," he said. "I treated
it with some cream I bought from a vendor, but it didn't go away." Information
about Street Children - Bangladesh [DOC] Estimated number of street
children in Street
and Working Children in Bangladesh In Street
Children Can Be Made Into Social Assets Pakhi is now living a decent life,
having being given some education. She works at a data entry firm and earns
an adequate amount of money. “I am
confident and believe I can do many things like others who are from the
privileged section of the society”. Street
Girls Find a Safe Place When 11-year-old Moina Akter fled her village
home in the Chandpur District and hopped on a bus
to CSKS
- A Street Children Program in Dhaka, Bangladesh The approach of CSKS is based on the philosophy that helping street
children requires offering them choices within their environment and
assisting them to make their own decisions, which will in time lead away from
the street. The mistaken belief that rescuing
street children involves removing them from the street as quickly as possible
often does more harm than good, resulting in failed rehabilitation and a
return to the street. Experimenting
With New Ideas: IDF and Padakhep STREET CHILDREN GET A NEW LEASE
ON LIFE - In a program started in 1998 in Mirpur
and Mohammadpur areas of Dhaka, about 2,000 youth, both
male and female between the ages of 11 to 18 are organized into peer groups
of 15-20. Weekly group meetings are organized at the project office,
satellite centers and concentration points of the street children. Issues
such as social problems, STD/HIV/AIDS, personal hygiene, savings and credit
management are addressed in these meetings. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC §
107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use |
Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Street Children in [Bangladesh Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries]