Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Street Children in [Bangladesh Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first ten years of the 21st
Century - 2000 to 2009
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
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FEATURED ARTICLES *** 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." “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. Khulna street children turning into criminals' accomplice A large number of street boys in Khulna city and nine upazilas
of the district have got involved in different types of crime as criminals
use them as convenient accomplices. Poverty and wayward life of their
parents, loss of shelters due to natural calamities such as floods and
cyclone, drug addiction, bigamy or polygamy of parents and missing during
journey from one place to another are among the factors that are responsible
for a large number of street boys' get involved in crimes, says the report. Many of these hapless street boys
are being picked up by criminals for keeping arms, throwing bombs at targets,
selling drugs and pilferage of food grains for small amount of money, the
project manager quoted the survey report as saying. A day in the
lives of two homeless brothers in Bangladesh www.unicef.org/infobycountry/bangladesh_48635.html
The sun had not yet risen when the
two boys woke up. By 4 a.m., the port on the River Buriganga
here in the capital of Bangladesh was alive and bustling. The ‘bed’ where
Yusef,14, and his younger brother Smaile,10, slept
was made of hard wooden planks on the pier.
In a familiar routine, the brothers washed up and then walked around,
looking for empty bottles to fill with fresh water that they would later
sell. They started their morning by begging for food at local cafes. On a
good day, the boys get some leftovers. On a bad one, they go hungry. DETERMINED TO CREATE A BETTER LIFE - For Yusef
and Smaile, lunchtime meant – as usual – begging
for food. Then they returned to the harbour to look
for work carrying bags or boxes. (The boys work about six hours a day,
earning less than $1.) The day ended as darkness crept in. Hey returned to
their ‘beds’ on the pier for a few hours’ sleep before repeating the whole
process the next day. *** ARCHIVES
*** www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/South_Asia/Global_Monitoring_Report-BANGLADESH.pdf A report published by Appropriate
Resources for Improving Street Children’s Environment (Arise) in 2002, put
the number of street children in Bangladesh at approximately two million and
indicated that sexual exploitation of children is rampant. Little has changed
to reduce these numbers and homeless children living on the streets continue
to be particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation as their strategies
for survival, usually as rag pickers, beggars or peddlers, renders them
vulnerable to all forms of exploitation and abuse. In the precarious and
dangerous conditions in which they exist, they are sometimes forced into
offering sexual favors to meet basic needs such as food, shelter and
clothing. A 2005 research study conducted by the NGO Aparajeyo-Bangladesh
(AB), cited several forms of sexual exploitation on the streets: it reported
that children are coerced into massaging adultsand
are forced to engage in sexual activities in market places, parks, railway
stations, and boat and bus terminals. Some pimps use city hotels or rented
private flats in certain parts of the city for sexual exploitation. Men
involved in small businesses such as operators/vendors (36%), beggars and day
labourers (17.2%), as well as the police and
security guards (9.6%), were among the largest groups of sexual exploiters of
street children. Others include relatives, transport workers, employers, and
strangers. The study noted that among the key contributing factors that drove
children into situations of exploitation were poverty, hunger, the need to
earn money, sexual abuse by employers, family members or other men and the
threat and force by pimps and others in their environment. 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. Theatre for
unprivileged, tribal children The New Nation nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2009/05/15/news0332.htm
There are children belonging to very
poor families who are deprived and unprivileged and sometime marginalised. Among them there are street children
without parents, home or any type of shelter. There are slum children living
in the street side or by the side of rail line. These children begin each of
the days with the tension of collecting foods. In which age, they should go
to school; they have to go in search of livelihood. They have to work hard
till the night. Even sometime they have to be involved in different types of
risky jobs, which are threats to their lives. 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 naive
children toward criminal activities and thus play the most effective role in
tainting the society. www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=85028 Fatema, who is 9 years old, works at Rampura kacha bazaar. She
collects fish from the fish market and sells them to earn money. The men who
work in the market treat the children shoddily and inhumanly. The child was
crying and saying to me: "I went to the bazaar to collect fish apa, the shopkeeper poured ice-water (thanda
borof ar pani dale dicche) on me and
slapped me. I could not collect any fish. What will I eat today apa?" I could not answer her question. Lovely is a ten-year old child.
She left her house two years ago. Her father used to beat her mother and as a
child she could not bear the pain. She left her house, came to Dhaka by
launch and got lost in this big city. She stayed for one week in Kamalapur rail station without any food. The policemen
used to beat her. After seven days of starvation, she got some food that was
thrown out from a hotel. She met a man who brought her to the drop in centre.
A day in the
lives of two homeless brothers in Bangladesh www.unicef.org/infobycountry/bangladesh_48635.html
The sun had not yet risen when the
two boys woke up. By 4 a.m., the port on the River Buriganga
here in the capital of Bangladesh was alive and bustling. The ‘bed’ where
Yusef,14, and his younger brother Smaile,10, slept
was made of hard wooden planks on the pier.
In a familiar routine, the brothers washed up and then walked around,
looking for empty bottles to fill with fresh water that they would later
sell. They started their morning by begging for food at local cafes. On a
good day, the boys get some leftovers. On a bad one, they go hungry. DETERMINED TO CREATE A BETTER LIFE - For Yusef
and Smaile, lunchtime meant – as usual – begging for
food. Then they returned to the harbour to look for
work carrying bags or boxes. (The boys work about six hours a day, earning
less than $1.) The day ended as darkness crept in. Hey returned to their
‘beds’ on the pier for a few hours’ sleep before repeating the whole process
the next day. City's
hapless street children www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=66400 Street children are found in
bazaars, commercial areas, bus terminals, hotels and parks, on the pavements,
around the stadium. They try to earn a living through collecting garbage,
breaking bricks or pushing rickshaws. Some of them work in roadside tea
stalls while some are just beggars. Some street children are involved in
petty crime. The underworld gangs use
the street children in drug peddling, snatching, toll collection and other
crimes. Dr MSI Mullick,
an associate professor of psychiatry at the Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujib Medical University, says children
growing up in deprivation are accustomed to extreme behaviours,
primarily because of inferiority complex. “You cannot expect good behaviour from a person who have not been treated well by
others, can you?” www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=54086 Rubel was pushing a rickshaw full of
sacks and a man was sitting on the sacks. Though 12 years old the
malnourished boy looked not more than 10 years of age. A dozen other kids were doing the same type
of jobs. They were helping the vehicles to climb the ramp of a bridge. Scores of people and non-motorised vehicles like rickshaws and rickshaw vans cross
the Lohar Bridge every day at Kamrangirchar,
one of the vital links connecting the char with the city. It is really astounding to see how these
little boys manage to push the heavily loaded rickshaws and vans all the day
just for Tk 2 per vehicle. Most of the children were thin and
wiry and looked tiny than their actual age. They work from the crack of the
dawn till midnight. Some of them do it because they have to support their
families. Some do it because they want to earn for themselves and spend on
whatever things they want to including drugs. "I push rickshaws because I don't have
any other work to do," said Rubel while
pushing the rickshaw in the sweltering heat.
He gets around Tk 100 daily by pushing
rickshaws and rickshaw vans from seven in the morning to two in the
afternoon. Asked what he does with the
money Rubel said he gives the money to his mother
to support his family of four that his rickshaw puller father cannot run. nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/08/19/news0200.htm
Being deprived from education and
proper care those children loose their sense of right and wrong. Peer influence also play a big role in leading them astry. Growing number of street children pose a threat to
the society. Teenager criminals are feared to be more desperate. Due to
adventurism characteristic of young age, they will not hesitate to commit
crimes without the slightest thought of their own safety. Health
scheme for street children www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=49585 Kalam does not know his identity. He
cannot remember his parents, not even have any near and dear ones. He was
born and grown up on a road at Hazaribag in the
city. The 10 years old boy feels his mother most whenever he becomes sick.
During his sickness in last month, he was crying by the name of mother on the
roadside. He could not go to a hospital with his very little money or could
not buy his own food or any medicine. Nobody paid attention to him. Kalam’s mental and physical agony was
culminating thinking the fate of one of his peers who died untreated after
suffering from this sort of fever. He left on the roadside with high fever,
chill, rigor and repeated convulsions. After 3 days, one kind passerby did
notice and admitted him into the Mitford Hospital
with his own money. Kalam’s story depicts more than 200,000
street children floating in Dhaka metropolitan area. Statistics say the
terrible thing regarding health status of street children. More than 73
percent of street children in the city are victims of physical, mental abuse
and suffering from various degrees of malnutrition. Street children across
the country are out of healthcare facilities. Challenging
task of birth registration Field level workers of the project
working closely with the street children said that collecting information
about street children is extremely challenging. “Most of the street children without
parents or lost children who ended up on the streets do not know anything
about their age or the place they were born. The runaway kids usually refrain
from giving the right information,” pointed out Ashrafun
Nahar Rainy, in-charge, Drop-in-Centre of Assistance
for Slum Dwellers, one of the partner NGOs.
“Many street children who have parents are also ignorant about their
birth year or date. Even their parents do not know anything. It becomes quite
hard for us to gather information when the situation is like this,” she
added. Rainy also mentioned that often
it becomes difficult to gain their trust in the first place. These children
move from one place to another, making it hard to trace them. Unwanted
newborns and lost toddlers found in the streets are the most challenging to
work with. Government statistics, based on a
survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, estimate the
number of street children in Bangladesh to be around 380,000 -- of whom 55%
are in Dhaka city. A little less than half of them (49.2%) are of the age
group < 10 years, while the remaining fall in the
age group of 11-19 years. Their gender composition is as follows: boys 74.3%,
while girls account for 25.7%. The above report estimates that by 2014 the
number of such children would exceed 930,000. The major problems of street
children are: Insecure life; physical and sexual abuse by adults of the
immediate community; harassment by law enforcing agencies; no, or inadequate,
access to educational institutions and healthcare facilities; and lack of
decent employment opportunity. Khulna street children turning into criminals' accomplice A large number of street boys in Khulna city and nine upazilas
of the district have got involved in different types of crime as criminals
use them as convenient accomplices. Poverty and wayward life of their
parents, loss of shelters due to natural calamities such as floods and
cyclone, drug addiction, bigamy or polygamy of parents and missing during
journey from one place to another are among the factors that are responsible
for a large number of street boys' get involved in crimes, says the report. Many of these hapless street boys
are being picked up by criminals for keeping arms, throwing bombs at targets,
selling drugs and pilferage of food grains for small amount of money, the
project manager quoted the survey report as saying. Rehabilitation
of street children emphasised Liton, a 12-year old boy sells betel
leaves in a park and lives with his distant aunt and her son in a slum at
city's Tejgaon area. His father is no more and his mother died
when he was minor. He used to live with her grand-mother initially and then
moved to his aunt, previously known to her late mother. His aunt, abandoned
by her husband, earns her livelihood begging.
Like his aunt, Liton also begs along with
selling betel leaves. His companion Roni
is a nine year old boy, who lives in the same slum with his mother, crippled
father and a four-year old sister. Roni's father
was a rickshaw puller and sustained injuries in a road accident that left his
parents beg door to door. Eight year old Moyna
sells rejected flowers from Shahbagh area to the
nearby campus. She stays with a floating family at the High court area. She lives
with her grandmother and aunt following deaths of her parents died at her
early age. Abandoned by their husbands, both her grandmother and aunt are
beggars. Although Liton,
Roni and Moyna seem to
earn some money by selling flowers, water and collecting thrown away papers,
their main earnings are from asking alms from the passerby. Street
dwellers lack access to healthcare services Street dwellers in the city are
extremely vulnerable in terms of their health needs, hygiene and utilisation of healthcare services and this marginalised group is neglected by public and private
sectors, a study conducted by It is found that most of the
street dwellers have been suffering from diseases of respiratory and
digestive system, weakness, severe pain and scabies. “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." 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 www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/public/releases/yr2004/pr04_15.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] 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] www.streetchildren.org.uk/reports/Bangladesh%20Child.doc At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] Estimated number of street
children in Street and Working Children in Bangladesh www.cwa.tnet.co.th/Publications/Newsletters/vol11_2-3/v11_2-3_street-children.html At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] 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 www.worldvision.org.nz/news/archive2002/June2002/20020626-02.asp At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here] 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 www.globalfootprints.org/partners/csks.htm At one time this article had been
archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] 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. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin,
"Street Children - |
Human Trafficking in [Bangladesh] [other countries]Street Children in [Bangladesh Child Prostitution in [Bangladesh] [other countries]