M M Jasim :
Eid brings celebration and glee in the life of the Muslim community. The Muslims of this country like the rest of the world celebrate it with much enthusiasm every year. New dresses are bought in most of the houses and rich foods are prepared, which the family members consume with relatives and guests. Even those who are unable to do it do not lag behind to share joys among themselves.
But the story of millions of street children is different. They cannot even dream to wear new dresses on the Eid day nor can they consume rich foods.
The guardians along with their sons and daughters buy the new dresses for the Eid celebration. This is a common scenario at almost every shopping mall in the city and other parts of the country. When a child of a able family is busy to buy the new cloth, the street children stare only in their faces.
Imdad, a 12-year street child living in the Dhaka University area told The New Nation on Saturday, “I have a shirt and a pant. I wear it every day. Sometimes I wash it, sometimes I cannot. New dress is a dream to me. I want but how shall I get it?. There is no answer with me.”
“Everyone including my father and mother left me. Eid festival is not for me. It is for them who have parents and money. Eid day and other day are equal to me,” Imdad, who came from Rangpur to survive narrated the story of his distress wailing.
“My father died in an accident two years ago and my mother left me for her happiness. My stepfather did not agree to bear my burden. My relatives also had no kindness for me. So, I decided to come to Dhaka. Till then I have been fighting against the harsh realities,” he said.
Hossain, another 13-year-old homeless child living near the Sadarghat, told this correspondent, “I have to wear dirty uniform because there is no room for me to wash. The people in the city do not take me easily. They called me ‘tokai’ and sometimes they beat me. I become melancholy when I see the children buy new dresses on he occasions of he Eid and national days. I feel to wear new dress but how shall I manage it or who will give me?. So, Eid is for the affluent people, not for the unfortunate like me.”
Hossain used to live with his family in a village of Comilla district. Circumstances changed when his father married another woman and left them. His mother was unable to take care of him.
Like Imdad and Hossain, there are about 12 million street children in the country. The most vulnerable children (MVC) are those who orphans, destitute, abandoned, homeless, shelterless, ill-fed, ill-clothed and devoid of parental care. They sometimes run away to avoid domestic violence, family conflict, poverty, over population, unemployment, family feud, divorced parents (either father or mother alive), river erosion, rural-urban migration, chronic poverty, floods, drought, cyclones, rosy dreams and lofty hopes of better job opportunities in the city centers.
Most of the street children take rice once or twice a day if they have money. Otherwise, they have to starve or remain satisfied with what they find around them through begging or any such mean.
Chairperson of Transparency International Bangladesh Sultana Kamal said, it is very sad that the street children are still deprived of their basic rights in the country.
“The street children are our sons and daughters. It is our duty to save their life and to ensure their bright future. The government should take many initiatives to provide all the facilities to make them assets of the country,” Sultana Kamal said.
The human rights activist also called upon the government as well as the countrymen to work together to improve the condition of the street children and to protect them from the uncertainty.
