Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
The torture of children in households and different work places is going on alarmingly in the cities and other parts of the country.
Around 66 per cent domestic workers suffer mental torture and 57 per cent are physically tortured and seven per cent of them are raped, said a study of Nielsen Company (Bangladesh) Limited on behalf of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB).
The study showed that 35 per cent of child labourers do not have access to proper food and drinking water, while 22 per cent work in hazardous condition.
A total of 968 children were tortured to death in last three and a half years, a report of Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSF) has said.
The rights of 974 children had been violated since May this year, 5,387 in 2015, 2451 in 2014, 1,330 in 2013 and 896 in 2012, it said.
More than 209 children were killed in 2012, 218 in 2013, 350 in 2014, 291 in 2015, and 566 in last first months this year, the report said.
There were 17 lakh child workers in the country till 2013. The number increased in the last two years, said a report of Manusher Jonno Foundation.
Even the recruitment of the children in risky work places has been seen as a common phenomenon by ignoring the Labour Act-2006, it mentioned.
They are working at tannery factory, plastic factory, motor workshop and chemical house. Besides, they also work as drug trader, transport helper, construction worker, domestic help, cow boy and fishing worker.
Unicef estimates that 4.9 million children aged from five to 14 are working in numerous industries in Bangladesh, many of them in hazardous conditions with little pay.
State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haq Chunnu categorically admitted to the reporters there are about 12 lakh child workers in the country.
He said, “The government has already trained up 60,000 children and rehabilitated them in the country. Another project was under taken to train up rehabilitate more than 50,000 children in job sectors.”
To this context, a minor boy, who woks at a Spinning factory in Rupganj upazila in Narayanganj district, died on June 24 as a high pressure air pump nozzle was inserted into his rectum to fill the body with air.
The deceased identified as Sagar Barman, 10, was the son of Ratan Barman. He hailed from Netrokona and worked at the Zobeda Textile and Spinnig Factory in Roopganj.
A twelve year child labourer was tortured and murdered at Lakshmipur bakery on May 10. Police recovered the body of ‘Alauddin’, hanging by a rod on the second floor of the bakery building at Chandraganj, said Superintendent of Police ASM Mahtab Uddin.
Earlier, teenage boy, Sheikh Samiul Alam Rajan was brutally tortured to death in a fabricated theft charge in Sylhet on 8 July in 2015.
Another 12-year-old Rakib, was tortured to death in Khulna in last year. He had been pumped with air through his rectum.
Another boy Rabiul Awal, 11, was beaten dead for ‘stealing fish’ in Barguna district in 2015.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki said, “Social outlook towards children is yet to be changed. If a girl child is rescued or returned after being trafficked, family members of victim do not want to accept her due to social barriers.”
The minister stressed the need for amendment to the existing Children Act so that no offenders can get minor punishment for committing major criminal activities.
The state minister said the national helpline number ‘10921’ in preventing repression against women and children has been made charge-free to help the victims.
Deputy Inspector General of Police (media) AKM Shahidur Rahman said child perpetrators could not be caught by police as they were not like other criminals of the society.
Police come to rescue the child and take action if someone informs them of the occurrence, the police official said.
