Building a society fit for children
Approximately 43 percent of our 160 million population are minors, of which 13 percent are deprived of their rights. Bangladesh ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in August 1990, marking the rights of a child to life, survival and development on the national agenda. Despite this, outdated legislation, inadequate policies and poor services continue. The first role of the government is to increase the budget for child development. The community and government should work collaboratively to build a supportive environment for children and help spread word about child rights through different media. The government must ensure that as many children as possible are registered at birth, thereby ensuring their access to education, healthcare and other social and legal services. Finally, they must also enforce stronger implementation of child protection laws to eradicate child abuse as effectively as possible.
Meanwhile, schools in our country need to adopt a more holistic curricula and encourage children’s participation in areas that are crucial to their development. Parents and teachers should guide students towards understanding their rights. The duties of humanitarian organisations lie in improving early treatment and diagnosis of children’s health issues, facilitating their access to immunisation, implementing initiatives that help orphans and disabled, underprivileged children, and supporting corporations that develop socially responsible policies for workers and their children. We must bring an end to child labour. As a community, we all have different roles in helping the children of our country. We need to take up the responsibility of fulfilling those roles.
Students of Aga Khan School,
Dhaka
