Country’s most of the government-run orphanages are reportedly in bad shape due to multifarious problems like poor infrastructure, irregularities, inadequate fund and manpower shortage.
Despite declaring the 85 government orphanages – 42 for boys, 42 for girls and one combined — as “Shishu Paribar”, many of them are now in a vulnerable condition. The young inmates of these orphanages are forced to reside there with life risk in case of any earthquake.
Currently, over 7000 orphans are residing in these government-run orphanages and receiving a total of Tk 2600 each for meal, education, medical and other purposes per month, official sources said.
The inmates of the orphanages told this reporter that they had to do all sorts of ordinary works in their dormitories due to the shortage of staff, causing severe harm to their studies. They also have to pass time in panic as structures of the dormitories are in a ramshackle state.
When contacted Nuruzzaman Ahmed, State Minister for Social Welfare Affairs said they are doing everything to ensure smooth and efficient services at the orphanages.
“We need more allocation to overcome these crises. We have already given a proposal to enhance the budget allocation to develop living and learning standard of the orphan children,” he said.
Talking to The New Nation Additional Secretary and Director General of the Department of Social Services Gazi Mohammad Nurul Kabir said as allocation is very poor, we have made a proposal to the government to increase it. We hope per head allocation will be increased by Tk 4000 soon.
“We hope that there will be no manpower crisis in future as some 200 new staff members will join from the next month,” he added.
Nasima Aktar, Deputy Superintendent of Mirpur Orphanage, told this reporter that they are trying their best to keep the children happy.
“We have no lacks of taking appropriate steps to ensure the parentless children’s proper care. We are acting as their parents, guardians and teachers,” she claimed.
According to some officials, as there is no part time physician, children infected with different diseases often fall in critical condition.
The food served to the orphan children is insufficient. Besides, the food items are not good enough for cooking as they are often found rotten, alleged the orphan children.
They also alleged that a section of dishonest staff of the orphanages are engaged in embezzling money.
“As a small amount of money is allocated for the orphan children, it is a very tough job for running the orphanages,” officials of the Department of Social Services said.
Apart from this, the manpower shortage also is a major problem, the officials said, adding: “Many posts have remained vacant in the orphanages for long.
According to sources, an orphan gets a total allocation of Tk 2600 – Tk 23000 for food and fuel, Tk 255 for education, Tk 50 for training, Tk 165 for cloths, Tk 60 for medical treatment and Tk 70 for soaps and other cosmetics.
“With such insufficient allocation, we are continuing struggle to cope with present situation. After losing our parents, we are fighting with extreme poverty here also,” said an orphan boy.
While visiting the Mirpur Government Orphanage this reporter found that the orphan boys are residing at the office building as their dormitory was identified as vulnerable to earthquake.
“Big cracks were developed at our dormitory after the earthquake on April 13 this year. Since then we have been residing at the office building,” they said.
The orphan children said that they get new clothes once in a year during the Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations.
