QUOTING a keynote paper of a seminar, a report carried in this newspaper on Tuesday last said, the number of street children in the country increased to 1,144,754 in 2014 from 679,728 in 2004. The statistic is no doubt a staggering one. While the government, different NGOs and other stakeholders are talking tall about working for a better environment for those would be citizens, this report depicts a different scenario.
Dhaka being the capital city offers ‘opportunities’ for the influx of internal migrant populations from the rural areas. As per available data, approximately 320,000 migrants rush to the capital every year. They are mostly ‘economic refugees’ driven by both ‘push’ (poverty, landlessness, violence, natural disasters etc.) and ‘pull’ (job opportunities in formal and informal sectors, better wage rates etc.) factors. The major proportion of the internal migrants either take shelter in city slums or become squatters on the footpaths as street dwellers. In the case of children, poverty, family feuds and a lack of social awareness are some important reasons for such migration. Regrettably, these unfortunate migrants have no access to the mainstream development process since independence. The seminar called for bringing the street children into the mainstream of the society through proper rehabilitation. We share the concerns of the experts and would like to add that proper rehabilitation must include the option to rehabilitate all the ‘economic refugees’ under a countrywide safe net programme. Otherwise, only rehabilitating the children will just be a byword for slogans, which will offer more scope for the so-called social interests to make self-gains.
The street children have to lead a very humiliating lifestyle devoid of all basic amenities, and are under constant threat of eviction and harassment by the law-enforcing agencies and the hoodlums. Therefore, it is imperative to remove the causes forcing children into the streets and preventive measures are needed so that the children are not compelled to lead an unwanted sub-human life. The government must provide the poverty-stricken families with necessary economic assistance to retain the children within their families. If a family cannot afford to support its children, then it will be almost impossible to reduce the number of street children to a socially accepted level.
We have a cluster of good laws and programmes in connection with child rights and development. But due to lack of legislative measures and timely intervention, the street children become the most vulnerable to injustice. They grow without education, affection, care and guidance. Because of growing up in the streets, they often face a strong possibility of being sexually abused and exploited. In the absence of alternatives, these children are forced to do anything, because survival becomes the sole priority. Besides, we do not have a child labour policy. We have laws to protect child workers from exploitation. But the problem lies with implementation.
Due to a lack of proper care and guidance, the street children are being engaged in different anti-social activities. We advise the government and the authorities concerned to take immediate measures for the sake of preventing juvenile delinquency to rehabilitate the street children without any pretext or prejudice.
