State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki yesterday said the existing laws would have to be updated to stop repression and violence against children.
“Incidents of child repression in the last few days remind us that we could not create an environment for children to grow cheerfully,” she said speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a daylong seminar on stopping child repression at Bangladesh Shishu Academy seminar room in the city.
The state minister said parents and guardians would have to be brought under the purview of law so that they cannot repress children.
Secretary of Women and Children Affairs Ministry Nasima Begum, Law Ministry Additional Secretary Nasrin Begum, Jatiya Mahila Sangstha Chairperson Prof Mumtaz Begum and Women and Children Affairs Ministry Joint Secretary Tahmina Begum also spoke on the occasion, among others.
Women and Children Affairs Ministry Joint Secretary and South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) Bangladesh Project Director Dr. M. Aminul Islam presided over the workshop on “South Asian Initiative to End Violence Against Children (SAIEVAC) and Activities of Bangladesh.”
Meher Afroze Chumki said, in poor families, parents sometimes give birth to many children and at one stage they force them to go for hazardous works or even sell them.
After this, the children fall victims to repression, but the parents get no punishment for this, she said and stressed the need for legal provisions for their punishment.
The state minister urged the parents of solvent families to control the use of internet and mobile phones by their children. Expressing shock and concern over the killing of child Rajon in Sylhet, she called upon all to be vocal against child repression. The speakers suggested allocating budgets for children in development plans of all ministries to upgrade Bangladesh as a middle-income country.
