The New Nation - Internet Edition

Md. Abdul Alim

Sabiha was brought up at her grandmother's house along with four sisters when her mother died when she was very young. Her father remarried. Due to physical torture and abuse by her stepmother, she ran away from the house and came to Dhaka where she started working as a domestic help in two houses. But she could not bear the heavy load of works. She came to street and survived by picking waste paper.She met the staff of Aparajeyo Bangladesh (AB), a NGO, which has street children's club at Arambag in the capital.

She was enrolled in the center and showed interest in her education and became an active member of the center. Due to her self-motivation and personal development, she was transferred to AB's girls' hostel.Rashida, 16, now student of Class VIII, is a talented dancer and orator. She completed a beautician course on April 2005 through the assistance of ARISE (Appropriate Resources Improving Street Children's Environment) which is a joint project of Ministry of Social Welfare and UNDP taken for ensuring the welfare of street children.Kalam has been living in a railway station for a year since his mum died.

He doesn't know how old he is. Every day he sits on the steps of the railway station hoping to earn tips from carrying people's suitcases and bags. Security guards often try to move him on.He said: "I don't feel good. The police disturb us at night. They beat us. And there's no food here. "If I'm hungry I drink water and try to go to sleep."A noteworthy film: Chena Mukh Ochena Chobi is a series of five documentaries on street children in Dhaka, focused on the unheard stories of street children -- addicted to drugs, taken to prostitution, begging, selling flowers -- and the usual tokai.

The film reveals that hundreds of street children in Karwan Bazar are engaged in substance abuse. The film explores the reasons behind their addiction, their background and their likely future, in these documentaries.A large number of children are driven to the capital city and other towns for their survival as they face immense suffering due to broken family and natural calamities and take shelters in the streets in different cities and towns, including Dhaka and Chittagong.

"It is impossible to figure out accurate number but it is assumed that about two million children are living in the streets", quoting the report of government's Arise Project 2002 and the United Nations.According to a 2002 report published by the government news agency Bangladesh Shongbad Shongsta, there were approximately 400 thousand homeless children, of whom as many as 150 thousand had no knowledge of their parents Few facilities existed for children whose parents were incarcerated.Child rights activists expressed their concern over the sexual exploitation of street children, saying that vested quarters are using them in pornographic movies.

There is an alarming rise in the victimization of street girls aged between 9 and 18 by pornographers, they said and called for combined efforts of the government and NGOs to combat it.Today's Children is tomorrow's future. It's our moral and civic duty to cherish our beloved children with congenial environment. Programmes should be designed with the active participation of the children themselves. Need to strengthen inter-ministerial coordination in government.

Income generation projects / micro-credit schemes are needed to accompany family reunification and to address rural-urban migration. Social mobilization and community awareness programmes and strong political commitment and dedicated participation of law enforcement agencies are needed. Introduction of street children issues into the curricula of training institutions (especially for social workers, educators and counselors). Create a forum for street children NGOs for both Bangladesh and South Asia for networking of good practices, exchange of information and advocacy. ---PID