The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

Fathers in general spend less than an hour a day to take care of their children while mothers give more than four hours a day for the same purpose, a national childhood conference was told here on Monday.

Grandmothers are the second caregivers after mothers in every family in Bangladesh, a country where sisters rank third in terms of giving time to the care of their younger brothers and sisters.

"It is necessary to raise awareness for fathers' involvement in the early childhood development programme, especially for children age group of zero to five years," Professor Nazmul Haq of Dhaka University said at the conference, referring to a recent study.

Bangladesh Early Childhood Development (ECD) Network organised the two-day conference at Shishu Academy, third of its kind in the country after the government took special programmes for child development from early stage in 2000.

Dr Haq, who listed a number of barriers to the development of children, said the main obstacles come from ignorance.

More than 50 percent rural and 70 percent urban parents have little knowledge on managing childhood emotion, he said adding disrespect to child opinions cause major harm to their creativity and self-esteem.

Speaking at the conference, Women and Children Affairs Secretary Rokeya Sultana said the government focuses more on a complete development of children, who need to be taken special care from mother womb to two years.

This time, she said, the children get their basic mental development.

Appreciating the ECD networks initiative, which involves more than 200 NGOs, Rokeya said the children of the country suffer from multiple factors, including malnutrition, stunting and low cognitive power due to poverty and ignorance. Girl children are the worst victims of it, she said.

Mahmuda Akhter, member secretary of ECD network, underscored the need for launching a nationwide media campaign on an urgent basis so that the parents could have knowledge to nurture their kids properly. She also said that spending one dollar at the early stage of a child would yield a return of eight dollars eventually.

A number of thematic papers were presented in the conference, which came up with certain recommendations to improve the child lives in Bangladesh. The recommendations include development of a uniform curriculum for all students and massive investment in the ECD programmes.

"We don't need to depend on donors support too much," said a participant in the conference, suggesting that the micro-finance institutions and corporate bodies should come forward with funds to help develop the future generations of Bangladesh, a country where more than three million newborns come each year.

The mortality rate, however, among the children is still high than other countries in the region, despite a substantial development in reducing child deaths, a precondition to attain millennium development goal (MDG) 4 on child survival. Much of the children die due to unsafe abortion and delivery.

Chaired by ECD Network Chairman Dr Manzoor Ahmed, the function was also addressed by senior project officer of UN children fund (UNICEF) Dr MG Mostafa and Habibur Rahman of the Save the Children, USA.