Children's Situation in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world with over 143 million people, half of whom are below poverty level and of which 65 million are children and live in 1, 47,570 square Kilometre area. The growth rate has declined, but the population is still expected to rise to 181 million people by 2015. As proportion of Bangladeshis, in urban areas is projected to increase from 23.9 per cent to 29.6 per cent in 2015. [1] Therefore, a tremendous pressure would be put on housing, sanitation, health, education and overall infrastructure in the urban areas. Majority of this vast population is extremely poor. There are more than 36 million people living in poverty (Source: CIA Fact Sheet; July-2002). The GNI per capita is 400 US dollars[2]. Thirty-six per cent of the population is living below one US dollar per day[3].

Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of illiteracy in the world. The adult literacy rate (2000) is 49 per cent (M) and 30 per cent (F)[4]. Primary school education was declared compulsory in 1991, in 1998-2002 school enrolment rate is 97 per cent (M) and 98 per cent (F).[5] Majority of the enrolled students are boys and drop out rate is extremely high. Secondary school enrolment rate is 45 per cent (M) and 49 per cent (F).[6]The Government of Bangladesh has increased its spending on education from 1.5 per cent of the total GDP in 1990 to 2.5 per cent in 2000. The education facilities are still inadequate.[7]It is estimated that 42.4 million children in Bangladesh are aged between 5 to 17 years; 7.4 million children are economically active. Forty-one per cent of this group is girls. Ninety- three per cent of the total working children are employed in the informal sector, of which 77 per cent (5.7 million) are working in the rural informal sector, while about 16 per cent (1.2 million) work in the urban informal sector. (Source- Situation of child labour in Bangladesh –ILO)

Increasing Child Labour is a core problem in Bangladesh. Factors such as increase of family dependency on Children’s earning, high demand of child labour in the labour market, inadequate access to services for the children like education, livelihood options, etc., on the other hand traditional values, norms, ethnicity, minority and practices, weak legal protection mechanisms  are contributing to the increase in child labour in Bangladesh.

According to Baseline Survey (BBS, UNICEF and DSS) it is estimate that 7.4 million children are economically active between the ages of 5-17 years and out of them 400,000 are child domestic workers (CDW) who are between the ages of 6-17 years in Bangladesh. 445,226 street based child workers are engaged in different kind of jobs in Bangladesh. A street child working time and hour is not fixed it varies from early morning to even midnight. Street based child workers are currently involved mainly in day labour such as, shop keeper, vendor, restaurant helper and vagrants (Tokai).

Children in Bangladesh face violations of children’s rights such as discrimination and various forms of abuse and exploitation. Poverty remains the single most influential factor for the degraded state of children in Bangladesh. Apart from the economic pressure to enter the workforce at such a young age, destitute children in Bangladesh do not have access to basic services such as health and nutrition, education, water and sanitation.  A number of beliefs and practices that are both harmful for children in general and highly sexist continue to be practiced because of the strong faith in cultural norms. 

It is still uncertain how many children in total are a part of the floating population living from street to street.  These children are particularly vulnerable to abuse, trafficking and being in contact with sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS. 

Children in Bangladesh are more likely to be attending school than ever before. Bangladesh invests 11.91per cent of the total budget allocation in the fiscal year of 2005-06.[8] The gender gap in primary education has narrowed considerably.  However, quality and inclusiveness are the two major issues in the education sector that hamper full realisation of children’s rights. Besides the improvement in the school attendance, the gender gap in primary school enrolment has been reduced significantly.  However, about 7 million children of primary school age are either never enrolled or they drop out before completing the full education cycle.  Most of them are from the poorest and neglected sections of the community.

Child marriage continues to be a major problem for especially girl children in today’s Bangladesh.  According to The State of the World’s Children Report 2005, between the years 1986-2003, the rate of child marriage in Bangladesh at the urban areas was 48 per cent, rural areas 70 per cent and in aggregate 65 per cent of the entire child population.

Child sexual abuse (CSA), exploitation and trafficking are severe problems in Bangladesh.  Many organisations are addressing sexual exploitation and trafficking, but few interventions have been made in addressing children affected by sexual abuse. The NPA against the child sexual abuse and exploitation of children including trafficking does address all three forms of child abuse. 

According to a World Health Organization study, 68 per cent of girls and 33 per cent of boys under the age of 18 experienced forced sexual intercourse or other forms of physical and sexual violence in 2002[9]. An estimated 1.8 million children are involved in commercial sex work in the entire world population[10]. Many are forced into it, whether they are sold into sexual slavery by desperately poor families or abducted and trafficked into brothels or other exploitative environments. Children exploited in the commercial sex industry are subjected to neglect, sexual violence and physical and psychological abuse.

Women are at greater risk of contracting HIV than men. One important explanation is physiological – women are at least twice as likely as men to become infected with HIV during sexual intercourse. The other crucial, and largely reversible, factor is social – gender discrimination denies women the negotiating power they need to reduce their risk of infection. High rates of illiteracy among women prevent them from knowing about the risks of HIV infection and possible protection strategies. The dramatic increase in infection among women heightens the risk of infection among children. Infants become infected through their mothers during pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding. In 2005, more than 2 million children aged 14 years or younger were living with HIV[11] in the world.

This is also a society where children are not culturally allowed to participate in the decision making process of their own livelihoods.  Children are seen to lack the eloquence to address issues in a political sphere.  Economic inequality has led to the inaccessibility of destitute children to communicate with policy makers.  The current government has promised to the establishment of an independent child rights commission that will act as the defender of children.