VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDRENNOT NOW NOT EVER –Mahmud Hasan Shajib

2. আপডেট হয়েছেঃ সোমবার, ১৬ মে, ২০১৬ / ৬১ পড়া হয়েছে

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world .Children under the age of 18 years account for 55.9 million, which is 43% of the total population in the county (GOB, population census, 2001). In 1990, the Government signed the convention on the rights of the child (CRC), 1989 and incorporated its rules in various national polices (Shahdeen, 2007).

Although we have the children Act, 1974 but the rate of children being killed in the country had enlarged by 62 percent in 2015 than that of the previous year, according to a statistics of Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF). Based on newspapers’ reports, the BSAF said at least 191 children were killed till July 2015, 350 in 2014, 218 in 2013 and 209 in 2012.The leading network of child rights organization articulated concern, and saying incidents of brutalities against children in different forms are rising every year. At least 968 children were killed after brutal torture from 2012 to July 2015 (The Daily star, 2015).
This year, incidents of murder, abduct, human trafficking, rape, sexual harassment and violence against children are also on the rise, the BSAF noted. Following the current horrible murders of three children, NGOs, law enforcers, rights organizations and international organizations have expressed serious distress over child abuse in Bangladesh. These are:

1. Thirteen-year-old Samiul Alam Rajon was beaten to death in Sylhet.
2. Twelve-year-old Rakib was tortured to death in Khulna, as two men inserted a high-pressure air pump nozzle into his rectum.
3. Ten -year-old Rabiul was beaten to death for “stealing fish” in Barguna.

Moreover, the body of a minor boy, aged around eight to nine years, was found in an abandoned travel bag in front of Dhaka Medical College Hospital some months ago. The boy was beaten to death, said sources at the DMC morgue after an autopsy. In recent at a conference, the NHRC chairman said that the sudden rise in the brutal killing of minors was a reflection of the existing culture of impunity and a break-down of the rule of law in the society. Fair trial would bring back people’s trust in the rule of law, he said.

However, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, declared in Article 2 and 6,: All children have these rights, no matter who they are, where they live, what their parents do, what language they speak, what their religion is, whether they are a boy or girl, what their culture is, whether they have a disability, whether they are rich or poor. No child should be treated unfairly on any basis, and you have the right to be alive (UN CRC September, 1990).
These are their fundamental rights, and universally recognized all over the world. But we can’t ensure that, we cannot save our children at all .Why we cannot save the children? This is the question of time.

List of reference:

1. GOB, Population Census 2001, (Provisional), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Dhaka, 2003, PP.322-711
2. Shahdeen Malik, Impact of state Intervention on Children in Conflict with Law, (Dhaka: Save the Children, UK), 2007.
3. The Daily star, July 2015, published from Dhaka.
4. The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC)adopted by the United Nations, General Assembly,20 November ,1989,The convention came into force on 2 September ,1990 in Bangladesh.

E-mail: shajibhasan36@yahoo.com

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