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Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children

In the first decade of the 21st Century                                             gvnet.com/streetchildren/Bangladesh.htm

People’s Republic of Bangladesh

Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth.  [The World Factbook, U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

Description: Description: Description: Bangladesh

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Bangladesh.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false.  No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE

Students

If you are looking for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular interest to you.  You might be interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how some manage to leave the street.  Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each other.  Would you like to write about market children? homeless children?  Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc.  There is a lot to the subject of Street Children.  Scan other countries as well as this one.  Draw comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions.  Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources that are available on-line.

Teachers

Check out some of the Resources for Teachers attached to this website.

*** FEATURED ARTICLES ***

Street children bear the brunt of COVID-19 pandemic

Rafiqul Islam, Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha-BSS, DHAKA, 31 Aug 2022

https://www.bssnews.net/news/79943

[accessed 29 November 2022]

The coronavirus pandemic that ravaged the society has a heavy impact on the street children of the country, exposing them to extreme poverty, insecurity and drug addiction.

“There were lockdowns. There was no movement of people. Doors of all remained shut and that was why I was just starving. Once I knocked the people’s doors looking for food, they asked me to go away as they were concerned of getting infected from the virus,” he said.

“I collect scraps from the city streets and earn money by selling those to buy food. As there were lockdowns across the country, I remained idle outside Kamlapur rail station. I had to wait for someone giving me food. Many days I did not eat anything without water during the pandemic,” he said.     

Hundreds of thousands of homeless children are living on the streets in Bangladesh, and most of them had to face the similar fate like Towhidul and Emon due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), there were over 1.5 million street children in the country in 2015, suggesting the number could rise to 1.6 million by 2024

Disease haunts lonely street children of Bangladesh

Nadeem Qadir, Agence France-Presse AFP, Dhaka, March 3, 2003

www.aegis.com/news/afp/2003/AF030303.html

[accessed 3 April 2011]

streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2003/03/03/disease-haunts-lonely-street-children-of-bangladesh/

[accessed 21 November 2016]

"I had scabies all over my body and they bled due to scratching, but I didn't have any money to go to a doctor," he said.  "I treated it with some cream I bought from a vendor, but it didn't go away."

A monster in the making

The Daily Star, 2007-09-26

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=5445

[accessed 27 December 2014]

“In reality people in our society are not much concerned about drug addiction among street children because they are kept out of sight and so are out of mind. The upper and middle income groups and the educated section of the society are not directly affected by this problem,” she said.

 “The direct impact of the problem is that by losing these children, who will soon become adolescents and teens, Bangladesh will lose a portion of her young workforce. We will lose our potential resources and they will become a national burden,” said the sociologist.

Khulna street children turning into criminals' accomplice

Staff Correspondent, The Daily Star, Khulna, 2008-06-17

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=41556

[accessed 27 December 2014]

A large number of street boys in Khulna city and nine upazilas of the district have got involved in different types of crime as criminals use them as convenient accomplices.

Poverty and wayward life of their parents, loss of shelters due to natural calamities such as floods and cyclone, drug addiction, bigamy or polygamy of parents and missing during journey from one place to another are among the factors that are responsible for a large number of street boys' get involved in crimes, says the report.

Many of these hapless street boys are being picked up by criminals for keeping arms, throwing bombs at targets, selling drugs and pilferage of food grains for small amount of money, the project manager quoted the survey report as saying.

A day in the lives of two homeless brothers in Bangladesh

Casey McCarthy, United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, DHAKA, 12 March 2009

www.unicef.org/infobycountry/bangladesh_48635.html

[accessed 3 April 2011]

The sun had not yet risen when the two boys woke up. By 4 a.m., the port on the River Buriganga here in the capital of Bangladesh was alive and bustling. The ‘bed’ where Yusef,14, and his younger brother Smaile,10, slept was made of hard wooden planks on the pier.   In a familiar routine, the brothers washed up and then walked around, looking for empty bottles to fill with fresh water that they would later sell. They started their morning by begging for food at local cafes. On a good day, the boys get some leftovers. On a bad one, they go hungry.

DETERMINED TO CREATE A BETTER LIFE - For Yusef and Smaile, lunchtime meant – as usual – begging for food. Then they returned to the harbour to look for work carrying bags or boxes. (The boys work about six hours a day, earning less than $1.) The day ended as darkness crept in. Hey returned to their ‘beds’ on the pier for a few hours’ sleep before repeating the whole process the next day.

 

*** ARCHIVES ***

ECPAT Global Monitoring Report on the status of action against commercial exploitation of children - BANGLADESH [PDF]

ECPAT 2005

www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/South_Asia/Global_Monitoring_Report-BANGLADESH.pdf

[accessed 3 April 2011]

resources.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/South_Asia/Global_Monitoring_Report-BANGLADESH.pdf

[accessed 21 November 2016]

A report published by Appropriate Resources for Improving Street Children’s Environment (Arise) in 2002, put the number of street children in Bangladesh at approximately two million and indicated that sexual exploitation of children is rampant. Little has changed to reduce these numbers and homeless children living on the streets continue to be particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation as their strategies for survival, usually as rag pickers, beggars or peddlers, renders them vulnerable to all forms of exploitation and abuse. In the precarious and dangerous conditions in which they exist, they are sometimes forced into offering sexual favors to meet basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing. A 2005 research study conducted by the NGO Aparajeyo-Bangladesh (AB), cited several forms of sexual exploitation on the streets: it reported that children are coerced into massaging adultsand are forced to engage in sexual activities in market places, parks, railway stations, and boat and bus terminals. Some pimps use city hotels or rented private flats in certain parts of the city for sexual exploitation. Men involved in small businesses such as operators/vendors (36%), beggars and day labourers (17.2%), as well as the police and security guards (9.6%), were among the largest groups of sexual exploiters of street children. Others include relatives, transport workers, employers, and strangers. The study noted that among the key contributing factors that drove children into situations of exploitation were poverty, hunger, the need to earn money, sexual abuse by employers, family members or other men and the threat and force by pimps and others in their environment.

The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/bangladesh.htm

[accessed 21 January 2011]

INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are also often found working in a variety of potentially hazardous occupations and sectors, including bidi (hand-rolled cigarette) factories, construction, leather tanneries, fisheries, automobile repair, welding, bangle-making, rickshaw-pulling, matches manufacturing, brick-breaking, book binding, and the garment industry.  In urban areas many children work as domestic servants, porters, and street vendors, and are vulnerable to sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation.  In addition, many children are also reported to be involved with criminal gangs engaged in arms and drug trading and smuggling.

Human Rights Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61705.htm

[accessed 6 February 2020]

CHILDREN - 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..

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 30 September 2003

www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/bangladesh2003.html

[accessed 21 January 2011]

[75] The Committee notes the efforts undertaken by the State party to provide children living or working on the streets with access to health services and education.  However, the Committee is concerned at the large population of children living or working on the streets and at the extremely difficult conditions under which this very marginalized group is living, and at the lack of sustained efforts to address this phenomenon.  The Committee is further concerned at the incidence of violence, including sexual abuse and physical brutality, directed at these children by police officers.

Theatre for unprivileged, tribal children

The New Nation, Dhaka India, May 15, 2009

www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-199890676.html

[partially accessed 3 April 2011 - access restricted]

There are children belonging to very poor families who are deprived and unprivileged and sometime marginalised. Among them there are street children without parents, home or any type of shelter. There are slum children living in the street side or by the side of rail line. These children begin each of the days with the tension of collecting foods. In which age, they should go to school; they have to go in search of livelihood. They have to work hard till the night. Even sometime they have to be involved in different types of risky jobs, which are threats to their lives. While growing up, these children usually experience severe malnutrition, social repugnance and considerable vulnerability. As a result, they often grow hostility, hatred and distrust towards the society. This hatred and distrust draw these naive children toward criminal activities and thus play the most effective role in tainting the society.

Sufferings of our children

Sadika Akhter, The Daily Star, April 22, 2009

www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=85028

[accessed 3 April 2011]

Fatema, who is 9 years old, works at Rampura kacha bazaar. She collects fish from the fish market and sells them to earn money. The men who work in the market treat the children shoddily and inhumanly. The child was crying and saying to me: "I went to the bazaar to collect fish apa, the shopkeeper poured ice-water (thanda borof ar pani dale dicche) on me and slapped me. I could not collect any fish. What will I eat today apa?" I could not answer her question.

Lovely is a ten-year old child. She left her house two years ago. Her father used to beat her mother and as a child she could not bear the pain. She left her house, came to Dhaka by launch and got lost in this big city. She stayed for one week in Kamalapur rail station without any food. The policemen used to beat her. After seven days of starvation, she got some food that was thrown out from a hotel. She met a man who brought her to the drop in centre.

City's hapless street children

Raihan Sabuktagin, The Daily Star, 2008-12-07

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=66400

[accessed 3 April 2011]

Street children are found in bazaars, commercial areas, bus terminals, hotels and parks, on the pavements, around the stadium. They try to earn a living through collecting garbage, breaking bricks or pushing rickshaws. Some of them work in roadside tea stalls while some are just beggars. Some street children are involved in petty crime.   The underworld gangs use the street children in drug peddling, snatching, toll collection and other crimes.   Dr MSI Mullick, an associate professor of psychiatry at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, says children growing up in deprivation are accustomed to extreme behaviours, primarily because of inferiority complex. “You cannot expect good behaviour from a person who have not been treated well by others, can you?”

Living a life of Sisiphus

Durdana Ghias, The Daily Star, 2008-09-10

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=54086

[accessed 3 April 2011]

Rubel was pushing a rickshaw full of sacks and a man was sitting on the sacks. Though 12 years old the malnourished boy looked not more than 10 years of age.  A dozen other kids were doing the same type of jobs. They were helping the vehicles to climb the ramp of a bridge.  Scores of people and non-motorised vehicles like rickshaws and rickshaw vans cross the Lohar Bridge every day at Kamrangirchar, one of the vital links connecting the char with the city.  It is really astounding to see how these little boys manage to push the heavily loaded rickshaws and vans all the day just for Tk 2 per vehicle.

Most of the children were thin and wiry and looked tiny than their actual age. They work from the crack of the dawn till midnight. Some of them do it because they have to support their families. Some do it because they want to earn for themselves and spend on whatever things they want to including drugs.  "I push rickshaws because I don't have any other work to do," said Rubel while pushing the rickshaw in the sweltering heat.  He gets around Tk 100 daily by pushing rickshaws and rickshaw vans from seven in the morning to two in the afternoon.  Asked what he does with the money Rubel said he gives the money to his mother to support his family of four that his rickshaw puller father cannot run.

Save the young offenders

nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/08/19/news0200.htm

[Last access date unavailable]

Being deprived from education and proper care those children loose their sense of right and wrong. Peer influence also play a big role in leading them astry. Growing number of street children pose a threat to the society. Teenager criminals are feared to be more desperate. Due to adventurism characteristic of young age, they will not hesitate to commit crimes without the slightest thought of their own safety.

Health scheme for street children

Md Rajib Hossain, The Daily Star, 2008-08-09

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=49585

[accessed 3 April 2011]

Kalam does not know his identity. He cannot remember his parents, not even have any near and dear ones. He was born and grown up on a road at Hazaribag in the city. The 10 years old boy feels his mother most whenever he becomes sick. During his sickness in last month, he was crying by the name of mother on the roadside. He could not go to a hospital with his very little money or could not buy his own food or any medicine. Nobody paid attention to him.

Kalam’s mental and physical agony was culminating thinking the fate of one of his peers who died untreated after suffering from this sort of fever. He left on the roadside with high fever, chill, rigor and repeated convulsions. After 3 days, one kind passerby did notice and admitted him into the Mitford Hospital with his own money.

Kalam’s story depicts more than 200,000 street children floating in Dhaka metropolitan area. Statistics say the terrible thing regarding health status of street children. More than 73 percent of street children in the city are victims of physical, mental abuse and suffering from various degrees of malnutrition. Street children across the country are out of healthcare facilities.

Challenging task of birth registration

Shahnaz Parveen, The Daily Star, 2008-06-30

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=43440

[accessed 3 April 2011]

Field level workers of the project working closely with the street children said that collecting information about street children is extremely challenging.  “Most of the street children without parents or lost children who ended up on the streets do not know anything about their age or the place they were born. The runaway kids usually refrain from giving the right information,” pointed out Ashrafun Nahar Rainy, in-charge, Drop-in-Centre of Assistance for Slum Dwellers, one of the partner NGOs.  “Many street children who have parents are also ignorant about their birth year or date. Even their parents do not know anything. It becomes quite hard for us to gather information when the situation is like this,” she added.  Rainy also mentioned that often it becomes difficult to gain their trust in the first place. These children move from one place to another, making it hard to trace them. Unwanted newborns and lost toddlers found in the streets are the most challenging to work with.

Educating street children

Niaz Ahmed Khan, The Daily Star, 2008-06-26

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=42820

[accessed 4 April 2011]

Government statistics, based on a survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, estimate the number of street children in Bangladesh to be around 380,000 -- of whom 55% are in Dhaka city. A little less than half of them (49.2%) are of the age group < 10 years, while the remaining fall in the age group of 11-19 years. Their gender composition is as follows: boys 74.3%, while girls account for 25.7%. The above report estimates that by 2014 the number of such children would exceed 930,000.

The major problems of street children are: Insecure life; physical and sexual abuse by adults of the immediate community; harassment by law enforcing agencies; no, or inadequate, access to educational institutions and healthcare facilities; and lack of decent employment opportunity.

Rehabilitation of street children emphasised

nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/05/26/news0667.htm

[Last access date unavailable]

Liton, a 12-year old boy sells betel leaves in a park and lives with his distant aunt and her son in a slum at city's Tejgaon area.  His father is no more and his mother died when he was minor. He used to live with her grand-mother initially and then moved to his aunt, previously known to her late mother. His aunt, abandoned by her husband, earns her livelihood begging.  Like his aunt, Liton also begs along with selling betel leaves.

His companion Roni is a nine year old boy, who lives in the same slum with his mother, crippled father and a four-year old sister. Roni's father was a rickshaw puller and sustained injuries in a road accident that left his parents beg door to door.

Eight year old Moyna sells rejected flowers from Shahbagh area to the nearby campus. She stays with a floating family at the High court area. She lives with her grandmother and aunt following deaths of her parents died at her early age. Abandoned by their husbands, both her grandmother and aunt are beggars.

Although Liton, Roni and Moyna seem to earn some money by selling flowers, water and collecting thrown away papers, their main earnings are from asking alms from the passerby.

Street dwellers lack access to healthcare services

Staff Correspondent, The Daily Star, Street dwellers lack access to healthcare services Reveals ICDDR,B study, 2008-05-15

thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=36629

[accessed 27 December 2014]

Street dwellers in the city are extremely vulnerable in terms of their health needs, hygiene and utilisation of healthcare services and this marginalised group is neglected by public and private sectors, a study conducted by Institute of Cholera and Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) revealed yesterday.

It is found that most of the street dwellers have been suffering from diseases of respiratory and digestive system, weakness, severe pain and scabies.

Zooming in on people living on the fringes of society

Ahsan Habib, The Daily Star, Vol. 5 Num 1097, July 02, 2007

archive.thedailystar.net/2007/07/02/d707021401151.htm

[accessed 8 Aug  2013]

Another noteworthy film by Nipa was a series of five documentaries on street children in Dhaka. Chena Mukh Ochena Chobi 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. Nipa explores the reason behind their addiction, their background and their likely future, in the documentaries.

Too little to raise hope

Raihan Sabuktagin, The Daily Star, Vol. 5 Num 1096, July 01, 2007

archive.thedailystar.net/2007/07/01/d707012502115.htm

[accessed 8 Aug  2013]

According to U M Habibun Nesa, head of the child protection programme of Save the Children UK, the underprivileged vagrant children are 'socially disabled' and they could otherwise be assets of the society.

"While growing up, these children usually experience severe malnutrition, social repugnance and considerable vulnerability. As a result, they often grow hostility, hatred and distrust towards the society. This hatred and distrust draw these naďve children toward criminal activities -- tainting the society in the process," said Habibun Nesa.

"With rapid increase in the number of vagrant population and if the present situation continues, it will be a social disaster in the near future," she added.

Call for adequate budget allocation for street children

Bss, Dhaka, The Daily Star, Vol. 5 Num 1075, June 10, 2007

archive.thedailystar.net/2007/06/10/d70610060273.htm

[accessed 8 Aug  2013]

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", Ratan Sarker said, quoting the report of government's Arise Project 2002 and the United Nations.

Ensuring child rights

Md. Sazedul Islam, PID-UNICEF Feature, 24 Jan 2007

streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/01/24/ensuring-child-rights/

[accessed 16 January 2017]

Nasima 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.

Nasima, 15, 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.

Bangladeshi president postpones election and imposes state of emergency

Jake Skeers, World Socialist Web Site, 2007-01-16

www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/4150

[accessed 4 April 2011]

Another indicator is the increased use of child labour. A survey conducted by UNICEF and the Bangladesh Ministry of Labor and Manpower released in 2004 found that there are 7 million child workers in Bangladesh, including a large number in hazardous industries. One fifth of the total workforce consists of children aged 15 or under.

The BBS and International Labor Organisation surveyed children aged 5 to 17 working in the five worst industries: welding, auto workshops, road transport, battery recharging and recycling; and street children. It found that 149,000 children in these sectors worked an average of nine hours a day. The majority of those questioned said they worked six or seven days a week for little or no wages. Children recharging and filling batteries had an average monthly wage of 313 taka ($US5.30). Street children earned an average monthly wage of just 288 taka ($US4.85) by collecting old paper, street selling, shining shoes, portering or begging. Those in the transport sector received an average 1,417 taka ($US24) a month.

Blockade forces street children into begging

Mahbuba Zannat, November 25, 2006

streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/11/25/blockade-forces-street-children-into-begging/

[accessed 16 January 2017]

Street children, who collect recyclable goods from the streets to make a living, were forced into begging as the streets were the arena for political violence over the past weeks.  Due to increased police vigilance over the opposition blockade programme, these homeless children were also subjected to police abuse and repression.

"Whenever I go out to collect bhangari (recyclable goods) with a sack on my back the police beat me up suspecting that there are cocktails or other explosives in the sack," said Rana, a 12-year-old boy who has left home to live with other street children at Paltan in the city.  "As I cannot go out for work I use to beg money from people and sometime beg food from shop owners and hotel workers," he said.

UNESCO: Street Children - Bangladesh

UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO Bangkok, Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All

www.unescobkk.org/index.php?id=3371

[accessed 4 April 2011]

The Consortium of Street Children feels that the inexperience of the Bangladeshi government in dealing with street children and their tendency to mix the characteristics of disadvantaged children with street children has however resulted in the design and implementation of costly, improper, and ineffective methodologies. The number of street children in Bangladesh continues to rise and it has become clear that current programmes are inadequate and are failing to successfully address this issue.

Fears for Bangladeshi street kids

Children's BBC News, August 07 2006

news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_5250000/newsid_5253300/5253324.stm

[accessed 4 April 2011]

Latest figures show there are now 670,000 homeless children living there, a third more than there were in 2000

Rippon 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."

Concern over sexual exploitation of street children

The Daily Star Vol 5 Num 743, June 30, 2006

archive.thedailystar.net/2006/06/30/d60630060291.htm

[accessed 16 January 2017]

Child rights activists yesterday expressed 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 victimisation 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.

Plight of Bangladeshi street children worsens as targets fail

Deutsche Presse-Agentur (German Press Agency) DPA, Dhaka, May 6, 2006

This article has been archived by World Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible there

[accessed 4 April 2011]

The plight of hundreds of thousands of street children in Bangladesh has worsened in the last five years as their numbers increase and efforts to rehabilitate them fall far short of targets, reports said on Saturday.

A survey carried out by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, an autonomous think tank, revealed that the number of street children across the country soared to 674,000 in 2005, up by over 244,000 from 2000.

Street children continue to be victims of abuse

Mahbuba Zannat, April 26, 2006

archive.thedailystar.net/2006/04/26/d604262503131.htm

[accessed 16 January 2017]

Even the boys are not safe in the streets. According to a survey conducted by Incidin Bangladesh on 100 street boys between seven and 12 years at Kamalapur last year, it was found that at least 94 percent children were victims of molestation.

Ground-breaking surveys expose plight of Bangladesh's working children

International Labour Organization ILO News, Bangkok, 7 June 2004

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 21 September 2011]

The most detailed picture ever compiled of the conditions endured by Bangladesh’s most disadvantaged children - those working in what are classified as the worst forms of child labor – has revealed that many are working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, sometimes for only food and a bed.  The youngest economically active children surveyed were the street children. On average they started their first job aged just seven; a quarter of those interviewed were aged under 11 and 73 per cent under 14.

Bangladesh street children face bleak future

BBC News, 15 February, 2002

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1822200.stm

[accessed 4 April 2011]

Every morning as the sun rises a host of children walk across this vast mound of rotting rubbish scavenging for used plastic water bottles or similar rubbish.  They can sell these items for a paltry fee to a second-hand shop that operates on the outskirts of the dump.  There are least 20 children who live in the dump.

Bangladesh facing street children problem

BBC News, 15 January, 2002

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1762172.stm

[accessed 4 April 2011]

They face a daily routine of exploitation and violence and like other street children in the world often end up in a life of crime.  The report says it is impossible to calculate exactly how many street children there are in total, but it is generally thought to be approaching two million.

Street Children Suffer Sexual Abuse

Qurratul Ain Tahmina, Inter Press Service News Agency IPS, Dhaka, November 12, 2001

www.aegis.com/news/ips/2001/IP011104.html

[accessed 4 April 2011]

"These men can easily lure the children with food, money and kind words and eventually abuse them sexually. This happens to boys and girls equally," he says.  Homosexual practices, too, are very high among the boys."

Information about Street Children - Bangladesh [DOC]

This report is taken from “A Civil Society Forum for South Asia on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Street Children”, 12- 14 December 2001, Colombo, Sri Lanka

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 21 September 2011]

Estimated number of street children in Bangladesh: 445,226 (of which 75% are in Dhaka city); 53% boys, 47% girls (Sept 2001 survey).  All categories of street children are called Tokai (rag pickers) by the general public, although they may be engaged in a range of petty trading / employment / criminal activities. Average daily income of street children is approx. USD $0.55.

Street and Working Children in Bangladesh

Fakrul Islam, Child Workers in Asia CWA Newsletter, Vol. 11 , no. 2-3 (Apr.-Sep. 1995)

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 21 September 2011]

In Bangladesh, urban working children either live on the street or in overcrowded slum and squatter settlements. According to Abu Taher (1991), there are 400,000 children under the age of 15 working in urban areas, which is 12 per cent of the total urban labor force. The work in industry, transport, commerce, domestic service, metal & leather factories, construction and in garment factories.

Street Children Can Be Made Into Social Assets

The New Age, April 17 2004

bangladesh-web.com/view.php?hidType=TOP&hidRecord=0000000000000000006206

[accessed 4 April 2011]

streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2004/04/17/street-children-can-be-made-into-social-assets/

[accessed 21 November 2016]

Pakhi is now living a decent life, having being given some education. She works at a data entry firm and earns an adequate amount of money.  “I am confident and believe I can do many things like others who are from the privileged section of the society”.

Street Girls Find a Safe Place

World Vision New Zealand

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 21 September 2011]

When 11-year-old Moina Akter fled her village home in the Chandpur District and hopped on a bus to Dhaka at the beginning of this year, she had no idea what life would hold for her there.

CSKS - A Street Children Program in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Cinnamul-Shishu Kishore Sangstha CSKS, Dhaka

At one time this article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 21 September 2011]

The approach of CSKS is based on the philosophy that helping street children requires offering them choices within their environment and assisting them to make their own decisions, which will in time lead away from the street.  The mistaken belief that rescuing street children involves removing them from the street as quickly as possible often does more harm than good, resulting in failed rehabilitation and a return to the street.

Experimenting With New Ideas: IDF and Padakhep

Zain Bari, Grameen Dialogue, Issue 60, January 2005

www.grameen-info.org/dialogue/Dialogue60/Bangladesh.html

[accessed 4 April 2011]

STREET CHILDREN GET A NEW LEASE ON LIFE - In a program started in 1998 in Mirpur and Mohammadpur areas of Dhaka, about 2,000 youth, both male and female between the ages of 11 to 18 are organized into peer groups of 15-20. Weekly group meetings are organized at the project office, satellite centers and concentration points of the street children. Issues such as social problems, STD/HIV/AIDS, personal hygiene, savings and credit management are addressed in these meetings.

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