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- Published: Sunday, 14 October 2018 03:48
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The article 28(4) of the Constitution of Bangladesh reads as “Nothing in this article shall prevent the state from making special provision in favour of women or children or for the advancement of any backward section of citizens”. The National Children Policy 2011 created provisions in para 6.2.3 of as “The Social Safety Net has to be expanded to ensure the rehabilitation of all poor children and street children. Extremely poor families shall have to be brought under the net so that the children of such families do not get separated and can grow up in the family surroundings”.
Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave directives to the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and the Ministry of Social Welfare for the rehabilitation of Street Children in the inaugural ceremony of World Children Day and Child Rights Week on 11 October 2015. To fulfill the direction of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs formed two separate committees in Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation for the rehabilitation of the street children on 28/10/2015. The terms of reference of the committees are to select two wards from Dhaka North City Corporation and Dhaka South City Corporation and to make a database of the NGOs who are working on street children. The representatives from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Ministry of Social Welfare, Ministry of Housing and Public Works, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Dhaka District Administration, concerned City Corporation, NGO, Print and Electronic Media are included in the committees. Under the pilot programme, ward no 26 (Kawran Bazar, Tejtury Bazar, Tejkuni para and railway colony) of Dhaka North City Corporation and ward no 8 (Bangladesh Bank Colony, Sonali Bank Colony, R.K Mission Road Gopibagh, Kamalapur, Motijheel and Bangladesh Railway Barak) were selected.
According to the National Children Policy 2011, the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 and the Children Act, 2013 children should be considered under the age 18. Those people below the age 18 who are staying in the street day or night for their livelihood or other reason with family or without family are considered as street children. Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence Against Women conducted a preliminary survey on street children in all wards of Dhaka North City Corporation and the ward no 8 of Dhaka South City Corporation during November and December 2015. It was found in the survey that most of the street children came in Dhaka for poverty. Besides, they came in Dhaka for polygamy of their parents, death, torture by the step father of mother, landlessness, shelterless, increase family member, social insecurity and provocation by the friends, relatives, neighbors etc. Here in town, they took shelter in open space, street, under the bridge, market, park, bus station, rail station and other spaces. They are bound to prefer their profession as hawker, beggar, garbage collector, floating prostitution, hotel boy etc. They are also engaged for selling cigarette, nut and carrying drugs etc. They took food from open food shop besides the street, mobile food shop and thus most of the street children are suffered malnutrition. They are suffered by commonly diarrhea, cold fever, jaundice and other seasonal diseases. In order to rehabilitate the street children a number of shelter homes run by the government and non-government organizations have been selected in these two wards. These shelter homes provide supports for night’s stay, informal education and livelihood training to the street children.
Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence Against Women organized a consultation meeting on 13/12/2015 at the conference room of the Department of Family Planning for rehabilitation of street children. Hon’ble State Minister of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs MeherAfrozeChumki, MP was present as chief guest. Nasima Begum ndc, Secretary of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs presided over the meeting. Representatives from Government and Non-Government organizations, development partners, civil society organizations, shelter homes attended the meeting.
Recommendations to rehabilitate the street children include: (1) those people below the age 18 who are staying in the street day or night for their livelihood or other reason with family or alone are considered as street children; (2) children should not sleep in the open space/street at night and they should go to school; (3) daylong workshop should be arranged to develop the guideline for rehabilitation of street children; (4) survey should be conducted both in Dhaka North City Corporation (ward 26) and Dhaka South City Corporation (ward 8); (5) resource mapping of government, non-government and voluntary organizations in these ward will be conducted; (6) public movement activities for rehabilitation of street children will be held in the pilot area ; (7) shelter homes should be established for better rehabilitation; (8) identify the strategy of rehabilitation before their rehabilitation; (9) use of children as labour should be prohibited; (10) origin of the street children should be stopped; (11) children should be prioritized who have no parents in case of rehabilitation; (12) action plan should be formulated for the rehabilitation; (13) certain budget should be allocated for the rehabilitation; (14) central database for the street children should be developed under city corporation; (15) psychosocial counseling should be provided for their social reintegration; (16) children families should also get support according to their needs; (17) street children should be sent to the government and non-government shelter homes; (18) child friendly shelter home should be developed; (19) street children free country should be developed in a phased manner; and (20) a draft policy should be prepared for the rehabilitation of street children.