Our Story

OUR STORY
Child Led Alternative Report
promoting human rights and good governance
OUR STORY
Child Led Alternative Report
on Child Rights Situation in Bangladesh In Response to Fifth State Party Report, Bangladesh
March 2013
promoting human rights and good governance
Report writing team: 20 Core Committee Members of National Children's Task Force (NCTF) Research team: 336 Child Researchers (NCTF Members) Associate team members: 10 Youth Volunteers (Graduated NCTF members) Facilitated by: Birgit Lundbak, Director- Child Rights Governance (CRG) Sultan Mahmud, Program Director- Child Rights and Participation, CRG Naznin Akter Banu, Specialist- Research and Publication, CRG Language editing: Hifzur Rahman, Communication/Documentation Specialist Victoria Clancy, Program Officer, CRG Nasima Begum, Project Officer, Training, CRG Published by: Child Rights Governance Program Save the Children in Bangladesh House-CWN (A) 35, Road-43, Gulshan-2, Dhaka- 1212 Supported by: Manusher Jonno Foundation Plan Bangladesh Save the Children
Cover Design & Printing: Color Line | 01715 812345
ISBN: 978-984-33-7371-7
Preface
National Children's Task Force (NCTF) is a national children organization, recognized by the Bangladesh Government, it is organized and run by the children and it is an organization to represent children. It started its journey from 2003 and its work covers the 64 districts of Bangladesh. The members of NCTF are 10-12 years of age and the members of the NCTF are around 20,000 (almost equally represented by the girls and boys). Since 2006 the District office of Shishu Academy under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoCWA) has been used as a secretariat of NCTF. MoWCA issued a circular on 27 February 2012 to incorporate a member from each district NCTF in the district Child Rights Forum as recognition of NCTF's remarkable work and its continuous success at national and local level. We are thankful to MoWCA and Bangladesh Shishu Academy for extending their support to NCTF activities at District level.
NCTF began a project throughout the country to formulate an Alternative Report under the Project Our Reports Towards Our Bangladesh (ORTOB) from 2009. Under the project, training had been given to the 256 Child Researchers from 64 Districts (2 girls and 2 boys from each district) in cooperation with Manusher Jonno Foundation, Plan Bangladesh and Save the Children. The Child Researchers collected information on the child rights situation in their own area in light of United Nations Concluding Observations on the selected 5 clusters of child rights. At the same time, 80 Child Facilitators comprising of 20 groups of children from socially disadvantaged communities (e.g. child labor, children from indigenous, Dalit and Bede communities, children of sex workers, street children, children from Haors and Char land, children from Aila and Sidr affected areas) collected information on the child rights situation through group discussions with the children of their areas. We have prepared the Alternative Report on child rights for the first time based on our step by step observations and the information collected on child rights. Based on the collected information of the Child Researchers of the last three and half years (July 2010 to 2012) we have published 4 issues of child rights affairs compiled in the report Our Story. This publication shows the child rights situation of Bangladesh. The main basis of the Child Led Alternative Report is the Our Story book. I would like to thank all Child Researchers and also recognize their contributions to make our work possible by collecting data from national and local levels for the last three and half years. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of the 10, trained and experienced young volunteers who contributed to prepare the report by compiling the collected data, editing and selecting the stories collected by the Child Researchers. I would like to acknowledge the contribution of partner NGOs, who actually helped us to connect with the children of marginalized communities. Thanks to the members of CPM and NCP who directly involved with our activity and contributed to the report by collecting information. I would like to acknowledge the staff
members who provided technical support to NCTF activities. Thanks to Manusher Jonno Foundation, Plan Bangladesh and Save the Children for providing financial and technical support for the whole project. Being the President of NCTF Central Committee, I am delighted to share the background and context of our first Alternative Report on Child Rights of Bangladesh. I would like to say that if children get the opportunity, cooperation and inspiration, they can do big things for the society. If they get cooperation, they can express their voices collectively. The Alternative Report can be seen as a proof of that kind of effort. Finally, I would like to thank all of the NCTF Members who directly or indirectly contributed to our report.
Foyez Belal President NCTF, Central Committee
ACRONYMS
ASK BILS BNWLA BSMMU CPM DMCH FGD GoB HSC ILO MDG MoWCA NCP NCTF NGO OCC ORTOB PCAR RAB SSC STD TT TV UN UNICEF UP Ain O Shalish Kendro Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies Bangladesh Women's Lawyers Association Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Child Protection Movement Dhaka Medical College and Hospital Focus Group Discussion Government of Bangladesh Higher Secondary Education International Labor Organization Millennium Development Goal Ministry of Women and Children Affairs National Children's Panel National Children's Task Force Non Government Organization One Stop Crisis Center Our Reports Towards Our Bangladesh Protection of Children at Risk Rapid Action Battalion Secondary School Certificate Sexually Transmitted Diseases Tetanus vaccine Television United Nations United Nations Children's Fund Union Parishad
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SL. Contents Process of Data Collection and Reporting Methodology 01 Civil Rights and Freedoms 1.1 Birth registration 1.2 Physical punishment 02 Family Environment and Alternative Care 2.1 Children separated from parents 2.2 Abuse and neglect, including physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration 03 Basic Health and Child Welfare 3.1 Early and forced marriages 3.2 Drug abuse 3.3 Children with disability 3.4 Unnatural child mortality 3.5 Injured child and sickness 3.6 Road accident 3.7 Neo-natal and mother care, and overall nutrition situation 3.8 Health and health services 3.9 Reproductive health rights of adolescents 04 Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities 4.1 Education system and quality of education 4.2 Drop out of the children from schools 4.3 Material of education and infrastructure 4.4 Length of compulsory primary education 4.5 Mistreatment of children 4.6 Rest, play, leisure, recreation and cultural and artistic activities 05 Special Safety Measures 5.1 Economic exploitation, including child labor 5.2 Street children 5.3 Sexual exploitation and abuse 5.4 Sale of children and trafficking 5.5 Arrest, detention and imprisonment of children and juvenile justice Special Comment 55 58 59 60 61 62 43 43 46 47 48 50 25 28 29 32 32 33 34 37 38 19 20 13 14 Page 9
PROCESS OF DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING METHODOLOGY

The Child Led Alternative Report 2012 on the Child Rights Situation of Bangladesh has been prepared using the following process: The National Children's Task Force (NCTF)1 began a program throughout the country to formulate an Alternative Report under the project titled Our Report Towards Our Bangladesh ORTOB. 256 Child Researchers from 64 Districts (2 girls and 2 boys from each district) received training under the program and subsequently collected information on the child rights situation in their own area. To supplement the information from each of the 64 Districts, 80 Child Facilitators representing 20 groups of children from socially disadvantaged communities such as child laborers, indigenous children, Dalit2, Bede (gypsies) communities, children of sex workers, street children, children from Haors3 and Char land, and children from Aila and Sidr devastated areas also collected information on the child rights situation by conducting group discussions with children in their communities. The Child Researchers selected 5 of the 8 clusters of child rights that were incorporated in the Fifth State Party Periodic Report.The Child Researchers collected data on a total of 23 sub themes under the selected 5 clusters. Children used various methods to collect data and information including collecting reports about child rights published in local and national newspapers, Case Studies, Story Writing, Group Discussions, and Focus Group Discussions. 10 young volunteers (over 18 years old and involved with related projects of Save the Children) were involved centrally and collected reports about child rights from the 6 national newspaper dailies. Central volunteers gathered the data and information from all NCTF Child Researchers and Child Facilitators and prepared 4 issues of 'Our Story', a book with stories and information about child rights. 20 children were selected (2 children from Child Protection Movement, 2 from National Children's Panel and 16 from the NCTF Core Committee) to prepare the preliminary draft of the Alternative Report. Children prepared the first draft of the report through two intensive workshops during December 2012 and January 2013. The report also incorporated data from other organizations (i.e. BNWLA, World Vision) that work with children and are involved with child rights issues. The children shared the report in a workshop with other organizations in Dhaka during March 2013. The children collected and incorporated the recommendations of the workshop participants to strengthen the final Report.
1.
2. 3.
NCTF is a national children organization, recognized by the Bangladesh Government, it is organized and run by the children and it is an organization to represent the children. It started its journey from 2003 and now the members of the NCTF are about 20,000 (equally represented by the girls and boys). Former members of Child Protection Movement (CPM) of Save the Children Sweden Denmark and National Children's Panel (NCP) of Save the Children UK are the members of the NCTF. CPM's activity had been covered Upazillas and wards of 27 districts and the number of members was 329. NCP had 10.000 members 10-16 years old and their activity covered 8 districts. Dalit is a designation for a group of people traditionally regarded as untouchable. Dalits are a mixed population, consisting of numerous social groups from all over South Asia. Haor is a wetland ecosystem in the North Eastern part of Bangladesh.
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Civil Rights and Freedoms
1.1 Birth registration The United Nations' Concluding Observation 2009 recommended that birth registration for all children should be ensured. The Fifth State Party Report submitted by the Government of Bangladesh stated that as of March 2012 the coverage of birth registration was 98.91%. Our household survey conducted by child researchers revealed that 57% of children interviewed said that their birth had been registered. A significant finding of the survey is that children are being admitted in some public and private schools without showing their birth registration certificate and 37% children who participated in the survey did not require any birth certificate for admission to school.
Significant problems encountered in collecting birth certificate were axcess charge and/or cost, difficulty in getting the signature of the Chairman, and the time it takes to complete the process.
Problems encountered in collecting birth certificates include excess charge and/or cost, difficulty in getting the signature of the Chairman of Union Parishad4, the time it takes to complete the process, and issues with the brokers providing the birth certificates. According to the survey, many families had to pay between 50 to 200 Taka for birth registration to the authorities and payment of large sums of up to 1,200 Taka were recorded. (Our Story, January-June 2012). Many children who participated in the survey do not know whether their birth has been registered. For example, many children in contact with the legal system did not know whether their birth has been registered. The Concluding Observations recommended the establishment of an electronic mobile birth registration system but this is yet to be implemented. A Government of Bangladesh (GoB) report outlined that arrangements would be taken to ensure birth registration in the hard to reach areas of the country but it should be noted that the number of children living in Char areas whose birth has been registered is very low as the mobile registration system has not yet commenced and schools do not require presentation of the registration certificate during the admission of children. The low prevalence of birth registration of indigenous children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is due to language barriers and an inadequate transportation system in the hill areas. Child domestic laborers are often not registered because there is no system of tracking where they live and work and monitoring their movements. Street children are also left out of the birth registration system and there have been no steps taken by the GoB to address the issue and ensure those children most hard to reach are covered. (Our Story, January-June 2012). This inability to ensure the birth registration of hard to reach children extends to those living in Haor areas5, tea gardens, gypsies (Bede), children in the Geneva camp, children
4. 5. Char means land disconnected from the mainland by rivers. These lands are highly disconnected and the river route is the only route. Severe cyclonic storm
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of sex workers, children living in slums, children living in disaster prone areas and also the children of the fishing communities. According to our survey it has been revealed that many children of the gypsy community (Bede) do not have a birth registration certificate. For example, 91 children participated in a FGD (Focus Group Discussion) 65 of whom were birth registered and 26 of whom had not been registered, all of the 26 not registered were from gypsy families. We were informed that the Union Parishad6 or the Municipalities do not want to provide birth registration certificates to Gypsy children (Our Story, January-June 2012). According to our survey, most of the working children had said that they did not have to show any birth certificate when being employed (Our Story, January-June 2012). It has been mentioned in the Concluding Observations that children without birth certificates should also be provided with all social services. But, the GoB Fifth State Party Periodic Report did not provide any information with regard to this observation. RECOMMENDATIONS ? Submission of Birth Registration Certificate should be mandatory during admission at all Primary Schools. ? All employers should be required to have a copy of the Birth Registration Certificate of all children who work for them. ? A mobile birth registration system needs to be established as quickly as possible. 1.2 Physical punishment The Concluding Observations recommended enforcing law and order and ensuring that perpetrators are punished under law. Other recommendations included raising awareness within families, schools, work places and other organizations about the negative effects of physical punishment, and A Head Teacher of the Rajapur School of the District increased training for Jhalakathi has beaten a student of SSC for disobedience and teachers. The State Party one of the students' hands was broken due to the beating. The Report outlined that the student said the teacher began beating by a stick. I fell at his GoB has issued a strict feet and said, Sir, it is my mistake, please forgive me. But, he o r d e r f o r p hy s i c a l did not listen to me. He broke my hand by beating me with that stick.The doctor said it required an operation. But how punishment to be could I write with a broken hand? (Our Story, January-June eliminated from schools.
2012, Page-24).
However, despite of the Government issuing a strict order to stop physical punishment, our findings show that the practice continues. Physical punishment still
One Madrasah student also mentioned the physical punishment he had suffered...he was beaten mercilessly, and was given less rice than what he was supposed to be given and he was kept standing under the scorching sun for one hour. This is happening to children in the Madrasahs regularly.(Sheikh Ehsan Kabir, Child Researcher, Jessore, Our Story, Page 24, January-June 2012).
6.
Lowest tier of the local Government of Bangladesh
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exists in schools and although teacher training had been recommended as a means of preventing physical punishment, this training is not well organized. Moreover, there is a lack of monitoring by the Government. Here we have mentioned the scenario of physical punishment, which we have received through case studies, group discussions and analysis of the news published in the national and local daily newspapers collected by our team. In a group discussion, 28 child participants mentioned that none of them faced any type of physical punishment in their family in last 6 months. However, many said that they have suffered different types of humiliation and punishment at school during the last 2 - 3 months.
During a group discussion a child informed us that the head teacher of our school beat a student so mercilessly that he fainted. The children also told, Many students left school and began working in garment factories, as they could not bear the humiliation of the teachers. Teachers throw the sticks and canes through the window when the Education Officers come on to the school for inspection. Participants of the discussion did not see any significant activities in their areas to advocate against the use of physical punishment in schools (Our Story, January-June 2012). A Child Researcher of Chapai Nawabganj wrote a story, which he had heard from his friend, If the students of the Polytechnic School can not respond to the class work or get up to any mischief then they are beaten by the teachers so badly it leaves a scar on their body. There are some teachers who do not adhere to the Government order at all. A Child Researcher of Jessore sent us a case study, which states, One of our teacher said that I will definitely beat you up if you do not study properly, you can do anything, if necessary I will quit the job but wouldn't listen to this Government order (Our Story, July-December 2011)
In our researches, it emerged that the lack of awareness among teachers is the root cause for physical punishment in schools. Students mentioned that non-completion of tasks, being naughty, and talking during lessons are the types of activities for which students receive punishment. The types of punishment include beating the students by cane stick, scale, dusters or by hand, grabbing the students' ears and using insulting words, and other types of physical punishment. Students often drop out of school when the punishment is severe or becomes unbearable. We were unable to find any information regarding the reprimand of teachers and others who use physical punishment in the school environment. Both teachers and students subject 'Untouchables' and children with a disability to physical torture. Our research reveals that disabled students are being tortured even in their special schools and as such, their guardians are reluctant to send them to those schools (Our Story, January-June 2012). Children are not only victims of physical punishment in schools or in families. Child domestic helpers suffer from physical punishments as do children who reside at Children Homes (Shishu Paribar) and adolescent development centers.
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RECOMMENDATIONS ? The recommendations made in the Concluding Observations to the Government of Bangladesh to stop physical punishment in schools should be taken. This should be considered as highly important and be implemented as quickly as possible. ? The Government needs to formulate laws and implement them appropriately to stop physical punishment in schools.This should include children who attend Madrasah's and pay special regard to children with a disability and working children. ? The GoB circulated a Government order against physical punishment but this needs to be implemented. Punishment of offenders should be enforced. ? The GoB needs to develop effective promotional material and campaigns outlining the negative effects of physical punishment on children.This information needs to be disseminated to all citizens in a manner that is easy to understand and provides clear details of the illegality of physical abuse of children. ? Corporal punishment still being used in the Shishu Paribar (Child Home) and Adolescent Development Centers. The GoB needs to monitor these institutions and offenders need to be punished.
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Family Environment and Alternative Care
2.1 Children living outside of the family

Among the major recommendations of the Concluding Observations with regard to children living outside of the family environment are that steps need to taken so that the children can go back to their families as soon as possible if this is the best option for the child. There needs to be enhanced activities to increase alternative care for children; surveys need to be conducted to evaluate the situation of the children living outside the family environment; social service organizations need to ensure projects establish a familial environment for children, training for workers of service organizations should be conducted, and there should be a facility in all institutions where children can lodge complaints and give feedback. The GoB Report outlined efforts to establish different organizations such as Baby Home, Day-Care Center, and Rehabilitation Centers for marginalized girl children. Most of these existing organizations are surviving through either project-based or pilotbased approaches. Beside this, still no permanent organizations has yet established to provide these types of services. The GoB Report made no mention about the monitoring
Out of 500 respondents living in Government, non-Government, and independently run shelter homes, 330 children said that they have suffered physical and mental torture at different times. According to the information gathered for Our Story, children living in shelters (orphanages) are used as workers to carry out heavy duties and other tasks. These children also suffer physical and mental torture if they do not perform these tasks properly. Children living in these facilities do not have any opportunity to complain or provide feedback. According to research conducted by the Child Protection Movement, children living in shelters do not feel like they are able to tell people about their suffering. 220 of 500 children said that they could not tell anybody about their problems. Children told that they live in total uncertainty about their future. Disabled children also live in these shelters, but they do not get any special care, opportunities or a specialized service for them (Child Protection Movement Report 2012).
process of the quality of services provided in these organizations. The Concluding Observations stated that necessary steps need to be taken so children can go back to their families from such organizations if it is in the best interest of the child. According to the information gathered by Child Researchers, the Government does not have any information as to whether children living in shelters are receiving appropriate services and whether they are returning to live with their families. Children living in shelters and outside of the family environment suffer different kinds of physical and mental abuse. Not receiving food on time, physical and mental punishment, and conditions within the organizations are major problems. (Our Story, January-June 2012). A report produced by the Child Protection Movement (CPM) mentioned that children living in Government, non-Government, and independent shelter homes are often not even receiving the expected standards of minimum care.
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Of 2,000 street children respondents (700 girl and 1300 boys) 1,500 did not have parents or brothers and sisters and even if they had parents, they had not been in contact for a long time. The majority of these children have been living on the streets for the year. They have no access to medication and/or treatment. They regularly suffer abuse from thugs (Mastan), police, business owners and other older people. A total of 1,600 respondents said that they had been the victims of torture at different times. Many of them suffer sexual abuse as they do not have any safe place to live.They do not receive any legal support to bring justice against those who torture and abuse them (Child Protection Movement Report 2012). According to the information published in 'Our Story', girl children in particular suffer various kind of torture and abuse regularly (Our Story, January-June 2011).
The Concluding Observations also emphasized that the Government needs to take steps to create a safe and happy environment within those institutions who look after children, but to date, the GoB has not taken any concrete steps towards ensuring organizations provide this type of environment.The measures the GoB has taken to rehabilitate the street children are not adequate.There is a severe lack of effective monitoring of Government-run institutions. According to research conducted by the CPM, most street children are parentless. Every moment of these children's lives are marked by severe vulnerability. They do not have any shelter, food or security. Most of the street children do not know about their rights as children. Findings from the CPM Report indicate that street children are extremely vulnerable. According to the children, this condition creates problems in their physical and mental growth and also in their education. The children believe that civil society, Government and law enforcing agencies should be able to solve the problems they face. The GoB is establishing rehabilitation centers for marginalized girl children but these are not sufficient to meet need. Children of sex workers are still unable to access facilities and the Government's rehabilitation services for children are inadequate. RECOMMENDATIONS
? GoB needs to enhance urgently monitoring in order to improve the service quality
for children in public and private shelters.
2.2 Abuse and neglect, including physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration The Concluding Observations outlined that there needs to be enhanced by public awareness activities information about the negative effects of abuse and neglect; the Government needs to ensure child rights training for actors who work with children including caretakers, teachers, social workers, medical workers, police officers and members of the judiciary; there should be efforts to raise the capacity of families through parenting programs and skills training in order to ensure child rights and the welfare of children within the family environment; there should be increased cooperation with regard to victims of
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torture and persecuted children, and appropriate arrangements for survival counseling and rehabilitation for children who require these services. The Fifth State Party Periodic Report stated that the Directorate of Social Services and the Ministry of Social Welfare are delivering different activities and programs to provide necessary services and counseling for children who have been victims of physical abuse and neglect in order to rehabilitate them. Significant programs and activities that have commenced include: shelter centers for children who have been tortured or persecuted, reception centers for marginalized children, safe homes, and the establishment of training and rehabilitation centers. The GoB has also established a National Trauma Counseling Center where counseling services are provided free of cost in order to improve the mental state of tortured and persecuted women and children. A committee has been formed by the Deputy Commissioner of the Districts to stop persecution against women and children at district level. This Committee submits a report to the concerned Ministry stating the overall situation centering on women and children in their area. Although the GoB Report outlines that many efforts have been made with regard to the prevention of abuse and neglect, we do not fully agree with what has been reported. For example, the Concluding Observations recommended the Government increase human resources and fund allocation, but the Government Report did not reflect any information or proof that they have acted on that recommendation. There is also no mention in the report of the victimization of children within the family environment. According to our findings, children are victims of abuse and negligence within the family (Our Story, July-December 2011). Within families children are being tortured and persecuted by parents or other family members. 31 news articles were published reporting on the torture on children in 6 Jannat's (pseudonym) fled her family home and now national newspaper dailies lives in her maternal aunt's house. Jannat doesn't receive within the 6 months from appropriate food at that house. For that reason she begs January-June 2012. on the street to address her hunger (Tasmia Tabassum Perpetrators were the Mohona, Child Researcher, Our Story, Page 24, Januaryparents, stepmother, relatives June 2012). and neighbors (Our Story, A child of Gypsy (Bede) population says my father January-June 2012). Aside quarrels with my mother very often and that scares us. from family violence, children My mother leaves our home and goes to her parents' also feel unsafe when there is home out of anger and does not want to come back. We fighting between their parents feel bad. I am very tiny, despite this; my father forces me (Our Story, January-June to cook (Our Story, Page 24, January-June 2012). 2012). 2% of children and 5% of adolescents suffer from depression because of fighting between parents (Our Story, January-June 2012). Children are often discriminated against within the family and this is expressed through the unequal distribution of food, and the inability to express their opinions and participate in the
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decision making processes of the family. This kind of discrimination was revealed in the stories collected by Child Researchers. For example, parents in a family discriminating against a girl child by allowing her brother more opportunity and giving preference to the boy child in terms of education, despite the girl child having more academic aptitude. The GoB has taken steps to rehabilitate child domestic helpers under the Ministry of Social Welfare. In practice however, children working within households are still being tortured and abused.There are the reports that these child domestic helpers are being abused by the house owner or his wife and they are often not allowed any time to see or meet their family members. The Government has established 6 Baby Homes and 3 Institutes to ensure food, education and other services for street children. We believe that this effort is not sufficient to meet the number of street children in Bangladesh. In our research we have found that street children are vulnerable to crime, criminal activity and abuse due to lack of social safety services. (Our Story, July-December 2010). We have also seen that children living in slums and children living in the Geneva Camp are also victims of various torture and abuse. Children of the Geneva Camp are forced to work on labor-intensive embroidery, Karchupy, (hand work) from a young age, which earns a lot of money for the business owner. These children are being abused if they refuse to do this work. RECOMMENDATIONS The Government needs to increase the budget and services for social welfare ? programs and activities. The law that no child below 14 should be employed as household helper should be ? enforced and there should be more effort applied to ensure this is practiced. The Government should implement a special type of schooling system for those ? children who are compelled to engage in income generating activities, including activities to reintegrate these children into mainstream schools.Vocational education could be initiated for these children as well as the provision of stipends (Upa-britti) to encourage participation in education.
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Basic Health and Child Welfare
3.1 Early and forced marriages

The Committee recommended that the State Party take urgent legislative measures to prohibit early and forced marriages and other traditional practices harmful to the health and development of boys as well as girls. The Committee urges the State Party to introduce gender-sensitive awareness raising programs, with the involvement of community leaders, for practitioners, families, and the general public to prevent and end harmful practices, especially in rural areas. The Committee also recommends that the State Party adopt effective measures to empower girls in the family, school and community settings. The GoB Report mentioned that early childhood marriage and forced marriage of girls is still a problem in Bangladesh but the practice of early marriage has been reduced following awareness programs conducted by the media, the enforcement of laws, and activities implemented by NGOs. Guardians, teachers, religious leaders, civil society and the children themselves, especially girls, have become more aware of the harms of early marriage and are playing a leading role in resisting early marriage. We are fully in agreement with the Concluding Observations, we cannot fully agree with the remarks made in the Government Report. Girl children remain the victims of childhood marriage due to the prevailing social system, especially dowry. This practice prevails mostly in rural areas, slums, and remote or hard to reach areas. We are in agreement with the Government about the fact that children in these areas are most susceptible to early marriage. The findings of our research support this Conclusion. For example, childhood marriage in the Char areas has not declined. According to a survey conducted by an NGO, 65% of adolescents (both female and male) are victims of early and forced marriage (30 June 2012, Page 16, the Daily Jugantor; Our Story, January-June 2012). A total of 100 early marriages have been reported during September 2011 in the Gaibandha District (Our Story, July-December 2011). We have learnt from participants of a group discussion that early marriage in some areas of Bangladesh is a regular event. A child said that I don't know what is called an early age, but in our area boys and girls are usually being married at the age of 8-14 years (Our Story, January-June 2012, Page 24). The Government Report said that the Ministry of Home Affairs is playing an active role in resisting early marriage by enforcing laws. We have observed that there are weaknesses in the enforcement of laws pertaining to early marriage. It could be said that persons who are involved with childhood marriage are almost never being punished. A total of 24 reports were published in the 6 national and local media during July-December 2011, which related to resistance to early marriage. Only one report referenced the punishment of a person involved with facilitating the early marriage. Many times these early marriages are being conducted in front of people who are involved with law enforcement and they are tacitly supporting such marriages. (Our Story, July-December 2011).
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Whilst the Government has mentioned the positive impact of awareness raising programs conducted by the media, it is only the Bangladesh Television who publicize this issue, privately owned channels do not telecast any awareness programs. In some areas of Bangladesh people do not have any access to TV and these areas are not receiving any awareness raising campaigns or information regarding the harms of early marriage. Usually girls are the victims of early and forced marriage in Bangladesh. According to our research, 17 news stories were published in the 6 national and local dailies during JanuaryJune 2011 about children resisting early marriage. We analyzed these news stories and found that of the 24 children, who avoided early marriage, 20 were girls and 4 were boys. We
The groom is an immigrant of Cyprus. He married a girl who was a student of Class VIII (eighth grade) and brought her to his own home of Burichang Upazilla by a hired helicopter and paid 150,000.00 Taka for the rent of the helicopter. It was very eye catching scenario as the local Member of the Parliament, other peoples' representatives, representatives of the administration, and the elites of the area had participated in the marriage ceremony. Local people said that the administration did not take any legal action to resist that childhood marriage (Our Story, July-December 2011). Another incident: both the bride and groom families were scared to proceed further because it was a child marriage. Two Ward counselors of the Meherpur Municipality consoled the two families not worry, 'the law is in our hands'. The marriage would happen if that was what they decided. The girl was a student of Class VI (6th grade) of the Meherpur Government Girls School and the boy was a student of Class VIII (8th grade). The police did not take any action to stop the marriage, as they were scared of the two leaders. (The news titled Two Counselors arranged a childhood marriage with all responsibilities and the news was published in the Daily Prothom Alo on 21 may 2012 and in the Our Story, January-June 2012, page 31).
have also learnt that there were incidences of suicide by girl children who were about to be forced into an unwanted early marriage. Early marriages have long term and harmful impacts on children, especially on the health and growth of girls. The Concluding Observations mentioned these harms but the Government Report neglected to provide any information on this issue.There is a practice among rural people that more dowry is required as the age of the girl child increases and this drives parents to resort to early marriage. These girl children often become pregnant within a year of their marriage and give birth to a child causing damage to their physical health due to the fact that their young bodies are not fully physically developed. The Government Report stated that there is a strong correlation between early marriage and poverty. We agree with this assessment. A survey conducted by an NGO mentioned that most of the victims of childhood marriage in Chars are girls of ultra poor families and they are typically married between the ages of 11 to 15. 80% of these girls fall pregnant and their health is severely compromised. They suffer from various disease including anemia, eclampsia, and pre-term births. Newborn are born under-weight and many of them suffer physical and mental handicaps due to inadequate nutrition and the poor health of the mother. (Daily Jugantor, 30 June 2012, Our Story, January-June 2012).
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The Government Report mentioned that guardians, teachers, religious leaders, social representatives and the children, especially girl children are more aware about the harms of childhood marriage and are playing a leading role to prevent the practice. We have also observed through our research that children and social representatives have sometimes been effective in stopping childhood marriages of girls but this was difficult and they faced many barriers. According to a newspaper report published in a national daily a human rights worker of Chuadanga had been a victim of physical attack for resisting a early marriage. Severe physical torture was launched on him/her when he/she was captive in a room. The local people rescued him/her later and admitted to the hospital (the Daily Mathabhanga, 30 October 2011; Our Story, July-December 2011).
Alpana (12) was a student of Class V (5th grade). Her family was a landless family and lost everything due to river erosion, but she used to go to the school regularly, defying severe poverty. She had a wish to stand by her family after the completion of her education. Many people of her area began approaching her family with proposals for marriage as she was very pretty. Finally, her family decided to a marriage as a solution to extreme poverty and Alpana's marriage was fixed with a carpenter of the same village Sohel Rana. Alpana refused this marriage, Alpana told her parents that she would continue her study and that she wouldn't marry until her elder sister Alekha was married. Family members were very angry and scolded her viciously. Finally, Alpana hanged herself in her bedroom (Page 33, 21 March 2012, The Daily Kaler Kantho; Our Story, January-June 2012). Rajani is girl of Sonapur village of Meherpur. Her parents forced her to marry at the age of 15. She became a mother of twin children at the age of 16. Luckily she survived the complicated birth of her children. (Our Story, January-June 2012).
RECOMMENDATIONS ? As girls are the main victims of child marriage our recommendation to the Government is that they should enhance the stipend program (Upa-britti) for girls and that this program should not be allocated to only on the basis of merit but should focus on disadvantaged children. ? There needs to be an enhanced campaign against early and forced marriage and this needs to be targeted in hard to reach areas of the country. ? Ensure awareness levels are raised among people involved in facilitating early marriage (e.g. marriage registrar, UP Members) Birth registration should be ensured. ? The law related to childhood marriage need to be updated. Some of the contents of the law need to be adjusted such as; imprisonment for one month and/or penalty of Taka 1,000.00 or both. If parents or guardians permit or force children into early marriages, they should be punished in the same way.
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3.2 Drug abuse

The Committee recommended that the State Party implement measures to prevent and end drug use among children and to provide rehabilitative assistance, where needed, to children who have used drugs.There is no specific mention from the GoB about this matter in the Fifth State Party Report. According to our findings the number of child smokers is increasing. The Campaign for Clean Air conducted a survey, which found that 43.67% of smokers in the country began smoking in childhood. 98.23% of the people surveyed have the I foundone person is smoking and many others were also smoking. I asked them, why do you smoke? It is injurious for perception that the trend health. You will be drug addicted in the process of smoking. towards smoking is increasing The friends with them said, we smoke for pleasure or fun among adolescents and youths. (Child Researcher of Brahmmanbaria, Our Story, January-June A Case Study sent by a Child 2012). Researcher of Brahmmanbaria states that children are taking up smoking as a source of fun. Whilst the GoB has banned smoking in public places, there is no enforcement of the law. Information received from a researcher says that 93% of smokers have never been penalized or fined even for smoking in a public place. (Daily Amar Desh, 19 February 2012; Our Story, January-June 2012).
Two children were arrested during January 2012 while carrying drugs. They were produced in the Joypurhat Judicial Court and the court ordered to send them to the Pulerhat Child Correction Center of Jessore District. Those children informed the police that another 7 children are working as drug carrier like them. They carry the drugs in Tiffin boxes. It could be mentioned that a drug dealer had been arrested at the Akhaura Upazilla of Brahmmanbaria, while they were carrying drugs in school bags meant for the children (Page 6, 23 March 2012, the Daily Amar Desh; Our Story, January-June 2012).
After analyzing the news reports related to the drug addicted children and the case studies received from Child Researchers, it can be seen that children are involved in drug dealing, as well as being drug users. In most cases the age of children involved with drug use ranges from 8 to 17. The Concluding Observations mention that children should not resort to drugs and should not be involved with drug dealing. People should not involve children in the use or trade of drugs, even if children express an interest to do so. Children should be kept in a drug free environment. In practice however, drug dealers use children to sell and traffic drugs. Sometimes children become involved in these activities unknowingly, but often they get involved with it for the money. Children of poor families nearby borders with other countries work as drug carriers. The drug dealers lure them with money and involve them in the business.
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The Concluding Observations specifically emphasized the rehabilitation of children addicted to drugs. In a meeting held in January 2013, children they said that there is no separate rehabilitation center provided by the Government for drug addicted children and in private rehabilitation centers there is no separate service for children. RECOMMENDATIONS ? Steps need to be taken by the Government and non-Government agencies to stop children being used in the trade and traffic of drugs. ? Separate rehabilitation centers for children addicted to drugs need to be established.
3.3 Children with disabilities

The Concluding Observations expressed their concern about discrimination against children with disabilities, especially girls, and also expressed concern about the stigma and social rituals in Bangladesh which hinder the growth and development of disabled children. The Committee also expressed concern about the need for earlier diagnosis and treatment of children with a disability. (Article 6:57). The Committee recommended the GoB work towards the implementation of Paragraph 23 of the Charter and General Statement No. 9 (2006) on the Rights of Children with Disabilities in order to safeguard the rights of the children with disabilities. The Committee recommended the GoB take appropriate steps to implement the United Nation's Charter on the Rights of the Person with Disabilities, undertake research to collect nationwide data on disability, and review the disability policy that is currently under consideration. Other recommendations include the need to implement integrated policies for disabled children, and ascertain the responsibilities and duties of the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled under the Ministry of Social Welfare to create better coordination with related Ministries. At the local level, action needs to be taken to seek out appropriate professionals (disability specialists) and extend locally based social rehabilitation programs in order to ensure the rights of the children with disabilities are upheld. (Article 6:58). The Government Report mentioned various efforts they have taken in this regard. The National Disability Welfare Act 2001, the Persons with Disabilities Rights Act 2011 (draft) and the National Children Policy 2011 mention ensuring equal rights and facilities for persons with a disability. These laws and policies also include statements related to ensuring the dignity, self-reliance and active participation of children with disabilities. The Government Report also states that the rights of people with a disability have been maintained through formation of committees at the national, district and upazilla levels through the amended the Persons with Disabilities Rights Act 2011 (draft). The Committee also said that institutional steps need to be mandated to provide the necessary support and cooperation so that the families of the children with disabilities can enjoy all the state infrastructure and facilities so that families can take appropriate measures to support the disabled person. (Article 6.2).
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The Concluding Observations expressed concern about the diagnosis process of people with disabilities and about the treatment they receive, but the Government Report did not address this issue. In effect, the Government has not taken any steps to implement the United Nation's Charter on the Person with Disabilities. The GoB Report stated that children with disabilities are being admitted in the general schooling system, but the reality is that children with disabilities face a lot of barriers in being admitted in mainstream schools. There was a three day exchange meeting in Dhaka with 25 children during 22-24 January 2013 where a physically challenged child participant shared her experience that she has been refused to get admission by a number of well known schools of Dhaka city (5-6 schools). A number of child participants said that there are some Government schools that do not admit children with disabilities despite having a quota to cater for these children. Instead of accepting a student with a disability these schools often take bribes to admit children without disability for the allocated quota. A Child Researcher reported, I studied in the Jamalpur Government Girls High School. I have never seen any special children study in that school even though they have a quota for children with disabilities. Though the GoB Report mentioned that there is suitable infrastructure facilities in the schools for children with disabilities (i.e. facilities for their free movement, toilet facilities) this is not the case in reality. According to the working paper of the Child Parliament 2010, the attendance of children with a disability in schools has increased and the behavior of teachers towards students with a disability has improved but students with a disability are still facing a variety of problems due to a lack of suitable infrastructure within schools. Our findings support the statement that there remains a lack of suitable infrastructure at school level.A child with a disability shared her experience, I am studying in a reputed English medium school in Dhaka.There are no toilet facilities for children with special needs. Due to this situation, each and every school day I have to spend 5 hours without having drinking water and not using the toilet. The GoB Report said that the Government has established 55 educational institutions for children with disabilities.The children, during discussion, said that it is a very good effort, but
Child Researchers have received 2 stories and 8 news items published in the selected 6 national dailies from July to December 2011. Analysis of those reveals that the children with disabilities are deprived from many facilities. There is only one training center for the person with disabilities at Rajshahi and it has 200 students/trainees. Only 6 teachers/trainers were there instead of 14. One staff was found instead of 13.There are positions of one head master, 2 Teachers and 4 technical trainers. But, two teachers and one trainer's position is vacant from a long time. This is the scenario of this training center (Our Story, July-December 2011).
it is not sufficient to meet the number of children with a disability in Bangladesh. The number of teachers is also inadequate and teachers currently employed lack appropriate specialized training.
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According to our research, many guardians reported abuse against disabled students in schools. Many guardians are removing their children from these schools due to the physical abuse (Our Story, July-December 2011). One physically challenged child said that, the Government provides the teachers only a 7-day long training on the issues of disability. It is quite difficult for the teachers to understand the issues surrounding physical and mental disabilities from a 7-day long training. In discussion groups, children mentioned that funds provided to address disability issues are not being spent for the right purposes, rather they are being misused. The lack of clarity on disability issues at the policy level is evident amongst the general population as well. Different development agencies are misusing funds by taking advantage of that lack of clarity. Many people are unaware of the differences between physical and mental disabilities. In most cases children with a disability are deprived of basic health services.
There are funds pouring in for autistic children, and those funds are being used for children with disabilities by treating them as autistic. On the other hand, the gifts supposed to be given to disabled children are being provided to autistic children, as many do not know the difference between disability and autism. 10 wheel chairs were given to 10 autistic children and 4 hearing aids were also given to autistic children although the autistic children do not require a wheel chair. (The Daily Amar Desh, 28 October 2010, Page-11). The Government Report mentioned that children with special needs are being provided with necessary materials, but children with disabilities are not getting them. Children with disabilities are deprived of their right to education due to an absence of specialized materials and books required for students with disabilities (Jaber, a student with some physical disabilities can not go to the school due to lack of a wheel chair, The Daily Amar Desh, 28 October 2010, Page-11). Students of general schools get their books at the beginning of the year, but students with special needs did not get their required books until the middle of the year. Braille Books are always a problem for the students with sight difficulties. The Government did not take any steps to solve the problem. For that reason, children with disabilities are always lagging behind. They have to wait for a long time and need to pay extra money even if they get their books. A guardian of a student with a sight disability informed that, The year is almost in its end to search for the books for my son. He could manage to collect 3 Braille books out of 12 and he had to spend Taka 1,200 for the 3 books (Our Story, July-December 2011).
Children with disabilities are deprived of their rights from the State and at the same time they are being deprived and discriminated at the family level. The Government does not have any authentic information about the number of children with a disability and how many families this affects.The families of children with a disability are entitled to an allowance but if a family has more than one child with a disability they are often only receiving the allocation for one child.
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RECOMMENDATIONS ? The GoB needs to conduct a survey to ascertain the number of children with a disability, including the types and causes of these disabilities. ? The GoB and other stakeholders need to takes steps to ensure the necessary infrastructure and facilities for people with a disability in public places and businesses including all transport, bathrooms, stairs, and lifts. ? The GoB should issue a directive that schools need to arrange ramps for students with disabilities, and/or classes for the students with disabilities need to be located on the ground floor.
3.4 Unnatural child mortality

The Concluding Observations recommended that everybody needs to work towards reducing the risk of accidents, injury and death to children so that the rate of child deaths is reduced and MDG 4 can be achieved. (Article 6:60) However, the Government Report does not address this recommendation. The incidences of unnatural death of the children are deplorable. Data collected from reports published in the 6 selected national daily newspapers showed that a total of 154 children were the victims of unnatural death between July to December 2010. Of these 154 fatalities, 61 were reported to be boys and 84 were girls and their ages ranged from 5 to 17 years (Our Story, July-December 2010). During July to December 2011, we received 5 stories from the Child Researchers, 275 news reports from the 6 selected national dailies and 34 news reports from the local dailies regarding the unnatural deaths of children. The age range was from 0 to 17 years old. Altogether, our findings showed that 511 children were the victims of unnatural death. Causes of these deaths were drowning, severe burns, family disputes, suicide, killed by gunfire, killed after abduction, slaughtered, killed after rape, electrocuted, death by food poisoning from expired sweets, harmful and negligent treatment, severe cold and death by poisonous animals. The analysis also revealed that some of the people responsible for the injuries and treatment were charged but we did not find any information about the successful completion of any trial or punishment of the offenders. RECOMMENDATION
? The GoB must take quick and special efforts to stop the unnatural deaths of children.
3.5 Injured child and sickness

The Concluding Observations mentioned that vulnerable children are not receiving quality health services.The death rate of children and children dying of malnutrition is still very high in Bangladesh. The rate of water borne and contagious disease is also very high. The Committee expressed its concern about the increasing rate of accidental death and injury, especially death by drowning, the inequalities of the health services and the increasing dependence on donors for vaccine collection (article 6:59). The Government Report did not address these issues in the Fifth State Party Report.
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Our research indicates that many children are suffering from various virus related diseases. We received 24 news reports from the 6 selected national dailies about the sickness of children during January-June 2012. Analysis of the reports reveals that a total of 464 children fell sick during that period. The cause of sicknesses included severe heat exhaustion, severe cold, Nipa virus, Rota virus, mass psychosis, food poisoning and other reasons (Our Story, January-June 2012). The rate of death for wrong treatment and diagnosis has increased. 66 news reports were received from the 6 selected national newspapers about injury and sickness of children during January-June 2012. 42 out of 66 were injury related problems. The news report analysis showed that 73 children were injured of which 22 were girl children and 49 were boy children. The rate of injury among boy children is much higher than that of girls. Children's injuries are related to many causes, including being beaten for stealing, quarrelling, land disputes, previous enmity, gunshot wounds, burns, acid burns, natural disasters, and incidences related to love affairs and family feud. Other injuries sustained by children include mutilation of the face due to acid throwing and serious disability (Our Story, January-June 2012). Children from marginalized families who participated in a Focus Group Discussion informed that children involved with child labor are very prone to injuries and the number of injuries sustained by child domestic helpers is very high. The participants also said that children often become sick due to snakebites and insect bites. Many children say they do not go to a physician to seek medical help because they cannot pay the fee. Rural children also stated that the hospital is often 7 or 8 kilometers from their home and so they go to the nearby village physicians or the Kabiraj (traditional physician, treats with herbs) for treatment. Whilst the cost of treatment at the hospital is not very high, the testing and other examination costs are very high in hospitals. A child of the untouchables (Dalit) said I had to pay Taka 6 for ticket of the hospital, but x-ray cost was Taka 250.00. RECOMMENDATION ? The GoB need to take measures to ensure health services for the most vulnerable children of the country, especially for the most vulnerable children of the Char land, Haor and Chittagong Hill Tracts.
3.6 Road accident The Concluding Observations mentioned that children should be saved from all accidents and disasters. Measures need to be taken so that children can move safely in the community and whilst travelling. The Government Report did not make any mention about the Observation.
Our research revealed that many children are losing their lives due to reckless driving, lack of awareness about road safety among the population, defects on roads, and inadequate transport management systems. A total of 67 news reports were published relating to road accidents in the selected 6 national dailies from July to December 2011 and these news stories showed a total of 134 children were the victims of road accidents. 6 boy children and
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6 girl children were injured in these accidents and 40 boy children and 79 girl children were killed in the accidents.The news articles did not mention the gender of three of the injured children. Through analysis of 144 news articles about road accidents, we found that 271 children were victims in these accidents. Of them 49 were injured and 222 children were killed. The accidents happened while the children were crossing roads, whilst the driver was overtaking another vehicle, negligence of the driver and while children were crossing railway tracks. River accidents are also prevalent and 12 children died due to drowning in these accidents.
41 school students lost their lives in a terrible road accident at Mirsarai of Chittagong. The children were returning in a truck after watching a football match. The truck lost control and fell in a ditch off the road. The driver fled before the truck was drowned in the waters of the ditch (the Daily Prothom Alo, 12 August 2011; Our Story, July-December 2011). Suddenly we heard a hue and cry from the road on the other side of the pond. We ran to that place and found that a 3 year-old child Ratan had died, as he was smashed under a truck. (Syeda Sanjida Lopa, Child Researcher, Brahmmanbaria, Our Story, January-June 2012). 30 students (both girl and boys) and teachers were injured in a road accident while going for a Study Tour (the Daily Kaler Kantho, 4 January 2012; Our Story, January-June 2012).
RECOMMENDATIONS ? The GoB must take measures to increase awareness about road accidents and road safety. ? Laws should be enforced so that nobody can drive a vehicle without certification, traffic laws should be strict, and businesses should be encouraged to employ skilled drivers. ? The Government must be more vigilant in repairing roads regularly.
3.7 Neo-natal and maternal health care, and overall nutrition situation The Concluding Observations mentioned the increasing dependence on donors for vaccine collection (6:59) in Bangladesh. The Observation outlined that special efforts need to be taken so that all children, including those children of minority and other ethnic groups are not discriminated against and are able to access basic and special health facilities.
The Government Report said that institutions related to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are delivering services to ensure the people of Bangladesh are receiving appropriate health and family welfare. Projects delivered by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare are mainly health services delivered during pregnancy, neo-natal and child health services, nutrition services, physical and mental health services, health services
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related to contagious and non-contagious diseases, services for HIV and AIDS and also services provided for the reproductive health of adolescents, both girl and boys (6.4-health and health services). The Government Report said that the vaccination rate of children has increased from 54% in 1996-97 to 81% in 2007. The Concluding Observations mentioned that this was due to increasing dependence on donors. We do not believe that the dependence on donors is evident and various day observances for vaccination are not being held regularly despite this practice being a central aspect of awareness raising programs. According to the State of the World's Children 2011 published by UNICEF, 22 out of every thousand babies are born underweight and premature. 11% of pregnancies result in death due to premature birth and 34% of babies die due to infections of various kinds. Half of the deaths of newborn babies are caused by premature birth and being underweight. According to the National Neo-Natal Health Strategy if a baby is born before 34 weeks and is underweight, s/he should be taken to the hospital but the Upazilla Health Centers do not have appropriate facilities for treating these children and these services even are often nonexistent at the district level hospitals as well (the Daily Prothom Alo, 1 January 2012). 72 news articles were collected from national newspapers during January-June 2012 related to neo-natal, mother care and the overall nutrition situation.The reports revealed that neonatals are not getting the services they require. Nutrition during pregnancy is also inadequate. A teacher of the Bangabandhu A senior family member of Pinky Begum was rushing Sheikh Mujib Medical towards the New Born Baby unit with Pinky's newborn University (BSMMU) and the baby from the delivery ward. It was 3.30 of 15 December. Other members of the family were waiting outside Chief Instructor of the anxiously, but that lady came back with the child Helping Babies Breathe said caressing on her chest and the baby was dead by then. that the growth of premature Family members of Pinky informed that the baby was born baby is affected. They do not premature and the specialists said that if a baby is born have the heat of the body that before 37 weeks s/he would be a Pre-term baby and their they require. They also do not growth and weight remains very less. That causes the damage (the Daily Prothom Alo, 1 January 2012, page 09; have the capacity to suck milk Our Story, January-June 2012). from their mothers' breast and this often causes respiratory problems for the baby. Food costs are increasing every day. A nutrition expert from UNICEF said that the nutrition situation in Bangladesh is already dire and when prices increase, people are compelled to curtail nutritionally necessary foods. This directly affects children's nutrition. Nutrition experts said the GoB should immediately increase efforts to provide nutrition to children at risk.
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News published in the Daily Hasina Khatun was busy with her kitchen work with her Prothom Alo on 31 December one year-old son Rashed on her lap. Rashed screamed 2010 said that powdered milks out of hunger. She fed him rice mixed with salt. She said, I always do it because I cannot afford to provide available in the market are not meat, fish or lentils/peas, even though I want to. We do completely bacteria free. A not have our own land and my husband works as a day renowned child researcher said laborer. She also informed that Rashed suffers from that the children of Bangladesh pneumonia very often. (Source: the daily New Age, 01 who take such milk are more December 2011; Our Story, July-December 2012). prone to diarrhea, pneumonia, Rokeya Begum is the mother of Rabiul. She said that typhoid, malnutrition and heart she cannot afford to feed her 14-month-old child Rabiul with meat and fish. Sometimes she can manage eggs or disease. Complaints have been lentils for Rabiul. He also gets cow milk or powdered received about unscrupulous milk on some occasions and Rabiul suffers from companies who provide false pneumonia very often (Source: the daily New Age, 01 information on the packaging of December 2011; Our Story, July-December 2012). milk and milk products in order to meet quality standards, and they are deceiving the customers by doing this (the Daily Jugantor, 10 January 2011). There is a law entitled Child Food Law 1984 in Bangladesh but this has not been enforced. The Concluding Observations recommended the GoB take special steps to ensure that children of marginalized communities are not victims of discrimination, but we don't see any reflection on this recommendation in the Government Report.The GoB has not taken any steps to reduce discrimination and anecdotal evidence suggests that inequality and discrimination is increasing. A UNICEF report reveals that there are many areas of Bangladesh where health care during the pregnancy period is inadequate and some citizens have not seen a health worker in their whole life. Rema of Sribardi, Sherpur relates a similar story. Rema is the mother of four children, two of whom died during delivery.The first child died within two days of birth, and the second one died after one and half month. Rema said, I do not know the field worker of family planning until now. From where they come and what they do, I don't know. I also don't know what to eat after being pregnant. The Kabiraj (traditional rural physician) gave me some blessings and sacred water (the Daily Jugantor, 27 May 2012).
7 Upazillas of Khagrachhari District were supposed to have 127 physicians at different hospitals, but now they have only 42 physicians. The infrastructure of the hospital, supply system of medicine and management is also very weak. The 100-bed Gaibandha Sadar Hospital has only 4 physicians and they have to see 200 patients' at the least everyday. Patients complain that most of the days they return home without having any treatment (Our Story, July-December 2011). A woman had been admitted at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital with labor pain and the next day she gave birth to a baby through operation. The next day, when it was discovered that she was a sex worker, the physicians shoved her out of the ward on to the veranda of the hospital. The perception of the physician was that as she was a sex worker she could be an AIDS infected person (Our Story, July-December 2010).
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About 5,000 people live in the Charta Island under Naria Upazilla of Madaripur. They had only one Community Clinic and that was destroyed by river erosion. For that reason, the people of that area have been deprived of medical services for the last two years. The island is 10 kilometers away from the Upazilla Headquarters and this means they are isolated from the town. Their only support is a private medical pharmacy (the Daily New Age, 30 December 2011).
The Concluding Observations recommended increasing the delivery of free of cost health care, before the birth of a child and also after the birth, to provide services to the mother and child both. The GoB did not take any visible steps to meet this recommendation although all necessary efforts were supposed to be taken. The Government-managed Sadar Hospitals, Mother and Child Welfare Centers and Community Clinics are not providing primary health services free of cost. There are 20 Child Nutrition Centers in Bangladesh but there is a severe shortage of physicians and treatment materials and the majority of people are not aware of these child nutrition centers. About 8 million children are suffering from malnutrition in Bangladesh. According to the view of the World Health Organization, Bangladesh stands fifth among those countries that are at risk of pneumonia. In Bangladesh, 130-140 children are being affected by pneumonia every day. 50,000 children die every year due to pneumonia, while another 50,800 children die of diarrhea. (Our Story, January-June 2012). During discussion groups, children mentioned that the Government's Report stated that Bangladesh Betar, television and other non-Government media is broadcasting/telecasting different types of programs on safe motherhood, breastfeeding, and the necessity for children to have a balanced diet. We have observed that these media outlets are more interested in telecasting advertisements for artificial baby food. It is our belief that the information provided during these programs may not be a reliable source for ensuring child health. RECOMMENDATIONS ? Policy formulation outlining standards about the type and frequency of advertisements and campaigns in the non-Government media for artificial baby food is essential.
3.8 Health and health services The Concluding Observations did not specify anything with regard to general health but the Government Report mentioned several positive measures it has taken towards improving the health of the population.We want to add a few issues related to the health of children, to those outlined in the Government Report that have been found in our research. Significant problems include unhygienic toilets, lack of health services for flood affected children, inadequate health services for children at Government hospitals (Our Story, July-December 2011), vacant medical posts in medical centers and hospitals, negligence of the doctors, increases in the price of medicine, the proliferation of adulterated and counterfeit medicines, the use of contaminated and arsenic contaminated waters, and an increase in below standard diagnostic centers and clinics.There is ample proof of these practices in the Case Studies collected by the Child Researchers.
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FEW CASES K K Institution of Narsingdi is a boys' school and it has about 2,000 students. The number of toilets in this school is not enough for the number of students and the few toilets available are very unclean. The authorities do not pay any heed to this problem (Our Story, July-December 2011). The food crisis in flood-devastated areas takes a severe toll on children. Recently, the children of Satkhira are affected by diarrhea, skin disease, allergies and different water borne diseases (Our Story, July-December 2011). About 90 % of families living beside the Jessore Railway Station use hanging toilets and most of the houses also remain soaked by water/humidity. For these reasons, the children of these families are very often affected by pneumonia, diarrhea, fever, skin diseases and also by other diseases. Children are also suffering from malnutrition due to food shortages. Children of this area are not receiving any medical services (Our Story, July-December 2011). Girl and boy students of the Rajapur Government Primary School stated in a complaining tone that the head of the tube well has been red colored and the water of this tube well contains 100 % arsenic. We can be affected by arsenic if we drink the water of this tube well, we may even suffer from the deadly disease cancer by consuming arsenic. The teachers have taught us about arsenic and asked us to not to drink the water from this tube well. However as there is no other option, we are drinking the water from this tube well to meet our thirst. Arsenic was found after the tube wells of this school were tested properly. Immediately the tube wells were red colored and the next day the teachers informed the 300 students about the menace of arsenic in detail and they were asked not to drink the tube well waters. Later the students began drinking water collected from the neighborhood. The neighborhood home owners were unhappy with the children for drinking their water and from then on the students began drinking the arsenic contaminated water because they had no other water source (The Daily Jugantor, 22 January 2012, page-19; Our Story, January-June 2012.
3.9 Reproductive health rights of adolescents The Committee recommended that the State Party undertake a comprehensive study in order to understand the nature and extent of adolescent health problems, with the full participation of adolescents, and use this as a basis for the formulation of adolescent health policies and programs, with particular attention to female adolescents; develop a separate comprehensive policy on the critical issues affecting the rights of adolescents, including mental health and reproductive health services; pay special attention to the psycho-social needs of adolescents, especially girls, and provide appropriate, child-friendly, and confidential counseling services in schools and clinics and disseminate information about their existence and availability; and provide separate and appropriate sanitary facilities for adolescent girls and boys (Article 6:64).
The Government Report said that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been implementing several programs to ensure the health rights of adolescents. The most significant programs are the implementation of a health strategy plan for adolescents, creating awareness at the social level, campaigns to resist childhood marriage, provision of information about personal cleanliness, nutrition, anemia, RTI, STD, risky sexual activity, drug
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addiction, accidents, advice for adolescents about violence and sexual abuse, awareness building on HIV and AIDS, provision of condoms for married adolescent girls, advisory and treatment services for reproductive health related issues, provision of the 5 TT vaccination for the adolescent girls, and the phased conversion of all the service centers into adolescent friendly centers. In a discussion with children, many said that health advice is very important during adolescence. All their physical and mental changes take place at this point in time. In many cases they cannot accept the changes they face and they think that they are experiencing some problems or disease. They require support from their families as well as counseling from schools and clinics in order to recover from this syndrome. The Government Report mentioned that the issues of the adolescents have been adopted in the health infrastructure. The Government is implementing an Urban Primary Health Care Project including District Health Clinics in many districts including Dhaka. Health information dissemination activities have been held in adolescent corners of the Health Centers under this project. It is very much required to have separate corners at hospitals to solve the problems arising from the reproductive health of adolescents. We think the steps of the Government are positive but there is a severe lack of publicity with regard to these Government initiatives and they are not being fully utilized. The majority of the children who participated in a workshop held in Dhaka during January 2013 mentioned that they do not know anything about these measures taken by the Government. Only 1 out of 23 children said that s/he knew about the services and used them. We have seen from our research that there is no facility, time or opportunity in the hospitals to discuss reproductive health issues and problems related to adolescence. Teachers at schools do not discuss the issues/chapters in books related to the problems of adolescence and reproductive health. Adolescents were supposed to receive this information on reproductive health within 2010, but it did not materialize (Our Story, January-June 2012). The number of adolescents is 33.9 million, which is almost one fourth of the total population and 35 % of adolescents aged between15-19 are the victims of malnourishment (Our Story, January-June 2012).
The Daily Prothom Alo had organized a round table conference on the issues of adolescents which was titled Open discussion is required on reproductive health of the adolescence. The speakers in that conference said that adolescents face many problems as they do not have or access to sufficient information and some time they risk their lives as well. They will be well placed and their lives would be much better if they are given sufficient information in an open congenial atmosphere. Teachers should be given trainings on reproductive health so that they can teach them in the schools and the guardians should also be given this training. For that reason, there should be integrated effort among the Government and private sectors. Media should also be involved with the process and need to play a vital role. There are many projects on adolescent reproductive health. Field workers of the health directorate are also working on ground. But the efforts are not sufficient (the Daily Prothom Alo, 17 January 2012, page-24).
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Sex workers suffer from various health risks, and many times they began their journey as a sex worker when they were children. In many cases, clients torture them.This information was revealed through a perception survey on the Daulatdia brothel during April 2011 in a survey conducted by the Save the Children, Analysis of overall situation of the children of the Daulatdia brothel.
Seema is the child of a sex worker. She had the opportunity to study up to Class II (grade 2). Now she is 16 year old and working as a sex worker. Once she fled and married one person and later she came to know that the man was married and had two children. Seema again fled from her in-law's house and again started working as a sex worker. She is supporting her family of a mother and two sisters with her earnings. According to her, there is no weekly holiday in this profession. We have to work even if we are sick and also we should work during menstruation. We feel very helpless when the clients force us to work without condoms.
RECOMMENDATIONS ? All the steps of the Government related to the health services for the adolescents need to be publicized. ? Teachers need to be trained appropriately so that they can discuss the chapters on the problems of adolescence and also on reproductive health, and these should be included in the regular curriculum.
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Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities
4.1 Education system and quality of education

The Concluding Observations recommended the Government to take necessary steps to ensure quality education in schools, conduct vigorous awareness-raising campaigns in schools and communities to combat the mistreatment of children and prevent bullying and sexual harassment of children in schools and on the way to school, especially of girls, arrange for materials and equipment, which are not appropriately available and also to look at the invisible expenditure in the education sector. The Government Report mentioned that it had taken some steps such as the improvement of curriculum at primary and secondary levels to improve the quality of education. The GoB did not mention anything about the invisible expenditures in the education sector although this has surfaced in our research as the main barrier for improving the quality of education. Private coaching for school students at the school is increasing according to the data of our research. The majority of academic institutions are failing to provide quality education for students. In many cases it was seen that teachers are not providing proper lessons within the classroom and are encouraging students to take private coaching with them. Our findings show that the trend towards house tutors and coaching was 76% in 2010 compared to 82% in 2011. 86.4% of students said that their teachers inspire them to purchase Guide Books, which is a threat to quality education. The private tutoring and coaching business of the teachers creates discrimination between poor students and those who can afford to pay extra tuition fees.The GoB was supposed to provide books free of cost but 10.3% of students said that they were only able to receive the book in exchange for money. Poor students are impacted by these practices in the education sector (Report of the Child Parliament, 2007)
4.2 Drop out of the children from school

The Committee recommended the Government takes steps to increase the transition rate to secondary school and support girls to continue education at the secondary level. It also outlined that the Government needs to provide more vocational education and training, including for dropout children, and establish formal and non-formal facilities for combining work and education. The Government Report said that 1500 new primary schools have been established in 1500 villages across the country. At the same time, the skills of the teachers have been improved to deliver quality education. We think that this is not enough. We have seen in our findings that there is no school in 319 villages of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (Our Story, July-December 2011). Currently the country is facing a crisis of 18,371 Primary Schools (Our Story, July-December 2010). The Concluding Observations recommended the GoB ensure effective education by eradicating existing discrimination, improve children's opportunity to participate in
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education, and provide better quality education in the different regions of the country especially the under-developed areas.The Government Report does not address this issue. A report published in the Daily New Age said that it is big challenge to ensure education for 100% of children in the country. A report titled Education Watch mentioned that the majority of children of the Haor region of Sylhet do not want to go to the schools during the rice harvesting period. 65% of children in Bangladesh go to school at the age of 6, while in the Haor areas the figure is 52%. A report published in the Daily New Age says that 50% of children are deprived of education in the remote areas of Bangladesh like the Monga devastated area, coastal and Char areas. A child of a fishing village said we don't A report of the Primary Education Office of get the opportunity to study due to Jhalakathi has mentioned that the rate of drop our work. I have plenty of work to do out is increasing at the primary education level. at the market in the morning and for The statistics show that the current rate of drop that reason I cannot attend the out is 9.8%, but the reality is that hundreds of school. There is no schooling in the children are dropping out of school due to poverty. Many people believe that the number afternoon and if there were, only of dropouts is not accurate in the report (Amar then we could attend the school.
Desh, 24 June 2012).
According to experts, one third of children drop out of school before Class V (5th grade). The drop out trend is not only limited to primary levels, rather this trend is also significant in secondary and higher secondary schooling. 1,589,743 students registered to appear before the SSC (Secondary School Certificate) examination during 2011. However, just 1,143,951 sat the SSC examination. This figure proves that about 450,000 students dropped out of school either during secondary schooling or before the secondary level. 1,097,150 students registered in 11th class during 2011 in order to appear before the Higher Secondary Education (HSC) examination. In 2012 only 926,814 students actually sat the HSC examination. This means 170,336 students could not/did not appear in the examination and/or dropped out (the Daily Prothom Alo, 31 January 2012, page-12).
This newspaper clipping from Ulipur, Kurigram showed that the drop out rate is increasing in Char areas. It also mentioned that the mandatory primary school education system has collapsed in two Chars of Ulipur, Kurigram. The chars are Alga & Begumganj. The report also said that many children of these areas were not included in the program and also the drop out rate in these areas would stand at 45 %.
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The Government Report mentioned different activities and programs for children who have dropped out of school but we disagree with their statements. One third of primary students dropped out during 2012, 470,336 students dropped out during that period (Our Story, January-June 2012). Causes identified for children leaving school include a lack of income within the family, children not receiving the Admit Card on time, a lack of physical security, childhood marriage, complexity of lesson instruction and the examination system, lack of education about the benefits of education among people, less interest in education and the increasing costs associated with education. These reasons are not helped by the fact that many schools remain closed for 3-4 months a year due to heavy rainfall and flooding (Our Story, July-December 2011). The rate of drop out is much higher in the Char areas than that of other areas. A child living in the flood affected area expressed his view that many children cannot study due to lack of money, some are involved in work, some are married and some girls do not go to the school as the boys on the road throw filthy words towards them (Our Story, January-June 2012). The Concluding Observations said that the GoB should take steps to ensure quality entertainment, sports, cultural and other programs for leisure periods considering the ages and socio-economic background of the children. The Government Report stated that the Bangladesh Shishu Academy has expanded its activities in order to uphold the cultural programs of minority groups, however, these activities are limited to the District level and are not for all. Street children participate in different competitive programs/activities. Other marginalized children including those of the Chars, flood affected areas and Haors, those employed as house support staff, children of sex workers, children of the tea gardens, of the Gypsies (Bede), those who have dropped out of school, and children living in slums do not have any opportunity to take part in cultural training programs and other programs delivered by the Bangladesh Shishu Academy. The Government has started mid-day meal and school feeding programs on an experimental basis at Primary Schools for children. This initiative is funded by the United Nations World Food Program as the Tiffin/mid-day meal program and children are provided with flour, sugar, vegetable oil, white flour, iodized salt and biscuits as school feeding at the schools. This is a positive step by the Government, but the coverage of this project is limited. Some projects have been undertaken by the Government for ensuring education for children in the CHT region, fishing communities and other marginalized groups. These programs are now concluding and as such the continuing education of more than 100,000 children is at severe risk. The marginalized children's opportunity for education and their futures are totally uncertain if the timeframe of these projects is not increased further. A marginalized child commented on the facilities of the school and the behavior of the teachers, saying, we have nothing. We could enjoy the school if the teachers had not beaten us, allow us to play during leisure period and also if we had canteen to eat during the mid-day.
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RECOMMENDATIONS ? The Government school feeding and mid-day meal program needs to be expanded in order to stop children dropping out of school. ? An alternative education system need to be introduced in flood affected areas during floods to ensure children continue their education. ? Quality entertainment is required to ensure children are engaged in schools.
4.3 Education materials and infrastructure The Committee recommended the Government better equip schools with educational materials and adequate sanitation facilities for girls and boys. The Government Report mentioned that the study books required for the school year are being supplied at the very beginning of each year.
The Concluding Observations recommended the GoB raise the budget allocation for the expansion of the educational system and the improvement of the quality of education. We did not see any such changes in the current education system in Bangladesh. Vulnerable academic institutions, a shortage of teachers, river erosion and collapse of the schools and a shortage of classrooms still exists. For these reasons, children often have to continue their lessons outside. The Committee mentioned the need to effectively level out the access and quality disparities of the educational system across the regions of the country, with special attention to the less developed regions, but in no instance have we observed any change with regard to this in our findings. The infrastructure of academic institutions in remote areas is very vulnerable and it is impossible to provide and receive quality education in these conditions. In many cases, there are toilets for boys and girls but there is no management to keep them usable. Our research says that there are sometimes separate toilets for girls and boys in schools, but the situation of most of the toilets is appalling. There is no water in the toilets, they are filthy with very bad smells, there is dirt/mud all around the toilets, doors are broken and they are very dark. The situation is improving to some extent and the management of toilet facilities has improved in 2011 compared to 2010. Significant steps taken by the GoB to improve the infrastructure of the education sector include providing notification of the admission fees determined by the Ministry of Education, free of cost book distribution at primary and secondary levels in the whole country, issuing a notification by the Ministry of Education to stop coaching, taking steps to formulate an education program for children in marginalized areas and disadvantaged communities, serving notification to stop the use of guide books and their publicity and commercial expansion, an increase of budget allocation for the education sector, and trying to bring English-medium schools under control of the Government through the new national education policy (Our Story, January-June 2012).
The condition of the infrastructure of academic institutions in remote areas is very vulnerable and it is impossible to provide and receive quality education in these conditions. In many cases, there are toilets for the boys and girls, but there is no management to keep them usable.
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No special steps have been taken to develop the infrastructure within educational institutions to cater for children who have special needs despite this being outlined in the Concluding Observations. The Committee recommended the Government ensure special attention to the children of marginalized populations and under developed areas to remove existing discrimination within the opportunities to participate in education and the quality of education provided, but the Government has not taken any significant steps to this end. We have surveyed 512 academic institutions and also conducted 11 group discussion meetings with children of marginalized communities during our research and according to the data gathered most of the schools have infrastructural problems. One of the significant problems the location of schools near to busy roads as the attention of students is disturbed by noise. 68% of schools are beside roads and children often suffer accidents while crossing the road to get to school. According to our findings, the children of 136 villages of the Char areas of Shariatpur and Gaibandha are still deprived of education (January to June 2011). The Committee recommended that the GoB consider making multilingual education available in remote areas for minority and indigenous children. Our research reveals that indigenous children are still required to take the 5th grade board examination in Bangla and for this reason they had to learn Bangla, curtailing their right to learn in their own language (Source: Representative of Bandarban at the session of 9th Child Parliament). RECOMMENDATIONS ? The Government should distribute all educational materials up to secondary level. ? The budget allocation for education needs to be increased in order to improve attendance among the children of the Monga devastated, hill and coastal areas and also to improve the infrastructure to ensure the quality of education.
4.4 Length of compulsory primary education

The Committee expressed their concern about fixing the mandatory stipulated time for primary education at 5 years and recommended the GoB consider extending the length of compulsory school in the country. The Committee also stated that the Government should address early childhood development holistically, including the introduction of public pre-school education as part of the compulsory primary education to improve A girl child student has asked about the importance of learning achievements. The sports/games in the life of a girl student. She mentioned Government Report stated that mandatory education has that there is almost no facility of that kind in their school. The sports materials e.g. Carom Board, Ludo, Basketball, been extended from Class V to Volleyball are almost non-existent in their school. Class VIII but this has not yet
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been implemented despite the claims in the Government Report. The Government Report also mentioned that pre-primary education is being provided in primary schools, but there are some shortfalls in the implementation. We have seen from our research that schools do not have materials conducive for early childhood development. Government primary schools do not admit any student unless they are at least 5 years old. A Compulsory Primary Education Act has been passed to ensure that all children go to school but this has not be completely implemented yet. It was recommended in a meeting of the Ministry of Education held on 25 March 2012 to make Primary Education mandatory up to Class VIII. Academics have suggested this may create further complications around the status of teachers, inadequate infrastructure, especially building additional class rooms, teachers training, income-expenditure of the schools, and educational materials if the decision is implemented (Our Story, January-June 2012). It should be mentioned that according to the Bangladesh Labor Law 2006 and the National Child Labor Elimination Policy 2010, children should not be employed anywhere before they complete compulsory primary education. However, the majority of child laborers are not getting the opportunity to complete compulsory primary education. In most cases the owner/employers are not allowing them to go to school.
4.5 Mistreatment of children The Concluding Observations expressed concern about the mistreatment of children by teachers who are using force and threatening students. The Committee is very concerned about sexual abuse towards girls while in school or on the way to and from school. The Committee recommended strong campaigns to raise awareness in schools and in communities to prevent these incidents. The Government Report mentioned that they are playing a role to stop the abuse of girls on their way to school by launching awareness raising programs.
We want to state that there were no specific steps mentioned in the Government Report about any actions to stop to the abuse of girl students and we want to know what steps have been taken. The Ministry of Education has taken a Zero Tolerance Policy to stop sexual abuse but girls are regularly being abused. According to our research many children have stopped going to school due to sexual abuse. Our research findings include an article titled Three sisters are unable to go to the Madrasah as they are scared of the
My friend Sumi (pseudonym) is very pretty. Her father has a small business. Sumi's small family was happy with three sisters and parents. The spoiled boys could tease Sumi, as she did not have a brother. They tease when she goes to private tutor, college and even she is teased when she is at home. The boys are from the elite families of their area and for that reason nothing happened, even if they complained against them. With time the abuse was getting from bad to worse. Finally, Sumi's father went back to their village with his daughters and his wife to save their dignity. In this way many families like Sumi's have had to leave the towns and had to stop their education (Sania Haque Eva, Child Researcher, Brahmmanbaria). Another spoiled boy had beaten and abused a girl, as she refused his proposal and he also threatened that if she did not agree, she would be humiliated through a false love story spread over the village. At this stage the girl committed suicide with the help of her scarf (the Daily Prothom Alo, 16 June 2012).
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spoiled boys. (Our Story, July-December 2011). Many students are committing suicide because of eve teasing. A school student committed suicide at Shakhipur (The Daily Prothom Alo, 16 June 2012). Socially disadvantaged and marginalized children are more victimized than other children. A Gypsy (Bede) child stated, we have seen sexual abuse on the roads, markets, Para (village), school-college and even in our own home. A child of a sex worker told, when we go to school or to other places by the road, even the little boys say that we live in 'home' (brothel). We feel so bad, when they look at us with a different look, and they misbehave with us by using our social identity (Our Story, January-June 2012). In one case, a father of a girl child was killed when he protested the eve teasing. Even the teachers do not get away from the spoiled boys. Analysis of the information from the national and local newspapers and case studies show that boys from 'elite' or 'influential families' are involved in eve teasing and nothing happens even if someone complains against them to their families. Drug addicts, illiterate, unemployed people and boys who are disassociated from their families are also involved in eve teasing (Our Story, January-June 2012). Information sent by the Child Researchers shows that teachers punish the students for many reasons. One punishment is to keep a student standing under the scorching sun, beating by cane/stick, pull the ears, slapping, sit-up by grabbing the ears and so on. A Child Researcher said that the students are very scared of the beating and the boys are suffering most from physical torture. (Our Story, July-December 2010). According to our research, 68% of students said that they are tortured very often both physically and mentally. The research also showed that the majority of teachers are not aware of the rights of children. An incident revealed in our study details the story of a girl student who dropped out of school because she was very ashamed as her dress which was old and was torn off in front of everybody.This incident is from a very renowned school in Dhaka. These things happen everywhere in the country. A member of the child research team shared his experience that I couldn't solve a problem in the school and for that reason a teacher beat me with a cane for 15 minutes. I suffered from fever the next 15 days due to that beating. Teachers very often use filthy words towards the children of the slums and marginalized children. Apart from this, they torture the girls mentally. Girls are also victims of physical torture in some schools (Our Story, JulyDecember 2010). RECOMMENDATIONS ? The term sexual abuse should be used instead of eve teasing.
? Teachers need to be trained to be more sensitive/responsive towards the rights of
the children. In this regard, the Government has to arrange trainings for the teachers.
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4.6 Rest, play, leisure, recreation and cultural and artistic activities
The Concluding Observations recommended the Government allocate a budget for facilities to develop quality entertainment, sports and games, cultural and other activities during leisure time in schools. The Government Report said that the participation of 25,000 children in various cultural activities has been ensured through the Shishu Sports and games are very necessary for the mental and physical growth of the children. Academy under the Ministry of Women Meherpur is the smallest District of Bangladesh. and Children Affairs. The activities taken There are no fields and parks for sports and by the Government through the Shishu entertainment for the mental growth of the Academy are not sufficient, although it is children. The irony is that there was a park. Now a very positive step. it has become the grazing ground for the cows. According to the information we have addicts gathered there is a shortage of equipment for indoor games in many schools. There is often no facility of sports and games for the girls, and if it is there, it is too meager. There is no field to play games in the cities. On the other hand, the Shishu Academy itself is suffering from a shortage of human resources. The school libraries are also suffering from a lack of resources. The big fields and fields for games and sports are grabbed by the property developers who are building high-rise buildings in the cities including Dhaka. It could be mentioned that the Children's Park at the Khilji Road of Mohammadpur Dhaka has been turned into a health center. Children are therefore becoming more prone to engage in computer games, television, the Internet and so on. This is causing severe damage to the mental and physical health of children, which is always being ignored. Child Researchers stated that the National Shishu Park (Children's Park) was always kept open for the poor and children from the slums during Child protesters of the Khilji Road of Mohammadpur, Dhaka are protesting against grabbing their the Eid festivals. They were also playground for other purposes. allowed to enjoy all rides of the park during the previous years. This year the scenario was different and the children were not allowed the same facilities as they used to enjoy. They were deprived of minimum entertainment in their life and the media covered this story (a clipping attached) (Our Story, July-December 2011).
It has also become a sanctuary for the drug
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The situation of the children of the orphanages is much more appalling. They do not have any sports materials and in some places they are not even allowed to play. The survey conducted by the children reveals that only 42% of schools have some kind of sport material and equipment. RECOMMENDATIONS ? Quality entertainment systems need to be arranged in the schools. ? The Bangladesh Shishu Academy, whose responsibility it is to provide support for the mental growth and talent of the children, is active in all the Districts. The Academy should be more active and also increase communication with the local schools. ? It is necessary to monitor whether the activities taken by the Government are being implemented properly and for this reason budget allocation also has to be increased. ? The Government could support local theatres and cultural organizations so that they could take effective steps for the children.
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Special Safety Measures
5.1 Economic exploitation, including child labor

The Concluding Observations emphasized the need for the Government to take effective steps to protect children from economic exploitation but the Government Report did not mention anything about this. The Concluding Observations also recommended considering the approval of the Child Labor Policy, 2008. Again the Government did not take any steps to approve it. It also mentioned rehabilitation of the children engaged in child labor. The Government did not mention anything specific about this in their report. The Concluding Observations recommended stopping employment of children under 18 in any hazardous work. According to the Child Labor Elimination Policy 2010 the minimum age of employment is 14 and employment of children under 18 in any hazardous work is totally forbidden.
25,000 children from 10 to 15 years are working in the Bidi (local cigarette made of only tobacco leaf) factories. The factory environment is very unhealthy and about 75 % workers suffer from respiratory and other problems, as they work without any mask. Complaints were lodged against the owners of the factories on many occasions, but nothing happened, as the owners have an underhand deal with the controlling authority (Our Story, January-June 2012).
In it's report, the Government committed to eliminate hazardous child labor and to implement a project to this end. It was also said that 50,000 children would be removed from hazardous work areas. We think that this number is very small because a huge number of children are involved in hazardous work. There are still 4,500,000 children in Bangladesh involved in risky occupations (the Daily Sun, 15 May 2012; Our Story, January-June 2012). The Concluding Observations identified the 5 worst forms of child labor and among them road transport and tobacco are the two sectors where the number of the child laborers have kept increasing. Children are mainly engaged in hazardous work due to financial reasons and they are forced to work, as they need to support their parents. This is the case for children of fishermen. They start working from an early age and they work in the fishing boats. They suffer different problems including sickness and injury. They also tend to become drug addicts and they often suffer from insomnia.
A child of a fishing village said We have to suffer some pain if we want to work. I work in a fish wholesaler market (Arot) and very often the bones of the fish get in my flesh, I feel severe pain and suffer from fever. A tea garden worker child informed during a group discussion told that my parents always lure me with good food and better clothes only to put me in to work (Our Story, January-June 2012).
We have analyzed the case studies collected by the Child Researchers and found that the age of the child laborers varies from 7 to 17 years. In this case we studied 58 children and we
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found 47 were of the age range 7-12 and 11 were 13-17. Most of the children were involved in child labor due to financial crisis. Children without parents also join in child labor (Our Story, July-December 2011). An ILO survey said that the number of children in risky work had been reduced during 20042008. (Our Story, January-June 2011). A huge number of children work as domestic workers. According to the Bangladesh Statistical Bureau the number of the domestic workers was 331,000 during 2006 but the actual number could be much higher. It is well known that child domestic workers often become victims of torture including severe torture. Child domestic workers may suffer severe torture leading to fatal injury. It has also happened that domestic workers even died due to severe torture and injury.
Khadiza was domestic worker in a house in Dhaka and she was admitted in the hospital after suffering severe injury from physical torture by the owner of the house. Grimacing with pain, she was saying I will never go to Dhaka. They used to beat me if I couldn't do the work. They had given me rice only twice in 4 days (the daily Kaler Kantho , 14 February 2012).
23 news items on child labor that were published during January-June 2012 in 6 selected newspapers were analyzed and all the news, except one, depicted severe torture on domestic workers. They were tortured for very inconsequential reasons such as not performing a duty properly, delay in work, or breaking a glass. The severity of torture ranged from beatings, hitting the head on the wall, burning by cigarette or any other metal things, non-payment of salary and some even suffered rape by the owner of the house and committed suicide. The reports also mentioned that the so called literate people were the perpetrators in most cases (Our Story, January-June 2012). Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies (BILS) and the Social Welfare Institute of the Dhaka University jointly conducted a research, according to the findings of the research, no domestic worker had any kind of appointment letter or agreement. Average wages of these workers was Taka 509.60. Only 60% received a regular wage. 66.67% are deprived of education and 53.33% did not have any opportunity of entertainment.
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The Non-Government Organization Nari Maitri conducted a survey on the domestic workers. According to their findings 95% of children are tortured either by the owner of the house or by the housewife. The perpetrators always settle the issue with the family of the victims by paying money. Even the death of a domestic worker does not get any response, either from the perpetrator or from the law enforcing agencies. We have never heard that any perpetrator/offender has been punished or penalized. The Executive Director of BILS mentioned that the victims and their families are not getting any protection from the Penal Code. Because the offenders are in most cases very influential or they can get the support from the influential people in the community. It could be mentioned that there are no fixed working hours for the domestic workers and they work at least 14 to 16 hours a day, depriving them of the opportunity to participate in education. 80 % of the children do not get any opportunity of education (Our Story, JanuaryJune 2012). According to Ain O Shalish Kendro (ASK) there are 400,000 domestic workers in Bangladesh. According to the information collected from the newspapers from 2004 to March 2011, 737 domestic working children were victims of torture, 362 were victims of physical torture and rape, and 375 children succumbed to death (Our Story, July-December 2011). ANOTHER CONTEXT The demand for child laborers is comparatively high as their wages are less than adults. Child conductors pull the passengers into the busses, especially Tempoos. They collect the fares from the passengers while the vehicle is running and they take the risk of standing for hours at the tail of the Tempoo. Their age could be from 10 to 15 years. They don't get proper food to eat and water to drink, and they work all day within the fumes and dust. For that reason, most of them suffer from jaundice, asthma and some other complicated diseases.
There are 400,000 domestic workers in Bangladesh and according to the information collected from the newspapers of 2004-March 2011, 737 domestic working children were the victims of torture, 362 were victims of physical torture and rape, and also 375 children succumbed to death
RECOMMENDATIONS ? It is necessary to implement the steps taken by the Government immediately. ? A separate law should be formulated for domestic workers. ? Children should be employed in various professions according to their age. Minimum age limit and facilities should be fixed during the process of employment. ? An evening schooling system needs to be established for working children.
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5.2 Street children

The Concluding Observations have mentioned that the policies formulated for children living on the street or working children should not only focus on the economic issues but also consider issues related to social protection i.e. torture, exploitation and violence with equal importance. The Concluding Observations recommended that the Government should take urgent steps to ensure health services, education and shelter for the street children. Also, the Government should make necessary arrangements so that the street children can to go back to their families. The Government Report said that the Government is running two projects for street children, which are Protection of Children at Risk (PCAR) and Services for Children at Risk. The PCAR has already been completed. The projects worked to save the street children from all the barriers for their development e.g. cruelty, torture and exploitation and at the same the projects focused on those children deprived of the care of their parents. 11,253 children aged 8-17 years received various services from the PCAR, which were Drop-in Centers, non-formal education, vocational training, psycho-social support, life skills, health, legal support and also birth registration services. We think that these steps are really commendable but according to Government estimates, the number of street children was one million, and this number has increased to 1.3 million during 2012. We could not find any information about the services provided to this increased number of street children (Our Story, January-June 2012). The Government Report mentioned pre-primary schools, but there were no specific information about whether the street children are receiving the services. The Government had introduced mandatory primary education during 1992, but it did not impact on the street children (Our Story, January-June 2012). About 250.000 children are involved in begging in the capital and many of them are also involved with violence and theft. Many of them are also drug addicts (the Daily Jugantor, 29 August 2011, page 3). These street children are very often exploited and tortured by the brokers/middlemen. A case study sent by a Child Researcher mentioned that the brokers take away the majority of whatever these street children are earning every day.
About 250.000 children are involved in begging in the capital and many of them are also involved with violence and theft. Many of them are also drug addicts (the Daily Jugantor, 29 August 2011, page 3).
According to the information found in our research, 51% of street children are being scolded and are the victims of abuse from others. 20% of children suffer from physical torture and 46% of girls are the victims of sexual abuse and torture (Our Story, JulyDecember 2011). Overall 14.5% of street children suffer from sexual abuse/torture (Our Story, July-December 2011).
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RECOMMENDATIONS ? A survey needs to be conducted to find out the causes of the increased number of street children. ? The number of street children is increasing on a regular basis. Project-based activities do not suffice and for this reason, the Government must take bigger steps to ensure health, education and shelter for street children.
5.3 Sexual exploitation and abuse

The Concluding Observations recommended formulation of a strategy to find out the causes of sexual abuse and torture, types and extent and also to take the following actions: ensure legal actions, punish the perpetrator by ensuring quick trial, receive the complaints and train all the related stakeholders about the matter. The Bangladesh Government has mentioned the various efforts taken on sexual abuse and torture. The significant efforts are Domestic Violence Act 2010, Human Trafficking Prevention and Repression Act 2012 and Pornography Control Act 2012. It also arranged training for the law enforcing agencies on preventing sexual abuse and torture, arranged awareness raising activities through the Government and non-Government media and national and international NGOs and the establishment of One Stop Crisis Center (OCC) to provide psychological support and to counsel the victims of torture. Sexual abuse, torture and harassment did not decrease at all in Bangladesh. According to our research, it can be seen that almost all girl children are victims of physical and mental torture/harassment by the spoiled boys and adults in their areas. Some also suffer abuse by relatives. It needs to be mentioned that marginalized children suffer the most sexual abuse, among them are children of sex workers and children of Gypsies and Dalits. Children who participated in the group discussions said that they are being abused sexually on the roads, markets and on the way to and from the schools. According to the Gypsy and Dalit children, people of their areas do not treat them as a normal human being. Very often they pass ill comments to them. It needs to be mentioned that sexual abuse impedes the normal development and growth and causes physical and mental damage to children. Victims of abuse feel inferior, stop their study, suffer from mental sickness, and become the victim of early marriage. Some time they have to leave their own home or community. A Dalit girl child said that, we feel very inferior and helpless in this kind of situations (Our Story, January-June 2012).
Child Researchers submitted many stories about sexual abuse during the six months (July-December 2011) and 3 specific cases of sexual abuse were mentioned. All three were girl children and their age ranged from 4 to 12 years. The owner of the house aged 90 years raped two of them and another was tortured by her teacher. A Child Researcher also wrote a teacher misbehaved with the girls of their school. He sometimes hugs the girl students of the school and very often caresses their hands while giving lessons (July-December 2011).
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A report presented in a seminar on Sexual abuse in school children's life at Dhaka University mentioned that about 7% of boy students and 16% of girl students are being the victims of sexual abuse (August 2011, The Daily Prothom Alo). Another menace is pornography and this has become a tool of sexual abuse. These incidents are happening more in the rural areas than in the urban areas (Our Story, JanuaryJune 2012). Children are mostly victims of sexual abuse at the hands of their neighbors, teachers, relatives, classmates and 'so called lovers'. Even children aged 13-18 years are found to be perpetrators in some cases. The instances of sexual abuse in rural areas are sometimes settled by the perpetrators paying a minimum amount of money and sometimes by force. In most cases the perpetrators threaten the victims or the families of the victims either not to file a case or to withdraw the case if it had been filed (Our Story, January-June 2012). Analysis of the news published in the national dailies reveals that girls suffer more from sexual abuse than boys. 165 incidences of sexual abuse and harassment were noted. Of them, only 6 were boys and 156 were girls. 93 of them were rape victims, 9 were of mass rape, 27 were about to be raped and 5 were the victims of illicit video and uploading them in the Internet (Our Story, July-December 2011). RECOMMENDATIONS ? The Government has to come forward to reduce sexual abuse. The perpetrators are often the influential people of their area. This could be stopped if law enforcers, administration, people's representatives and the politicians take effective steps against them. ? Awareness among parents, schoolteachers and all others is an important requirement. ? There is a toll free hot line to stop sexual abuse and harassment but that is only for adults. A separate hot line number needs to be introduced for children and the system should be in place so that all children can utilize it.
5.4 Sale of children and trafficking

The Concluding Observations expressed concern about the proper implementation of the National Plan of Action Against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, including trafficking of children. The UN Committee recommended that the Government has to be more vigilant to counteract child trafficking. It was also recommended that the Government should consider ratifying the UN Protocol on Trafficking and if necessary seek technical support from organizations e.g. ILO, UN & UNICEF. The Government Report also mentioned that the Human Trafficking Prevention and Repression Act 2012 has been brought in to effect. One of the significant spots for abduction and trafficking of children is Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH). According to the information revealed by our research, 11 children disappeared from the DMCH during one year from July 2011 to June 2012 (source: news reports of the 6 selected national dailies). None of the children were recovered. 86 girl children had been kidnapped from different areas of the country during the 6 months,
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January-June 2012. It has been assumed that most of these kidnapped children have been trafficked to India and the Middle East to be used in the sex business. Even children are kidnapped for use as sex workers within the country. Out of 4,000 sex workers in the Daulatdia brothel, 500 are children. Most of them were trafficked into the brothel by the brokers (Our Story, January-June 2012).
5.5 Arrest, detention and imprisonment of children and juvenile justice

The Concluding Observations have expressed concern on life imprisonment sentences of children under 15 and death sentence for the children under 18. The Concluding Observations made some recommendations, of which the most significant are as follows: ? Ensure with immediate effect that life imprisonment and death sentence are not imposed for persons less than 18 years. ? Consider establishment of juvenile courts allover the country. ? Ensure that children and adult prisoners are kept separately in the prison, and ? Safe and child-friendly environment need to be ensured in the Police stations. In response, the Government Report mentioned that a national task force is working vigilantly to ensure that the children are not kept with the adult inmates of the prisons and those who are already there would be brought back immediately. It should be mentioned that there were 53 under-18 children in different prisons in the country up to May 2012 and 2 of them were girls. On the other hand, there were 447 children including 42 girls in the three adolescent development centers in the country up to May 2012. During our research, we have found different problems related to children in prisons, issues related to justice and also with the rehabilitation centers. For example, news analysis of the 6 national dailies revealed that 3 children were arrested by the police and charged of theft, while they were only 7, 8 and 10 years old. Police tortured them severely.
A report of the Daily Amar Desh of 16.9.2011 has quoted an inquiry report of the Jessore District administration, which says that the inmates of the Adolescent Development Center (known as Child Prison) of Jessore have not been rehabilitated; rather they have become more criminalized.
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They killed a 16-year child through torture and that boy was arrested for mugging. They fabricated the age of a 12-year-old boy into a 17-year boy and he had been accused of theft, and is living in the Kishoreganj prison. It could be said that these kinds of incidents happen very often. We also know that the Adolescent Development Centers are not functioning well. The Government Report said that these centers are child friendly and safe, but we have experienced a different scenario. We would like to refer to a report on the Jessore Development Center, which was published in the Daily Amar Desh. It said, They have two dormitories of 50 and 100 beds, though most of the rooms do not have any bed at all and they are very dirty too. Bathroom and the toilet are in an appalling situation, and the quality of food is very bad. We need to mention the incident of 2011 with Limon (17) of Jhalakathi. He has become disabled, as he was cross-fired by the elite force RAB. Still, Limon is suffering from the cases brought against him. RECOMMENDATION ? Children should not be kept with adult inmates in prisons and there should be an arrangement to keep them in the Adolescent Development Centers to bring them back to a normal life. SPECIAL COMMENT We completely disagree with the statement made in the Government Report about the Child Parliament.There are information gaps about the Child Parliament in the section 3.7 (Respect to Childrens'Voice) of the Paragraph 5 and 6 such as; ? Child Parliament is not a separate organization and it is not an associate of any other organization. The National Children's Task Force, NCTF, initiates Child Parliament and the members of the Child Parliament are elected by direct votes by members of the NCTF. It has children from different marginalized groups along with the Districtbased members. ? 168 children (equal number of girls and boys) are members of the Child Parliament. Two children represent each of the 64 districts and 40 represent the marginalized children. ? The Report mentioned that the Government has taken steps to expand the Child Parliament. This would create 350 branches of Child Parliament including 50 covering remote/hard to reach areas. The Government Report also mentioned that the Manusher Jonno Foundation, Save the Children, Plan Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Shishu Academy are supporting in this initiative. ? It should be mentioned that the Government has conducted primary discussions with these organizations and also conducted two view exchange meetings with the children, but no visible steps had been taken until now. The whole thing is still under consideration and discussion but we welcome the interest of the Government in this regard.
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Our Story - Child Led Alternative Report - English - 2013

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Child Led Alternative Report

promoting human rights and good governance

promoting human rights and good governance

Cover Design & Printing: Color Line | 01715 812345

Foyez Belal President NCTF, Central Committee

PROCESS OF DATA COLLECTION AND REPORTING METHODOLOGY

Civil Rights and Freedoms

Civil Rights and Freedoms

Civil Rights and Freedoms

Lowest tier of the local Government of Bangladesh

Civil Rights and Freedoms

Civil Rights and Freedoms

Civil Rights and Freedoms

Family Environment and Alternative Care

Family Environment and Alternative Care

2.1 Children living outside of the family

Family Environment and Alternative Care

for children in public and private shelters.

Family Environment and Alternative Care

Family Environment and Alternative Care

Family Environment and Alternative Care

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

3.1 Early and forced marriages

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

3.2 Drug abuse

Basic Health and Child Welfare

3.3 Children with disabilities

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

3.4 Unnatural child mortality

3.5 Injured child and sickness

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Basic Health and Child Welfare

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

4.1 Education system and quality of education

4.2 Drop out of the children from school

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

4.4 Length of compulsory primary education

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Education, Leisure and Cultural Activities

Special Safety Measures

Special Safety Measures

5.1 Economic exploitation, including child labor

Special Safety Measures

Special Safety Measures

5.2 Street children

Special Safety Measures