Staff Correspondent

Speakers at a programme called upon Dhaka City Corporations to take necessary steps for ensuring night shelter for the street children. According to a statistics of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2018), there are 16 lakh street children in the country. Of them, 65% (10.50 lakh) live in Dhaka City Corporation areas alone, they said.

However, child rights organizations assumed that the number might be increased to more than 25 lakh by 2025 in the country, they observed. They said this while addressing a consultation meeting with journalists at a restaurant at Dhanmondi in the capital today (Monday).

INCIDIN Bangladesh, a rights-based organization working for protecting the rights of children, organized the meeting. The street children are facing different problems such as lack of safe housing, nutritious food, health facility, education.

In addition they are the victims of sexual harassment, trafficking and violence, which are hampering their physical and mental growths, they observed. It would be tough for us to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by keeping so many children at risk. Their deprivation and segregation from the mainstream society is also a violation of UN Child Rights Charter such as 17, 19 and 34, they added.

INCIDIN Bangladesh along with four other like- minded organizations collected 7100 signatures from different professionals in Dhaka, Faridpur and Rajbari districts for expressing their solidarity to the issue of safe night shelter for street children.

A petition containing the signatures has been handed over to the Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation recently. The objective is to elicit commitment from the Mayor to ensure the night time service of those children, who are vulnerable to sexual assault and other violence.

It is also aimed at further strengthening and solidifying the child right protection process.

The initiative, it is hoped that, would play a significant role in protecting the rights of vulnerable children. They said, as night time is more risky for children regarding physical and sexual assault, it is urgent for the city corporation to build shelter centers at places in the city. Ward level elected representatives can take step for protecting the children.

The city corporation can take up protection measures at different level of the society for ensuring the rights of children. The city corporation can ensure the accessibility of the vulnerable children to its various service structures.

The city corporation can keep special allocation for the vulnerable children in its annual budget. It is needed to take steps for ensuring the representation of the child rights organizations at the DSCC’s annual budget meeting and other forums so that the opinion of the victim children are reflected in city corporation’s development plan, they observed.

Stressing on making the street children skilled workforce by providing necessary training, they said the authorities concerned should take necessary steps for making the children as worthy citizen of the country. Because their vulnerability may hamper our future, they said.

Md. Mushfiqur Rahman Sabbir, Operation Chief of INCIDIN Bangladesh, read out a written speech. Mahboob Mirza, Programme Coordinator, INCIDIN Bangladesh, among others, spoke at the event. Journalists from the print and online media attended the event.