International Journal of Social Science : Vol. 3. No. 4, 403-413, Dec 2014

DOI No. 10.5958/2321-5771.2014.00014.3

Destitute children and initiatives for their

welfare in Bangladesh

Muhammad Shariful Islam

Department of Social Work, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh.

Corresponding author: msiswru@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

A large number of children are destitute in Bangladesh. They suffers severely

from malnutrition, under weight and drink unsafe water. They are never enrolled

in school. About 0.68 million children lives in the street in Bangladesh and they

involved in child labour such as domestic works, agriculture, vehicle helper,

garments workers, shoe polisher, construction helper, carpenters, hawkers etc.

They also engaged in bidi factory, match factory, transport sectors, brick-field,

dyeing factory, tannery factory and printing press sectors and they are totally

deprived from healthy environment. Even a large number of them are involved

in different types of crime such as stealing, snatching, smuggling, pilfering

prostitution etc. No doubt this is very much unexpected situation for the children

who are the future leader of the nation. So there are responsibilities for the concern

authorities of Bangladesh to rescue these destitute children from their miseries and

also to ensure their rights.

Keywords: Destitute children, Child welfare, National Child Labour Survey,

Convention of child rights

Introduction

Children are considered as one of the most important target groups in social work.

So, the ‘child rights’ is one of the most important issues for the social workers.

In Bangladesh a large number of children are deprive of their rights declared by

the UNCRC. Most of them are parentless, homeless, shelterless and passing their

daily lives with miserable conditions. They are deprived of education, healthcare,

nutrition, habitation and other basic human needs. Millions of children die every

year of under weight, pneumonia, diarrhoea, tetanus, birth hazards, lime and other

diseases. Besides a large number of children are also attacked with blindness for

lack of vitamin A. About 40% children drop out before completion of primary

level education and most of them get involved in child labour They engaged in

agricultural activities and help their mothers in domestic work in rural areas and