Destitute Children and Initiatives for their Welfare in Bangladesh

that such types of children of different cities in the country are undergoing much

hardship in their day to day life. They are also compelled to engage various in

types of crimes particularly, snatching, smuggling, pilfering, prostitution, stealing

and so on. These street children are deprived of their rights. Out of 0.675 million

children 31% are literate, 19% can only write their names and 37% can read

and write (GOB, 2004: 27). According to a study conducted by BIDS, there are

about 4,29,813 street children at the six divisional cities in Bangladesh. Of them

2,49,200 (58.8%) are at Dhaka city, 55,856 (12.7%) are at Chittagong, 20,426

(4.7%) at Rajshahi, 41,474 (9.5%) and Khulna, 9,771 (2.2%) at Barisal and 13,165

(1.4%) at Sylhet City (Sabur, 2005: 7).

Child labour

According to a study report, about 12% of the total labour forces of the registered

industries are children in Bangladesh. The number of child labour would definitely

be more in the unregistered industries. According to a survey, about 0.675 million

children are working as child labour in different cities (Ali, 2004: 12) and of them

about 4,45,226 are working in the six divisional cities (GOB, 2005: 10).According

to government statistics published in December 1992, there were 3,25,660 child

labour in the country. Of them 64,172 were garments labour, 12,802 were bidi

factory labour, 1,11,225 were at food industry (Hotel, Restaurant etc.) labour and

99,810 were transport sector labour (Alam, 1997: 5). According to a research study

on child labour conducted at national level in 1996, about 60,300 children who are

in between 4 – 15 years are engaged as labour. Instead of going to school they are

working in different industries. If the figure of child labour who are going to school

is included, the total number of child labour will be more than that. 83% child labour

who do not go to school are in village areas and the number of female and male of

them is almost same (BBS: 2004). According to ILO and UNICEF report, 47.93%

child labour of Bangladesh never went to schools before and 42.73% who went to

school dropped out and were engaged in child labour (Pelto, 1997: 104). This child

labour are engaged in agricultural activities and help their mothers in domestic work

in rural areas and work as small vehicle helpers, garments workers, assistants in

brick field, shoe polishers, construction workers, sex workers, carpenters, tannery

workers, hawkers etc. in the urban areas.

Child trafficking

According to official records of the Ministry of Home Affairs and district

administration, about 708 women and children were the victims of trafficking

during the last four years. Of them, 470 were rescued. Generally, male child aged

between 2 years to 12 years are trafficked for “camel joki” in the Middle East and

female child aged on an average 16 years are trafficked and sold for prostitution

at the brothels of India and Pakistan (BSAF, 2003:48). But another study reveals

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