Absence of children affairs desks at police stations is discouraging young victims from lodging complaints and sharing information with investigators, ultimately denying justice to many of them, children rights bodies say.
Take the case of a 14-year-old school girl from Demra for example. She was allegedly raped by her neighbour in the capital on Monday. Once freed from the rapist’s clutches, she informed her parents of the ordeal and who later filed a case against the suspect, 22-year-old Saddam Hossain.
As the victim is a child, the case was supposed to be handled by a child desk official at the police station. But the police station concerned did neither have a child desk nor any officials assigned to it.
Demra police station’s Sub-Inspector Sumon Bhoumik told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday that he was investigating the case. “I spoke to the victim with the help of a female constable to follow up the case,” he said. The victim is undergoing treatment at the One-Stop Crisis Centre at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
When asked why no officer was assigned to the child desk, Sub-inspector Ahad, who was the duty officer yesterday evening, said: “You know nothing. Such officials are only available at the victim support centres under the Dhaka Metropolitan Police at Tejgaon.”
The condition is almost the same at 49 police stations under the DMP – most of them do not provide the services. In August last year, the police headquarters instructed police stations across the country to set up a separate child related desk.
It asked them to assign a separate official, preferably a sub-inspector and if possible a female one, to handle the desk. The police headquarters directed district police superintendents and deputy commissioners of the metropolitan areas concerned to monitor the child desks and their activities.
The Children Act 2013 stipulates establishing such desk at every police station. But two years after the act was passed and six months since the police headquarters dispatched the directive, many police officers still know nothing about the child affairs desk.
Dhaka Tribune contacted Salahuddin Khan, officer-in-charge of Banani police station, regarding the issue. “What is that?” he asked this correspondent. “Why is it needed?”
Even the police high-ups showed negligence. DMP Deputy Commissioner Maruf Hossain Sarder told the Dhaka Tribune that he needed time to learn the latest status of the desk.
At some stations, police officers claimed they had shortage of manpower. Abdul Jalil, officer-in-charge of Badda police station, said they could not separately assign an officer for the task as they did not have enough manpower.
A recent survey by the World Vision and Center For Service and Information on Disability (DSID), showed only seven police stations in Dhaka had dedicated child affairs desks. DSID Project Manager Akram Hossian told the Dhaka Tribune that the actual number could very well be below that as some of the police stations that claimed to have child desks would not be able to show them.
But Assistant Inspector General of police Nazrul Islam refuted the claim. “Children-friendly police officers have been appointed to police stations across the country. But due to a shortage of space and manpower, it has not been possible to assign them to the specific desk.”
Children rights bodies claim the absence of child desks at police stations are contributing to a rise in crimes against children. Sabira Sultana, national advocacy coordinator of World Vision, said a child affairs police officer was supposed to pile up all the case status updates of an area and take actions accordingly.
“The absence of dedicated child affairs desks at most police stations in Bangladesh and many police officers’ ignorance about them are contributing to the continuation of crimes against children,” she added.
AS Mahmood, director of Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum, told the Dhaka Tribune that the children of the country were not getting proper justice in the absence of child desks headed by female officers as stipulated by the Children Act.
“A child victim fears sharing information with regular officials but information can be collected easily if a trained female officer is given charge of the case,” he pointed out.