National Child Rights Day: Family murders on the rise

Layla Begum, daughter of Momtaz, says her brother attacked her father with bamboo pole when he got denied the money to buy drugs. Umar’s mother Umme Kulsum filed a case against her only son with the Sharishabari police station the next day and Umar is now in custody. Just a week before, on September 16, 17-year-old Fardin Huda tried to kill his mother Silvia Huda and father ATM Rafiqul Huda by setting the house on fire after not getting the money to buy a new motorcycle. In critical condition, Rafiqul was taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital burn and plastic surgery unit but he succumbed to the injuries. Such crimes appear to be happening almost every few days across the country. In this changing crime pattern, a growing number of people are losing their lives in the hands of their loved ones. Sometimes parents are being killed by children and sometimes it is the children who are being killed by their parents. S Ahsan Habib, professor of Dhaka University (DU) Sociology, said demands made by youth on their parents were going out of control. “Parents of young children will get them anything no matter the cost, without a thought,” he said. “If a child gets everything without having to pay for it then the demands keep going up.” On the other hand, filicides were caused by parents’ frustration and personal degradation which create a social gap, the sociologist said. “People need to spend most of their time with near ones to develop mutual understanding and sharing,” he added. On September 27, Sayed Ali Farazi was killed by his son Monir Farazi in Uttar Charbishwas village of Patuakhali. Monir attacked his father when he tried to stop him from beating his wife. In Dhaka’s Banasree, 14-year-old Nushrat Jahan and 6-year-old Alvi Aman were killed by their mother Mahfuza Malek on February 28. According to Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), a children’s rights group, of the 266 children who were killed in 2015, 79 of them or about one-third, were killed by parents. The number was 24 in 2014. Prof Zia Rahman, chairman of DU criminology department, says social changes are going on in our society as a result of massive globalisation. “Due to the massive invasion of western culture, people now getting many things without expectation,” he said. “It has become difficult for many people to became stable in this situation, which results in these kinds of criminal offense,” he added. Prof Dr Asoke Kumar Saha, chairman of psychology department at Jagannath University, says such problems do not develop in people’s minds overnight. “Different kinds of changes can be observed in behavior or activities when people become violent.” If such symptoms are noticed in a person they need to be engaged in immediate discussions about their ongoing problems and taken for consultation from counselors or psychologists if necessary, he added.