A roundtable discussion on the “Sexual Exploitation of Children in Bangladesh” was arranged by Terre des Hommes (TDH) Netherlands and Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday.
Rights activists from various organisations and senior media professionals were among the participants. Reaz Ahmad, executive editor of Dhaka Tribune, moderated the discussion.
Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) Program Coordinator (Child Rights Unit) Ambika Roy and INCIDIN Bangladesh Manager (Legal Policy and Support) Rafiqul Islam Khan Alom delivered presentations on the findings of the project DTZ: Building Back Project implemented by Terre des Hommes Netherlands ASK and INCIDIN Bangladesh funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs that served as a basis for the discussions that followed. A significant part of the discussion is highlighted here.
Mahmudul Kabir, Country Director, Terre des Hommes Netherlands
Child sexual exploitation is a global phenomenon and Bangladesh is not an exception. From a project, we can only create evidence. Today’s discussion is also a shred of evidence.
Child abuse is most common in our family and in our community, which remains hidden in most cases. These types of exploitations create huge mental and physical damage. The study also suggests that many couldn’t forget the trauma of the incident for the rest of their life. We only get to observe the gruesomeness of it through a handful of published incidents in the media.
1.2 million children are in the worst forms of child labour and 93% of them are in the informal sector. Children of informal child labour are extremely vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
Tony Micheal Gomes, Communication and Advocacy Director, World Vision Bangladesh
We can do roundtables or seminars or workshops at the highest level to give a push to the human mind for a short period of time.
For years, organizations like ours have been organizing various programs and the media stood by us. But it has proved that it is not a sustainable approach.
Due to our limited resources, NGOs do not have the capacity to deal with child abuse, sex education and rape in the first place. As time goes on, NGOs will reduce these activities further because funding has decreased.
Abdullah Al Mamun, Director, Child Protection and Child Rights Governance, Save the Children International
The number of underage children coming to brothels has decreased. In the last 10 years, we have rescued 246 children from two brothels in Faridpur and one brothel in Goalondo. And they have been reintegrated into the family and into the Safe Home of Social Welfare.
If we want to reduce child exploitation, we need to increase our preventive approach as well as our responsive approach.
Golam Monowar Kamal, Executive Director, Ain O Shalish Kendra
Children are our wealth. Those who will represent the vision of 2040 are but today's children. That is why we will see the rewards of the amount we invest in today's children. If we want to increase our remittances we have to increase the investment in children.
We have to build up society for the long run. When news about child exploitation gets published or broadcast it creates a buzz among the citizens thus aware people of it. If we can create a platform for discussion about these issues as a society, that will benefit our country.
Reaz Ahmed, Executive Editor, Dhaka Tribune
Media, government, and NGOs all have a role to play here. We all have to go to that solution together.
I believe that change will come over only if we all move forward together.
There is no need to start from scratch. Non-government actors can influence government actors in policy making.
Md Rafiqul Islam Khan Alom, Manager Legal and Policy Support, INCIDIN Bangladesh
The GO and NGO relationship has to be enriched. What was our big initiative for this project was to make it easier and take forward the notion surrounding the phrase child exploitation where we hesitate to pronounce the words child abuse at the policy-making stage level of the government.
The legal framework that we have, such as the Child Protection Act, Pornography Act, and the Prevention Act in Child Marriage, is a very weak structure in the place of need.
The government must always come forward to prevent violence against women and children. And the act of resistance has to be done by bringing together all sections of society from the grassroots level to other stakeholders of the society. Because every stakeholder has a big role to play.
Ambika Roy, Programme Coordinator, Child Rights Unit Ain O Shalish Kendro(ASK)
Some major achievements are that 110 victim children received legal and other support; health and psycho-social counselling support from the NGOs maintain shelter homes through referral and linkage; reintegrated 11 children into their family and community by providing the necessary support; and built a network with 20 like-minded organizations at two districts (Satkhira and Tangail
Mustafa Mamun, Executive Editor, Daily Desh Rupantor
Sexual harassment is a heinous crime. And when it comes to children, it's actually the worst crime if anything.
If we look at the social system later, we will see that it is not child-friendly at all. There is no system at any level of society where there are special arrangements for children.
Shafiq Alam, Bureau Chief, AFP
Child abuse is a major area of child sexual exploitation which remains ignored. We have a lot of work to do that was rape in madrasa. One thing we noticed here is that rights groups are very reluctant to work on this issue. We have seen that madrasa-centric publications are writing about these issues and how and where these incidents are taking place.
Nurul Amin Probhash, Head of News, ATN News
The issues we are discussing are also a visible part of a huge iceberg. We don't get to see the real scenario.
Not only girls we see that boys are also vulnerable. The bottom line is that both boys and girls are at risk.
A small bad touch can traumatize a child for their entire life.
Mohammad Anwar Sadi, Content Editor, The Business Standard
A child gets educated about good touch and bad touch from the family in developed countries. Learning it from school and family these children can raise their voices against it. It doesn’t mean they are out of risk but they at least can be vocal about it.
Mostofa Kamal, News Editor, Bangla Vision
One thing we must admit is that the number of crimes has decreased a little bit during the pandemic. However, sexual abuse of children has not decreased in the last two years.
We need to protect our children. However, I think it is better not to segregate between online and offline abuses. Because whatever is said online and offline is the main thing that child abuse has increased and is happening.
What is the number of disabled children in the picture of child abuse in the last few years? Why are people with disabilities being selected? What is the purpose? These inevitably demand analysis and research.
Fuad Ahmed Chowdhury, CEO, Deepto TV
Child abuse has increased rather than decreased. New types have been added due to the online platform and the internet.
It took us more than a year to create a children's program. We named it Mukto Khobor at ETV. There the children would do research, write scripts and produce programs. The things that we learned from that program are the things that don’t suit adults to talk about but the children highlight them in their own way and the audience would listen to them. A huge audience was created for Mukto Khobor. But the children were able to raise their voices because they had the media backup to do it.
Many agencies came to us and said we want to do a talk show. I said what will be the outcome of doing a talk show and urged them to work together on this type of issue. But unfortunately, I hardly get any response from them.
Tanvir Chowdhury, Representative, Al Jazeera
From my experience, I think people need to talk about it. You cannot hide behind the bush. Because of social stigma, people even fear talking about these issues on a talk show.
As long as these issues are not discussed openly, awareness among the people will not increase. Many parents are so ignorant even children think they are dumb. Parents can’t be blamed either since there is a knowledge gap here because of how they grew up.
The Internet cannot be subjugated because it is a very important tool for children, women and society as a whole. It can be monitored. You have to use it and overcome its obstacles and move forward.
Apart from including schools in creating awareness these issues need to be discussed in talk shows. Seminars or workshops don’t solve the problem but it creates awareness.
Mahmudul Al Faisal, Head Of News, SATV
There is inconsistency in the definition of oppression. The issue of child abuse has been mentioned with women’s oppression.
Laws and acts as in the pages of the book but we do not notice their application.
A safety net must be built for children so the silence has to be broken.
Everyone has to be included in it. When voices are raised from all walks of life, the government will rise to ensure child protection through the national legal framework.
Mahbub Alam, Programme Manager, Gender Justice And Diversity Program, BRAC
The image of child abuse that emerges every year is not the whole picture. Because there are a lot of unreported cases where the victims do not talk about torture on them. The main reason behind this is victim-blaming.
If we orient our children about these types of issues from the family as a primary institution a lot of problems can be resolved.
Pranab Saha, News Editor, DBC
One-third of our population is children. Children need to be given time be it in this seminar, be it in the family or anywhere in the society.
Key points of the discussion
1. Getting information about child exploitation is a big challenge. Experts suggested researching the environmental factors behind the heinous crime. They also suggest more research on the sexual exploitation of male children studying in madrassas and more initiatives to prevent child marriage.
2. Despite having many acts to stop child exploitation, there are weaknesses in the implementation of such acts.
3. Parenting training is integral for child development and protection. In our country, this type of training should be introduced. parents needed to be made aware so that they could identify if their children were suffering after being subjected to sexual exploitation.
4. The media should be more vocal about child exploitation. Media sanitization needs to be increased.
5. There is a need to conduct an awareness program.
6. Sexual exploitation should be incorporated into the curriculum at the primary school level.
7. Teachers’ roles required to be recognized, and they needed to be friends with students and teach them about sexual exploitation from an early age.
8. A separate Directorate is needed for children under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.