Our children are the future, the individuals responsible for building Bangladesh into the prosperous, progressive nation it is destined to be. However, not all Bangladeshi children are in a position to aspire to such heights due to the socioeconomic disadvantage they have been dealt well before they were even born, and it is up to the administration to finally recognize just how imperative it is for Bangladesh to turn its attention to its innumerable street children.
An eye-opening Dhaka Tribune story details the numerous challenges that street children face in our country, with abject poverty and starvation pushing far too many of them into a life of substance abuse and even crime. A Unicef survey from the past year revealed that the number of disadvantaged street children in the country has risen to 3.5 million, with 400,500 of them living on the streets of Dhaka.
There is a very real mental health crisis affecting Bangladesh’s street children population, with a study focused on 80 disadvantaged street children and 20 guardians in the capital city finding that 82.5% of children had suffered from mental trauma, while 12.5% had experienced physical trauma, with the main causes of mental trauma cited being sexual abuse, witnessing violence, relationship challenges, and neglect.
Experts have argued that there is an urgent need for mental health support when it comes to street children, but this issue is almost always placed in the backburner despite its severity.
While this is not a problem that can be remedied overnight, the plight of street children underscore the necessity of Bangladesh focusing more on its social safety net programs and making mental health a much more fundamental component of our overall healthcare infrastructure -- such voids are pushing our children, the future of this nation, to a life of abuse and crime.
There are few prospects as tragic as letting our future die out in the streets due to neglect.
An eye-opening Dhaka Tribune story details the numerous challenges that street children face in our country, with abject poverty and starvation pushing far too many of them into a life of substance abuse and even crime. A Unicef survey from the past year revealed that the number of disadvantaged street children in the country has risen to 3.5 million, with 400,500 of them living on the streets of Dhaka.
There is a very real mental health crisis affecting Bangladesh’s street children population, with a study focused on 80 disadvantaged street children and 20 guardians in the capital city finding that 82.5% of children had suffered from mental trauma, while 12.5% had experienced physical trauma, with the main causes of mental trauma cited being sexual abuse, witnessing violence, relationship challenges, and neglect.
Experts have argued that there is an urgent need for mental health support when it comes to street children, but this issue is almost always placed in the backburner despite its severity.
While this is not a problem that can be remedied overnight, the plight of street children underscore the necessity of Bangladesh focusing more on its social safety net programs and making mental health a much more fundamental component of our overall healthcare infrastructure -- such voids are pushing our children, the future of this nation, to a life of abuse and crime.
There are few prospects as tragic as letting our future die out in the streets due to neglect.