Over and over again, it has been reiterated that progress, development, or ambitions - none of these words mean much if we are unable to care for and provide a safe, dignified life to the people of this country - especially to children, who are our future.
To that end, as per the preliminary findings of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2025 (MICS 2025), jointly released on Sunday by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and Unicef, we should be deeply concerned that we are seriously failing on this front.
The numbers are truly damning; from a survey of nearly 63,000 households, it has been determined that 1.2 million more children have been pushed into labour since 2019, 38% of children aged 12–59 months now carry dangerous levels of lead in their blood, with Dhaka’s rate soaring to 65%, and 47% of girls in our nation are married before 18.
All of these numbers point to nothing if not a national emergency.
Child labour, lead poisoning, and child marriage each on their own are issues we have been struggling with ever since our inception as a nation, but this survey lays bare just how much, combined, they are hurting the future of our nation.
The time has come to heed these findings with the seriousness it warrants, and get to work with immediate effect. There is no scope to underinvest in our children, and doing so will only result in a nation with stunted growth, lost productivity, and deepened inequality.
Protecting our children and our future must be our primary goal. Nothing else matters as much.