Last month, in my opinion article, “Child Safety: Beyond Ideological Polarization,” published in the Dhaka Tribune, I argued that the sexual abuse of children -- including cases occurring within madrasa settings -- is fundamentally a structural governance challenge rooted in weak accountability mechanisms, regulatory failures, and institutional neglect.
The urgency of this argument has become even more evident in recent days. Disturbing content has been circulating on TikTok, featuring madrasa teachers openly sexualizing and objectifying their child students.
Accompanied by provocative comments, this trend reveals a deeper social crisis: The normalization of predatory attitudes toward children and the total absence of effective preventive safeguards.
It forces us to confront an uncomfortable question: Why do these educational institutions continue to fail to ensure child safety, and why does the state allow it?
To answer these questions, we must look beyond surface-level moral failings and examine the institutional architecture within which these abuses occur.
Bangladesh’s response to child protection crises remains trapped in a reactive cycle. After every tragedy, public anger intensifies, demands for justice peak, and political leaders offer swift sympathy.
Following the heartbreaking Ramisa case, the prime minister’s visit to the victim's family and commitment to justice provided necessary, immediate reassurance. Such gestures matter, but they cannot substitute for the institutional systems required to prevent abuse before it occurs.
Before the election, the prime minister repeatedly assured the public, "I have a plan” for the nation. We must now ask for the procedural details of the plan regarding the protection of children.
We can no longer afford institutional silence, nor can we accept abstract promises.
The current crisis demands a coordinated national response. The government should initiate immediate cross-sector collaboration to develop a concrete, actionable child protection roadmap.
This roadmap cannot remain a policy document alone; it must address the deep, internal layers of madrasa management -- including labour standards, teacher residency rules, child protection training, independent monitoring, complaint mechanisms, and external oversight.
Most importantly, the roadmap must answer practical questions: How will children be protected tomorrow? How will the educational institutions be monitored? What mechanisms will ensure absolute accountability?
A plan on paper is not a plan in practice. The true measure of leadership is not how effectively it responds to public outrage after harm occurs, but whether it builds institutions capable of preventing abuse in the first place.
Our children deserve more than sympathy after they suffer; they deserve a system designed to protect them before tragedy strikes.
Aisha Siddika is a PhD Candidate at McMaster University, Canada. She can be reached at: asiddika@alumni.uwo.ca.