Money is being traded for loyalty in Chittagong, where city corporation candidates are paying underprivileged children to campaign for them and bolster participation in election processions.
The use of children – who are excluded from the franchise and whose use in such activities are a violation of the Child Act, 2013 – is not new in Bangladesh, experts said.
But the practice is damaging to children, they added. They are at risk of injury as they run alongside loud-speaker mounted campaign vehicles. And the risk of getting caught in clashes between rival camps is always there.
The Dhaka Tribune found Chittagong’s street children deployed to the front line of election processions in the port city, marching and chanting slogans for their candidate-employers. Several election camps were found being operated by children.
Working for snacks and small sums of cash, many of them told the Dhaka Tribune they had joined the campaigning to earn pocket money.
Advocate Mili Chowdhury said: “While there is no specific provision in the electoral code of conduct about the use of children in campaigning, the practice is unethical.”
“Children are not voters and there is no reason they should be involved in electioneering,” said the lawyer who is involved with women and children’s issues.
Chittagong City Corporation Assistant Returning Officer Md Shafiqul Islam said using children in campaigns violates children’s rights.
He said the electoral code of conduct prohibits election processions, so the participation of children in such activities automatically violates the rules.
Chittagong Bar Association president Advocate Mujibul Haque said: “Sometimes underprivileged children are enthusiastic about joining election campaigns, but we must discourage them.
“Most adult campaigners use children to misappropriate candidates’ election funds, bagging campaign fund money for themselves.”
Mujibul said while there is no specific provision in the electoral code of conduct about the issue, the use of children violates the Child Act, 2013.
The chairman of the Psychology Department at Chittagong University, Syed Mohammad Sajjad Kabir, said children might not be affected by such risky work in the short-term but there could be longer term detrimental effects.
“They could lose their belief in others, kindness, honesty, dignity and peacefulness as a result of seeing election campaigns at close quarters,” he said.
