Children boys and girls under 14. The UN Convention of the Rights of Children treats every human being below the age 18 years as a child. The convention allows every society to consider its own laws and customs. Children in Bangladesh are grouped in three categories: shishu - anybody under 5 years of age, balak or balika - a child of 6 to 10 years and kishor or kishori - a child of age between 11 and 14.

In 1997, Bangladesh had a total population of 124.3 million, of whom the number of children was 61.75 million. The population below 18 years constituted 49.6% of the total and below 14 years - 40.63% of the total.

The family system in Bangladesh is mostly patriarchal, except in some ethnic minority groups. The father is responsible under law for taking care of the children. But the children remain close to their mother, whose role in shaping their character is predominant. Generally, boys start getting away from their mothers in their kishor age, when they are guided by the father or other male guardians. Girls remain close to the mother or female relatives.

The birth of a child is a joyful event for the family. Muslims observe aqiqah, a religious festival. Cows or goats have to be sacrificed for the welfare of the newly born child. The Hindu's social ritual for the occasion is annaprashana. The birthday of children in better-off families, especially in urban areas, are now observed in the western style. Parents love children and often give top priority to fulfilling their needs but traditionally, ignore their opinions, arguing that they understand little. In some cases, simple survival demands do not allow poor parents to take much care of their children.

Children in Bangladesh, especially in the rural areas and in conservative families, are often subject to gender discrimination. Many parents think that the male child represent heredity. The birth of a male child in a Muslim family is marked by Azan and in a Hindu family, by music from the holy shankha. In the Akika of a girl, a goat is sacrificed, but in that of a boy, a cow or two goats. A kishor (boy) enjoys more freedom than does a kishori (girl). The boy is allowed to go outside of the house more frequently than a girl, who is to remain with her mother or aunts to help in a household work or is to imply stay inside because of purda and 'security'. From very early age, boys and girls in Bangladesh society wear different dresses. Boys wear pants, shirts, lungis, pidjamas, panjabis, etc. and girls wear salwar-kamijes, urnas, saris, etc. The girls are to keep long hair from their early age.

Traditionally, only the father or a senior male person in the family is the legal guardian of a family. Only the father's name is put in the school register and elsewhere. Recently, however, the government has issued an administrative order to put the mother's name along with the father's in the school-register book. Child marriage, although officially banned, continues to take place in many parts of the country. Arranged marriage is still the prevalent feature and the opinion of the girl in question is largely ignored.

In Bangladesh, children have little scope for enjoying their childhood. Most village boys help their fathers in the fields from an early age. The girls are engaged in household work. Slum boys and girls have to earn own livelihood, most of the time, for themselves and often, for their families.

A large number of children are born with physical and mental handicaps. Such children are neglected within the family as well as in society. Although some schools and training centres have been established for these children, entry to these institutions is restricted to the privileged few.

Bangladesh was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC). In addition, the Constitution of Bangladesh ensures children's rights by its various articles. For example, Article 14 of the Constitution prohibits all kinds of exploitations. Article 15(d) ensures the right of social security of people of all age groups. Article 17 provides for adopting effective measures for the purpose of establishing a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education for all children. Labour laws prohibit child labour in Bangladesh. Primary education is now free and compulsory. Girls enjoy special facilities and stipend in studies up to the secondary level. However, not all rights of children or of girls are ensured in practice.

Every year about two and a half million children are born in Bangladesh. About three-fourths of all children in the country live below the poverty line. Child mortality is very high. In the early 1990s, for every thousand children born alive 12 died within several hours of birth, 8 due to birth trauma and 4 due to prematurity. A further 23 died within a week, 16 due to prematurity and 7 as a result of neonatal tetanus. Poverty, inadequate housing, malnutrition, shortage of pure drinking water, sanitation, primary health care, immunisation and inadequate knowledge of hygiene, teen-age motherhood, etc are causes of the high infant mortality. The infant mortality rate in rural areas is higher than in urban areas.

Child trafficking has become a regular phenomenon. Children are being smuggled to the Middle East and other countries for various exploitative and abusive purposes. Bangladeshi children are found in large number in brothels at home and abroad. Children are also being used as camel jockeys in the Gulf countries.

Bangladesh officially launched the education for all plan (EFA) in March 1992. But a large number of children still remain beyond coverage of primary education. 76% boys and 64% girls enroll in primary schools. Children of rich families in urban areas attend kindergarten, which are divided into two categories, English medium and Bengali medium. Children of lower classes of urban areas go to conventional primary schools. Rural children go to primary schools and to ebtedayee madrasahs. Solvent families in rural and urban areas employ private tutors for their children. In urban areas, coaching classes are organised, where children take extra lessons. The children of Muslim families learn the Holy quran at home and in mosques. Interested guardians in urban areas send children to music schools for lessons in music and dancing. In many towns there are specialised libraries for children to read books. In addition, there are organisations, which develop children's literary and cultural faculties.

Children in Bangladesh do not have access to facilities in games and sports. Not all schools have adequate arrangements. Whatever little provisions are available, are created by communities. They consist of some open space in the village or town for boys to play football or traditional games like hadudu, dariabandha and kana machi bho bho. In rural areas, children also play within the house premises. But in urban areas, children do not have the opportunity simply because of the lack of space. Indoor games like table tennis, carom, chess and video games are the privileges of urban children only, but that too only for those having access to medium and large educational establishments. Girls are virtually excluded from the benefit of playing outdoor games. In villages they play with dolls and in urban areas, some of them play indoor games.

Despite the fact that existing labour laws prohibit child labour, a large number of children are employed in the formal and informal sectors, eg small industries, workshops, restaurants, sweetmeat shops, motor garages, bus and tempos, construction, tea plantations, agriculture, domestic work etc. Their employment however, is rarely secure. Sometimes they receive only subsistence rations for survival. And these, in many cases, are considered as favours. In some cases children are nearer to what can be called bond labour. Child labourers are often assigned tasks beyond their physical capacity. Many of them work in hazardous conditions among dangerous fumes, gases, asbestos, lead, sodium etc. As a result, they have to suffer from skin diseases, heart diseases, bronchial problems, etc. In domestic service the child, especially a girl child, has every possibility of being abused. A large number of children die from fire, accidents by machinery, toxic substances, injury and violence.

The most vulnerable category of children is known as street children or street urchins commonly known as tokais. These children survive by picking things from the street, dustbins and other places. Street children have no parents. Actually, they are born on the street, live on the street and die on it. Some of them have parents but have no contacts with them. Factors forcing children to the street are mainly poverty, broken family, running away from family, and sexual abuse. Nobody takes care of vagrant children. They live at stations, bus terminals, office premises and in parks, streetsides etc, or under the open sky. [Abu Sayeed Khan]

Children policy The ministry of women and children affairs of the government formulated a National Children Policy in December 1994. This is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter states that it is essential to adopt an appropriate programme of action for welfare of the children in the interest of the overall development of the country and that it is desirable that everyone should participate in the task of helping every child grow into an able citizen. To promote children's welfare the government enacted a law in 1974 and established the Bangladesh Shishu Academy in 1976. Bangladesh was an early signatory to the UN Charter of Children's Rights and has since been taking steps to implement its provisions.

Chapter two defines a child as one who has not crossed the age of 14. Chapter three explains that because of dearth of resources, underdevelopment and lack of employment, many children are deprived of their basic rights to education, health, nutrition and housing. Chapter four speaks of the objectives of the policy. To ensure a child's right to live, it is necessary to provide him security of health, nutrition and person. To ensure his overall mental growth, it is necessary to educate him. Other objectives outlined in the policy are to help develop a child's sense of moral, cultural and social values; to take necessary steps to help develop his family environment; to ensure special support for handicapped children; to adopt policies to ensure maximum protection of children's rights at national, social, family and personal levels; and to ensure legal rights of children in national, social and family activities.

Chapter five describes of implementation of these objectives. The sixth chapter outlines the strategies to ensure implementation of the objectives. To ensure overall welfare of the children, it is necessary to give particular attention to management at family, group or social levels; to develop institutional management at village level and ensure people's participation in the activities of the government's social welfare institutions; to strengthen management of government institutions to ensure proper rehabilitation of homeless and helpless children; and, when necessary, to create new institutions and enlist support of non-government organisations.

The seventh chapter describes the way a national children council is to be formed and its agenda. The children policy concludes with the declaration that it was the objective of the policy to ensure that all children of the country, irrespective of their caste, colour, gender, language, religion or belief, social status, wealth, birth or any other status, enjoy all rights and opportunities equally. [Golam Kibria]