People only wonder what is the nature of crime that a young child driven by poverty and hunger working as a domestic help has committed that would cause an educated and affluent family to gang up on a defenceless child! Sometimes it so happens that such young domestic helps, just on suspicion of taking away some money left on the table or small gold ornaments kept in open drawers are subjected to such tortures for eliciting a confession. In most cases they are honest and try to earn the confidence, love and affection of their masters through their service. Strangely enough, if a child makes the slightest mistake, he/she is made to pay for it through scolding or in most cases physical abuses of the worst kind.

Statistics of staggering number children, to the tune of about 30 million under six years remaining uncared for without proper food and schooling in the country point to a grim future of the country. Although the number of children initially enrolled at primary schools range upto 75 percent, almost 60 percent of them drop out mainly due to poverty and cruel environment. Only 40 percent of these colossal number can somehow cross the primary stage of schooling. The number of street children in the country, as revealed in a report by the UNICEF would rise to a staggering figure of about 18 lakh and out of these numbers there would be about five lakh children loitering in the streets just as errand boys other than a vast number eking out a miserable existence without food, nutrition and shelter.

There are about 1,50,000 children working as domestic helps in Dhaka city alone and a vast majority of the remaining are engaged in about 430 types of works, mostly degrading. While other countries in the world talk about the need to invest in their youth, much of Bangladesh has converted its youth into a pernicious capital investment. In a host of small scale factories and work houses, it is children who dip matchsticks into phosphorous, mix the gunpowder for fire crackers, roll the bidis and weave the carpets.

Child labour is hardly a new concern, having been fiercely debated and mostly withdrawn from the West long ago. The phenomenon still persists in the developing world and lately it has been receiving world attention. Even in India, because of the prevalence of child labour in carpet and rug industries German and US buyers boycotted the Indian carpets. Shockingly, so far 58 of India's 2500 registered carpet manufacturers have been approved by Rugmark, a certifying body giving a label that the products were not made by children.

Despite the fact that child labourers have been withdrawn from the garments sector following international pressure, there are still thousands of children now in the country eking out a living under oppressive situations in other vocations. These are the children who are working either to support themselves or their families. The number of children doing such odd jobs as splitting stones for the construction workers, or picking trash from the streets or packing groceries, working as hotel boys or coolies in bus and railway stations etc. outnumber those 10,000 childworkers just withdrawn from the garments factories. Haroon, a boy of 12 who works in a hotel in the busy Motijheel area of the city had high hopes in life. He wanted to study and help the family through a meaningful employment, but with the death of his father in a road accident all his hopes have been dashed to ground. He now works on a monthly pay of 400 taka with free food and lodging.

His mother who works as a maid in a house in the Dhanmondi area in Dhaka could not avoid exploitation by the traffickers. Most disquieting, despite sanctimonious pronouncements by the government and in some cases passing tougher laws, child sex industry is booming up in the country. Girls' born of poor parents are being put into this trade by some human predators inside the country. They are the ones who are never caught and punished because of their cosy nexus allegedly with law enforcers and political masters.

Grim accounts of poor girls under 14 being taken away from around the country and sold to prostitutions are pouring in. They have to sell their bodies in different areas of Dhaka, Narayangang, Chittagong and Khulna often unnoticed by the administration and society at large because they were born poor. In spite of the fact that the country has stricter laws to stop such abuse, we have hardly been able to ensure protection to these teenagers.

The condition of the children lacking support of the family or parents in the country beggars description. They wander homeless in the streets of big cities often surviving by thieving or begging in absence of any means of living. They die by the thousands every day of preventable diseases like Malaria, T.B. diarrohea etc. Whether society and the administration has cared to see or not, the fact remains that they are the most disadvantaged children of the country. If the present trend that reflects lack of serious monitoring and funding continued, many of these youngsters will die of illness or mainly malnutrition in the long run. Their neglect by the government has led to such a colossal and hopeless state of things. The plight of these homeless children bereft of any educational support and family backing can be as sad and shocking as could be possible. The city's garbage dumps are home to many of them. These rubbish pickers spend their days sifting through mountains of obnoxious refuse, looking for recyclable objects. But how can society and the administration face such a cruel fact that God's best creation, because they were born poor or with no father or mother to support them in the most formative years of their lives, are destined to end up in garbage dumps or in cardboard shanties?

Although the law in the country prohibits employment of children under 14, it is seldom enforced. With the enactment of stricter laws that would put an end to child abuse, repression and trafficking, one can only envision a happy and prosperous future for the country. Because when the children are happy, educated and did not suffer from diseases and malnutrition, there would be no terrorism in the country.

Statistics revealed that if the world leaders could urge people in their countries to spend only pennies per child, that additional annual expenditures of $2.5 billion a year worldwide could prevent 50 million deaths, mostly children in this decade. That amount is equivalent to what world's military establishments, taken together, shell out each day.

There is some reason for optimism. Almost two thirds of the yearly deaths in children caused by diarrhea and dehydration are due to contaminated food and water. All these can be treated or prevented at low cost. In case of diarrhoeal disease which accounts for 30 per cent of deaths, the life saver is a 7 cm packet containing a dry mixture of salt, sugar and potassium that when mixed with water, is used in oral dehydration therapy. If administered in time ORT which costs 3 to 4 Taka a packet stops diarrhoea and restores vital electrolytes before the affected child goes into fatal shock.

Despite the success we have attained in immunisation programme, the children of the country suffer inexorably. Presumably, penicillin and vaccines are no antidote to the abuse, neglect and denial of opportunity to these unfortunate teeming millions who continue to lead a life of misery, squalor and exploitation because they are born poor. Unless we can affirm the right of children to a life free from exploitation, neglect and abuse guaranteeing them access to food, health care and education and ensuring protection, our commitment to democracy and national prosperity will remain a distant dream.

Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher and controller of examinations, BUET.