Sexual violence in madrasas: sufferings remain unheard
By interviewing current and former students of Qawmi madrasas, we wanted to know why sexual violence happens in the institutions where they go to study the Quran and where they are supposed to maintain strict Islamic practices.
2w ago
Dhaka’s uninspiring govt primary schools
The government aims to build a “Smart Bangladesh” by 2041, but without fixing our faulty public education system, how far can it achieve this goal? The human resources for Bangladesh’s future are being short-changed at the primary education level, finds The Daily Star through visits to several schools right in the heart of the capital.
‘Textbooks cannot be made completely error-proof’
We need to think about how quickly and efficiently we can remove the errors and print the corrected versions.
The ordeal of patients with chronic kidney diseases
Four years ago, Md Tobarok Hossain left for Malaysia to work as a labourer on a palm oil plantation. He consciously accepted the brutal life of a plantation worker, only because he wanted to give his family a better life.
True grit for true identity
Perhaps even a few years ago, it was unimaginable for an openly trans person to pursue higher education in the country.
The overlooked plight of our soil
Around 11.07 million hectares of land, which accounts for 75 percent of the country’s geographical area, suffered soil nutrient depletion, found a recent study.
Living in the shadow of uncertainty
“Who will look after our child after our demise? Who will be their friends and family to depend on when we will not be there?”
Workers’ lives on the edge
Purchasing power of factory workers in the capital and its outskirts has fallen sharply amid surging inflation.
Unbearable burden on unemployed youth
The decision to increase the job application fees for government jobs, except for cadre posts, has outraged the country’s millions of job seekers who find it an additional burden on them, making their expenses heavier.
OTT ushers in a brave new world
It was stars galore at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre as celebrities, influencers and artistes alike were keen on witnessing a unique celebration -- Blender’s Choice - The Daily Star OTT & Digital Content Awards 2021.
Tea garden owners claim losses for strike
Tea estate owners in Bangladesh yesterday said they suffered losses of up to Tk 20 crore per day during the recent 18-day protest by estate workers as significant amounts of tea were wasted for the work abstention.
Is Bangladesh turning its back on renewable energy?
Bangladesh’s dependency on coal-based power plants is gradually increasing, when countries around the world are abandoning the technology to make electricity.
Plight and struggle of tea workers continue forever
Basanti Bauri, 40, of Moulvibazar works for a renowned tea estate as a “plucker”. Her day starts at 5:00am sharp. After paying homage to the family deity, she prepares food for her three children and husband.
Danny’s journey of changing lives
When Seeam Ul Karim was born, he brought immense joy to his parents’ life. However, within a few years, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurological and developmental condition that changed the lives of Seeam and his parents.
English medium schools: When money matters most
English medium schools have been charging exorbitant admission and tuition fees in the absence of any guidelines and monitoring, making it a constant struggle for guardians, especially those belonging to the middle-income bracket, to continue their children’s education.
‘Time to look at what we’re doing for our children’
Kamal Uddin Ahmed Chowdhury is a professor of the department of clinical psychology of Dhaka University and programme director of Nasirullah Psychotherapy Unit – an outpatient mental health unit managed by DU’s department of clinical psychology. He has been researching adolescent mental health and juvenile delinquency for decades. Recently he talked to The Daily Star about the sudden rise of criminal behaviour among youths and adolescents.
Why are teachers being targeted?
In the first six months of this year, three incidents of violence against teachers became newspaper headlines, showing a disturbing trend that is contrary to our traditional values of respecting and honouring teachers.
Universal pension starts from 2022-23
A universal pension scheme for citizens aged 61 and above will be introduced from fiscal 2022-23, said Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal yesterday.
Deprived of nutrition and healthcare
Garment workers are fighting a desperate battle to keep up with price hikes and inflation. Price of every essential is skyrocketing, but the workers wages have not increased a penny, said speakers at a conference.
East Jurain: Saga of a manmade mess
Ward 53 of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) covers most parts of East Jurain’s Muradpur area. According to the 2011 census, more than 27,000 people live in this ward which, according to them, has become probably the worst place to live in Dhaka.
Closed state-owned jute mills: Laid-off workers still not paid arrears
Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) could not pay arrears and benefits to all the laid-off government jute mill workers even after about two years.
Soaring cost of living: Middle class in a tight spot
Excluded from the government’s social safety net, middle-income families are struggling to cope with the rising prices of basic goods and services.
50% mothers of children with autism suffer from depression, counselling can help: Studies
When Aklima Akhter (not her real name) learned that her three-year-old son has autism, her world fell apart. A few months after getting this news, her husband married another woman, and Aklima’s in-laws told her that if she conceives another child, the baby will also have autism.
Bangabandhu Hi-Tech City likely to get $1.3b investment by 2025
Oryx Bio-Tech Limited was struggling for quite some time to find a suitable plot near Dhaka for building a large manufacturing plant -- the first-ever plasma fractionation plant in Bangladesh.
Online Birth Registration: Futuristic or farcical?
Naim Ahmed, a father of two, has been struggling to get the new digital 17-digit birth registration (BR) certificates for himself, his wife and children. All of them already have the old 16-digit BR certificates, and passports which were issued against them.
Global warming: Bangladesh loses 7b working hours a year
Bangladesh is losing 7 billion working hours annually due to extreme heat exposure caused by global warming, a new study reveals.
Digital birth registration: New system brings forth new hassles
If you don’t have a 17-digit birth registration certificate, get ready for a complex and stressful task to obtain one.
Over 9,000 job seekers in limbo
Over 9,000 jobseekers have been waiting for final results of their viva for recruitment at a project run by Bureau of Non-formal Education (BNFE), due to delay on the bureau’s part in finalising a key component of the project.
Never before seen images of carnage, hope and victory
April 11, 1971. Anne de Henning, a French photojournalist in her early twenties, crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border secretly to reveal the plight of the Bangladeshis to the world.
Crushed by rising inflation
“I simply cannot describe what I’m going through,” Tashdiq Hasan says, summing up his current financial pressure.
Playground only exists on paper
In the western corner of the National Parliament building adjacent to the Mirpur Road in the capital, a signboard with the inscription “proposed playground for children with disabilities” can be seen erected on a field covered with thick vegetation.
Dhaka’s Brahma Samaj: Reminiscent of an enlightened past
In a corner of Old Dhaka’s Patuatuli neighbourhood sits a temple where all faiths are respected, and followers of various faiths join in prayers and ceremonies. The temple belongs to Brahma Samaj, a monotheistic faith that evolved through the reformist movement of Hindu religion during late 18th century.
Small Businesses Drowning In Debt: Deprived of help for no documentation
Basudeb, who hails from a remote village in Patuakhali, thought he had carved out a comfortable life for himself and his family in Dhaka.
Depression in Pandemic: Cutting deeper thru the youth
Imrul Kayes, a student of mass communication and journalism at Rajshahi University, was suffering from severe depression.
School Reopening: Cautious optimism all around
Fourteen-year-old Shahabul Alam never thought a day would come where he would be impatient to get back into the classroom.
Lost lives, abandoned homes: East Jurain hit hard by dengue, locals blame city corporation
Hafiza, a mother of two children from East Jurain’s Khaja Mahbub Ali Road, has been suffering from dengue fever for more than 20 days. Her 12-year-old son, who was also infected, recently recovered after 13 days of a life or death struggle at a local hospital.
Kumudini: A trailblazer in healthcare charity
When Covid-19 patients are spending hundreds of thousands of taka to get treatment at hospitals and clinics, a hospital in Mirzapur -- a small town in Tangail district -- has been providing free treatment for all Covid-19 patients since May last year.
How Rohingya youth are fighting for education
Abdul Aman, a Rohingya boy of 18, was a student of grade eight in 2017. His dream was to travel abroad for higher education after completing his school.
Covid-19 Treatment Cost: Families go broke at pvt hospitals
When Covid patient Rokeya Sultana was fighting for her life in the ICU of a private hospital last week, her son Mamunur Rashid was found frantically talking over the phone with someone trying to convince that person to buy a piece of land from him.
OxyJet: the long road to approval
From the drawing board to the approval stamp, it’s been a long exhilarating process for OxyJet. But it isn’t over yet.
A tale of a landfill and its ravages
Abdus Salam, a long-time resident of Mridha Bari area, said the stench from Matuail landfill nearby has become unbearable in the last five to six years.
Surge in Covid Patients: Hospitals in city overwhelmed
Wednesday was a nightmare for Shipra Baidya and her family.
Expat Returnees: Cash assistance, counsel for them
The government is going to give Tk 13,500 and career counselling to 200,000 migrant workers who returned home amid the pandemic.
Left unpaid, living in misery
Around 34,000 temporary and substitute workers of state-run jute mills shut down in July last year have been living a miserable life as they are yet to get their dues.
It’s more than just lack of food
To live off the streets of Dhaka is not merely living in hunger, it also comes with an immense lack of security. For the “tokai” -- a child waste picker -- living in the capital, hunger and malnutrition is almost the least of their concern, with much bigger dangers lurking around all the time.
Lives buried under the weight of waste
At around 9 AM, two massive excavators were moving wastes from a waste dumping platform at Matuail Sanitary Landfill. Deafening noise from the engines and their gigantic moving arms equipped with teethed steel bucket could not make any impression on 10-year-olds Shabuj and Shajib.
Living on medical wastes
Md Rasel, a 27-year-old peddler, regularly visits hospitals and diagnostic centres in Dhaka’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area to collect recyclable medical wastes.
Private hospitals treating Covid-19 patients charging at will
Desperate and discomposed, they would arrive at the doors of private hospitals to get treatment for Covid-19.
May 12, 2021
BJMC Temps: Leading miserable lives
More than 32,000 substitute and temporary workers of the state-run jute mills, which were closed on July 1 last year for modernisation, are leading miserable lives as they have not received their dues yet.
May 1, 2021
Ravaged by job loss, pay cut
Hundreds of thousands of workers in the readymade garment sector have been laid off since last year, despite factory owners receiving a Tk 8,000 crore stimulus packagefrom the government to pay their salaries during the pandemic.
April 19, 2021
Adp Allocations for Health: Even in pandemic, only 21pc utilised
The health services division utilised only 21 percent of their allocations from the Annual Development Programme in the last nine months, said a report of the implementation, monitoring and evaluation division of the planning ministry.
April 18, 2021
Second wave sees crisis over a certain drug
“Please help me to find Actemra 400mg injection (Tocilizumab) for my Covid patient mother. She is currently in ICU. Please help…” read a recent appeal by Sazzad Hossain on a public Facebook group.
April 2, 2021
Integration has a long way to go
Sanzid Hasan was five when his parents, impoverished residents of Mohammadpur’s Geneva Camp area, discovered that he could not communicate as easily as other children.
March 21, 2021
People with Down Syndrome: Hardly any protection, inclusion
Zaheda was rushed to a private clinic in Chandpur district’s Shahrasti upazila on May 24 last year.
March 2, 2021
State-Run Jute Mills: Govt going for lease to private
The government has decided to lease out all 25 state-run jute mills to the private sector despite initial plans of reopening them either through joint venture, public-private partnership, or a government-to-government (G2G) agreement.
February 22, 2021
Remembering Maulana Azad when we most need him
When the Indian subcontinent was pushed into violent communal turmoil and was being partitioned as its consequence, one person firmly stood out as the guardian of secularism, unity and peace. He was Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.
February 11, 2021
Disability Rights in Bangladesh: Lack of data hampering progress
How many people with disabilities are there in Bangladesh?
February 4, 2021
Cancer care in Bangladesh: A tale of scarcity and negligence
Due to overwhelming treatment costs, scarcity of trained professionals and unavailability of equipment, cancer care is still inaccessible to hundreds of thousands of cancer patients in Bangladesh.
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