Children at the centre of development strides

FOR a section that constitutes about 45 percent of our population we cannot afford   the issues related to their development to lose focus. Specific goals should be set in order to formulate appropriate strategies to reach those goals.  
While the achievement so far under the MDG 2015 in respect of child and maternal welfare is a matter of satisfaction, the performance being better than that of many of our neighbouring countries, our future strategy after 2015 in this respect demands serious deliberation. And this was eminently brought out at a roundtable organised by the leading Bangla daily recently on position of children post MDG.
We feel that the matter can no longer be considered as an appendage of broader national development goals. Children's welfare is an issue of its own right, and without sustained development of children, the other development goals will be rendered meaningless. In this regard the planners should guard against overlooking the marginalised elements amonChildren g this group, a common shortcoming that plagues most development strategies.
It is a fact that a larger number of children have to toil to supplement family income instead of going to school. Children are still working in hazardous jobs, and child marriage is a way out of pecuniary privations by lessening the 'family burden'. Children happen to be the worst suffers in any natural or man made calamity. Any goals that are finally determined must take into consideration the social and economic reality germane to the country.