Create a department for children

Photo: A.M.Ahad / driknews

We have learnt from recent articles of this daily that there is no coordination among the activities of Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, National Council for Women and Child Development, other governmental bodies and NGOs in the works for protecting child rights.
The government has neither established a separate department nor appointed an ombudsman yet for children. But the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended about three years back to set up a Department for Children to protect their rights. Moreover, the government in its National Children Policy, 2011 has created the legal provision to appoint an Ombudsman for children. We are disappointed after knowing from various sources that the government has no immediate plan to take any initiative regarding this matter.
We urge the government not to go for wrong policies like expanding branches of Bangladesh Shishu Academy (BSA) for a show-off. It must be remembered that the BSA is well-known for its activities of cultural development that do not cover the whole range of rights of children.
Anyway, we are endorsing the opinions of those who say that not only a department, rather a separate ministry for children is the demand of the time. We hope the government would be really sincere to protect child rights by adopting the right and effective steps.