Improve quality of care for abandoned children
Speakers at a seminar yesterday called on the government to ensure safety of the abandoned and victimised children through improving the quality of care for them.
They also called for taking up programmes to prevent the separation of children from their families.
The safest place for a child is his or her family and separating a child from the family constitutes the gravest threat to normal development of a child, they said.
They also urged all to welcome children's opinions and to look at the world through the children's eyes to ensure better childhood and proper development of children.
Shishu Palli Plus (SPP) organised the discussion titled 'Safe custody of children in Bangladesh' in association with Save the Children-UK at Cirdap auditorium.
"In Bangladesh, poverty is the main reason for children entering alternative care. Other reasons are prolonged illness, disability or death of parents, abandonment by parents; and family breakdown causing neglect, abuse and exploitation of children," Dr Mizanur Rahman, a professor of law faculty, Dhaka University, said in his keynote paper.
The seminar was told that there are now 387 juvenile offenders in jails and the government and non-governmental organisations have been looking after some 11,826 children in care across the country.
Dr Mizanur Rahman suggested strengthening coordination between local and national agencies to ensure protection of children in care and directing available resources into more responsive child protection programmes.
Speaking as the chief guest, Social Welfare Secretary Dewan Zakir Hussain said that the children committing minor offences should not be sent to the custody.
"The number of children in custody has declined in recent weeks. I hope that the day will come when all the children will remain in their mothers' lap and not a single child in the custody," he said.
Australian High Commissioner Douglas Foskett, Director of Department of Social Services Habibur Rahman and SPP's Overseas Director Patrica Karr and Director Khadija Sultana also spoke at the seminar moderated by Habibun Nessa of the Save the Children-UK.
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