Child marriage in Bangladesh hinders girls' education and lifelong opportunities.
In Bangladesh, 361 students, a significant percentage of whom were elementary students, succumbed to suicide between January and August in 2023.
It is our responsibility to make society safe for girls by strengthening child protection system at the community and national levels.
Listening to others does not mean agreeing with them, but acknowledging that different opinions exist and seeking to understand them is crucial.
Children are born with immense potential. Isn’t it a tremendous waste of human capacity to confine them to limited roles?
At the registration desk of a private hospital in Dhaka, an employee loudly asked for personal information.
Many have witnessed physical and emotional abuse taking place in the relationship between their parents.
More than 1.3 billion children aged between one and 14 years are subjected to corporal punishment at home each year.
"Is it OK to hit a child at least once in their lifetime?”—asked a Bangladeshi parent in a post on social media.
Frontline healthcare workers, community mobilisers, caregivers, mothers working from home while supporting children with online classes—women of Bangladesh and all other parts of the world have been facing the Covid-19 pandemic with immense strength, courage, patience, and resilience.
Today’s children will be known as the “Covid Generation”. Their health, nutrition, education, protection and overall wellbeing will be profoundly influenced by the impacts of the global pandemic.
In August 2020, a Bangladeshi television channel aired a news story on the excessive use of smartphone use by children under the age of 5, and its negative consequences.
According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2019 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF, 89 percent of children (1-14 years) in Bangladesh experienced violent discipline in the month before the survey was conducted.
“Girls do not look smart, they are pretty”—said a five-year-old Bangladeshi boy after a comment by the mother that his sister (three years old) was looking “smart”.
From the char of Lalmonirhat to a slum in Khulna, I have met many adolescent girls across Bangladesh who are united in their resolve to continue education, who make extraordinary efforts to go to schools.
According to the Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020, each year, half of the world’s children (approximately one billion) are affected by physical, sexual or psychological violence, suffering injuries, disabilities and death.
On March 12, 2020, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine organised a discussion titled “Discrimination and Racism During Coronavirus Outbreak”.
All over the world, we are seeing more and more girls raising their voice for their rights. From stopping child marriages to standing up against gender-based violence and demanding action to address the climate emergency—girls are refusing to be ignored.
