‘Unnatural deaths claim 988 children in 6 months’

At least 2158 children were subjected to various kinds of violence like murder, rape and torture in the last six months, Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF) said today.

Of them, 988 children met unnatural death including murder, accidents and repression while 726 experienced sexual abuse and exploitation, said a press statement of BSAF.

BSAF, a non-government organisation, revealed the statistics based on reports of at least 15 national newspapers from January to June this year.

Of the deaths, 205 children were murdered, 93 committed suicide, 286 died in road accidents and 194 children drowned. Besides, 496 of 726 children, who experienced sexual abuse, were raped in the last six months.

While revealing the findings, BSAF expressed grave concern over the violence and brutality on children across the country in the first six-month of the current year.

The trend of the violence and brutality on the children indicates that the rate of raping children increased by 41 per cent which is very alarming for the country, it said.

According to the newspaper reports, BSAF cited that a total of 496 children including 27 physically challenged were raped during the last six months when the number was 351 in the first half of 2018.

Among the 496, around 27 children were maimed and 23 were murdered after being raped.

Around 241 children were raped between April and May, which is more than half of the total number of the rape incident.