Rights Corner
Stop abuse of children in confinement
Despite a comprehensive Children Act, 1974, over thousands of juvenile offenders are wrongly tried as adults and abused under the system due to mismanagement, wrong approach to the juvenile framework and ignorance of the law by a section of the lower judiciary, police and government officers. Inadequate state systems are mainly responsible for abuse of confined children. Thus a change in the legal system is necessary.
More than thousands of children are currently in jail and in different Kishore Unnayan Kendras (KUK), according to a study titled 'Children in Trouble with Law'. Although an inter-ministerial committee was formed earlier to protect the rights of the children and taskforces were constituted at national, district and upazila level. The government also empowered 64 district women's affairs officers as ex-officio jail visitors and assigned upazila social welfare officers to render the duties of probation officers. The Police Headquarters also directed all police units to exercise the power of granting bail under Section 48 of the Children Act, 1974. Also absence of birth and death registrations makes way for greater abuse of children. Adding to the situation it is also frustrating that many Bangladeshi children are confined to Indian jails. A source of Government officials informed that Govt. would always imperative to bring back children imprisoned in foreign jails. It is also alarming that children are often being used in political chaos. Moreover, certain criminal gangs exploit children by giving them arms and explosives in a bid to derive criminal and political benefits.
There is an urgent need to take immediate steps to prevent this kind of abuse of children. Poverty is a major reason behind juvenile offence in a country where 48 percent people live under the poverty line. Lack of coordination among the Government sector, child rights organizations and law implementing agency is also responsible for this kind of situation. Steps must be taken to combat the problems by raising mass awareness as children are the future of the country.
Source: Children's Express (Shishu Prokash)
