BSAF’s Alternative Report on the Implementation of UNCRC
in Bangladesh 1996-2000
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
The Government of Bangladesh (GoB) was one of the first countries to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. As a follow-up, the GoB submitted the first report on the situation of children in Bangladesh in the year 1994. Pursuant to Article 44, paragraph 1 of UNCRC, the second report was submitted to the United Nations in 1996. Reports subsequent to the second report are meant for submission once in every 5 years.
This report is an alternative report by Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum (BSAF), prepared in order to supplement the report submitted by the Government on the situation of the children in Bangladesh during 1996 to 2000. BSAF is an apex body of 133 NGOs working for promoting and protecting child rights in the country since 1990. This report is prepared following the UN Committee Guidelines article by article.
1.2 Methodology
The report has been prepared on the basis of the following:
(a) Findings from desk research (i.e., documents and literature available from different sources on the implementation of the child rights convention by NGO initiatives and Government programmes)
(b) Findings from workshops held in different administrative divisions arranged for this purpose by BSAF (Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum).
The draft report was shared with the Executive Board (EB) and Programme Sub-Committee of BSAF and selected activists and consultants. A presentation of the draft report was also made to the BSAF members and a number of selected panellists. Comments made by the members of BSAF EB members and the panellists have been included in this version of the report. Reflections on the GoB report and contributions by NGOs in areas of immunisation, education, and arsenic mitigation have been made in respective sections of this report.
2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE UNCRC IN BANGLADESH
2.1 Demographic Situation of Children at Close of the Last Report
In 1997, the country had a population of 124.3 million. The population growth rate had come down to 1.74 % in 1996 (BBS, Bangladesh Data Sheet 1997). Children aged 0-18 years constituted 49.6% of the population. The country had then a population of 61.75 million children. There were 15.77 million children of 0-4 years of age. The largest group of children was in the age range of 5-9 years, making a total of 19 million (15.29%, female 9.09 million). The 10-14 years old children made up 15.73 million (12.65%, females 7.74 million). Children of 15-17 years constituted 2.29% of the population. Since the ratification of the UNCRC the situation had improved somewhat, but the problems remained due to the lack of conscious and planned efforts. The declining trend in population growth was a positive sign to reduce pressure on creating new places for additional number of children in schools, on extending and improving the health and nutrition care services for children, on sustaining the safe water supply and extending the sanitation coverage and ensuring improved hygienic environment for children and women.
The progress of implementation of the Decade Action Plan for the Girl Child, 1991-2000, had been rather slow up to the year 1996. Contrary to this action plan, traditional practices played a role in discrimination against girls and women. This differential treatment emanated from the fact that the society valued boys more than girls who were considered as temporary guests. During the marriage of a girl, her parents have to pay a lot of money as her dowry and she has to join with her husband leaving back her parental homestead as well as her share in the parental assets, however rightful in the eye of the law. Early marriage of girls, especially in the rural areas, was widely prevalent in spite of the law against child marriage. Enforcement of the law was constrained mainly due to the fact that the Birth Registration System had not been implemented fully, for which the actual age of a girl could not be determined. A pilot programme of birth registration had been launched in Rajshahi and Chittagong with UNICEF support. The girls had achieved marginally higher enrolment and better attendance rate in primary schools, but disparities among the attendance of the girls and the boys in secondary schools were yet quite prominent. In overall education ratio, the females lag behind the males by a clear 20% margin.
Recommendation:
· The trend of declining population should be continued in order to make room for the upcoming children.
· Media-based and field-level motivation of the communities toward according equal status to both boys and girls should be enhanced.
2.2 General Measures of Implementation
UNCRC in Bangladesh: Since ratifying the convention in 1990, Bangladesh has been taking steps to secure the rights of its children. The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs was empowered to carryout the relevant activities in the country for implementing the UNCRC. The Bangladesh Shishu Academy and Department of Women Affairs are the active hands of the ministry. The National Children Policy, National Plan of Action for Children 1997-2002 for the children have been prepared. Besides, NGOs have been undertaking various programmes for realising the rights of the children. Child Rights Week is organised, and information and dissemination materials on UNCRC are produced and distributed countrywide each year for raising awareness.
2.3 Definition of the Child
A child is a “human being below the age of 18 years”, as defined by United Nations Child Rights Convention. Bangladesh National Children Policy defines a child as “a boy or a girl below the age of 14 years”. As a sharp and obvious deviation, the Majority Act 1875 in Bangladesh defines the majority age to start at 18 years. In order to make reconciliation between these two definitions, the Government uses the term “children and young people” in its report to the United Nations and for all other purposes. While the definition of the child has been maintained by governmental institutions more or less strictly in conformity with this definition, the private development agencies (mostly NGOs) have kept their definition (of the child) more flexible encompassing many more citizens of the country in these need-based projects. Beside the contentions over the age range of children, cases of proof of a child’s age in public or in the court of law have often been accompanied by uproars over the credibility of such proofs. In majority cases, there is no sound system for recording and presentation of documentary proof of the exact age of a child. Though there is an age-old obsolete system in black and white of recording of the births and deaths down at the level of the Union Parishad and the Municipality, the NGOs and the Government are moving toward a more effective system to ensure birth registration of the children in selected areas with support from UNICEF. This step is expected to serve a two-fold purpose, that is:
· Reduction of disputes over the age of a child and ensuring more justice in this regard
· Enhancing the possibility of identification of the child (through preservation of photograph and date of birth of the child) especially for use in case of suits over the issues of trafficking, abduction etc.
Although the practices at the end of the Government and its various projects are more uniform as per the existing framework, the country in general suffers a lot due to a number of anomalous definitions of the child in different contexts or purposes. As for instance, Bangladesh, as of today, has the following definitions of the child:
Table 3.1: Definitions of Child as per Various Legislation
Purpose/Legislation / Age/Age Range1. Admission to employment (Factories Act 1965, Shops and Establishments Act 1965, and Employment of Children Act 1938) / Between 12-21
2. Marriage / 18 for girls, and 21 for boys
3. Consumption of tobacco, alcohol and dangerous drugs / 16
4. End of compulsory education / 10
5. Voluntary enlistment in armed forces / 16 (on parental consent)
6. Criminal responsibility / Full responsibility from12 years of age, and rebuttable presumption of capacity to infringe the criminal law between age of 7 and 11 years
7. Deprivation of liberty including by arrest, detention and imprisonment linked to age of criminal responsibility / No minimum age
8. Capital punishment and life imprisonment / Capital punishment 17 years; life imprisonment, in case of exceptional circumstances, 7years provided that presumption of capacity has not been rebutted
9. Giving testimony in court / Though no minimum age, the witness must be intelligent and aware enough to understand the questions asked and to respond to them sensibly
10. Lodging complaints and seeking redress before the courts without parental consent / 18
11. Participation in hostilities / Non-commissioned officers after 6 months of training, and commissioned officers after 2 years of training
Source: First Periodic Report of the Government of Bangladesh under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Draft): Ministry of Women and Children Affairs; Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; Dhaka, November 2000
2.4 General Principles
Non-Discrimination (Article 2)
Bangladesh, being a democratic country, goes by a constitution that provides prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Though embedded in the very constitution of Bangladesh, this country is yet to make provisions in reality for maintenance of gender-based equality of children (as well as of adults). The documentation in regard to the maintenance of child (and human) rights are in tune with the universally recognised need for gender-balance. The recent documentation in this direction are more articulate in this regard. As for instance, the National Plan of Action (NPA) 1997-2002 has taken this consideration seriously. As a follow-up on various activities in line with the NPA, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF continually conduct Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey.
The inherent gender-discrimination has pervaded the child scenario in Bangladesh during 1996-2000 as in the past. Projects in order to reduce such discriminations have also continued to gain strength. As a commitment to improve the situation of the girl children, the Government had joined the other SAARC countries in the preparation of the Action Plan for the SAARC Decade of the Girl Child (1991-2000). As a symbolic expression of the Government’s commitment to the girls, the country observed 30th September 2000 as the Girl Child Day as in other countries of the world. In addition, the Government has also waived tuition fees for girl students up to Grade X, and introduced stipends for the rural students. The primary school curriculum has been revised and made more free from gender biases. In order to reduce dropouts from primary school enrolment, the number of women teachers has been increased and the general hygiene at schools has been improved.
The media has been continuing their publicity on the need for enhanced impetus to development of the girl children. In this regard, the NGOs have further geared up their broadcasting of new programs. The MOWCA-implemented and CIDA-funded project titled PLAGE (Policy Leadership and Advocacy for Gender Equality) has initiated a research into the reasons for and the ways to reduce gender inequality in the programmes of BTV (Bangladesh Television) and the Bangladesh Betar. It is expected that PLAGE will initiate steps to advise these two media to streamline their programs, including advertisements to ensure proper publicity on gender balance.
A media survey was conducted in 1998 with a view to understanding the impact of a series of short publicity programmes on Meena on Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar (Radio Bangladesh). The survey covered 10,400 households in 61 districts. A total of 26% of the country’s TV viewers had seen Meena, and 19% of the radio listeners had listened to or heard of Meena. With regard to content of the programmes, these respondents said that these were on girls’ education (69%), followed by those who said that these were about girls rights (42%), and nutritious food (16%).
Children’s issues have also been reflected in the newspapers and magazines. In all, four high circulation newspapers contain special sections on children.
As for interventions at the field level for reducing vulnerability of children to the inimical social phenomena, it may be mentioned that a project titled ARISE (Appropriate Resources for Improving Street Children’s Environment), with UNDP’s support, is aimed at facilitating the realisation of the rights of 30,000 most vulnerable children living on the streets in six divisional cities. The project is designed to implement its activities through NGOs and different governmental agencies, whose institutional capacities in this line will be enhanced.
Best Interests of the Child (Article 3)
The Government’s report for this period indicates that the articles related to the best interests of the child are not in full force in Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh has abstained from subscribing to the clause related to Adoption only. In addition, there have been scattered activities during the last 5 years in both public and private sectors that would indicate that the awareness about the best interests of the child and the steps necessary to ensure this have increased. As a direct linkage to this Article, it may be mentioned that the Department of Women Affairs has, long ago, established a Child Day Care Centre in its Office at Eskaton in Dhaka City. Similarly, the number of similar childcare centres in the garment factories throughout the country has increased significantly. Both domestic and global pressures for maintenance of basic human rights and child rights in the garment factories have resulted to a small coterie of around a dozen of humanistic garment factory owners, mainly in Dhaka City. They have partly implemented their plans for comprehensive medical and childcare at workplaces of their young female factory workers. Two of them in the Uttara area of Dhaka City are also negotiating with interested foreign donors for receipt of funds for wider implementation of such humanistic projects in their factory premises. The same trend of increased childcare through establishment of childcare centres in various office premises, especially of the NGOs, has taken place in other workplaces of the country. Despite this, the large childcare centres for care of the children of the beneficiary women in TMSS (Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha), a local NGO in Bogra, is more than two decades old. As the practice of maintenance of childcare centres and dispensaries at industrial workplaces is a relatively recent phenomenon, detailed information on their qualitative or quantitative performances are still scanty. But informal observations have revealed that the total number of such childcare centres and dispensaries is still scanty, and there is a serious shortage of personnel trained in both management and hands-on routine tasks to run such welfare centres.