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SOC 101 Assignment

The Prevalence of Child Abuse In
Bangladesh

Submitted To:
S M Rezwan-Ul-Alam
Ph.D. (Associate Professor)
Submitted BY:
Name: Angelsen Rinom Halder
ID: 2122267630
Section: 3
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INTRODUCTION
Children are a parents bundle of joy. Every newborn is supposed to be welcomed with warm hearts into
the family and should be a token of celebration for everyone relative to him/her. But in many
circumstances, we often assert the idea of children as an asset that we are entitled to, take the notion that
the child is a liability to the family, or just take the child for granted. Many abused children don't have the
fortune of having one or both of their parents to care and nurture them, but there are also children, who
despite having both of their parents, are subjected to extreme mental and physical abuse. Children who
should be happy for all the moments in their childhood, are forced to give in to the pressure and
responsibilities of their families and peers. This article is objected to find out about how prevalent the
severity of child abuse is in Bangladesh and what could be done in order to reduce its frequency and
furthermore, abolish it from the society.

Fig: Child carrying bricks for his livelihood Despite being underaged
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METHODOLOGY
Our main goal for initiating this research is to find out about the prevalence of child abuse in
Bangladesh. According to the Convention of the rights of child and the Bangladesh government, any
person below the age of 18 is a minor and any no child can work below the age of 14. If subjected to
abuse which goes against the regulations of the child rights, is a victim of child abuse. using the age as
an indicator, we will be using various techniques and methods to measure how big of an issue is child
abuse in Bangladesh, disregarding any geographical, sociological or financial boundaries. Children
from almost every sphere of society will be assessed to understand the bigger picture of whether the
issue of child abuse in Bangladesh is serious or not, and how to address and rectify the problem.

For the above research, as per the government we will be using various official records, i.e., the
ministry authority records and other official declaration statements of the cabinet and other
government officials. We will also collect information from different non-government organizations
and other non-profit services who are mainly affiliated in the field of children welfare. We will be
analysis different media reports of multiple previous years and also assess the current year and
compare how the amount and percentage of child abuse in Bangladesh. Also, different media
interactions of figures who are involved with rectifying the child endangerment issues will also be
noted to further compliment the objective of our research. all these findings will be noted on this
research along with various statistics that will also further strengthen the claim about how prevalent is
child abuse is in Bangladesh. We will be using secondary findings in both quantitative and qualitative
format to find out the details about this issue.
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Key Findings of the research
GOVERNMENT REPORTS(SUPPLY)
BSMMU Stated that, despite many precautions and initiatives being taken to tackle child abuse, child abuse is
still at large.
Bangladesh Institue of Development studies stated that there are more than 350,000 children who don't have
any kind of shelter and are forced to live in the streets.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Analyzes that many mothers believe in berating their children with physical
punishment when disobeyed. The survey reported that more than 70% of the children in the sample of physical
abuse were under age 4.
A Study made by Bangladesh Protibondhi Foundation, stated that almost half of the challenged children in
Bangladesh are sexually abused, the offenders being the male relatives.
As less than 10 percent of the children are being registered at birth, it is tough for the government to keep track
of child right and prevent any abuse.
Despite education being free for children by the government, many children aged 5-17 drop before they finish
5th grade in school and are forced to join in harsh working conditions.
The Bangladesh Police have identified 933 cases of rape in 2020, with girls being the majority of the victim.
Despite Various measure, protecting child rights is a big challenge in Bangladesh due to cultural taboo and
stigma and basically lack of awareness.
5 GOVERNMENT REPORTS(SUPPLY)
Bangladesh, despite pledging to CRC (Child Rights Convention) about respecting and
ensuring the rights of children, has considerably failed in living up to the promise,
which can be analyzed in the alarming rate of physical and mental oppression and
sexual assault towards the children.
The hotline, 1098, has helped numerous cases of underaged marriage, physical and
mental oppression and other child endangerment cases. As of June 2022, 1098 hotline
responded and tried to address more than 700,000 calls.

The government's existing law does not state any kind of punishment or prevention of
Pedophilia or significant age gap correlation which are being forced to against a child's
wishes.
In 2003, more than 12000 children were imprisoned due to doing or possessing illicit
items.
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ORGANIZATIONAL RECORDS(3RD SECTOR)
According to MJF, an NGO, Bangladesh had almost 818 cases of child rape in the year 2021. most of
them are less than 18 years of age. The previous year reported cases of rape against children was 626.
This indicates that the number of rape incidents were increasing in Bangladesh. Out of these, only 10 of
those victims were boys.
According to ILO, there are 3.2 million children who are aged between 5-17 years of age and are victims
of child labor. Among these statistics, 1.3 million children were working under hazardous conditions.
According to UNICEF's poll about physical punishment centering educational institutions, 92% children
are physically abused in the name of berating or punishment in primary schools.
According to UNICEF, many children are forced to dwell on the streets and are prey to many
exploitations and tortures during midnight and even during broad daylight.
BSAF also reported that many cases of Covid-19 amongst children were due to contaminated
physical/sexual interaction against their will.
According to the American journal of psychiatry, it has been reported that people who suffer from
chronic depression or bipolar disorder have been physically and mentally abused as a child.
The Community based child service of cox's bazar also stated that, child marriage among the Rohingya
refugees are also very common and often are susceptive to different norms which result in child abuse.
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MEDIA REPORTS(DEMAND)
95.8% of the children who are abused in Bangladesh are mostly abused from their homes.
Children are more affected mentally rather than physical abuse, As they are tormented emotionally
by other people.
Most of the reports were from urban areas. Among 5078 surveys, 1940 reports were from the rural
areas.
Many of the victims of child abuse didn't want to disclose about the incident occurred because of
getting judgmental remarks from their friend, parents, relatives, etc.
Almost 25% of the children in this group have been harassed or exploited in educational institutes.
Nearly 40% of these children have faced abusive attacks from social/community gatherings.
Almost 38% of children are forced to worked under adverse conditions which stress both their
physical and mental health.
Many Children have stated that they faced physical and emotional abuse just for the sake of
punishment and many even faced troubles because their wards wanted to vent their anger on
somebody else.
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MEDIA REPORTS(DEMAND)
Many physically and mentally challenged children are also very much the victims of child abuse and
often suffer worse conditions from their healthy counterparts.
Many girls face sexual abuses from many of their peers and sometimes forced to marry or conceive
against their own wishes.
Children who are above 13 years old and legal to interact with online social media services are often
bullied due to many factors which act as a mental abuse in their lives.
Though child marriage and rape are in a decreasing rate, child fatality from physical abuse have
been increasing at an alarming rate, such as brutal torture, murder and even killing by drowning.
Many children are also being coerced into consuming illegal substances, as a result abusing their
health.
Organized crimes like trafficking are being operated in Bangladesh and involve around the young
girls.
Child Pornography has also been on the rise as Police find over 5,50,000 explicit contents involving
children in videos and pictures.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
As we assessed the information we have collected and observed. Bangladesh is a country ridden by child
abuse issues and almost every child is endangered in this kind of environment, irrespective of religion,
class, status or gender. Various medias have tried to raise awareness amongst the people, Many NGOs
have tried to minimalize the ramifications of abused and tortured children who are in need of dire help,
and Government have been actively developing new rules and regulations to further prevent child abuse
in Bangladesh. But the severity of child abuse doesn't lie in the failure of the lawmaker or other officials,
rather in other distressful factors which if not solved will always be the source for child abuse and other
norms which will endanger children's lives. Those are:

Reduce Poverty and help every child get access to food, clothing, shelter, medicine and education.
Emphasize largely on the diseases that sexual intercourse may infect with
Further strengthen the notion of independence of girls and give equal opportunities to everywhere
possible.
Stop child labor by classifying work according to age and reprimand those who break the law and
still endorse child labor.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Ensure that no kinds of physical or emotional attacks be done to the student by the teacher. Rather,
punishment should be asserted on the basis of educational techniques only such as, extra
homework, marks deduction.
No child should be forced to mate or befriend somebody he/she doesn't like. Coercion against
someone's will is an act of child abuse and does mental harm to the child's mind.
Physically and mentally challenged children should have proper facilities to suit their needs and
alienation and assertion of dominance towards them should not be imposed at any cost.
Government should keep more focused track of these disabled children.
Parents should learn that their son/daughter is another individual whom they should love and
respect, not their asset to control.
Government must prevent and tighten illicit border passings and reduce shady brothels in order to
eliminate child trafficking.
Social monitoring must be done by the parents and other responsible authorities and the usage of
the child must be controlled in order to prevent online and social network abuse.
Under digital rights act, pornography must be banned and ensure that no child is forced to pose
their private parts of their body under pressure from other people.
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Necessary punishment should be imposed upon those who try to eve-tease or bully children,
especially girls.
Properly give moral teachings to children so that they do not get manipulated by people who want to
abuse them.
Prevent and stop spread of drugs and narcotics so that children do not get or consume drugs.
These are some of the recommendations which can reduce child abuse to a great extent. as we are a
developing country and many social norms and traditions are present in our culture, it is not possible to
ensure that every child is physically and mentally safe and secure. But by ensuring the above steps, we
can make sure that in a general sense, child abuse is being prevent in the society of Bangladesh.
 REFERENCES
1. https://universepg.com/public/storage/journal-
pdf/Human%20rights%20violation%20of%20the%20child%20and%20the%20legal%20protection%20in%20Bangladesh.pdf
2. https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/over-95-children-abused-home-report-434934
3. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/children-not-even-safe-home-study-3042061
4. https://en.prothomalo.com/bangladesh/qe9bcql8rq
5. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/substance-abuse-children-spiralling-3057101
6. https://archive.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2020/07/07/bangladesh-shishu-adhikar-forum-the-pandemic-could-not-stop-
child-abuse
7. https://reliefweb.int/report/bangladesh/mobilising-against-child-marriage-rohingya-communities
8. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/1098-helpline-godsend-children-distress-3191081
9. https://www.newagebd.net/article/126673/child-pornography-emerges-as-new-menace
10. https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2023/01/25/child-marriage-rape-decrease-but-insecurity-remains