Horrendous Life of Street Children in Bangladesh
Horrendous Life of Street Children in Bangladesh
Street girls are seen as a socio-economy phenomenon rather then a social category - a phenomenon created by social systems, gender rules, political and economic.
The phenomenon of street children and girls has been a major concern for most areas of Dhaka city. Thousands of street children and girls all over in Bangladesh, primarily in the urban areas, work and live in the streets.
Life in the streets is hard and unsafe, especially for girls who are defenseless to all sorts of risks including reckless motorist, abusive police officer, drugs, crimes, and prostitution syndicates.
Reasons:
1. Poverty.
2. Increasing dissatisfaction with the public educational system together with the difficult living conditions.
3. Broken families.
4. For the sake of surviving.
Seventy to eight percent of teen girls have been victims of sexual abuse.
Some times street girls and Floating sex workers are closely associated with the terminal, port and transport industries where they find a large supply of potential clients and customers.
Children are arrested, beaten and molested on any pretext. Once arrested there generally is no end of the detention. It can continue for years without trial, in rat-infested prisons. There are reported incidents of pregnant girl prostitutes kicked in the stomach by adults in authority to induce abortions and of continuous rape of children in custody.
Bottom line
The street children’s image of themselves is contaminated by the way society perceives them. Often they are forced by the situation to compromise their self-respect by such actions that reinforce their low self-opinion.
Continuously they are victimized. They have nothing to fall back on for their existence and survival except their own wits.
