A monster in the making
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Gigi Asem
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“In reality people in our society are not much concerned about drug addiction among street children because they are kept out of sight and so are out of mind. The upper and middle income groups and the educated section of the society are not directly affected by this problem,” she said.
Asem, also a teacher of the Department of General and Continuing Education, North South University, said: “The drug addict street children are a very small part of the society. We have other serious issues like crime and violence. But important thing is whether we care to listen to their voices.”
“The direct impact of the problem is that by losing these children, who will soon become adolescents and teens, Bangladesh will lose a portion of her young workforce. We will lose our potential resources and they will become a national burden,” said the sociologist.
“One reason of their addiction is broken families and indifferent parents. The fathers are missing after breeding the children. This is an outcome of poverty. The poor cannot afford family loyalty. In fact they cannot be blamed for that because it is their survival strategy,” she said.
“If we choose to ignore them then one day they will grow up and may find a voice of their own and impact on the society in a negative way. Then we may find ourselves in an insecure situation,” she added.
