There are around 1.05 million street children now living in the country. The number will increase up to 1.60 million by the year 2024, said Tahmina Jesmine, executive director of Social and Economic Enhancement Program (SEEP) at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Saturday.
She said said that the ratio is alarming. If this ratio of rising street children continues the country can not fulfill the goal of vision 2021.SEEP is a non-government organisation (NGO) working for the street children with the financial aid of Terre des hommes of Netherlands.
Ehsanul Haque, project coordinator of SEEP) said, the reasons for the children to choose the street life because their parents got married for the second time, death of parents, poverty, torture of step parents, lost of land, abject poverty of the family or running away from home etc.
These children take shelter under the open sky, at the railway or bus stations, under over bridge, park, market and on the footpath, he added.
Haque said, boys among the street children live on scavenging, selling peanuts and cigarettes, work at restaurants, clean car or choose to beg. On the other hand, some of the girls prefer prostitution.
Others are involved in crimes like stealing, snatching, pick pocketing etc. They take unhygienic food from street side shops and suffer various diseases, he added.
They become addicted to drugs like marijuana, heroin and Dandy (one kind of adhesive used for shoes).
SEEP emphasized to eradicate the alarming rise of street children. They pointed that if government does not pay attention to the street children right now then, it will be too late to mitigate the problem. – Staff Reporter
