Nilima Jahan

As a mother, I believe that children should never die before their parents.

Despite dedicated efforts of obstetric and gynaecology specialists to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates, address cancer and infertility, and achieve SDGs, their numbers are disproportionately inadequate to serve half the population of the country.

The Domestic Workers Protection and Welfare Policy 2015, which aims to safeguard the rights and well-being of over two million domestic workers -- mostly women and children -- have remained unimplemented for the past eight years due to the government’s lack of political will and negligence.

To address children’s death by drowning, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs in February 2022 approved a childcare development and safety project with a budget of Tk 271.82 crore, with an implementation period of January 2022 to December 2024.

Archana Rani, 36, a homemaker from coastal upazila Assasuni in Satkhira, struggled for 23 years to collect drinking water from faraway sources that were often salty and contaminated with arsenic.

While many urban millennial men continue to view unpaid domestic work as something women do, a lot of men in the coastal areas of Khulna and Satkhira are taking up the job and sharing responsibilities with their wives.

The report, titled "Gender-Based Employment and Wage", said the percentage of female officials in public administration was 19.62 percent, while it was 22.64 percent in the field administration

Despite the government’s ambitious Digital Bangladesh agenda, a significant digital gender divide persists in the country, leaving women at a disadvantage in accessing and using ICT tools compared to men.

Young parents Ringku Mia’s and Shifa Akter’s world had turned upside down when their four-year-old daughter Farha was diagnosed with stage-4 cancer that originated from a tumour in her kidney.

In Abul’s slum, or “Abuler Bosti”, in the capital’s Bhashantek, one of the most frequented places is his grocery-cum-tea shop.

Hepatitis B virus is one that can be easily passed on from mother to child, putting the newborn at the risk of future liver cirrhosis or cancer.

To achieve the health rights of 3.6 crore adolescents in Bangladesh, the government developed the National Strategy for Adolescent Health and the National Plan of Action to implement it. However, a new study found that the implementation will fall short of addressing the diverse health needs of adolescents.

Eighteen-year-old Julekha Begum, of Tejgaon slum, was married off at 15 and is currently in the ninth month of pregnancy.

Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian social reformer who  was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Malala Yousafzai in 2014, talks to the The Daily Star about the global child rights situation during his visit to Bangladesh on January 14-18.

Twelve-year-old Rubaiya’s world is limited to her bed. A resident of the Korail slum in the capital, she lives in a dark windowless tin-shed shanty. She has not seen a glimpse of the sky in the last three years. The last time she went on a trip outside was seven years ago, at her grandmother’s home in Cumilla.

The instalment of CCTV cameras in city buses by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has generated a positive response among female commuters as well as bus staffers, as they believe the initiative has brought a change in the behavioural pattern of the overall commuters.

What forces abused women to return to live with their tormentors even after repeated incidents of domestic violence?

Moriom Begum has been a victim of domestic violence ever since she got married in 2016 for not being able to pay dowry money.

Sabina, 33, a young professional from Rangpur, tries hard to forget about the horrific day in 2019, when she was raped by her uncle. But even after three years the memory of her ordeal is fresh and has turned her days into a harrowing quest for survival.

How much does a kilo of green papaya from Manikganj’s Singair upazila cost? Well, depending on whom you are buying from, the price can be anywhere from Tk 7 to Tk 25.