Children's safety in multi-amplitudes

The children safety issue is the bedrock of children rights without ensuring which, we cannot propel in furtherance of children development. The issue of safety of children plunges into since when a child comes into existence in mother's womb. From that very time, proper grasp about children health fosters their safety. It is reported that under the age of two years, the rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in Bangladesh are very high, often occasioned by lack of proper know-how regarding children safety. By catering proper and contemporary training to mothers and family-members in advance, this hazard may be averted.
By and large, children safety encompasses safety in the family and safety in the society. In essence, the responsibility of ensuring safety of children in the family and in the society devolves upon the family. The society and government initiatives come up in the next place. Children safety has multi-amplitudes such as, physical safety, sexual safety, emotional safety and safety from economic exploitation.
In this complex world, when families are on their toes to earn bread, it is becoming quite dismaying to keep eyes on children to ensure their safety. The delinquents exist within and beyond family. Even at home, in name of parental control, children undergo physical and emotional abuses which have immediate and deep-rooted ramifications. Furthermore, sexual abuses of children, both boys and girls by the near and dear ones of the family are unceasing also. Often these violations do not see light in name of family honour. The miscreants take the opportunity of this blackout and become a night-mare in the victim minds for a long time, sometimes even for the rest of their life.
If we look into the situation of street children, we see street-children who are often bereft of care and love of either parents or any parent; we will get to find that they are very prone to every sort of delinquency of their safety. They are physically beaten or hurt by people here and there, sexually misused by lusty people who allure them quite often by money. Safety from economic exploitation entangles safety from child trafficking, child labour, child prostitution, child pornography, bonded labour and so forth. Children especially girl children are conned by traffickers in various lucrative techniques; who are monstrously engaged with prostitution, pornography and bonded labour, thus delinquency of their physical, sexual and emotional safeties go to great lengths.
On the other hand, safety of boy children is jeopardised by being trafficked as camel-jockeys in middle-east countries or for organ-selling. Engaging children in begging by deforming them by trafficking gangs affects their physical safety to a great scale.  We know that Bangladesh Labour Code, 2006 deprecates child labour but it is not fully shut out. The provisions relating to child labour are often violated in the work-place due to lack of government auspices. Garment factories of Bangladesh still exploit child labour to make quick profits.  Moreover, the news of physical torture, sexual abuse and death of children working as domestic helpers are also rampant in the dailies. Child marriage, a legally prohibited act is a menace to children safety which is going on by falsifying age of children. Marrying children off under the legally sanctioned age often jeopardise their safety in all ways.
Children are also at a high risk when it is the issue of road safety and it is reported in a research of Accident Research Centre that about one third of the pedestrian fatalities is the children under 16 years of age group in Bangladesh.
When we strive to understand the paradigms of certain crimes in the society, frustratingly we infer in most of the cases that children are at the centric point of risk.  We can remember 'Twoki' murder, reason behind the murder is simply taking revenge on his family. The murder of Sagar-Runi, a journalist couple precipitated their child's safety issue as a buzz. Again, children have to pay a huge cost by being murdered due to issues of spousal quarrels or extra-marital affairs of parents or parent. In case of accused children, juvenile justice seeks special protection of children in regard to their custody and custodial treatment by law-enforcement agencies. But in reality, those special protections are not catered to the children, the hiatus between theory and reality, in lieu of rectifying them, are turning them into higher-degree criminals. Recently children abduction and extortion got hype in Bangladesh. The victims are innocent children, who at the young age get traumatised and thwarted about this world and life.
These violations and violations-led traumas and antagonism of children should be downplayed as far as possible by proper actions of government and law-enforcement agencies, as over-night change of these situations is impracticable. The Convention on the Rights of Children, 1990 along with the Children's Act, 1974 and Children's Bill, 2013 should be effectuated by coming up with a detailed and befitting safety scheme entangling all dimensions of children's safety issue. We have to give our best shots to reconstructing our society into a children-friendly society, as in the words of Nelson Mandela, the legend—'There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children'.

The writer is Lecturer of Law, Daffodil International University.