Rights Column
Rights of the citizens under threat
A country of excellence gives birth to excellent citizens who comprise an enlightened nation. An enlightened nation gives birth to excellent thoughts, ideas, technologies and intellectual exposures which raise the nation to the peak of prosperity. In order to become a good citizen, we need some rights and privileges guaranteed by the country. As human beings, we do possess some natural or inalienable rights which are not spelled out on paper such as, right to open eyes according to own caprice or right to enjoy the fresh air. Human rights are unlimited and all of them are never defined anywhere. As citizens of state, we possess the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Some protected rights under the Constitution of the country are: right to vote, right to a fair and speedy trial, right to freedom of religion, right of free speech and press, right to equality before law and equal protection of law, right to equality of employment opportunities and not to be subjected to any sort of discrimination and some other similar category of rights. Now the question is, as citizens of the country of Bangladesh, do we possess and enjoy all the rights as enshrined in our Constitution? Do the people of Bangladesh enjoy the same status as the citizens of other countries in the world? The question is subject to a political and constitutional debate where the people of our country are in a peculiar miserable condition having none to drag them out of that helpless situation.
Hartal: A distorted law and order
situation
Hartal is a way of showing protest against corruption or illegal activities of the ruling party. But in our country, hartal has become a trend and is losing its appeal due to its overuse, violent clashes and vandalism. Law and order situation declines to its lowest level during hartal. Due to subversive activities like torching, vandalising of transports, letting off bombs and violent clashes between the picketers and law enforcing agencies, hartal has become a panic to the common people. Normal life becomes paralysed due to hartal. It also creates negative impacts on our economic growth. Students can not go to their educational institutions and public exams are interrupted. The greatest concern is fear of being hurt or damage to public property. Subversive activities during hartal over the last two months have caused Bangladesh Railways (BR) a total loss of Tk. 13.9 crore. In each hartal incident Bangladesh loses almost 50 million USD.
Violence against women: An impediment to women empowerment
In Bangladesh, women become susceptible to different forms of violence like sexual harassment, sexual assault including rape, murder and grievous hurt, domestic violence, dowry related violence, acid throwing, trafficking, kidnapping and abduction, illegal fatwa and illegal arbitration, minority violence, wage discrimination and social discrimination, health and nutritional deficiency etc. Many human rights organizations express their deep concern on the fact that the number of unfortunate and unwanted deaths of women is increasing day by day. It is a matter of high concern that despite having several harsh laws to protect women from violence, yet the number of crimes against women continues to rise. It can be said, violence and inhuman treatment against women is an impediment to women empowerment and poses a serious threat to overall development and enlightenment of the country.
Food adulteration: Deprivation of the consumers
The voracious demon of food contamination has already devoured the consumers of Bangladesh to a great extent. Latest techniques and processes are being used by dishonest manufacturers and traders day by day in the process of contamination of food. Inconsistencies and weaknesses in existing food laws and regulations and low level of awareness about food safety among producers and consumers have turned the issue more acute and frustrating.
Uncertain future for the children
Children in Bangladesh are more helpless and vulnerable comparing to most other countries of the world since the establishment of full-fledged children's rights is a gigantic and daunting task in Bangladesh due to a number of concerned factors like child marriage, child labour, poor rate of literacy, domestic violence, lack of effective child participation, loopholes in legal protections and so on. Besides, the type of turbulence they are witnessing from their childhood, surely it will put a pessimistic impact upon them while dealing with their issues and activities in future.
Problems of the ethnic and religious minorities and lack of communal harmony
In Bangladesh, the ethnic and religious minorities undergo violent activities and discrimination mainly due to land related disputes, criminalising nature of some miscreants and political duplicity and hypocrisy. Recently, due to turmoiled political unrest in the country, the Hindus and the Buddhists have suffered much and undertaken heavy loss of property and belongings. During every unfortunate event, the ruling party or the government of the country failed to provide adequate protection to the minorities which is neither desirable nor consolable. The history of this sub-continent teaches that the religious and ethnic minorities sacrificed for the independence. They also contributed and equally participated in the development and promotional building up of the country. Bangladesh is said to be a country of religious and communal harmony still the aggression to the minorities has caused much damage to the prevailing peace and harmonious co-existence of different communities living inside the country.
It is quite clear that in Bangladesh the citizen's rights are infringed almost in every aspect. A person, whether a boy or a girl, a child or an adult, a male or a female, a Muslim or a non-Muslim, a consumer or a trader, rich or poor either mal-treated or discriminated. The cherished dream and desire that have been keeping the Bangladeshis alive since the inception of an independent country in 1971, have been fading away gradually by the incumbent turmoiled political unrest in recent times. The political parties publish election manifesto before national election in which the rights, security, happiness of the common people are given utmost priority. Considering that the people of Bangladesh gives mandate to the political party of their own choice by exercising their right to franchise. But after availing the power, the government constituted by the ruling party fails to discharge the committed duties and becomes reluctant to proposed manifesto which is a straightforward cheating with the people of the state regarding their enjoyment of rights. It is now completely left upon the high quality political spirit and patriotism of our politicians to endow with a new inspired avenue so as to save the nation from being sunk into oblivion.
The writer is Assistant Professor of Law, Premier University, Chittagong.
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