Trafficking of Bangladeshi girls

Mahmuda Begum writes at the The New Nation on February 7th on the plight of the vulnerable girl children in Bangldesh who have been trafficked to the neigboring countries into sex trade.

There are one-fifth population in the world lived in South Asian region. Poverty is one of the main problem in this region. Most of them earn in here less than a dollar a day. Several studies have shown that girl children and women bear a disproportionately large burden of the deprivation and exploitation resulting from such poverty related issues. The number of women living in poverty and the number of women headed households living below the poverty-line have increased over the last decade, impacting significantly on the wellbeing and human security of children, often leading to situations of trafficking.

Day by day South Asia is increasing women and girls being trafficked into the sex trade; the average age of girls trafficked from Bangladesh and Nepal into India has fallen over the past decade from 10-15 years to 16-18 years. Trafficking is by and large a gendered phenomenon. The majority of trafficking in India, happens for the purpose of commercial sex work, and over 60 percent of those trafficked into sex work are adolescent girls in the age-group of 12-16 years.

Women and girls trafficked to India are at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS, It is estimated that half of the girls in Mumbai brothels who are under the age of 18 years have been infected with HIV. Although without being trafficking, every day many people cross border movement take place both officially and also illegally. Due to reason of that great chance to spread out HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh.

Bangladeshi girls and women are trafficked to India in maximum number from these districts of Bangladesh such as Kushtia, Jessore, Rajshahi and even from other district. India shares 4,222 kilometres of border with 28 districts of Bangladesh, most of it open with rivers running across. So, Bangladeshi trafficking groups have been able to build up powerful bases in the border districts of India in West Bengal and Assam, to the north and west, and these are now favorite transit points of trafficked women.

It is not just the problem of girls, little boys and women trafficking to India even they are trafficked with in Bangladesh form the villages to the city area promising them a better life and indulging them in different activates. These little boys and girls are involved in home bounded labour, child labor, pick pocketing, illegal drug selling, criminal activities, Thieving, commercial sexual exploitation or unfair jobs etc. India is the major market of trafficking as people from most of the countries are trafficked. Bangladesh is a big market of these trafficked victims. Even it is known as the sex tourist area as lots of European, Middle-East and American come to India as sex tourist. India has thousands of children in its sex-trade centers.

Commercial sex workers (CSWs) - as a group - are an important driver of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As has been shown in very recent research involving repatriated CSWs in Nepal, many of the CSWs who have been trafficked are at a significantly higher risk than "average" women of contracting HIV. A survey conducted by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation at Goalondo Brothel in Rajbari district in Bangladesh, this study points out that almost 53% of sex workers enter the profession before the age of 20 years, and 30% enter between 20 to 25 years of age, and some of them have been entangled through instigation of traffickers.

As the pandemic spreads wider, the link between trafficking and HIV is emerging stronger than ever before. With South Asia recording the fastest growing rates of new HIV infections, the nexus of poverty, HIV, and the trafficking of girls within and across borders is creating ever-widening circles of insecurity that disproportionately threaten the lives of girls and further impoverish the poor through sickness, loss of livelihood and rejection by society. The epidemic is severely undermining human security and posing serious threats to the health and socioeconomic sector and overall development of the region.

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Unicef News on Bangladesh

Cyclone Sidr devastated Bangladesh. See the vidoe news from Unicef:

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Bangladesh Cyclone Sidr

Courtesy: Save the Children UK

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Child Abuse in South Asian Eyes

This is an interesting research article posted in the Stop Honour Killings website. "Child Abuse is Dishonour" basically presents the survey results from the communities from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Communities across the South Asian countries deal sexual abuse cases with their victims. They don't bring the perpetrators to justice.

This article says, "Most people surveyed said they would prefer to deal with suspected child abuse themselves rather than involve the police or social services. They were afraid that the child could be removed from their family, and felt that the authorities did not understand their religion and culture. NSPCC Asian helpline manager Saleha Islam said: “We want to send out a message to the British Asian community that putting up a wall of silence will not protect children. It will only protect the abuser who will be free to abuse again.”

What should we do for these communities to increase their awareness about child protection? Read more!

Land of Missing Children

Watch this 3 part video documentary that shows how children are trafficked in the underworld. Indian Police raided the brothel in Bombay and rescued the underaged children. If you want to see how the children are trafficked from South Asian countires, such as Bangladesh, India, Bhutan and Nepal, this series is a must see. please watch this 3 part video.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3
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Vulnerable Girls in the Streets of Dhaka

This story portrays a grim picture of street girls in the city areas of Bangladesh. Increasingly girl children are abandoned and forgotten in busy streets of the flourishing cities. They live on their own by selling water bottles, candies, flowers who will never be picked by any child protective services. There are no mandated child protective services or shelter homes in Bangladesh for abandoned children. In the recent months, more children became homeless as the Interim Government demolished slums and illegal establishments without any thought for rehabilitation. Watch a video report by Reuters presented on February 27, 2007: Poverty Grips Bangladesh (nuvu.tv).

Just imagine the lives of the girls on the streets as 70% of them will be ultimately sexually abused, one survey revealed. As one report indicates the horrible condition of these children, "a 2005 survey by Rainbow Nari O Shishu Kallyan Foundation on sexual activity among street girls underscored that street girls are extremely vulnerable to sexual abuse and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). More than half of the boys interviewed and more than three quarters of the girls, including 20 percent of those under fifteen, admitted they were sexually active. Sixty-one percent of the boys said they had forced a girl to have sex with them". Read this article from NFB. Read more!

Child Trafficking in Border Areas

A lot of children are still smuggled out of country by criminals. Is it law enforcement issue? Is it poverty? Is it loosening social and family fabric? No parents want to loose their children. Criminals smuggle children and women out of the country. Yesterday, I read this article in the Daily Star. As the report writes:

"In recent years, there has been a significant increase in trafficking of women and children in Bangladesh particularly in border area. Very little work has been done to understand the local dynamics of the problem meaningfully. There are young boys aged about 8 to 15 (some are even younger). They are those specifically sent to the Arab Gulf countries. There they are used as drivers for camel races; offering sexual favours is a secondary activity in most instances. As in the case of girls, there are no reliable statistics, but possibly about 50 to 100 boys are being smuggled out of Bangladesh for this purpose. The camel-rider boys of Bangladesh are part of rich Arab households.

The entire trafficking operation involves "scouting" for suitable victims, picking them up, then keeping them hidden in Dhaka City for a few days (sometimes the children are gagged and chained), then putting them on a bus or train towards the Indian border or elsewhere. There are people on both sides of the border who are part of the trafficking chain. Sometimes a prospective buyer is also waiting at the border. Transactions can be up to 40,000 to 50, 000 taka though most go for less".

Please read this article here. Read more!

Is it Poltical Commitment

Speakers in a conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh stressed on poltical commitment of the Government to stop child trafficking. Daily Star reports on December 21, 2006 that "a total of 71 people have been punished since the year 2004 due to their involvement in child trafficking and 394 have been arrested". This number seems low as a lot of trafficking cases go unreported to the Authority. Read more!

Domestic Violance in Bangladesh

Children are at risk when they face domestic violence. In Bangladesh, we still ignore domestic violence as a social problem. Read this article at Daily Star journal on domestic violence. The author, a law student in Bangladesh, writes in his article, "Almost all of civil and criminal laws of Bangladesh deal with violence against women committed within general community by strangers with few exceptions e.g. dissolution of marriage, dowry related violence, dower, maintenance, guardianship and custody. Present laws are ignorant about issues of sexual abuse e.g. marital rape, verbal or psychological or economic abuse caused by domestic violence and also fail to provide adequate remedy. High probability of non-conviction of accused under existing laws lowers rate of filing cases comparing total incidents of domestic violence". Definitely, we've to go a long way to counter domestic violence. Read more!

US Responses to fight human trafficking in Bangladesh

United States is offiering huge technical and financial resources in Bangladesh to fight human trafficking. There are a lot of technical reports that put in place by US initiative. As a child welfare professional, I'm really grateful to US respone. If you'd like to go through all the resources, please go to USAid Bangladesh page. Read more!

State of Human Trafficking in Bangladesh

In the recent years, Bangladesh has shown tremendous progress in combatting human trafficking. Even though, we need to take a lot of active measure to fight human trafficking in Bangladesh. Please review the annual Trafficking in Persons Report 2006 the US State Department. I've copied the Bangladesh section of the Report for readers:

"Bangladesh is a source and transit country for men, women, and children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, involuntary domestic servitude, child camel jockeying, and debt bondage. Women and children from Bangladesh are trafficked to India and Pakistan for sexual exploitation. Bangladeshi women migrate legally to Gulf states--Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the U.A.E., and Saudi Arabia--for work as domestic servants, but often find themselves in situations of involuntary servitude. In addition, Bangladeshi boys are trafficked to the Gulf to serve as camel jockeys and internally as bonded laborers in the fishing industry. Women and girls from rural areas are trafficked internally for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude. Burmese women trafficked to India for sexual exploitation transit Bangladesh.

The Government of Bangladesh does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Bangladesh continued to make progress on efforts initiated two years ago. The government repatriated 166 child camel jockeys from the U.A.E., rescued 160 children from bonded labor in the fishing industry, launched a broad public awareness campaign, and provided anti-trafficking training to border guards and diplomats. Despite these achievements, Bangladesh continues to face a significant internal and international trafficking problem. Bangladesh should assign greater priority and resources to its law enforcement response to trafficking. It should also institute programs to protect witnesses.

Prosecution The Government of Bangladesh sustained efforts to punish traffickers in 2005, prosecuting 87 cases and convicting 36 traffickers -- 27 of whom received life sentences. Although the number of prosecutions increased over 2004, the number of convictions declined. Police also arrested 150 alleged traffickers. Notably, Bangladesh began prosecutions against child camel jockey traffickers. Although a lack of resources hinders investigations, Bangladesh expanded anti-trafficking police units to every district to encourage victims to testify against their traffickers and to compile data on trafficking. In response to inadequately trained police and prosecutors, the government worked with legal experts to provide specialized training to prosecutors and with IOM to develop a trafficking course for the National Police Academy. Despite persistent reports of security personnel complicity in trafficking, the government has investigated only three such cases since June 2004, charging eight officials with trafficking complicity.

Protection The Government of Bangladesh continued to provide an inadequate level of protection to victims of trafficking over the reporting period. With limited resources, the government supported crisis centers in hospitals that are open to trafficking victims, but it also relied heavily on NGOs to provide legal, medical, and psychological care to victims. Of the 166 child camel jockeys repatriated from the U.A.E., 144 have returned to their families, 16 are preparing for reunification, and authorities are searching for relatives of the remaining six. Bangladesh should institute a system to protect witnesses from retribution and to encourage more to testify at trials against traffickers.

Prevention Bangladesh made significant progress in its trafficking prevention efforts throughout the year through broad public awareness campaigns and specialized training. A campaign of public service announcements aired 3,152 television spots and 305 radio announcements warning the public of the dangers of trafficking. The Ministry of Social Welfare also provided anti-trafficking information to micro-credit borrowers, reaching over 400,000 at-risk women. Bangladesh noticeably improved its training efforts, providing entry-level diplomats and over 20,000 border guards with specialized anti-trafficking training. Over 2,100 imams received training on the risks, threats, and modalities of trafficking and 100 imams received training as trainers. As a result, 2,667 imams delivered specific anti-trafficking messages during Friday prayer services in 2005, reaching millions of people". Read more!

Child Trafficking Review in 2004

Somini Sengupta’s article on Child Traffickers Prey on Bangladesh was published in the New York Times on April 29, 2002. Her article surfaced a 10 year old boy Nuru Mia’s story. Nuru played as a camel jockey in the Dubai desert. His image shows the suffering of children as camel jockeys who are trafficked by criminals and their underworld networks and exploited by their rich patrons in the Middle East. BBC News featured story of some of these children repatriation to Bangladesh and the vivid image of their painful suffering. According to United Nations Children’s Funds (Unicef), about 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Thousands of boys as young as five years are trafficked from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan to the United Arab Emirates each year to work as camel jockeys

The economy of child trafficking goes beyond any supply and demand analysis or economic gains for parents. Case study of a poor ten year old girl from a Bangladesh village represents the horror of sexual exploitation. She is one of the 13,000 children who were trafficked out of Bangladesh in the last five years. Earlier this year in a seminar, it was referred that up to 20,000 women and children are smuggled out of Bangladesh annually (Daily Star, January 21, 2004). We share a global concern of child trafficking, as its extent and portrait are found to be very elusive. State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report (2003) on human trafficking problem by countries is a comprehensive document for public awareness.

Tragically, children have become an easy prey of an emerging exploitative immigration practice. Thousands of children are sold and smuggled out of Bangladesh for physical and sexual exploitation in the recent years. We don’t know their names or addresses, they are simply lost in numbers, in unofficial estimates, or sometimes a few of them are caught in law enforcement actions. Child trafficking has attracted immaculate news headlines and further research interests. It is not incidental in Bangladesh context; its extent reflects absence of a structured social protection response for children, deterioration of social cohesiveness along with poor enforcement of criminal justice system. Child trafficking is a breach of human rights and children’s rights that deserves national attention for preventive and rehabilitative strategies. We need to look at child welfare advocacy resources that are active in Bangladesh for child protection.

Every child smuggled out of the country is simply one more number to the estimated calculation of thousands of children. Real pictures of their suffering, painful living and deprivation are mostly untold, unknown and tragically unnoticed. Children are stolen, their innocence is lost, their dreams are shattered, and more over, they are severely betrayed by our ambivalence and lack of social protection. They live and survive in a disgraceful life. Their smugglers and traders are stone hearted criminals who have allured them and their families. These young children even don’t know what their fault is. Their scars remain fresh, their tears don’t dry up, and our words can hardly describe their suffering.

Our ambivalence and indifference about child trafficking are very painful. It is a fundamental human rights challenge and the worst form of oppression of our time. We urge you to come forward to combat child trafficking. It could be a letter writing campaign and/or fund raising effort for helping children to repatriate and rehabilitate. We need your ideas and thoughts, as they are powerful for meaningful action. Our empathy should not evaporate with a silent sigh. All we have to do is to: “break the heart of stone”, and there is “No need to waste the foolish tear, or heave the windy sigh” as Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) portrayed a century ago. Read more!

Child Protection in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, child protection is integrated into social servcies and community development programs that are mainly offered by non-governmental agencies. "Shako" will present different child welfare agencies who are diligently working for children's right and protection, and providing services to this disadvantaged population. Apart from limited government social welfare agencies' involvement, extended family members mostly take care of children when they are vulnerable or need care. There is no foster care services present in the country. Children are protected by families from abuse where family values are still strong and dominant. Usually, family members come forward to care for their loved ones irrespective of their socio-economic status. Therefore, we need to look at socio-economic structures, institutions and values that ensure and promote children's well-being and safety in the Bangladesh setting.

• ACSR
• ATSEC
• Bangladesh Council for Child Welfare
• Children Trust
• Families for Children
• Odhikar
• Save the Children UK
• SOS Children's Village

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Bangladesh beats India

Bangladesh beats India in child welfare filed. Times of India reports on December 12, 2003: "Bangladesh and Sri Lanka look after their children better than India does. Unicef’s State of the World’s Children Report 2004, released on Thursday, says they are way ahead of India and Pakistan in providing health care and education to children. Among the 160 countries covered, India fares a little better than the sub-Saharan African countries in terms of infant mortality. Net primary school enrolment is as high as 96 per cent in Bangladesh and 97 per cent in Sri Lanka. In India it is 76 per cent and in Pakistan, 56 per cent..." Read more!