Children must not suffer on streets, PM tells ministries

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday directed the women and child affairs and social welfare ministries to make sure that children do not have to pass miserable days on the streets.
‘[Officials of] women and child affairs and social welfare ministries are here… I’m directing the two ministries to make sure that children are not passing their days in inhumane condition on the streets,’ she said while inaugurating World Children Day and Children Right Week 2015 at Bangladesh Shishu Academy in the capital.
Hasina also said she has already asked the education ministry to take necessary steps, including ones for the repair and renovation of school buildings, and ensure the enrollment of all the children in schools in their neighbourhoods without any admission test, and directed the Prime Minister’s Office to coordinate these activities.
Hasina said the government has ensured food for the country’s 16 crore people. ‘Then why do the country’s children loiter on the streets?’ she asked.
Pointing to some findings stating that some 3.4 million children are loitering in Dhaka city alone, she said, ‘If we can feed the 16 crore people, why can’t feed these children? We can surely do that. Besides, they (children) should also go to school.’
Hasina said 17th March, the birthday of Bangabandhu, has been announced as National Children’s Day and she wants to build a livable, beautiful and developed country for the children, and issued a strong warning against engaging children in risky jobs.
She also asked police department to make special arrangements for the children so that they could cross roads without risk after their school hours.
Talking about various measures of her government for the autistic and disabled children, Hasina said the duration of their examinations will be extended and urged the children to love autistic kids and make them friends instead of hating them.
She also requested the people of the country to be passionate about their domestic helps and create opportunities for their education instead of torturing them.
Hasina said her government is pledge-bound to establish a discrimination-free and children-friendly society to build them as qualified and worthy citizens of the country as they would take the future responsibility of the nation.
She said her government also extended the maternity leave for female government employees so that they could breastfeed their children.
The prime minister asked all the institutions to arrange daycare centres to help working mothers to breastfeed their kids.
She said Bangabandhu enacted ‘The Bangladesh Children Act’ in 1974, much ahead of the UN Children Right Charter of 1989 and nationalised the primary education making it mandatory for all children.
Apart from formulating a time-befitting National Children’s Policy 2011, Hasina said her government enacted the National Children Act 2013 to protect the rights of children and ensure their development.
This year’s theme of the Day is ‘The Children will build a golden country if they get proper environment’.
Chaired by women and children affairs minister Meher Afroz, the programme was addressed, among others, by Bangladesh Shishu Academy chairman Selina Hossain, Unicef representative in Bangladesh Edouard Beigbeder and women and children affairs secretary Nasima Begum.

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