Dr. Jesmin Chowdhury: Abdus Salam, the father of Saima, the seven years old girl who was raped and killed a few days ago, has appealed to the country’s people to protect their children from rapists. Abdus Salam has demanded capital punishment for the criminal who murdered his daughter. Sexual violence on children across Bangladesh has been rising diabolically. According to the law and order forces, during the first three months of 2018, 144 children were raped in Bangladesh. This figure shows that each month 48 children are falling prey to rapists. Statistical calculations reveal that 446 children were raped in 2017 while 521 children faced rape in 2016.

On the other hand, the number of juvenile rape victims was 199 in 2015. Through these numbers it is quite vivid that we are not being able to safeguard children from rapists. As a result the incidence of child rape is going up in a gruesome way.

Mufti Mahmud, Commander of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) said that RAB has arrested many criminals linked with child rape and child kidnapping. RAB always goes for faster actions in such cases, Mufti Mahmud added. A senior police officer of Dhaka Metropolitan Police said that police department makes best of its efforts to detain culprits who commit violence on women and children with zero tolerance approach. Relevant sources have informed that in 2018, 41 children were raped in January, 50 children were raped in February and 53 in March. Children face some more sorts of crime besides rape. During first three months of 2018, 138 children were kidnapped. 97 children could be rescued. 413 cases were lodged with police stations during this time on child abuse.

601 children were raped in 2016 while 574 children were abducted out of which 381 could be rescued. 6 children died after being raped. 1, 721 cases were filed in 2018 on child abuse while only 17 convicts were punished. On the other hand, 158 people were acquitted of child rape cases in 2016. Shishu Odhikar Forum has informed that during first three months of 2018, 89 children were killed. An alarming number of children were murdered in the previous years too.

Relevant sources have expressed the opinion that children from lower class and lower middle class families are facing sexual assaults for the most part. As a result they cannot grow up smoothly. In many cases children are sexually abused by people known to them like neighbors or relatives. On the other hand, some occurrences of child abuse are happening due to conflicts between families. Children are also sometimes raped or killed for taking revenge on their parents by enemies. Children are abused in schools too. Children who face sexual violence suffer from immense fear and worries even after they recover from physical injuries. Dr. Muhammad Kamal Uddin, Professor, Department of Psychology, Dhaka University said to The Asian Age, “Child abuse is a great social ailment. Rate of child rape is alarmingly higher than before.  We need to go for integrated efforts to find reasons behind it. Moral degeneration and widespread drug addiction are mainly responsible for the rise in such crimes. Proper actions should be taken immediately to stop child abuse. We need to remember everything cannot be controlled by the law. That’s why people should be made more conscious about sex education.”

People who commit child abuse should be sternly prosecuted. Awareness campaign about sex crimes needs to be enhanced to catch these criminals. At the same time law and order forces must work seriously to detain rapists without delay. All rapists deserve to be punished in an exemplary way. It may be added that a woman was gang-raped in Noakhali on 31st December 2018 just one day after the eleventh parliamentary polls.

Social injustice is increasing day by day. Child abuse is also taking place frequently due to lack of justice and good governance. People forget about humanity when consumerism becomes the only trend in society and state. Among the Rohingya refugees who have poured into Bangladesh from Myanmar, Rohingya girls are reportedly being trafficked by pimps to residential hotels and red light areas in some parts of the country for antisocial rackets. Sources from local law and order forces and media agencies have informed that young women and female children are the most vulnerable people in the refugee camps located in Ukhiya, Teknaf and some more areas of Cox’s Bazar district.

A number of Rohingyas have in the meantime escaped from the refugee camps, relevant sources have stated. Unscrupulous people working for taking Rohingya girls away from the refugee camps have also produced fake national identification cards, medical papers and mobile phones to engage young Rohingya women with illegal business, according to media reports. Cops from the local police stations have informed that they are exercising sharp surveillance and checking all transports moving to and fro Cox’s Bazar to resist Rohingya refugees from running away as well as to detain the perpetrators who are linked with unlawful activities involving Rohingya people.  Several organizations have meanwhile expressed their concern about the safety of Rohingya women and children who have moved into Bangladesh without family members. Unaccompanied Rohingya girls and children are most likely to fall a prey to physical assaults and sexual violence by local gangsters and human traffickers, some aid agencies have exposed such worries.

Since the influx of Rohingya civilians through the Myanmar borders into Cox’s Bazar and other parts of the country, it has been noted with alarm that young women belonging to the Rohingya community have been suffering from acute insecurity. Reportedly, racketeers are making evil attempts to take undue advantage of the helpless plight of the women and girls of Rohingya people and trying to transform them into call girls.  Similar allegations have been received from the Rohingya refugees, according to different news agencies working around Myanmar-Bangladesh frontier areas. As women face corporeal abuse and other forms of hazards every now and then, it is a much greater concern that Rohingya girls have all the likelihood to get trapped by miscreants.

For this reason human rights activists and security experts have advised for higher vigilance from the law enforcement agencies over those areas to watch out for gangsters who might try to endanger young Rohingya women with vicious intentions.