The child population in Bangladesh comprises about 60 million children. The number of children under 5 years of age is close to 20 million or 17% of the total population. This means an increasing young population with those under 16 years of age accounting for almost half of the population. The majority of the children are poor and malnourished, nearly 40% of school age children are never enrolled in the schools and only 14% of those enrolled reach the fifth grade. Hundreds of thousands of children in Bangladesh remains in a situation where their basic human rights are constantly violated. Many of these marginalised and abused children end up as child labours or victims of prostitution. Child labour and children who have been victims to prostitution are not only symptoms of poverty and inequality, but also reflect culturally derived attitude and values.

In Bangladesh children are working in both rural and urban areas and both in the formal and the informal sector. There is no exact figures on the numbers of child labours or children who have become victims of prostitution. The Labour Force Survey of 1996 found that the total number of child labourers between 5 ? 14 years old was 6.6 million or 19.1 percent of the labour force. However this survey did not include the informal sector, where most of the children are employed. With regards to child prostitutes there are no exact figures, however, according to non governmental sources it is estimated that alone in Dhaka there are 100,000 floating prostitutes.

Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession in the world. In case of Bangladesh, it appears to be true; in this country, prostitution is in no way a `modern' phenomena. Ironically, as a result of the conflict between the dominating conservative moral values and the diverse sexual behaviour of the population, although there exists a large number of sex workers in the country, the agenda of prostitution is almost always hidden under carpet.

Therefore, it is not unusual to find almost no authentic data base on the prostitutes in Bangladesh. However, in 1992, the Minister of Social Welfare and Women Affair, stated in the parliament that, the total number of prostitutes in the country was 9,107; out of which 5,529 were registered and 3,578 were unregistered. But according to the non government appraisals the number of prostitutes in the country is above 100,000 and almost half of the sex workers are children . Apart from the institutional prostitutes there are also a large number of floating/street prostitutes working without registration, and invisible in any estimation. The Government deflated the statistics with intention of keeping a good face; the Government did not include the number of child prostitutes in their estimate and certainly they did not even thought of including the number of male prostitutes in the list. A resent study ('The Misplaced Child-hood : A short study on the street child prostitutes in Dhaka city` , INCIDIN and Red Barnet, 1997.) reveals the existence of both male and female sex workers working in Dhaka, the capital of the country. Many of these prostitutes, if not most of them, are children. According to the police 15 - 20 thousand girl child prostitutes are operating in Dhaka city.

The girl child prostitutes are very much visible all over the city in and around the parks, mazars, rail stations, bus terminals, bazars etc. But in case of the boy child prostitutes visibility is not so prominent. They are hidden in the male dominated out-door environment and concentrated in some specific zones. They are also located in some selected parks, ghats, terminals, cinema halls, bazars and mazars. During the day time both boys and girls prostitutes may be found sleeping on the pavements, park shades and benches, commuter shades and station platforms.

The problem of child prostitution is an integral part of the overall child labour situation of the country at the back-drop of poverty, urbanization, sex-culture and tradition. The problem of street child prostitution is the most prolonged and the most vicious kind of child abuse. Due to this the child rights (and certainly the human rights) are most crudely violated. As a result of this primitive act a child has to suffer immeasurable psychological and physical damage. It may be true that not all of today's child prostitutes will be tomorrow's adult prostitutes; unfortunately this will happen not because they will change their professions but because not all of them may have the chance to live old enough to be adults. Read the detailed Report......

 

What does Misplace Childhood Offer?

The Drop-in-Centers run by INCIDIN Bangladesh is the safe haven for the street children (both boys and girls) who are commercially sexually exploited. It is the static points in which a street child can step in any time in between 8:00 am in the morning and 5:00 pm in the evening. The drop-in-centers also work as focal points through which the street child prostitutes (both boys and girls) are provided with multiple services. In these centers children will have access to:

" Health care services
" Social and legal awareness
" Skill training
" Recreational facilities
" Psychological assistance
" Day time resting place
" Peer companions
" Responsible adult guidance
" Non formal education