2024-02-15 16:06:01
‘Today’s children are the future of the nation. If children cannot be made good citizens through proper education, their families, society and the state will suffer in the future. Therefore, the government’s master plan and SDG are being implemented with the aim of child welfare. Apart from this, it is very important to involve underprivileged children in the main stream of development in public-private joint ventures under various ministries and departments of the government now to build a better Bangladesh.
On Wednesday (February 14) morning, the speakers said these things at the workshop titled ‘What to do to mainstream development of underprivileged children’, a joint initiative of Bangladesh Social Services and Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum and with the support of Max Foundation.
Chairperson of Bangladesh Child Rights Forum chaired the workshop. Mahbubul Haque The secretary of the Ministry of Social Welfare was present as the chief guest. Khairul Alam Sheikh. The special guest was the Director General of Social Services Department (Grade-1). Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal and Country Director of Max Foundation Engineer Imam Mahmood Riyad.
In the speech of the chief guest. Khairul Alam Sheikh said that children engaged in hazardous work have various physical and mental problems. Apart from this, children involved in hazardous work are deprived of all facilities including education, health, recreation. For this purpose, the government has formulated the ‘National Child Labor Elimination Policy 2010’ to prevent children from child labour. National Child Labor Elimination Action Plan (2021-25) has been adopted to implement this policy. And proper implementation of this plan is extremely important.
Abu Saleh Mustafa Kamal said that a section of underprivileged children live on the streets. In addition, a section of them become addicted to drugs and engage in various criminal activities due to lack of proper supervision; Which is a threat to the society. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to bring these children back to normal life for the welfare of the society and the state. It is our constant endeavor to meet that requirement.
Engineer Imam Mahmood Riyad, country director of Max Foundation, said, providing awareness about the rights and protection of children with these underprivileged children, providing child services in shelter homes or drop-in centers, increasing skills through technical education and training; Encouraging all concerned in the physical, mental, moral, social and economic development of children, creating opportunities for education by withdrawing children from hazardous child labor and engaging them in decorative work, providing sexual and reproductive health care to adolescents, providing education to orphans and helpless children through sponsorship. ; It is very important to raise awareness about the rights and protection of children engaged in domestic work and to encourage children in sports, recreation and cultural activities. We all have to work together for this purpose.
Chairperson of Child Rights Forum said in the president’s speech. Mahbubul Haque said that Bangladesh is one of the developing countries in the world. And in order to keep the trend of development moving, it is necessary to involve vulnerable children in the mainstream of society. Prime Minister loves children very much. He ensured equal opportunities and rights for all children. ‘Not a single child will be in the way,’ he declared. Therefore, to speed up the activities of the government, coordination should be done from all levels. Only then we have to involve the underprivileged children in the mainstream of development to build a beautiful city for the future.
Shaheen Akhtar Dolly, executive director of Nari Maitri, said that apart from the comprehensive programs of the government, development partner countries and organizations, various organizations of the United Nations, international and national non-governmental organizations or organizations implement various programs for the development of children and adolescents. Coordination of these works can be done easily with the initiative of Bangladesh Child Rights Forum.