Finding newborn children in an abandoned state is nothing new in Bangladesh. A total of 210 newborns from different parts of the country have been found abandoned and dead in the past six years, according to the Bangladesh Child Rights Forum. Some 10,898 abandoned children received shelter in Chhotomoni Nibash, a government shelter for the lost and abandoned children, in just five years from 2016 to 2021, say the data of the Department of Social Services. Most of these newborns are one or two days old. These babies, most of whom had been born as a result of unwanted pregnancy, were found in hospitals, dustbins, at railway stations, bus stands, and in public toilets. The number of such abandoned newborns may increase more if we cannot raise awareness among people over sex education and contraceptives.
Abortion at any stage is a punishable offence in Bangladesh. However, it is difficult to prevent abortion in a country like ours, where the number of rape cases is alarming, use of birth control low, and illiteracy rate high. Illegal routes to abortion can endanger the lives of both the woman and child, leading to social stigma and contribution to increasing numbers of abandoned children. In the civic sense, law should not impose motherhood, respecting the individuals' rights to life, liberty, freedom of choice and privacy. Carrying a foetus in the womb should be the deliberate decision of a woman, as it substantially changes her life. So, we urge the authorities concerned to reform these abortion laws, which restrict a mother from making a decision on her child's birth.
Ashikujaman Syed,
Research Assistant,
Bioinformatics Research Lab,
Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID),
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