Camel jockeys' new lease of life back at home
Saturday, 9 January 2010
MH Hossain
Sakib Hossain is the son of Monowara Begum and late Abdur Rashid of Tok Nagar village under Tok Union under Kapasia Upazila of Gazipur district.
Shahnaz Begum of Bikrampur, a distant cousin of Monowara, lived in Dhaka.
When Sakib was 10 years old, Shahnaz promised to look after Sakib's education and brought him to Dhaka. Instead, she sent him to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Before departure, Shahnaz told Monowara that she had been taking her son abroad for education and employment. Monowara agreed to send her son to the UAE with Shahnaz. On arrival at Dubai, Sakib was forced to work as a camel jockey. He was also compelled to look after the camels and feed the desert animals. However, Shahnaz did not pay any single penny to Monowara. Later, Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) helped repatriate Sakib to Bangladesh. At that time, Shahnaz was in jail.
On return home, Sakib got admitted to a kindergarten school for education. A few days later, he undertook a training course on tailoring at Board Bazar in Tongi with the help of his mother. At present, Sakib (18) studies at Tok Senior Madrasah.
Like Sakib, 199 children, who worked as camel jockeys in the UAE were repatriated to Bangladesh by DAM.
The Ministry of Home Affairs and the UNICEF Bangladesh jointly helped arrange their repatriation.
Advocate Shirin Nahar, Assistant Director, Human Rights and Social Justice Sector, and Project Coordinator of Community-Based Work to Develop Child Protection Mechanism Project, revealed this to a group of journalists at Tok Ranendra High School of Tok Union under Kapasia Upazila in Gazipur district recently.
Bangladesh Jatiya Mohila Ainjibi Samity, a national association of women lawyers, assisted in their rehabilitation in 65 upazilas of the country's 28 districts.
DAM has been working to develop child protection mechanism in 53 unions of 15 districts since August 2008, in assistance with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Bangladesh and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The work is in progress as part of the Community-Based Work to Develop Child Protection Mechanism Project being funded by the UAE.
A broad-based action plan is underway for ensuring the standard of living of the children as well as assisting them to grow up the right way.
In the meantime, 2,752 awareness building programmes have been conducted to inform community people about bad effects of child marriage, necessity of children's birth registration, their safe shelter and right to live with dignity.
As many as 40,439 children have been brought under the mechanism.
Imams of mosques, women members of union councils, teachers, youth community, guardians, conscious citizens and members of law enforcement authorities were involved in the project work, said Md Aminul Islam (Shahin), Programme Officer of Community-Based Work to Develop Child Protection Mechanism Project.
Awareness on the issues has increased through conducting training courses and similar programmes.
The mechanism is progressing maintaining close relationship with active members working at district, upazila and union levels under the ministries of Home, Information, Social Welfare, Education, Religious Affairs, Youth and Sports, and Women and Children Affairs and local administration officials.
For this purpose, 265 information centres were opened. At the same time, action groups were also formed with the help of community care committees.
A pressure group was also created consisting of local journalists and civil society members.
Sakib Hossain is the son of Monowara Begum and late Abdur Rashid of Tok Nagar village under Tok Union under Kapasia Upazila of Gazipur district.
Shahnaz Begum of Bikrampur, a distant cousin of Monowara, lived in Dhaka.
When Sakib was 10 years old, Shahnaz promised to look after Sakib's education and brought him to Dhaka. Instead, she sent him to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Before departure, Shahnaz told Monowara that she had been taking her son abroad for education and employment. Monowara agreed to send her son to the UAE with Shahnaz. On arrival at Dubai, Sakib was forced to work as a camel jockey. He was also compelled to look after the camels and feed the desert animals. However, Shahnaz did not pay any single penny to Monowara. Later, Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) helped repatriate Sakib to Bangladesh. At that time, Shahnaz was in jail.
On return home, Sakib got admitted to a kindergarten school for education. A few days later, he undertook a training course on tailoring at Board Bazar in Tongi with the help of his mother. At present, Sakib (18) studies at Tok Senior Madrasah.
Like Sakib, 199 children, who worked as camel jockeys in the UAE were repatriated to Bangladesh by DAM.
The Ministry of Home Affairs and the UNICEF Bangladesh jointly helped arrange their repatriation.
Advocate Shirin Nahar, Assistant Director, Human Rights and Social Justice Sector, and Project Coordinator of Community-Based Work to Develop Child Protection Mechanism Project, revealed this to a group of journalists at Tok Ranendra High School of Tok Union under Kapasia Upazila in Gazipur district recently.
Bangladesh Jatiya Mohila Ainjibi Samity, a national association of women lawyers, assisted in their rehabilitation in 65 upazilas of the country's 28 districts.
DAM has been working to develop child protection mechanism in 53 unions of 15 districts since August 2008, in assistance with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Bangladesh and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The work is in progress as part of the Community-Based Work to Develop Child Protection Mechanism Project being funded by the UAE.
A broad-based action plan is underway for ensuring the standard of living of the children as well as assisting them to grow up the right way.
In the meantime, 2,752 awareness building programmes have been conducted to inform community people about bad effects of child marriage, necessity of children's birth registration, their safe shelter and right to live with dignity.
As many as 40,439 children have been brought under the mechanism.
Imams of mosques, women members of union councils, teachers, youth community, guardians, conscious citizens and members of law enforcement authorities were involved in the project work, said Md Aminul Islam (Shahin), Programme Officer of Community-Based Work to Develop Child Protection Mechanism Project.
Awareness on the issues has increased through conducting training courses and similar programmes.
The mechanism is progressing maintaining close relationship with active members working at district, upazila and union levels under the ministries of Home, Information, Social Welfare, Education, Religious Affairs, Youth and Sports, and Women and Children Affairs and local administration officials.
For this purpose, 265 information centres were opened. At the same time, action groups were also formed with the help of community care committees.
A pressure group was also created consisting of local journalists and civil society members.