Parties engage slum kids in unlawful activities: study

Children living in slums lead a more miserable life compared to rural children in the field of education, health, child labour, child marriage, nutrition and child rights, a Save the Children study has found.
It also said children and women living in slums are particularly vulnerable to abuse and sexual violence, while many children are forced by the political parties to be engaged in unlawful activities. Although half of the slum population are children with many problems there is not much safety net programmes for them, the study added.
A household survey in 422 houses of 10 slums of Dhaka city showed that nearly 80 of the slum girls were married before the age of 18 and the rate is 46 per cent for the boys.
There is no recent data on slums and its population. The government has been carrying out the third census on slums and floating people.
The study report titled 'Children Living in Slums: Context and Analysis' was released Thursday at a programme at Spectra Convention Centre in the city organised by Save the Children Bangladesh.
Save the Children commissioned the study to examine the impact of urbanisation on slum families, particularly children, to identify challenges they face. The study was to map the work being done by local and international NGOs to aid these families and design the programmes for poor children living in selected slums of Dhaka city by using the information.
The study showed, 17 per cent of the surveyed households had working children. Among them, 44 per cent work in garment factories, 24 per cent in small factories, and 9.0 per cent are beggars. About 9.0 per cent of the working children reported some kind of physical assault or beating by the employers while 12 children said they are engaged in risky activities.
About 40 per cent of working children in slums work on an average 11 to 12 hours while 32 per cent 9 to 10 hours a day.
The study showed as the 10th most densely city in the world, up to 0.4 million people migrate to Dhaka every year which has witnessed four-fold increase in its population in the last 25 years.
As per the government data of 2005, there are now about 5,000 slums in Dhaka where 37 per cent of the total population or 3.4 million people live. The slum population is expected to rise to 6.8 million by 2015 and to 52.2 per cent of the total population by 2050.
The survey showed about 63 per cent of the slum children do not have birth registration. About 41 per cent of the parents do not understand why it is important while 32 per cent do not know where to go for birth registration and 27 per cent do not receive it due to cost.
The study showed that pre-school children in Dhaka slums are at equal or greater risk of poor health and malnutrition than their counterparts in rural or non-slum areas as the slum people do not have enough information on nutrition and feeding practices.
About 68 per cent of slum children receive treatment from pharmacies.
Children of all slums are affected by water supply and sanitation problem. Girl children mentioned lack of privacy in using toilets and lack of bathing spaces.
In the slums, the drop-out rate of children is 50 per cent and it takes place before they complete primary education. About 50 per cent children never go to school while 50 per cent go to school regularly. This is due to financial constraint and early marriage. About 29 per cent slum children go to private primary schools, followed by 28 per cent in government primary schools and 16 per cent in NGO schools.
The study recommended programmes on stopping child marriage, child labour, coverage of children under social safety net, financial support to help continue education and stop drop-out, child protection programme, improvement of water supply and sanitation and resettlement arrangements before eviction.
Nielsen Company Ltd manager AKM Fazlur Rahman and programme director of Shishuder Jonno programme of Save the Children Shahana Nazneen presented the study findings.
The dissemination programme was moderated by Bangladesh Urban Forum national policy adviser Mostafa Quaum Khan and chaired by Save the Children deputy country director Quazi Ghiasuddin.