Action to Reduction Urban Slavery through Education (ARUSE)

 

Title of the project:  Action to Reduction Urban Slavery through Education (ARUSE)

Project duration:  12 Months

Funded By:  UN Slavery

Background:

National Surveys indicate that 13 per cent of the country‟s children between the ages of 5 and 14 years are working, amounting to nearly 5 Million child labourers. The rates of child labour are higher among boys than girls (17.5 per cent versus 8.1 per cent) and slightly higher among children living in rural areas relatives to those in urban areas. Forty-five per cent of child labourers do not attend school. Child labour is higher among children of urban slum (UNICEF, 2016, Situation Assessment and Analysis of Children and Women in Bangladesh) The National Child Labour Survey estimate that about 1.3 Million children were engaged in domestic child labour.. Employers of children rarely consider the compensation they provide to child domestic workers or their families as the fulfilment of duies to the children, nor do they see the children as rights holders entitled to claim their due right to fair treatment and education. Domestic work through engaging children is one such a work characterized by its marginality, insibility and vulnerability. The majority of child domestic works are child girls. Most of them are live in other peoples homes and are in total isolation, often confronting violence away from the eyes of public. They are beaten tortured punished and deprived from basis children rights. BISAP has been implementing Basic Education for un-schooled and dropout needy children of Urban Slum 6-10 years for their further growth and development Child domestic workers are migrant from different districts of Bangladesh due to poverty their parent who do not effort them for their livelihood they came in search of job and become house slave. The project will emphasize the mental, physical and social development of child domestic workers through creating an area based safety net and to develop replicable working approaches which will ultimately help to determine a National policy toward child domestic workers.

The project will be implemented the leading person of the community will be more responsible towards the protection of child domestic workers as well as the working condition of child domestic workers will improve and protected. Best practices of the employers towards child domestic workers will be ensured by the community. Necessary measure will be adopted on the effect of slavery and slavery like working environment. Therefore, is no way of creating better environment for the child domestic workers for their survival. The proposed project will create positive change in their life and livelihood through joint intervention both employer and domestic worker who are passing their life in inhuman condition from generation to generation.

According to the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Special Provisions) Act, 2000 amended in 2003 penalizes, among others, the following crimes of violence against women and children, but girls from the poor families are not getting fair judgment. Over hundred girl victims committed suicide in protesting this.

The Bangladesh Labor Act, 2006 has replaced the Employment of Children’s Act, 1938, Factories Act, 1965 and The Children (Pledging of Labor) Act, 1933. It provides for Prohibition on engagement of children below 14 years of age and adolescents between 14-18

32 years in any profession or institution. But many children have to work for bread earning instead of going to schools.

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states that everyone has the right to a standard of living, adequate health and well being, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.

The Children Act, 1974 is the principal law that provides for care, protection and treatment of children – both as victims and as accused – and specifies the empowerment of children as its first guiding principle. Its main objectives are to ensure children’s protection and treatment.

It imposes various duties and obligations upon the state, like trail of children in separate court, protect confidentiality assess children’s age, circumstance, character and probation, officer’s report , if necessary send the child in correction home, but not in jail, discharge child after due admonition or release on probation under probation officer’s or parent/guardian’s supervision, Police to be responsible for keeping children in a safe place, informing parents and probation officers, rescuing them from harmful situations. But those are not properly maintained by the police and or court.

Government is the Principle duty bearers to protect the rights, and civil societies have responsibility / obligation to raise voice, if the children are deprived. But the civil societies are not strongly voice the issue.

Children themselves as Rights holder can claim for proper use of law, implementation of law and the recommendations made in the concluding observation of the state party report of the government to the Child rights committee in UN. So Children group will be formed, trained on their rights and advocacy skills, so that they can claim their rights from the duty bearers and get support from civil society to raise their common voices.

Formation of Civil Society Watch Group (in participation of different actors of the civil society) will be the main thrust of the project. This watch group will monitor the child rights situation and support child groups in claiming their rights to the duty bearers in organised manner and act as lobbyist for the promotion of child rights.

The problem was identified through local discussion forum group meeting, networking & sharing with local elite, ward commissioner, media news, information from police station, Guardian, their relative and other sources , based on the grievances of the victims BISAP feel it necessary to designed this proposed project .

Objectives of the project:

  • Creating better atmosphere through discussion, sharing, networking, advocacy with local administration, community elite for establishing due right of domestic child workers.
  • Sensitization, mobilization of community elite, local administration, Government body in favour of Child Domestic Workers.
  • Approaching the vulnerable group who are neglected, deprived & being tortured.
  • Arranging regular house visit, discussion, group meeting for redressed of root causes.
  • Access to joyful education and psychosocial trauma support child domestic workers reducing their vulnerability for their further growth and development.
  • Provide Psycho social support and legal aid support.
  • Pursuing lobbying with the employers where domestic workers are mostly engaged
  • Policy advocacy with the concerned administration for optimal output.
  • Providing health care and preventing measure child domestic worker.
  • Providing legal assistance to the victims and counselling to the domestic workers and guardians.

Progress of the project:

Exit strategy have been established community based safety net for the child domestic workers through making local government authority, ward commissioners community elite social works the rate of abuse and social exploitation oriented and motivated towards protecting child rights and preventing child abuse. Skill training have been organized for enhancing their knowledge & skill

  1. Training on rights and control over resources for 5 days
  2. Training on real situation of individual suffering identifications 03 days.
  3. Mobilizing Government and community support in the right of child domestic workers has been organized 02 days .
  4. Orientation training among local media and electronic media have been organized
  5. Training on health care have been organized for 02 days.

     

  6. Orientation training among child Domestic workers abilities to deal with communities have been organized for 03 days.

  7. 02 Centre home facilities for torture, exploitation and deprivation children have established in operational area.

Case study

Case: 01:  Aisha Khatun aged 14 Daughter of late Abdul Hasnat of Dinajpur District of Bangladesh an orphanage girl. Since she has none to come forward to help her, she moved to her uncle‟s residence. As she could understand by the behavior of the members of family she lived in, she started looking for a job and eventually with the help of a woman managed a job of a domestic help in a posh area. A few days into her job, real character of employer exposed. A young boy of that family started harassing her sexually day and night. When the matter reached its extreme she exposed it to the mistress of the house, who instead of saying a single word to the boy, beaten her so much so that she immediately fell un-conscious. Worst to the matter is that without bothering for her treatment they kept her locked in a room without food or medicine for three days. Our focal person came to know it and with the help of media people rescued her in a pathetic condition that crossed all the limit of atrocities. BISAP arranged her treatment and later gave her vocational training. Now she maintains a decent life by operating sewing machine. Now she even dreams of a happy world of her own.

Case: 02. : Quddus aged 16 S/o Dudu meah, a resident of disaster prone District of Barisal, came to Chittagong in search of a job to support and supplement to the effort of survival of his family. After spending few days in Bus terminal & Railway Station he came across a man who offered him a good job in his Factory. Instead of taking him to the Factory, the man sent Quddus by his Driver to his house, where he was given the work of household chores. A few days later when Quddus asked his master why he was given such a job while he was promised a job in a Factory, the man replied that being an illiterate what will you do in the Factory? Helpless Quddus without finding any other alternative has been working there as a maid-servant only for two square meals and no financial benefit. When he falls ill, he does not get treatment. He is not even provided good cloths to wear. He is not allowed to go outside & kept within the four walls of the apartment. When he come to know about BISAP and its programme he discussed his suffering to project staff and request to find a way for his release.

Case: 03. : Sunil Dey S/o Anil Dey comes from a very impoverish fisher-folk community of village Charlakha of Chittagong District. Irony of fate is that last year i.e. April‟2010 his father died in the rage of a violent storm while fishing in the sea. As there was no source of income left behind for his family. Afterwards he came to Chittagong City and started pulling Rickshaw but misfortune does not stop following him. One day when he went to meet the natural call leaving the Rickshaw beside a road he returned to find that his Rickshaw was stolen, after making a frantic search when he did not find any trace of it, he informed it to his owner. The owner beaten him mercilessly and pushed him out saying not to appear before him again. Helpless Sunil again started to work in a dairy farm of one Majid. To make the matter worse, his new master makes him work from dawn till midnight only for two square meals and some cloths left over by others. When approached by the this report we expressed his grievances by saying that he is under constant threat that even if he attempts to quite the work he will be charged of theft and get punished by the police tears rolled down his check to express that if this is not the worst form of slavery than what is it.