Street children don’t go to school because of a lack of adequate options and realities. Street children sell flowers, knick-knacks, or other things or beg on the streets, especially to cars stuck in traffic, which is a common scene in South Asia because of their parents’ poverty or ignorance. They are known as ‘Tokai’ (rag pickers).

It’s estimated that more than 600,000 children live on the streets in Bangladesh, of whom 75% are in the capital, Dhaka. This huge number of children are out of school. Street children do not have definite living or sleeping places, and many die due to malnutrition, and disease. Their home is a rail station, parks, and abandoned houses. They often must work to survive, do not have access to healthy foods, which leads to the consumption of unhygienic food. The average daily income of street children is approximately $0.55.

In stark reality, starvation is an ever-present problem in the region, and each year, approximately 110,000 children die of water-borne diseases in Bangladesh. Some of them involve the lower echelons of organized crime, sexual trafficking, organized crime, and drug and substance abuse, under the leadership of ‘Mastaans’ gang leaders in Bangladesh.

It seems street children are ‘no one’s children, even though most of them have a father, mother, or parents. Without care, kids grow up in the streets and face exploitation every day.
Not only street children, but any children in this world, should not live in poverty, without basic rights and facilities. Due to a lack of educational facilities, these street children are losing their dignity. Education is necessary for them, as “education opens the door of possibilities” and creates an exit door for leaving inhuman life and suffering. However, education creates dreams, opens the eyes of consciousness, and builds confidence.

Good stories. In recent years, for street children, some NGOs have been operating free ‘Open Air Schools (OAS)’ in parks, rail stations, launch-bus terminals, and market places.

Over 500,000 stranded Pakistanis live in 70 camps, known as the Bihari community. In 1972, the number was 270,000, but it has now almost doubled. There have been people leading inhuman lives since the end of the 1971 War of Liberation. Three generations have already passed, and the children are growing up without education, national identity, passports, and citizen facilities. As human rights require, children who are born in Bangladesh should get Bangladeshi citizenship, but they don’t. Many of the camp dwellers still want to get Bangladeshis back to Pakistan.

In cruel reality, the children don’t get admission to general schools. The refugee camps are highly densely populated. The survey of (Refugee and Migratory Movements) showed, that 94% of the Bihari community is illiterate. The trends are going with the same tendency toward poverty and a lack of vision. In small rooms, 8 to 10 people live. On average, 90 people share one. The new generation lives in rooms but has a big dream of being a good citizen. The number is very small, but many of the young people become educated.

There is only one school in Dhaka’s Geneva Camp. The slum culture and environment are not favorable for children’s education.
They are not well accepted by mainstream Bangladeshi society for their links to the enemy country, Pakistan. They speak Urdu, which is also not respected in Bangladesh as it was a competitor to Bengali during the 1952 language movement. Even someone who is educated, finds it hard to get an official job.

Along with the largest refugee camp, ‘Geneva Camp, Bangladesh has another of the world’s largest refugee camps, ‘Kutupalong Ruhinghya Camp’, where over 920,000 Rohingya refugees live. They also live with the risk of disease outbreaks, fires, and monsoon rains.

TRANSCRIPT

[ Testimomy of Mahraj (35), a Refugee, who born in Dhaka Geneva Camp, but don’t have Bangladeshi citizenship. ]

0.00: Brother, forty-five years have passed today. We have been living in this Geneva refugee camp.

0.07: Our parents and grandparents were put here as Pakistani refugees because their language was Urdu (the Pakistani Language during the liberation war, 1971 )

0.18: Many years have passed. We are still called refugees. Even today, we are called stranded Pakistanis. We are not Pakistani.

0.23: Today, there is no respect for us. We don’t have civil rights and freedom. We can not take house rent outside of this camp, ( we can not send our children to general schools )

0.28: Brother, my question is, a person who was born in the USA becomes born US citizen, right? If a Bangladeshi-origin child is born in India or China or else, gets by-born citizenship, not called Bangladeshi. Our parents are here in Bangladesh. We were also born here.

0.43: We were born in Bangladesh, but why we can not be Bangladeshi? But our parents, our grandparents, are Bangladeshi, and we all are born in this land of Bangladesh. Still, we have been called Pakistanis. It is a very strange reality!

0.55 – We are facing trouble and restriction everywhere. Why? Our life has been seriously affected. We are victims!

1.02: We can sacrifice our lives for this country like other citizens. But we can not live with equal rights, equal opportunities, and dignity! We are the same human!

1.13: We eat here, we drink here; we grow here, even our grave will be in this Bangladesh, we are not getting standard Bangladeshi identity.

1.17 – My house is in Bangladesh. We also sing the national anthem ( Shunar Bangladesh… Hi my golden Bangla, I love you. ). Our mother tongue is Urdu. But our state language is Bengali (we can speak both). For knowing several languages ( Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, and English ) one’s values should be increased, but in our case has been decreased. We are fully eligible to be a Bangladesh. ( I demand our by-born citizen dignity)
—
( From Bangla )
1.31: 45 years passed in this camp. Our parents and grandparents kept here temporarily our parents and grandparents.

1.37 – Four generations of us living in a small place (8×8 Sq Feet for each family). Now we are fourth and fifth generation running. Soon is coming another generation after me.

1.49- I have a wife, and I will have children. They are also bound to live in the camp, even if we don’t have a living place. Even though we are Bangladeshi, we are not called Bengalis. We are called Pakistanis, Bihari, Mawra etc. bad names. Why? Am I not born Bangladeshi?

2.01 – My mother’s language is Urdu. But my national language is also Bengali. Are there any not other languages in Bangladesh? Yes, have. But they are not suffering like us. We don’t have an option! We don’t know the reason! ( even we have high court declarations in favor of us)

2.19: Our four mortal generations have passed away! Will this also pass away? If you cooperate with us, yes, we can solve the problem. It will be good for us and the next generation.

2.39: The child of Bangladesh parents born in the US, are considered a US citizen. We were born here. Why will we not be Bangladeshi? Our name is associated with the name of Pakistan. ( and Urdu language. is the problem? ). We will not go to Pakistan anymore, we did not born in Pakistan, why we will be Pakistani?

2.57: Bangladesh is our birthplace. It will be our death place. Bangla is our Mother Tongue. (Please give us a Bangladeshi identity. )

If you see the hopeful eyes of a Roghigya child, you will see the exposers of fear, insecurity, and unsaftiness. By evicting them from their homeland, ‘Maynmar’, the struggle of Rohingya refugee children started. After losing the country, they lost their education and dreams of the future

Every day, many children are born in camps. The entire generation is at risk of growing up in inhuman realities without education or basic life skills.

550,000 Rohingya children have lived in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Bhashan Char since 2017. They have been denied access to education. Bangladesh prohibits teaching Rohingya children the Bangla language to ensure their return home. In this reality, UNICEF plans a big expansion of its program to educate Rohingya children in Bangladesh by 2023. It is piloting a project with the’ Myanmar Curriculum that reaches the first 10,000 children, but additional measures are still needed to boost school attendance in camps.