BANGLADESH:
Bleak Future Awaits Sex Workers' Children
Qurratul Ain Tahmina
DHAKA, Aug 8 (IPS) - When asked his mother's name, four-year-old, bright-eyed Jowel ventures softly, ''Ma''.
'Mother' is the only identity the 70 children in this Dhaka shelter home
can claim and the lack of a father's name has serious implications for
their future, starting with the fact that they are not entitled to a
birth certificate.
The home, Durjoy Child-care Centre, is dedicated to helping children of
street-based sex-workers and is run by the Durjoy Nari Sangha, a non-
government organisation (NGO).
It is morning. The modest sleeping quarters have become classrooms,
where boys and girls in blue uniform sit on the clean floor, learning
the alphabet, practicing handwriting, drawing pictures on slate boards,
or reciting poems.
While Jowel is regularly visited by his mother, others like tiny Neela
have no visitors.
''I like the lessons best,'' says Leon. Seven-year-old Selim
agrees, ''Previously I used to drift about with my mother. I had no
chance to learn reading or writing''.
Getting three square meals a day was also rare, says Selim. ''Here I can
eat meat and fish. I am hungry no more''. Fruits and cakes are served at
mid-morning and afternoon - a luxury for these children.
Shahinoor is 12 years old. ''I can now bathe regularly and learn my
lessons''. A recent survey by Durjoy finds that less than one-fourth of
the children of Dhaka's street-based sex-workers attend schools.
Eleven-year-old Sheila dreads the insecurity of her past. ''For us to
sleep on the pavement, my mother had to pay the policeman daily''.
''At night when mother went to work, I was left all alone.'' Sheila
remembers occasions when a policeman would beat her or drag her from
sleep because he hadn't been paid. Verbal and physical abuses are
common; risks of sexual abuse are high.
Shahnaz, the president of Durjoy, is contesting another election. ''The
women have always demanded we do something for their children. We could
finally get this centre going in April 2004, with financial assistance
from the HIV programme of the NGO, CARE-Bangladesh''.
Durjoy itself was formed in 1998, facilitated by CARE, which felt that
promotion of safe sex, i.e., condom use cannot be achieved unless the
sex-workers are organised and gain the strength of unity.
''We also realised that without addressing their pressing concerns, we
cannot address the issue of HIV prevention,'' says A. S. M. Enamul
Hoque, an expert with the CARE programme. Children's well-being came
across as one prime concern.
Many sex-workers however think that NGO projects are centred on HIV
prevention rather than dealing with the serious problems they face in
society. The child-care centre took six years to materialise.
The Constitution of Bangladesh declares that the state shall adopt
effective measures to prevent prostitution as a fundamental state
policy, and there are various restrictive laws. But an adult woman can
join sex-work through signing an affidavit at a magistrate's court or
with a Notary Public stating that she is above 18, the legal age of
maturity, and doing it willingly and consciously.
While existing laws relating to prostitution are ambivalent, soliciting
in public places is a punishable offence. ''They are constantly on the
run, suffering violence by the police, the thugs, and by general
public,'' says Hazera, a Durjoy volunteer.
The police and the thugs often demand free sexual services and snatch
away the women's uncertain, meagre incomes. All these raise the
vulnerabilities of sex-worker mothers and their children.
Sulekha sells sex living on the premises of a Dhaka railway station.
Abandoned by her husband, she joined prostitution some eight years ago.
Sulekha has recently sent her five-year-old boy to the centre, while her
younger daughter is still with her.
''During the day my son used to roam around, picking up bad words and
getting into fights with other kids,'' says Sulekha. ''At night I had to
pay a woman for minding my kids while I went with a client. It cost me a
lot''.
Many mothers are forced to serve clients while keeping the children
close by. ''If left with us, our daughters would follow our path, while
our boys would get into crime,'' says Shamima, a sex-worker operating in
Dhaka streets for the last 11 years.
Using laws against vagrancy, the police regularly intern these women in
government shelter homes. Chumki says, ''We then lose touch with our
children, often forever''.
Mothers need to pay the centre taka 330 (about five US dollars) a month
per child. Many, however, cannot meet this. Following closure of a few
brothels in recent years, business in the streets has become
competitive. Some even report getting 20 taka, less than fifty cents,
per act of sexual service.
Funded by the United Nations Development Fund, UNDP, the government's
department of social services runs a project for the sex-workers and
their children. Four of its seven shelters are for the children of the
street-based sex-workers, all in Dhaka. These accommodate children 0 to
18 years of age but cannot accommodate more than 157 children.
While no recent survey is available, and the country-wide figure
anybody's guess, CARE estimates the number of sex-workers in Dhaka
streets to be around 5000.
The government project, on the other hand, has higher estimates that
range between 12,000 and 15,000. The actual number of children that the
street sex-workers have is difficult to estimate though it would easily
exceed 5,000 by all accounts.
''Our ultimate goal is to mainstream these children,'' says S. M. Ali
Has Nain Fatme, coordinator of the Durjoy child-care project. ''There
are some programmes in different brothels, but the children of street-
based sex-workers get very little attention''.
Birth registration is compulsory in Bangladesh but Fatme is unable to
register the kids in the centre: ''The prescribed form requires names
and addresses of the father and the paternal grandfather''.
CARE's HIV programme funded the centre for about a year, and a UNICEF-
managed HIV/AIDS prevention project of the government followed it up for
a few months.
Durjoy now awaits funding from the Danish International Development
Agency (DANIDA) for a long-term comprehensive project. But to avail
foreign funding directly, Durjoy needs to get registered with the
government's NGO Affairs Bureau.
''It will be a great disaster if Durjoy does not get the required
registration,'' says Fatme. ''We can't just shut the centre down''.
Fifteen of the children are abandoned and five are disabled.
''I have seen many women give up their children in adoption, even sell
them, simply because they could not afford to keep the kids,'' says
Hazera.
Ani's mother dropped him at the centre when he was barely a few months
old, never to come back. Khodeja, one of the four ayahs (foster mothers)
at the Durjoy centre nursed him into a healthy, happy toddler. ''I
cannot stay away from the centre for long. I miss Ani,'' says Khodeja.
Sheila does not want to leave the centre, ''It's my home. There are many
bad men in the street. I am old enough to know the dangers. I could even
be trafficked abroad''.
The Durjoy centre is meant for children up to seven years of age and its
attempts to send older children like Sheila to government homes have
failed.
The department of social services runs 74 orphanages but they are barred
to children without a father's name.
(END/2005)
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