Country Profile: Bangladesh
Total Population: 161 million
Total Children under the age of 18: 64 million
The situation of children in Bangladesh
Orphans and street children in Bangladesh are often thrown in jail for petty crimes or abused and subjected to the most atrocious violence; most orphanages are overcrowded and cannot take in these children. Therefore they are forced to rummage through landfills for food and plastics to sell.
The Challenges:
- More than 60 million children live in Bangladesh (that's 8 times the number of children in France); half of them grow up in the most abject poverty.
- A considerable proportion of these children are orphaned without at least one parent; they have to work to earn money to support themselves and their families.
- 1.7 million children are engaged in child labor; one in every four is between 6 and 11 years old.
- A third of young Bangladeshi girls are married before the age of 15. Married at an early age, young girls have limited social interaction because they have abandoned their education.
- The adolescent birth rate in Bangladesh is one of the highest in the world
- Children from poor Bangladeshi communities have an increased risk of being sold by their parents, who imagine the migration beneficial: secure wages, better living conditions, etc
- More than 170,000 children under the age of 5 die each year from malnutrition, disease, and poverty.
- The literacy rate in Bangladesh is 47.9% of the population, and most children will leave school by 8.
Other Information about Orphaned and Vulnerable Children and Family Care in Bangladesh
Better Care Network Information on Family-Based Care in Bangladesh
More information for prayer at Operation World
"Source: UNICEF, Humanium, SOS Children's Villages International".
