Project Overview: Increasing rural poverty and corresponding urban migration continue to swell the numbers of people living in urban slums and on the streets. Problems of rural unemployment, landlessness, river erosion, natural disaster, family conflict and weak law and order cause rural families to leave their homes in search of better prospects in the urban centers. This movement contributes to the disintegration of traditional family and community structures and results in an increasing number of children being exposed to deprivation and abuse in urban areas.
Many migrant children live with their families, either on the streets or in slum houses. Other children who have been orphaned or abandoned by their parents live on their own in open public spaces like railway stations, launch or bus terminals etc. Children also flee from their families or caregivers, due to poverty and physical abuse, lack of interest in education, being considered as families' earning assets and working alone on the streets. These children are being denied their rights, vulnerable to abuse and exploitation; grow up on the margins of society without appropriate accommodation, proper care, protection, education, health care, food, drinking water, security, recreation and guidance.
No recent reliable data are available on the number of street children. A survey on street children estimated that Bangladesh has 679,728 children living in the street and out of them 249,200 are in the streets in Dhaka City. The survey further projected that by 2024 the number will reach at 1.6 million.
City Corporations are mandated to provide support to deprived people through establishing public welfare center, shelter center and necessary measures for providing services to children and women. However, City Corporations neither have the capacities nor the plan to address the issues of children living in the open public spaces or i n the streets. Law has been enacted on Prohibition of Human trafficking 2012, National Plan of Action has been developed to prevent human trafficking including internal migration. Bangladesh 7 FY P has set a target to prevent human trafficking and address the issues of people including children affected by internal migration through different strategies. The Bangladeshi Government has adopted policies providing support for migrated children particularly the ones living in the street. In 20 16, Head of Government declared that no children will be living in the street and accordingly government has prioritized the issues in their own plan.
The proposed project will address the access to basic social services of internally migrant children including children with disability, living on the street and capacity building of service providers. The project has two broad components - a) Child Protection Support Centres; these will provide a safe and protective environment for children and provide non-formal education; recreational and psychosocial support, case management, family reintegration, referrals to appropriate services; and b) Temporary Shelter Home for providing temporary shelter to the children without parental care, homeless, cannot be reintegrated immediately and will provide minimum package of social protection services. Apart from this the project will support the government in reporting of the next periodic report of CRC in 2021.
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