'Keep child prisoners in correction centres instead of jails'
Keeping children together with adult prisoners in jails is a gross violation of the country's laws, said speakers at a press conference yesterday.
While law clearly states that children cannot be kept in prisons, a statistics says that a total of 145 children are now in 67 prisons of the country, they said.
They urged for keeping the child prisoners to the correction centres as per the law.
The press conference on 'What should be done to protect children rights and laws' was organised by the Retired Police Officers Welfare Association Bangladesh (RPOWAB) at the National Press Club in the city.
All the 67 prisons have been built for adult prisoners but no space is kept for the child prisoners. So, once children are sent to jails, children have to endure abusive behaviour from adult prisoners, the speakers said.
The children, some of whom wrongly made accused, spend months in jails with little education or exercise, though they are entitled to get such benefits from correction centres to lead a better life, they said.
Quoting the children act, 1974 said Dr M Anamul Haque, joint president of RPOWAB, said children under sixteen couldn't be sent to jails.
"It says that children accused of committing offences should be held either at a correction centre or in a remand home," said Haque, who is also a former IGP of the police. "But the government itself violates this law every day while dealing with children arrested or detained on criminal charges."
Around 1,200 children aged below 16 were held in different prisons across the country in 2007. After criticisms and efforts from different human rights organisations, the number has reduced to 145 as of August 2010.
'These children need to be in correction centres rather than in prisons," said Mohammad Salam, a member of RPOWAB and former additional IGP.
"But the three youth correction centres in the country are hardly enough for the number of young convicted, " he said.
The correction centres, located in Gazipur and Jessore, do not have any specialised lawyers or doctors to deal with the matter of the children, the speakers said.
Now 30 children out of 251 who have been kept at the three correction centres are being held there without committing any crimes, they claimed.
The only youth court of the country does not have the authority of trying the youths on charge of some criminal offences like killing, acid violence, kidnapping.
For this, children accused for these crimes are sent to prisons instead of the correction centres, and tried with adults violating the children act, said the speakers.
While the government has prepared a new law redefining children by revising the age parameter, how the new law would help the young prisoners should be taken into consideration as well, they said.
"Our message is that children should not be punished or abused for committing crimes. But rather, they should be given the opportunity to redeem themselves and be an asset to the society," said Rafiqul Alam, secretary general of RPOWAB.
The speakers urged for protecting the children from any abuse of laws.
RPOWAB President ABMG Kibria, Treasurer Nazmul Ahsan Chowdhury, member M Shahidul Islam Chowdhury and educationist Kamal, among others, also spoke.
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