Vow to protect rights of girl children
It was a unique event for the people of Ellarchar, a remote village in Sadar upazila, where over 500 people of all walks of life vowed to protect rights of girl children yesterday.
A mass gathering on 'Creating Mass Awareness to Protect Rights of Girl Children' was jointly organised by a local NGO, Bangladesh Vision, a Khulna-based NGO Swift Network Khulna and Steps Towards Development, Dhaka. It was held at Ellarchar Bazar with Alhaj Sajjad Hossain in the chair.
Speakers stressed on providing equal opportunity for girl children in order to ensure their rights.
Girl children start facing discrimination soon after their birth and continue to facing discrimination throughout their life, they said. They called on both the government and the NGOs and civil society members to work together to establish their rights.
Girl children are still facing discrimination and there are various forms of violence in society although every child has equal rights, they said.
As repression on girl children starts within the family it should be resisted by changing attitude of the family members, they said.
They called upon all irrespective of male and female members of the family to come forward to resist domestic violence against girl children.
The girl children are also deprived of proper education and the main reason behind large scale dropouts of girls is early marriage, they said.
They called on all to work together to help girl children become self-reliant. Girl children should be given equal opportunities to make them self-reliant, they said adding, women can do many important jobs if they are given equal opportunities.
They called on all to treat boys and girls equally for overall development of the nation. They also called on media to highlight the positive issues relating to rights of women.
Among others, Ruhul Amin, Maulana Alaul Karim, Abdul Gaffar and Bangladesh Vision director Aparesh Pal addressed.
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