Situation of Child Abuse in Dhaka City: A Study

Abstract

The word “Abuse” seems very simple but the weight of these five alphabets is very strong. Child Abuse can be formed in several ways as it can. Day by the arena of child abuse and child maltreatment is getting harder and renovates it in a new shield in Bangladesh. Such an abused situation creates a sullen impact on children's minds as well as on society. And in Dhaka city, the pattern of child abuse is getting worse as because numerous forms of culture and variety of peoples belongs to the city. The principal objective of this study is to know the overall consequences of the abused children in Dhaka city and to identify their socio-economic, socio-psychological condition along with to estimate the prevalence and appearance of the concerned society and policymakers towards them. This study is qualitative in nature. The case study method has been used to find out the actual scenario of child abuse. Face to Face interviews and observation was accomplished during February to March 2020 with 10 abused cases have been chosen purposively aged 5-18 years old. In this study, data were collected through a Semi-Structured Interview Schedule and are analyzed and interpreted by using descriptive techniques. Child abuse is the most grievous experience by which a child loses its beautiful childhood and faces physical and psychological damages. Children from different classes and statuses are got victims of vulnerable situations but children of the lower class are mostly sufferers. But the pattern of facing abused problem is varying in lower and upper-class status. Most of the respondents are suffered from emotional abuse and neglect rather than physical abuse and emotional abuse creates serious interference in children’s cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and social development of children. Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh, normally this city represents the whole countries child abuse scenario and by this study, it has been shown that no one is safe from the greedy eyes of the offender. Even a child can be abused anywhere, at any time at any place by anyone. The study explores that, in maximum cases, children belong to impoverish family involve themselves in income-generating activities and tries to meet up their needs besides contribute economically to their own family. Being adjacent with the poor and uneducated family most of the children are not conscious of filing an FIR against the perpetrator or in some cases doesn’t eager to seeking legal help or justice from the legal authorities. Findings of the paper show that the abused children are the most neglected group in society and hardly have they raised their voice and protest against any kind of vexation. The results of the study found that the maximum time the abused children doesn’t get help from law enforcing agencies even sometimes children have been physically abused and psychologically torture by the policemen and law enforcing agencies. The result shows that working children live in Dhaka city experience child abuse. This study incorporated all the experience and data that have been collected from the abused children respondents. Lastly, it can be concluded that children at any age can be faced the abused behaviour by anyone in any place at any time.