Bangladesh jails children, report says

The government is accused of breaking the law

By Moazzem Hossain BBC reporter in Dhaka

Hundreds of Bangladeshi children are sent to jail every year and kept with convicted criminals in complete violation of the country's laws, a report says.

Prisons in Bangladesh were built for adult criminals...and there is no space for children

Afsan Chowdhury, report's author

It describes Bangladeshi prisons as "units of suffering, pain and disease".

The report has been published jointly by Save the Children UK and a Bangladeshi human rights group, Odhikar.

The report strongly criticises Bangladesh's juvenile justice system for failing to take into account international norms while trying child offenders.

Latest available official figures show more than 1,000 children are being held in 81 prisons across Bangladesh.

Under Bangladeshi law, female prisoners are allowed to keep their children till they are four years old. That explains the detention of many but not all the children.

Law broken

The report says this practice is a grave and "complete" violation of the country's own laws.

Children suffer from malnutrition

In 1974, Bangladesh's parliament passed a children's act which clearly said that children under 16 could not be sent to jail.

It said children accused of committing offences should be held either at a correction centre or in a remand home.

One of the report's authors, Afsan Chowdhury, said the government itself violated this law every day while dealing with children arrested or detained on criminal charges.

"All the 81 prisons in Bangladesh were built for adult criminals and maintained as adult-oriented institutions and there is no space for children," Mr Chowdhury said.

"So, once put in jail, children have to endure abusive behaviour from adult prisoners."

Political exploitation

Many of the children interviewed for the report complained that they were denied many basic necessities of life by prison authorities.

The report says the quality of food supplied to children is poor and the quantity is not enough to meet the demands of a growing child.

The report recommends that children be protected until they are 18 from the harsh use of any law.

It also urges political parties to stop using street children for their own political end during strikes, picketing and other violent street protests.