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At least one million children are now detained in prisons across the world, while 236 are still languishing in 45 out of the total 66 prisons in Bangladesh despite repeated High Court orders not to keep juveniles in prisons, according to a Save the Children study.
   As of September 30, 198 boys and 38 girls were detained in 45 prisons in Bangladesh while three government-run juvenile development centres remain practically deserted with only 339 inmates against the capacity of 700.
   Besides, 40 million children under the age of 15 are victims of violence every year, according to a four-year global UN Study on violence against children presented to governments worldwide at the United Nations General Assembly on 11 October 2006.
   Against the backdrop, Save the Children Day of Action on Violence against Children will be observed today across the world.
   In observance of the day, children will be gathering in 10 districts to call on the government to push for an end to daily violence against them.
   The demonstrations will take place in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Kurigram, Khulna, Jessore, Sylhet, Jamalpur, Barguna and Dinajpur and will be part of a variety of events taking place around the world sending out a clear signal to the government that they want the violence against them to stop.
   According to the UN study, violence against children takes many forms including physical and humiliating punishment, negligence, torture, forced labour, sexual abuse and exploitation, harmful traditional practices (such as genital mutilation), early marriage, rape and even murder.
   According to a World Health Organisation study, 150 million girls and 73 million boys under 18 experienced forced sexual violence during 2002.
   A recent study done by Save the Children, a worldwide organisation on child rights, reveals at least one million children are detained in prisons across the world. Ninety per cent of the children in conflict with the law are petty offenders.
   At present, 33 states permit corporal punishment as a court sentence for children. Six countries still permit the death sentence for crimes committed by children, the study report says.
   In Bangladesh, as of September 30, 198 boys and 38 girls are detained in 45 prisons, while three government-run juvenile development centres remain practically deserted with only 339 inmates against the capacity of 700, said a study report of Save the Children UK.
   The child rights organisation, however, surveyed 57 jails out the total 66 across the country and the study found 12 of the prisons free of children.
   A High Court bench of Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury and Justice Nijamul Haque Nasim delivered a verdict on April 9, 2003 detailing a seven-point directive for the government in this regard.
   No juvenile accused should be kept in jail and child inmates should be transferred to correction homes and designated shelters other than jails with utmost expedition, the court directed.
   The directives are yet to be implemented in their entirety, according to information available with the national task force on juvenile justice. The task force has representation of 27 government and non-government agencies.
   As prisons witnessed a gradual increase in the number of juvenile inmates, the High Court on March 4, 2007 issued a fresh rule suo moto on the government to explain why necessary action should not be taken against it for keeping children in jails in violation of the High Court verdict delivered on April 9, 2003.
   According to sources in the task force, the number of children in jails increased by 24 in September and the number of inmates decreased by 16 in the juvenile development centres.
   The High Court bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Farid Ahmed on July 24 ordered the government to transfer the children languishing in jails to juvenile development centres immediately.
   After hearing a writ petition filed by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, the court also issued a rule on the government to explain why its action in keeping children in jails should not be declared illegal.
   Even 10 months after the issuance of the fresh order, law enforcers and the courts continue sending children to jail.
   The prison authorities are also yet to take any significant steps to transfer child inmates to the juvenile development centres.
   When approached on Saturday for comments, the law adviser, AF Hassan Ariff, who was highly appreciated by the High Court in the 2003 verdict for his contribution as the attorney general towards the cause of the juveniles in jails, told New Age, ‘It is unfortunate that the children are still languishing in prisons and the law enforcers and courts are sending them to prisons instead of juvenile development centres flouting the law and High Court edicts.’
   Asked about the present government’s initiatives in this regard, the law adviser said initiatives had been taken to appoint some probation officers to look into the cases of juveniles.
   A total of 29 children were placed on probation in 13 districts of the Chittagong division in September. Of them, six boys were put on probation in Chittagong and Comilla each, the maximum among the districts in record.
   For the transfer of child inmates from jails to the juvenile development centres, coordinated efforts of law enforcers, social welfare department, courts and prosecutions is necessary and the government has already initiated the process, Hassan Ariff said.
   The High Court on July 9, 2006 ruled that any accused child must be tried in a juvenile court and not in any other court of law irrespective of the nature of the charge brought against the child in accordance with the Children Act.
   No juvenile court under the law, however, has so far been established.
   When asked, Hassan Ariff said six juvenile courts would be established soon.

The hearing of August 21 grenade attack case was deferred for the 9th time Sunday as the pro-Awami League lawyers, appointed to assist the state counsels on approval, prayed for more time.
   The Dhaka No 1 speedy tribunal judge, Md Masdar Hossain, fixed October 23 for framing charge in the two cases relating to murder and use of explosives.
   The key accused in the case — the already detained former deputy minister of the four-party alliance government Abdus Salam Pintu, banned Harkatul Jihad chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and 11 others — were brought to the court from different jails in the country.
   Shahadatullah Jewel, another accused now on bail, also appeared before the court.
   Eight of the accused in the two cases are on the run.
   This is the third time the Awami League-backed lawyers prayed for more time.
   The judge took seat at 10.45am and told the chief of the lawyers’ panel, Syed Rezaur Rahman: ‘I have prepared a written charge sheet against the accused persons. I am now reading it out before you. If both sides have anything to say in this regard I will give time for hearing although it takes many days.’
   Syed Rezaur Rahman replied: ‘We are not yet prepared for the hearing on charge-framing. The case docket is so huge that we could not yet finish reading it.’
   Lawyer Sajawar Hossain, another lawyer, told the judge, ‘We hope we won’t need to apply for more time the next day.’

The government has asked all educational institutions to complete their activities for the year, including examinations, by December 4 in preparation for the parliamentary elections scheduled for December 18.
   In line with an October 16 req-uest made by the Election Commi-ssion to complete all academic activities earlier than the schedule, the education ministry at a meeting chaired by education adviser on Sunday decided to instruct all the educational institutions to complete exams by December 4.
   ‘All the government and non-government schools, colleges and madrassahs will need to complete their exams, including junior and primary scholarships exams, by December 4 for smooth preparations for the national polls,’ adviser Hossain Zillur Rahman told reporters after the meeting.
   In the afternoon, the ministry also issued a directive which has been sent to the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education to send the copies to all the institutions. The universities have been kept out of the purview of the instruction.
   The meeting was also attended by the education secretary, M Momtajul Islam, officials of the Directorate of Secondary and Hig-her Education and the chairmen of two education boards. The government and non-government schools, colleges and madrassah are used as election booths and the teachers are engaged as polling officers.

A European Union team will arrive in Bangladesh early next month to assess the pre-election situation of the country, the European Commission mission chief, Stefan Frowein, said on Sunday.
   A core team will arrive at the beginning of November and a 12-member delegation will follow shortly after, Stefan told reporters after a meeting with the commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman.
   He said experts in law, democracy and election logistics would come to Bangladesh ahead of the national polls.
   The EC mission chief also said the Bangladesh government would in addition have to take some initiatives for a free and fair election.
   The EU had earlier said it would not send any observers to Bangladesh if certain civil and political rights were not ensured ahead of the elections by relaxing or lifting the emergency.
   Asked if the EU had reconsidered its stand, Stefan said the decision to send observers would depend on reports of the situation assessment team.
   He stressed the need to ensure free voting and freedom of media. He hoped the government would take proper initiatives to hold the election in a free, fair and credible manner.
   Hossain Zillur Rahman said the government was trying hard to create a congenial atmosphere in the interests of the country and its people.
   ‘Nothing is being kept secret. Everyone can see what we are trying to do,’ the adviser said.

The students of the criminology and police science department and environmental science and resource management department in the Maulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology on Sunday confined the vice-chancellor of
   the university to the administrative building till 9:00pm demanding introduction of master’s courses.
   They also severed the electricity, telephone and water supply lines of the administrative building.
   The students, however, suspended their programme at 9:00pm, as the vice-chancellor, Monimul Haque, assured them of introduction of the master’s courses in seven days.
   As the campus situation turned volatile, the academic council had postponed its meeting scheduled for the same day and the university authorities called an urgent syndicate meeting to be held at 11:00am today.
   Earlier, on Saturday, the students staged a demonstration on the campus and boycotted the classes to push for their demand. They also submitted a memorandum to the VC but failed to get any response from him.
   The students of those departments said despite repeated appeals the university authorities remained deaf to their demand.
   Earler, Monimul Haque told reporters the authorities would take necessary steps to meet the demand as early as possible.
   The issue was supposed to be discussed at the academic council meeting which was postponed, he added.

The United Kingdom will give Bangladesh an additional grant of 70 million pounds, equivalent to Tk 900 crore, for implementing an extended phase of the Chars Livelihood Programme (CLP) to aid the poor people living in riverside areas and on the shoals.
   The CLP is designed to protect, and increase the number of, the livelihoods of thousands of poor families living in the remote and isolated islands (chars) in the Jamuna River in north-western Bangladesh.
   The grant was announced by the British International Development’s secretary, Douglas Alexander, at a conference of the Labour Party in the UK recently, said a release of the DFID on Sunday.
   In his announcement, Alexander mentioned that the rising prices of food, which have affected everyone in the world, were particularly bad for those whose lives were dependent on the shifting sands of Bangladesh’s rivers and coasts.
   ‘The additional funding will give the poorest people in these areas a chance to grow vegetables, raise cattle and work for food during the hunger season and, in the longer term, insure themselves against the effects of the annual floods,’ he said.
   Bangladesh welcomes this announcement of assistance by the United Kingdom. Over a million of the poorest people in Bangladesh will benefit from this additional 70 million pounds given for extending the current CLP until 2015.
   The current phase, which is funded by the UK through the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD), is expected to end by late 2009 or early 2010.
   This programme transfers productive livelihood assets to extremely poor people, provides them employment during the ‘monga’ season (period of unemployment and hunger) and raises dikes to protect them from rising river levels during floods.
   The new recipe will give the char-dwellers the chance to help themselves by investing in cattle, goats and seeds as long-term and dependable sources of food.
   The second phase will be based on the success of the programme’s first phase which increased the household income of about half a million char-dwellers and helped them to grow more food-grains and buy food, particularly during the monga.
   The schemes will help to the poor raise homesteads, cultivate vegetable gardens and build cow shelters on plinths that are above floodwater levels to ensure that the flood-stricken people can eat when the waters rise.
   Over half of the new CLP fund will go direct to ultra-poor households, many of them headed by women, to help them buy cows, other animals and seeds for food crops. A further amount will be used as social protection cash stipends for the very poorest to ensure that they can survive in the period before their farms and animals produce food.
   The rest will be used for: (1) veterinary support and fodder for the animals; (ii) community groups that bring poor women villagers together to share ideas, resources and knowledge; (iii) a scheme that provides cash for earth-lifting employment to raise the homes of char-dwellers above the floodwater-level.

Comilla Medical College will reopen Wednesday after 35 days of closure following a clash between students and local
   people.
   A meeting of college academic council, chaired by Principal Professor Dr Sahara Khatun, Sunday made the decision.
   All the residential halls of the college will open on Tuesday.
   The CMC was declared closed for an indefinite period on September 18 following a clash between college students and local people over introducing Medical Assistant Training School on the campus.

Several thousand people attended the namaaz-e-janaza of Fawzia Sultana Tumpa, daughter of Chittagong mayor ABM Mohiuddin Chowdhury, at the Laldighi Maidan in the port city on Sunday afternoon.
   Earlier, her body was flown in here by a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok. The mayor arrived at the Shah Amanat International Airport with the body of Tumpa at about 1:30 pm.
   After the janaza, Tumpa was laid to rest at Chashmahill graveyard. She died of cancer in a Bangkok hospital on Friday at the age of 22.
   People from different strata of life, including mayor of the Dhaka City Corporation, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, former ministers Abdullah Al Noman, Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, MA Mannan and Engineer Mosharraf Hossain, Awami League presidium member Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal’s executive president Moinuddin Khan Badal and Barrister Mir Helal, son of former mayor Mir Mohammed Nasiruddin, attended the funeral.
   Before the janaza, a sobbing Mohiuddin said he would never forget that his daughter’s last desire to see him for the last time remained unfulfilled.
   Tumpa, a second year student of the English department at the Premier University, died in a Bangkok hospital Friday a few minutes after her father boarded a Bangkok-bound flight after receiving the news that doctors had declared her clinically dead.

The workers of Roshwa Knitwear Ltd at Fatullah upazila in Narayanganj on Sunday staged a demonstration demanding implementation of their 23 point-charter of demands including hike in wages, overtime and immediate reinstatement of the sacked workers.
   They brought out a procession from the factory, chanting slogans to this effect.
   The agitating workers laid siege to the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association office at noon. But they withdrew their agitation programmes as the leaders of BKMEA after a meeting assured the workers of fulfilling their demands.
   Advocate Mahbubur Rahman Ismail, president of Bangladesh Textile Garments Workers Federation, said the problem was created as the owner of the factory was yet to implement the agreement signed by the factory owner and workers a few months ago.
   BKMEA senior vice president, Abdur Rashed Rashu said the problems of Roshwa Knitwear would be resolved by October 21 after a tripartite meeting between BKMEA, workers and labour office.
   The workers of Roshwa Knitwear Ltd had been observing work abstention in support of their demands for the last five days.

A packaging factory official was found dead at the residence of the factory owner at Uttara in Dhaka early Sunday.
   The deceased was Faruk Hossain, son of late Rafiqul Islam of Laxmipur, and in-charge of Shahitex Packaging and Printing Factory in Gazipur.
   The police said Faruk had remained confined to the house of the factory owner on the Road No 13/A, at Sector No 3 of Uttara on charge of stealing goods from the factory warehouse on Thursday.
   The police recovered the body from the house early Sunday. A piece of cloth was found fastened around his neck, the police said.
   The body was sent to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue for a post-mortem examination.
   ‘The post-mortem report will speak if he committed suicide or was murdered,’ said the Uttara police station officer-in-charge, Saiful Alam Chowdhury. The police picked up two security guards of the factory, Anwar Hossain and Borhan, for quizzing.

The counsellor for political and economic affairs of the US embassy, Jon Danilowicz on Sunday said a peaceful and democratic environment was a pre-condition for sustainable economic development of Bangladesh.
   The US diplomat was addressing a luncheon hosted by the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry with its president Saifuzzaman Chowdhury in the chair.
   Yousuf Abdullah Harun, former president of the FBCCI, MA Salam, first vice president of the BGMEA, Nasiruddin Chowdhury, Chittagong Stock Exchange president, Mahabub Ali, president of the Bangladesh Shippers Council, and CCCI directors attended among others.
   The diplomat also stressed the need for decentralization of power to sustain both the economic and political development of Bangladesh.

The commerce adviser, Hossain Zillur Rahman, on Sunday ruled out again any uncertainty regarding holding of national election.
   ‘There is no suspicion about holding the election,’ Zillur told journalists who, after covering SAARC chamber seminar at Sonargaon Hotel, sought his observation regarding people’s feelings of uncertainty regarding election.
   The adviser hoped that every dispute between political parties and election commission or the government could be resolved though continuous negotiations.
   ‘We have to remain positive,’ Zillur said, adding, ‘Crisis is natural but if we step forward with positive mindsets every problem can be resolved.’
   Zillur, a lead negotiator between government and top political leaders, claimed that through discussions they had advanced much in narrowing gap between political parties and the government. ‘I am hopeful that all difficulties will be removed and we all will witness a peaceful election,’ he said.

Aminul Islam Bhuiyan, secretary to the Economic Relations Division, has been made an officer on special duty.
   The establishment ministry issued a gazette notification to the effect on Sunday.
   Aminul has been made OSD for posting as alternative executive director to the Asian Development Bank, said official sources.