Despite a growing economy, living standards have yet to improve for the poorest and most vulnerable in society. About 35 per cent of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Millions of children are malnourished with nearly half of all children under five underweight. It is estimated that 7% of Bangladeshi children under 14 are working, and at least one million are on the streets of the capital city Dhaka alone; driven there by a combination of poverty and other factors such as abuse at home or family breakdown. Street children are frequently apprehended or arrested by the police for vagrancy or suspicion of crime, often without citing any reason whatsoever. Often children are put in jail with adult offenders or placed in correction centres or vagrant homes; in violation of their fundamental human rights.

Life on the street exposes these children to the danger of being exploited by pimps and forced into the sex trade. It is estimated that there may be as many as 29,000 victims of child prostitution in the country. These children are forced into unsafe sex and risk contracting sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. In general their health is poor, and they suffer violence from their clients, the general public and the police. Very few government services are available to these boys and girls in Bangladesh.

To learn more about the children we support in Bangladesh, please follow the links below.

• Supporting sexually exploited and abused street children
• Improving responses to children in contact with the law