Safe and happy childhood

Save the Children released an index recently on progress made to ensure a favourable environment for children to grow. The study titled "The Many Faces of Exclusion" has found that Bangladesh has made the most progress in the South Asian region where its score improved by 21 points to 701 on a scale of 1 to 1000 (where higher score means better) from last year. This progress comes mainly from the fact that more children are being retained in schools. The indicators for the index are poor health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labour, child marriage, early pregnancy and extreme violence.

Significant challenges remain however if we wish to do better in the other indicators. Child marriage continues to be a scourge in our society, yet as the report has pointed out, the economic gains from effectively tackling the problem "could generate close the USD 4.8 billion annually in additional earnings and productivity." Children with disabilities continue to be discriminated against in the education system with barely 20 percent being enrolled in schools. Early marriage and pregnancy are areas policymakers need to look into.

According to the report, anywhere between 10 to 30 percent of girls drop out of school because of early pregnancy or marriage and it results in lower educational attainment. The bulk of these adolescent mothers have fewer skills and opportunities for employment which in turn perpetuate endless cycles of poverty. The country is losing out on the income that young women could have earned over their lifetimes had they not had early pregnancies. Legal reforms, education and mass media can be the drivers for change in social norms which would go far to improve the lives of children.