A picture published in last Saturday's The Daily Star speaks volumes  about our heavy-handed treatment of tender aged children. In particular  it shows a crowd's total insensitivity to a couple of poor and hungry  urchin girls alleged to have stolen food. Whereas they should have been shown passion and kindness, they we treated like common criminals.

Piya and Shumi couldn't be more than eight years old and their frailty is evident of the poverty that they  are caught up in, along with millions of other children in Bangladesh. They couldn't be  habitual thieves; even if they were they hardly deserved to be treated so brutally. It seems to be a simple case of food-lifting by direly  famished children.

In any case, the matter calls for some  serious introspection at the societal level. Impoverished children in  our country are forced to resort to petty crimes for survival so the problem is obviously at the root.

There's huge wastage of food  everyday from the households and the hotels. Leftovers are either taken  away by people who don't need them or thrown into the bins for urchins  to pick up. Overall, it's an affront to humanity.

In a country that is drowning in poverty and disparity, its residents become habituated to hearing about the distress and injustice prevailing upon their neighbors. In Bangladesh, crimes against women and children have reached such a point where no level of brutality or humanity manages to surprise anyone living in the country. Torture, violation and trafficking seem to have developed into a norm in our country, and regretfully  few offer more than a sympathetic glance towards the victims of such heinous crimes.

We have a number of organizations working for distressed children. Sadly, whereas these urchins should have been taken under the wings of shelter homes, they  are falling prey to trafficking, sexual exploitation and petty crimes. Instead  of ensuring food and schooling for them, we beat them up for stealing a few morsels of food in order to survive. These children should be taken care of because we have a  collective responsibility towards them.

 We need the authorities to step in and show us that we are not a barbaric nation that ignores such horrible crimes against the weak.

*Article taken from http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=180169