STRENGTHENING CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM FOR REDRESSING DOMESTIC EMOTIONAL
ABUSE OF CHILDREN: BANGLADESH PERSPECTIVE
Mirza Farzana Iqbal Chowdhury1
Abstract
Child abuse is a threat to development of children. Emotional abuse is such a classification of child
abuse which kills children’s mind silently but deeply. Although the Government and Non-governmental
organizations are taking many steps to prevent other kinds of child abuse such as physical abuse or
sexual abuse, but due to silent killing nature of emotional abuse it is quite unaddressed and un-redressed
by them. In this paper I tried to discuss the aspect of emotional abuse elaborately and it’s impact on
children’s psychology. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted to examine the level of
emotional abuse among the respondents. The field survey shows that families are not conscious about
their treatment of children. So my concentration was to focus on the life-long impacts of the emotional
abuse on children and to recommend a strengthened children protection system including community
people to prevent and protect children from emotional abuse.
Keywords: Emotional abuse, Children’s Development, Children Protection system, Ensuring Child
Rights.
1
Lecturer, Department of Law, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Daffodil International
University, Bangladesh.
1
1.
INTRODUCTION
Child is the future of a nation. But we see that
often a child becomes victim of different types of
abuse because of its vulnerability. The term “Child
Abuse” has a long bitter history. The abuse of a
child is often caused by parents or other family
members in the name of parental control and was
protected by a system of laws which entitle children
with few rights. Under existing social structure,
children are treated as property owned by the
parents. Parents, particularly fathers exercise great
power over the treatment and discipline of children.
It is a matter of great sorrow that even in this
modern era we did not come out from this heinous
outlook of which result is Child Abuse. Child abuse
is often justified by various names, such as, a
disciplinary measure, a legally sanctioned act, an
economic necessity, or cultural and religious
practice.
affect the nation, which if we can stop or prevent a
part of the child abuse, we can significantly
contribute in the national development.
Child abuse is now regular in the newspaper
headlines and media news. Not only that, the
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has
also given concluding observation regarding
Bangladesh on 26 June 2009 where the committee
expressed its concern about the different kinds of
abuse and neglect that occur in both public and
private institutions serving children and in homes
(Save the Children, 2009). Therefore an effective
children protection system is only the solution to
this problem, except which, children will continue
to suffer various incidents of physical violence,
neglect, emotional abuse, sexual harassment and
other forms of child abuse and nation will have to
pay for it.
2. OBJECTIVES
Child Abuse has serious physical and psychosocial
consequences which adversely affect physical &
mental health. In Bangladesh, less than 10 per cent
of children are registered at birth (UNICEF, 2008).
So it is very difficult to track whether children's
rights are being protected or not. As a result,
children are being abused by perpetrators without
fear of punishment which is an unfair deal with
children’s rights. Therefore this issue needs proper
attention of communities & legal authorities to be
resolved as today’s children will be acting as the
driving force of development strategy of country
for tomorrow.
As per UNICEF statistics, in Bangladesh the
number of children in the year of 2010 was 55938
thousand which is 37.62% of the total population of
148,692 thousand in the same year of 2010 (The
World Bank, 2010). This percentage carries more
than one-third of the total population & if children
are not protected properly, it will be huge loss of
country potentials. Understanding the gravity of
child abuse problem, November 19 has been
designated as the ‘World day for Prevention of
Child Abuse’. Child abuse is given so much
importance as it is proved that it is the mother of
the major social problems of today’s world. Though
every abused child does not have all these
problems, but it affects the mind of children in such
a way which hinders their mind to freely reach full
potential. This situation has serious negative effects
not only on the development and growth of children
but on the development of a nation as a whole.
These hindrances to reach full potentialities also
The objectives of this paper are as follows:
 To identify children’s right “Right to be
free from emotional abuse” under
International & National laws & policies.
 To focus on harmful impact of emotional
abuse on children’s psychology &
development.
 To suggest the parents, guardians and
society to be sensitive about their behavior
with children.
 To suggest various ways for developing a
strengthened national children protection
system to preserve child’s right to
development by redressing emotional
abuse of child.
3. METHODOLOGY
Required information has been collected from
both primary & secondary sources. Primary data
was collected from answers of person-to-person on
the basis of given structured questionnaire. The
questionnaire comprises 15 questions. Total 110
respondents have been randomly selected for
answering the questionnaire from three Private
Universities: Daffodil International University,
Asian University and Northern University. The
ages of respondents were between 18-25 years who
can understand the level of abuse at their childhood
& can give a rational judgment in answering the
questionnaire. The sources of secondary
information include journals, newspapers, various
2
publications of Amnesty International, UNICEF,
SAVE the Children, WHO, FAO & other local &
international organizations.
4. DEFINITION OF CHILD ABUSE
Generally child abuse is physical, sexual, or
emotional mistreatment or neglect of a child. Child
abuse can be defined as violation of positive duty to
act or negative duty not to act of a parent or parents
or family members or caretaker that results in the
death, serious physical, emotional or psychological
harm, sexual abuse or exploitation of a child or any
type of action which places the child in an
imminent risk of serious harm.
In the United States, the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department
for Children and Families (DCF) define child
maltreatment as any act or series of acts of
commission or omission by a parent or other
caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or
threat of harm to a child (Wikipedia, 2013).
According to the Journal of Child Abuse and
Neglect, child abuse is "any recent act or failure to
act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results
in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual
abuse or exploitation, an act or failure to act which
presents an imminent risk of serious harm.
Again according to World Health Organization
(WHO), “Child abuse or maltreatment constitutes
all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment,
sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or
commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual
or potential harm to the child’s health, survival,
development or dignity in the context of a
relationship of responsibility, trust or power.’’
Child abuse is such a complex matter which
involves various behaviors such as physical abuse,
emotional abuse, sexual abuse, child neglect and
commercial exploitation in the form of child labor
and child pornography. Though it is a complex
matter, it should be reported in time so that it can
be investigated properly and stopped before much
harm is done.
If we analyze the definitions, we can easily identify
the following types of child abuse:
a)
b)
c)
d)
Physical abuse
Emotional abuse
Sexual abuse
Neglect
e)
Commercial exploitation.
Where a child should be protected by his/her family
from abusers, if the family itself abuses the child,
then the question arises that where the child will
feel secured. If the family environment is not
suitable for child, how can he/she cope with the
situation at this very young age? Very often,
children are emotionally abused within family
which has a great negative impact on his/her selfdevelopment skills. But this sensitive issue often
remains neglected & nobody is paying proper
attention in this regard. Therefore the purpose of
my article is attracting proper attention to this
highly neglected aspect of child abuse &
recommending strengthening child protection
system to redress emotional abuse of a child &
creating awareness about a child-friendly family
environment.
5. DEFINITION OF EMOTIONAL ABUSE
‘’When it comes to damage, there is no real
difference between physical, sexual and emotional
abuse. All that distinguishes one from the other is
the abuser’s choice of weapons’’ (Andrew Vachss,
1994). Emotional abuse is a pattern of behavior that
can seriously interfere with a child's positive
development and his self-respect.
“Emotional abuse includes the failure to
provide a developmentally appropriate,
supportive environment, including the
availability of a primary attachment
figure, so that the child can develop a
stable and full range of emotional and
social competencies commensurate with
her or his personal potentials and in the
context of the society in which the child
dwells. There may also be acts towards
the child that cause or have a high
probability of causing harm to the child’s
health or physical, mental, spiritual,
moral or social development. These acts
must be reasonably within the control of
the parent or person in a relationship of
responsibility, trust or power. Acts
include restriction of movement, patterns
of belittling, denigrating, scapegoating,
threatening, scaring, discriminating,
ridiculing or other non-physical forms of
hostile or rejecting treatment. ” (WHO,
1999)
3
Therefore if we analyze the definitions, we found
that the emotional abuse is a kind of abuse which
kills a child’s mind silently. In case of physical or
sexual abuse, physical evidence can be found & is
used in penalizing the offenders. But as emotional
abuse is hard to identify due to no physical
evidence, so it is more dangerous. Emotional abuse
is a pattern of behavior that attacks a child’s
emotional development and sense of self-worth.
Emotional abuse includes excessive, aggressive or
unreasonable demands that place expectations on a
child beyond his or her capacity. Constant
criticizing, belittling, insulting, rejecting, teasing,
degrading are some of the forms of emotional
abuse. It also includes failure to provide the
psychological nurturing necessary for a child’s
psychological growth and development. (Trenholm,
2004)
To determine whether a child is being emotionally
abused or not, some indicators have been developed
which are the following:
“Hiding his or her eyes, lowering his or
her gaze, biting lips or tongue, forcing a
smile,
fidgeting,
annoyance,
defensiveness, exaggeration, confusion
or denial, feeling of nakedness, defeat,
alienation or lack of worth, regression,
poor self-esteem, angry acts, withdrawal,
insecurity, alcohol or drug abuse,
depression,
suicide,
difficulty
in
relationships, eating disorders, sleep
disorders/nightmares, speech disorders,
developmental delays, nervous disorders
or
somatic
symptoms
(ChildHelpInfoCenter, 2009).”
There are other indicators also such as
inappropriately aggressive, destructive to others,
restriction to play activities or experiences,
demonstrates compulsions, obsessions, phobias,
hysterical outbursts. The immediate emotional
effects of abuse and neglect are isolation, fear, and
an inability to trust which produce subsequent
lifelong consequences such as lack of selfconfidence,
frustration
and
difficulty
in
relationships.
Researchers have identified links between child
abuse and neglect and several psychological
consequences such as poor mental & emotional
health, cognitive difficulties, social difficulties,
behavioral consequences, difficulties during
adolescence, juvenile delinquency and adult
criminality, alcohol & other drug abuse, abusive
behavior (NCCANI, 2005).
Emotional abuse is an emerging child abuse
field. It is rarely recognized by society and
traditional child welfare systems. Therefore
interventions in such type of abuse are few. But as
it has a profound impact on the emotional
development of a child, it should not be neglected
and proper interventions should come forth to
address this problem.
To address this problem properly we need to know
how this abuse happens. These are most often like
the following:
“To tell a child in many ways that he or
she is unwanted, to show no interest
towards the child, not to give or return
affection, not to listen to the child what
he or she wants to share, not validating
feelings or telling the feelings of the
child as fake, to be indifferent about tears
of child, to give false promise or to break
promise, to cut the child off while he or
she is speaking or telling “You are telling
non-sense” without just reasons, to
pretend to hear concerns but then to
disregard them, to judge what the child
does as wrong, inferior, or worthless, to
condemn the child telling “Who do you
think you are, Mr./Ms big guy/girl?,
“What do you think about yourself, very
special? Huh!” etc., to accuse, blame,
insult, criticize, punish and threaten with
abandonment, physical harm, or death or
telling to the teacher or others, to label
the person as a loser, to take advantage of
the person’s weakness, to manipulate the
sentences of the child, not to allow the
child to engage with peers or activities,
to withhold information, to tell lies to
avoid justifying actions or ideas (TEACH
through Love, 2002).’’
This list is not exhaustive. There are many other
behaviors which are causing emotional abuse of a
child & preventing healthy development of the
child.
Now we will see whether there is any law & policy
in Bangladesh to combat this problem or not &
what are those.
4
6. INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS OF
BANGLADESH REGARDING VARIOUS
CHILD
RIGHTS
RELATED
TO
EMOTIONAL ABUSE
Bangladesh is an early signatory of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1990. The
Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the
body of independent experts that monitors
implementation of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child by its State parties. The principles of the
convention are to ensure non-discrimination to any
child, devotion to the best interest of child, the right
to life, survival and development and respect to the
views of children (UNICEF, 2008).
Art. 2 of CRC contains ‘Principle of nondiscrimination’ according to which States Parties
shall respect and guarantee the rights set forth in the
CRC to each child within their jurisdiction without
discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the
child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race,
color, sex, language, religion, political or other
opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property,
disability, birth or other status.
Art. 3 of CRC contains ‘Principle of The Best
Interests of the child’ which tells that the best
interests of the child should be the primary
consideration in all actions concerning children,
whether undertaken by public or private social
welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative
authorities or legislative bodies .
Art. 12 of CRC contains ‘Principle of the Right to
Participate’, according to which States should
assure to the child who is capable of forming his or
her own views the right to express those views
freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of
the child being given due weight in accordance
with the age and maturity of the child.
Again CRC contains ‘Respecting the Rights to life,
survival and development’ of child. As child abuse
is likely to endanger the survival and development
of the child affected, State parties are responsible
for preventing child abuse.
By signing in the CRC, the Government of
Bangladesh is committing to improve the child
rights situation in the country so that children’s
rights under the Convention are realized.
“Bangladesh also made its commitment in
May 2002 at the United Nations Special
Session on Children where world leaders
met to review the progress since 1990 and
endorsed the World Fit for Children
document, which contains a declaration of
objectives and a global plan of action.
Bangladesh also made her commitments at
various international conferences held
since 1990. These include the World
Conference on Education for All, United
Nations Conference on Environment and
Development, World Conference on
Human Rights, International Conference
on Population and Development, World
Summit for Social Development, and the
United Nations Conference on Human
Settlements. Bangladesh is a State party of
Millennium Declaration. The second point
of the Declaration calls on the world’s
leaders to recognize their duty to the
vulnerable and in particular, to the
children of the world, to whom the future
belongs (UNICEF, 2008)”.
In addition, Bangladesh as a member of SAARC is
committed to the SAARC Declarations. Again
Bangladesh endorsed the SAARC Convention on
the Regional Arrangements for the Promotion of
Child Welfare in South Asia 2002.
7. EXISTING LAW
&
POLICY
IN
BANGLADESH
TO
COMBAT
EMOTIONAL ABUSE OF CHILD
There is not any specific article in our
constitution for protecting child rights. To protect
children’s rights, the Children’s Act 1974 and the
Children’s Rules, 1976 were enacted and the
Bangladesh Children’s Academy established in
1976. Bangladesh was among the first few
countries to sign and ratify the UN Convention on
the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and is working to
implement its provisions. The Government, as a
follow up to the CRC, had quickly formulated the
National Programme of Action for Children in 1992
and also undertaken ‘Progati’, a Decade Plan of
Action for the Girl Child in the same year.
Subsequently, the National Children Policy was
drawn up in 1994 to ensure the security, welfare
and development of children in Bangladesh.
There is not any specific section regarding child
abuse or emotional abuse of child in Nari O Shishu
Nirjaton Daman Ain, 2000 which was enacted to
prevent of torture on child (Bangladesh, Nari O
Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000). Sec.6
5
(Trafficking), Sec. 7(Abduction), Sec. 12
(Mutilation or maiming), Sec. 14 (Restriction on
publication) of Nari O Shishu Nirjaton Daman Ain,
2000 deals with some child issues but those are not
sufficient.
Again the Domestic Violence (Prevention and
Protection) Act, 2010 was passed due to
widespread domestic violence of women &
children in Bangladesh but not yet in force.
Comparatively this Act dealt with “Emotional
Abuse” of child by family members (Bangladesh,
Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act
2010).
“In 2003, the Ministry of Women and
Children Affairs (MWCA) began a series
of discussions on the preparation of 3rd
NPA (2004-2009) for Children. These
discussions identified five thematic areas,
which formed the basis of the NPA
document.
These
thematic
areas
included: (1) food and nutrition, (2)
health, (3) education and empowerment
of the girl child, (4) protection from
abuse, exploitation and violence, and (5)
physical environment. The findings and
recommendations of the five Advisory
Panels were consolidated and finalized
under these five thematic areas, The NPA
also included a programming framework,
cross-cutting approaches and issues,
governance and management of the NPA
for Children, and measuring and
assessing impact (3rd NPA). Under the
heading of Protection from Abuse,
Exploitation
and
Violence
the
interventions of enabling environment;
prevention; protection, recovery and
reintegration; and prosecutions of
perpetrators were defined. In February
2009, the Government constituted a high
level National Committee on Women and
Children
Development
(NCWCD).
Bangladesh adopted various policies and
legislations as a follow-up of CRC- the
latest being the National Children Policy
2011. This policy has a strategy to
protect children from abuse & provide
them medical & financial assistance
(MOWCA, 2011)”.
The Children's Act, 1974 provides for the custody,
protection and treatment of children and the
punishment of young offenders by juvenile courts;
this Act also deals with care and protection of
destitute and neglected children. It provides, among
other safeguards, for the punishment of special
offences such as cruelty to children, employment of
children for begging and exploitation of child
employees (Bangladesh, Children’s Act 1974).
7.1. Review of The Domestic Violence
(Prevention And Protection) Act, 2010
The Domestic Violence (Prevention and
Protection) Act, 2010 defines as domestic violence
any physical and mental torture, sexual harassment
and psychological harassment of a woman or child
by any member of the family. Any action that
causes or likely to cause damage to the life, health,
security or any organ of the body of a woman or
child, forcing any individual to commit an offence
or any provocation for doing so will constitute a
domestic violence, the bill says. Any oral abuse,
insult, ignorance, threat to any individual or making
any utterances that may cause mental harassment
and interference in individual’s freedom of
movement and opinion by any member of the
family will also constitute a domestic violence, the
bill says (SAHR, 2010).
Sec 2(6) of the Act defines “Aggrieved Person” as
any child or woman who due to family relations
became victim of domestic violence, or being
victimized of domestic violence or in the risk of
becoming victim of domestic violence. The Act
asks a police officer, being informed in any manner
about a domestic violence, to make the victim
aware she could get redresses, including legal aid
and medical treatment. The government will have
to appoint an enforcement officer for every upazila,
police station, district and metropolitan area to
ensure enforcement of the law. The enforcement
officer will monitor domestic violence in the area
under his or her jurisdiction and if any domestic
violence is reported, the officer will inform the
officer-in-charge of the police station concerned,
apply to the court concerned seeking protection of
the victim and arrange medical examination and
treatment of the victim. Rights organizations and
non-governmental organizations campaigning for
protection of women and children’s rights will be
considered as service organizations in order to
ensure enforcement of the law. The service
organizations will be entrusted with recording any
incident of domestic violence and to report to the
court and police station concerned and ensuring
safe custody of the victim at a safe home.
6
According to the Act, any petition seeking
protection of a victim can be filed with the court of
judicial magistrate or metropolitan magistrate
concerned by the victim or the enforcement
officer. If the court is satisfied that a domestic
violence has been committed or there is a
possibility of such violence, it will order the
accused person/s to ensure protection of the victim
and issue a notice asking the perpetrator to explain
in seven days why he should not be ordered to
ensure permanent protection of the victim, the bill
stipulates. If a person fails to comply with court
orders to ensure protection of the victim, s/he will
be punished with imprisonment for six months or
with a fine of Taka 10,000 or with both. For any
recurrence of the offence, the perpetrator will be
punished with imprisonment for two years or with a
fine of Taka 1 lakh or with both (Bangladesh,
Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act
2010).
Therefore we can see that though Bangladesh
adopted a good law to protect child from abuse but
this Act is not organized enough. It emphasizes
punishment of offenders rather than preventing
emotional abuse of a child. This Act did not give
more attention to awareness raising & involved law
enforcement agency more than the community
where the victim child is living, thus it is not
recognizing the role of community in redressing
such a deep-hidden problem.
This Act did not define the term” Aggrieved
person” widely to include other community
members. Again sec.2 (3) of the act defines
“Application” filed by aggrieved person or any
other person on behalf of aggrieved person.
According to sec. 6(1) (d), enforcement officer is
entitled to apply in the Court for protection order
being requested by the aggrieved person. Sec. 6 (1)
(g) again tells that the officer will send the
aggrieved to the shelter center if the aggrieved
agrees. Here it was not clearly mentioned how
decision of sending to the shelter center will be
taken where child is unable to give decision.
Though this Act includes child to give him
protection from domestic violence but no clear
guideline is given by this Act to address child
issues properly & specifically. Again reporting to
Police is emphasized in this Act where we know
that Police is also corrupted & most of the time,
they try to influence the aggrieved party for the
purpose of gaining financial interest. Therefore,
reporting mechanism & more priority to Police
authority tend to defeat the purpose of enacting this
Act. So according to my view, this Act needs to be
reviewed by the Legislature.
The following is the figure of working method
reflected in the Domestic Violence (Prevention and
Protection) Act 2010 which reveals the weaknesses
of the mechanism:
\
Figure 1: Working method reflected in the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act, 2010
7
Examining all existing laws & policies we can
conclude that though many laws & programs
were adopted in Bangladesh to prevent different
types of abuse but in case of emotional abuse, no
progress is apparent. Due to difficulty in
identifying this abuse, other actor’s i.e NGO’s
are also less active in this regard. But if we see
the impacts of emotional abuse on children, we
will have to admit that it is not a petty issue. As
Bangladesh is committed to prevent abuse so it is
committed to prevent emotional abuse also
which should be considered as a special aspect of
the term “Abuse” in respect of child.
A GLANCE AT EXISTING LAWS & POLICIES IN BANGLADESH REGARDING
REDRESSING EMOTIONAL ABUSE OF CHILD






The Domestic Violation (Prevention & Protection Act), 2010
Children’s Act, 1974
Children’s Rules, 1976
National Programme of Action for Children in 1992
‘Progati’, a Decade Plan of Action for the Girl Child, 1992
National Children Policy, 1994 & subsequent years, latest policy of 2011
8. THE ROLE OF
ORGANIZATIONS
NGO’S
&
OTHER
A. Unicef
To protect children’s rights, UNICEF is
working worldwide. In the context of Bangladesh,
the role of UNICEF is quite praiseworthy. UNICEF
is supporting government initiatives to maintain
harmony between domestic legislation and
international standards along with the Convention
on the Rights of the Child (CRC). To achieve this
goal, UNICEF proposed legislation of a new
Children’s Code where all rights and principles of
children mentioned in CRC and other international
standards will be included. “UNICEF has also
supported the Government to amend the 1974
Children Act which covers children in conflict with
the law and children in need of protection in line
with the CRC (UNICEF, 2006)”.
UNICEF Bangladesh is working to establish
protective mechanisms against abuse, exploitation
and violence.
“A study on child abuse has been
conducted by UNICEF, the Government of
Bangladesh and the Save the Children
Alliance. Under the supervision of the
Violence against Children Working Group
of UNICEF, 20 district level consultations
have taken place as a follow up of the UN
study on violence against Children and
Regional consultation on Violence against
Children in South Asia. Another 44 district
level consultations took place in 2007.
UNICEF’s work to protect children at risk
includes legislative and institutional
reform, advocacy on the rights and
requirements of vulnerable children,
capacity building of child protection
services and piloting of child protection
systems (UNICEF, 2008).”
“UNICEF is advocating for a national
child protection system to support all
vulnerable children, including victims of
trafficking,
violence,
abuse
and
exploitation. The system will link
together all organizations and institutions
(public and private) that support children
at risk. To support the network, UNICEF
is facilitating the development of a
national child protection information
management system and the design of
national social services training. It is
piloting a number of community-based
child protection systems. UNICEF is
developing minimum care standards for
institutions that care for orphans,
children in contact with the law, and
victims of trafficking and abuse. This has
included training for institution staff in
child-friendly and gender-appropriated
care (UNICEF, 2010).”
8
B. Save The Children
In curbing violence against children, Save the
Children emphasize empowering communities
through local community based organizations and
calls for strengthening of national child protection
systems including community participation. Both
the leading NGO’s (Specially UNICEF) are
working on strengthening policy, increasing life
skills of children & trying hard to implement
National Child Protection System & many other
strategies to prevent child abuse but any special
initiative regarding redressing emotional abuse by
these
two
NGO’s
are
not
visible.
9. FIELD SURVEY
I conducted a questionnaire on 110
Bangladeshi students of Private University level
in July 2012 as mentioned in the methodology to
Table: 1
Question
area
Impression
about own
family
understand
their
level
understanding in their family.
Choices
Scores
Percentage
Good
96
87.27%
Bad
0
0%
Satisfactory
14
12.72%
Table: 2
Question area
Less
importance
among siblings
Table: 3
Question area
Getting access of
respondent’s
in
sharing stories with
family
Table: 4
Question area
Mental pain about
false promise of
family
of
Choices
Yes
Scores
8
Percentage
7.27%
No
102
92.72%
Choices
Yes
Scores
34
Percentage
30%
No
23
20%
Sometimes
53
47%
Choices
Yes
Scores
45
Percentage
40%
No
47
43%
Not happened
18
17%
Table: 5
Question area
Without reasonable cause giving no importance to opinion
Choices
Yes
No
Sometimes
Scores
24
47
39
emotional
Percentage
22%
43%
35%
Table: 6
Question area
Choices
Scores
Percentage
9
Tendency
underestimating
things done
Table: 7
Question area
False blame by
family
Table: 8
Question area
Threat
to
hurt
physically
of
all
Yes
10
9%
No
100
91%
Choices
Scores
Yes
25
No
85
Choices
Percentage
22.72%
77.28%
Yes
49
Scores
Percentage
44.55%
No
61
55.45%
Table: 9
Question area
Reaction of family about coming of friend at
house
Table: 10
Question area
Threat to desert
Choices
Happy
Expressed annoyance
No special expression
Choices
Scores
40
11
59
Scores
Percentage
36.36%
10%
53.63%
Percentage
Yes
11
10%
No
99
90%
Table: 11
Question area
Frustration due to family mal-treatment
Choices
Yes
Scores
48
Percentage
43.63%
No
62
56.37%
Table: 12
Question area
Attempt to suicide due to family mal-treatment
Choices
Yes
Scores
7
Percentage
6.37%
No
103
93.63%
Table: 13
Question area
General impression about child treatment
by families
Table: 14
Question area
Choices
Proper behavior
Scores
36
Percentage
32.73%
Mental torture by families
59
53.64%
Sometimes good, sometimes
bad
15
13.64%
Scores
Percentage
10
Choices
How to save the child from emotional
abuse by own family
Table: 15
Question area
How respondents will
raise
their
future
children
Child has to agree always with
family
Community & Law must help the
child
We do not need any change of
family behavior
Choices
Affection & Ruling (Traditional approach)
Huh, do children need any right?
I will try my level best to ensure optimum level
of my child’s development. (Modern approach)
10. MAJOR FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
Although most respondents have good
impression about their family’s behavior but the
statistics of answering of different questions do not
justify their good impression.
7.27% of
respondents reported that they were given less
importance than their siblings in their home. 20%
reported that they did not get access to share their
story within family.40% reported that they were
hurted because of false promises by family.22%
told that their opinion was neglected by own family
without reasonable reason.9% reported that family
had tendency to underestimate their all things.
22.72% told that they were blamed falsely by own
family.44.55% reported that they were threatened
to be hurted physically by family. 10% told that
family expressed annoyance in coming of friends at
home. 10% told that their family threatened to
desert them. 43.63% told that they got frustrated
due to family mal-treatment in their life. 6.37 % of
respondents revealed that they attempted to suicide
36
32.73%
72
65.45%
2
1.8%
Scores
24
0
86
Percentage
21.82%
0%
78.18%
due to family mal-treatment. 53.64% expressed that
in generally children suffers mental torture within
their own family. 65.45% agrees that law &
community should help to save children from
emotional abuse by family. In respect of caring
future children of respondents, 21.82% showed
traditional approach of affection & ruling and
78.18% showed modern approach of ensuring
child’s development.
So we can see that emotional abuse is occurring in
family & children become victim of emotional
abuse by their own family. It is a matter of concern
that without victim’s conscious understanding;
those abuses create a harmful impact on the
psychology & development of the victim child for
which in the adulthood even he/she faces multifaced problems. If families become conscious at the
very beginning of raising their child, many
psychological & social problems can be reduced to
a great extent.
11. PROBLEMS TO RESOLVE THE ISSUE
By studying the aforementioned cases &
analyzing field survey, we can understand the deep
level impact of emotional abuse of a child within
home. Regarding resolving the issue, some
problems are sorted out. Let’s have a look:
1. The traditional thinking of ruling upon children
is the root cause of widespread abuse of child in
Bangladesh. In addition, guardians do not want to
admit their fault. Because of this, there is little
reliable quantitative data. Data collection is
challenging because guardians are unable to
understand the differences between ruling and
abuse and victim child is vulnerable and traumatic
to express the sufferings. A major underlying issue
behind child abuse is that children are often
unaware of their legal rights, or are made to feel
they cannot exercise those rights. In general, the
rights and desires of children are often overlooked,
particularly for the most vulnerable groups, such as
girls. When family is the abuser, then the child
alone cannot fight to get his or her right.
2. Inequality is another problem. Often disabled
children and girls are more prone to be emotionally
abused. The guardians and the society don't want to
understand that the fear, lack of confidence and loss
of trust are more harmful and hurtful than the actual
act of physical or sexual violation. Physical or
sexual violation can be traced through medical
11
treatment but emotional or psychological damage
only can be understood after a long period of time
and by that time, much harm has already be done.
These emotional stresses make a child confused
about their future roles, maintaining friendship,
exploring his or her potentials as he suffers from
lack of confidence and feels himself guilty for all
abusive things done on him. A child or teen that has
been abused emotionally needs moral support and
reassurance that it was not their fault and they are
perfectly good like others, they are not less than
others in any respect.
3. Many children who have experienced, or are
experiencing emotional abuse are prone to be drugaddicted as a form of escape from their frustration
feeling. These children are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS
and other transmitted infections. Many child
survivors of child abuse require psycho-social
counseling and life skills training so that they can
return to the right track of life.
4. Again services for abused children are few.
Children who have a lack of economic
opportunities and poor education are also more at
risk of being abused.
5. Although policies for child right development
had been taken in the government agenda
theoretically but have no clear plan about how
government will fulfill the targets and how they
will solve the problems.
6. Government ministries and agencies working
on child protection are often grossly under-funded
and their allocations are very poor compared with
other sectors.
7. Traditional cultural norms and rituals often
allow flexibility in the issues of violence against
children, child labor, child marriage or Child
maltreatment. These are often seen as family or
religious matters & are not within the power of the
government or NGOs to intervene. However,
awareness-raising campaigns have been successful
in bringing change in social thinking but still these
are not very satisfactory.
8. Children’s rights to care and protection are
outlined in the UNCRC, which states that every
child has the right to be free from abuse,
exploitation and neglect. But millions of children
worldwide face violence and abuse in all places,
even at home and in school which places are
thought to be the safest places for children. It is
extremely difficult to find reliable statistics for the
numbers of abused and exploited children as the
guardians do not want to reveal these to the society
in fear of future problems but by this silence,
abused children suffers most as they feel
themselves guilty for all things.
9. In Bangladesh, child protection tends to focus
on a specific point: protection from sexual violence.
But child protection is not only the protection from
sexual violence but also protection from physical,
emotional abuse, neglect and commercial
exploitation. Therefore Bangladesh needs to define
child protection in a more comprehensive way so
that children at risk can be saved by proper
initiatives within time.
10. There are lots of laws in Bangladesh that seek
to protect children from negligence, cruelty,
exploitation and abuse and to promote their
development. However, existence of these laws
does not necessarily imply the proper protection of
children from different forms of abuse.
Implementation of these laws is seen as a challenge
as it lacks co-operation of all and it is also resourceintensive.
11. Progress in children’s well-being has lagged
behind in some areas in particular, nutrition, water
and sanitation, and protecting children from abuse
and exploitation. Therefore this area needs much
more attention to protect children from all probable
harms and to ensure sustainable development of
children. (UNICEF, 2012)
12. PROPOSING A STRENGTHENED
CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM
12.1. Monitoring & Reporting
Ensuring rights of every child is
government’s duty. Community based child
protection mechanism need to be developed by the
help of government. A central committee for
prevention of child abuse should be formed under
the Ministry of Women & Child affairs who will
observe child abuse issues exclusively. The
committee will be divided into many sub-
committees who will deal different types of child
abuse separately. District-wise sub-committees
should be formed to investigate the reports of child
abuse in that district which will be reported by area
based observatory groups. Area based observatory
groups should be formed in every area to observe if
any child is being emotionally abused in that area.
These all things are shown by the following figure:
12
Ministry of Women &
Children Affairs
Central Committee for
redressing Child Abuse
Subcommittee for
Physical abuse
Subcommittee for Sexual
abuse
abuse
Subcommittee for
Commercial Exploitation
Subcommittee for
Emotional abuse
District wise
Subcommittee
Area based observatory
Group including
community people
Figure 2: Proposed Monitoring & Reporting Mechanism
12.2. Prevention, Protection & Punishment (3 P’s) Framework
In order to resolve this issue, 3 P’s
(Prevention, protection & punishment) framework
should be adopted. Not only adoption, these should
be strictly implemented by proper authorities.
While addressing this issue, we should adopt
sensitive humanitarian approach rather than mere
penalising the offenders. Therefore 2 P’s
(Prevention & Protection) should be more
emphasised than punishment. Prevention scheme
includes awareness program in media (TV,
Newspaper), rally, and schools etc. explaining
harmful impact of emotional abuse on child &
punishment provisions for abusers. As awarenessraising on children’s rights and social mobilization
may contribute to improvements in case of child
protection, so we can adopt various awareness
raising programs to change societal traditional
thinking of child as family property in order to
prevent emotional abuse of a child. To raise
awareness, chapter containing different aspects of
abuse & how it can be prevented should be
included in the educational curriculum till the
tertiary stage of education.
Again protection
scheme may be divided in two parts: pre-abuse
(including Prevention scheme) & post-abuse. Preabuse protection system includes initiatives taken to
prevent abuse. Post-abuse protection system should
include psychological counseling & shelter home
for abused children for a short time considering the
Principle of the Best Interests of the Child &
Principle of the Right of Participation of Child
mentioned in the CRC & successful reporting
mechanism for real & probable abusers. To protect
the child rights the government and the people
13
should take necessary steps from root level to the
middle level for establishing reformatory,
rehabilitation centers, drop- in centers, helpline and
arranging psycho- social counseling and providing
necessary treatment, food and entertainment at
Division, District, Upazila and even at the Union
level for the poor children to solve the abusing
problem. Punishment scheme should include
punishments under reformative & deterrent theory.
Punishment skim may include warning &
mandatory training for abuser family in order to
develop their way of thinking about their children
(Reformative theory of punishment) & in case of
more than one abuse complaint for the same family,
punishing under deterrent theory of punishment by
the way of fine & imprisonment.
13. OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS
To resolve the issues of emotional abuse of
children, the following recommendations are made
in the context of Bangladesh:
1. Government must establish a proper monitoring
and reporting mechanism on child abuse cases.
2. Case studies of different countries (Brazil, Chile,
Ethiopia and Vietnam) show that progress for
children has occurred where governments have
translated ambitious policy commitments into
detailed programs that make links between sectors,
and have invested in the capacity to implement
them (Save The Children, 2012). Therefore
Bangladesh government needs to prepare detailed
programs linking between sectors & community in
order to protect children.
3. Necessary legal reforms must be undertaken.
Domestic Violence (Prevention & Protection) Act,
2010 should be revised including other necessary
requirements in respect of monitor, report,
protection & punishment aspects.
4. Government with other sectors needs to take a
focused action in redressing emotional abuse.
5. Counselling programme in schools to raise
awareness regarding emotional abuse of children
should be initiated.
6. A chapter regarding child rights, types of child
abuse, how to get help from required authority
should be added in the course-curriculum from the
very beginning of the school life to raise awareness
of children in this regard.
7. Guardians should be more conscious about their
role as guardian and they should come out from
traditional oppressive thinking structure, rather they
should bring positive attitude in their character to
ensure the full development of their children.
14. CONCLUSION
Simply stated, emotional abuses of children are the
bad treatment of children under the age of 18 by
parents, caretakers or others. Emotional abuses of
children are those things that cause injuries or put
children in danger of injuries. Children have the
right to life, survival & development. Right to life
does not mean only being physically alive; rather it
means to live fully, meaningfully & without fear.
Without emotional development, children cannot
enjoy right to life properly & cannot be developed
in the true sense of the term & become burden in
the present & future relations. An emotionally
abused child faces lots of psychological problems
which ultimately affects the development of the
nation. Due to difficulty of identification, this abuse
is occurring silently & abused children’s are dying
in every moment under the curtain of traditional
societal structure on which proper attention of all is
the exigent need. Avoiding this aspect of children’s
abuse, we cannot expect child in its best
developmental stage & also a nation in its best
developmental condition. Therefore Strengthening
a Child Protection System to redress the sensitive
issue of emotional abuse of children is now not a
small issue, rather it is the very demand of time.
14
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