Child sexual abuse increases during Covid

Civil society representatives from Bangladesh, India and Nepal at a programme Sunday said that incidents of child marriage, child labour, sexual abuse and child trafficking have increased during Covid period, resulting in sexual exploitation of children in South Asian region.

Stressing on building child sensitive environment, they called for close collaboration and coordination among government agencies and civil societies in South Asia for ensuring safety of children. 

Their observations came at a day long cross-border consultation aimed at addressing sexual exploitation of children at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.

Nasima Begum, chairman of National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh (NHRCB), attended the programme as the chief guest. 

AKM Masud Ali, executive director of INCIDIN Bangladesh, presided over the meeting.   

The programme was jointly organised by Netherlands-based organisation TdH Netherlands and INCIDIN Bangladesh.

Speakers observed that child protection structure and good implementation mechanism are important for protecting the rights of children, because children deserve protection.

Due to the Covid outbreak, children have been engaged more in online activities for which they have been victims of cybercrime, they said, adding: building awareness and proper monitoring by authorities concerned and parents can play an important role in this regard. 

"At the regional level, it is needed to activate the institutional setup of SAARC's Convention and strengthen relevant laws and policies. Also, there is a need of strengthening bilateral opportunities for combating the crime," the speakers said.