Climate change is forcing Bangladeshi children to drop out of school
Due to global warming and climate change, storms, floods, and erosion have increased in Bangladesh’s entire low-lying areas, including South Bengal.
As a result, thousands of families displacing from these areas. They force to live inhumane lives in the slums of the cities.
The children of the displaced families are also in a crisis due to climate change. Many of them have stopped studying forever. Although child labor is banned, many have joined the work.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said in a report released in 2021 that “Children in three South Asian countries were at “extreme risk” due to climate change. The countries are Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and India. Moreover, around one billion children in 33 countries worldwide are at extreme risk.”
George Laria-Aji, UNICEF’s Regional Director for South Asia, said: “This is the first time we have seen clear evidence that millions of children in South Asian countries are at extreme risk due to climate change. Extreme weather, especially droughts, floods, and river erosion, has left millions of children in South Asia homeless.
They are in desperate need of food, medical care, and safe drinking water. In many cases, these children are dropping out of school, depriving themselves of their right to an education.
As the country is a riverine country with 1.7 million child laborers, the risk of disasters, especially storms, floods, and river erosion, is relatively high in Bangladesh.
About 40 percent of the total population of the country are children. Therefore, many analysts think these children must get compensation for climate change and disasters.”
According to UNICEF, most children in urban slums do not attend primary school. Moreover, the chances of children going to school in disaster-prone areas are even lower.
The agency’s study found that about 1.7 million children are engaged in illicit and hazardous labor. One in four of them is 11 years of age or younger.
Many girls work as house cleaners. It is not easy to incorporate them into accurate data and story research. If that gets done, the number will increase further.
Most of the children living in Dhaka and surrounding slums work in tanneries launch yards, tailor shops, and automobile factories.
Many carry goods to the fruit and vegetable market and work as porters at bus stands, launch docks, or railway stations. Most of them have come to Dhaka as refugees from different disaster-prone districts.
Last year’s floods damaged more than 500 educational institutions in 10 districts of Bangladesh. Mr. Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury, Deputy Education Minister, said this in Reuters’ (an international news agency) interview.
He said most damaged educational institutions have submerged in the floodwaters. After the water dried up, it was possible to renovate some institutions and make them suitable for taking classes.
Due to the floods, school activities in the disaster-prone areas were closed for a long. Because in these areas, school buildings use as shelters in disasters.
Apart from this, the students could not go to school for a long time due to the Corona pandemic. Many school-going children have dropped out of this.
According to the annual census of primary schools last year, there are 65,000 primary schools. Moreover, the number of students is more than one crore.
However, last year the dropout rate was more than 17 percent. As a result, more than 0.2 million students have paid for their education.
Officials blame global warming and climate change for dropping out of school for so many years.
Alamgir Muhammad Mansurul Alam, director-general of the Department of Primary Education, said, “The dropout rate was alarming.
There is no denying that climate change is a significant factor. Students could not go to school for a long time as more than five hundred educational institutions has damaged in last year’s floods. Many of the children who dropped out at this time will not return to school. These children have been involved in various activities to increase the family’s income.
Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury, chairperson of the association of private primary schools, said, “More than 14,000 private primary schools in the country have been temporarily closed due to the Corona pandemic. Students’ academic life in these private primary schools disrupts due to the temporary closure.”
According to a joint report by UNICEF and UNESCO, the number of Bangladeshi students whose education disrupts due to the pandemic in 2020 is about 36 million. The report was published last October.
Sheldon Yate, UNICEF Representative in Bangladesh, said, “Children were paying the price for climate change.”
