Street daughter : Vulnerability at its peak
SEPTEMBER 30 was earmarked for the observance of Daughter Day and October 2 had been observed as Street Child Day. On these days, human rights activists and women groups raise slogans and stage protest demonstrations against all forms of violence against daughters. Despite the observance of a special day or week for community sensitization, street girls or daughters continue to suffer in a street environment unfriendly to them. Torture, harsh treatment and sexual abuse continue to batter and bruise their lives.
Street daughters are likely to be grossly neglected, roaming around in different groups as collectors of waste dumped in city dustbins, fallen tree leaves, and broken pieces of bricks or stones. Extremely poor daughters in the countryside collect cowdung, dry leaves and firewood.
Reliable estimates of the magnitude of their crisis are scanty. Untold stories of their extremely bitter taste of life in the wake of escalating tension and trepidation, illustrated with cases of abandonment, rape, trafficking to brothels, persecution and even beaten to death, or almost death, are plenty. They are the product of a worsening poverty situation in the countryside, dislocation due to forced eviction and natural calamity and rural-urban migration. Being detached from their original homes, they are exposed to severe abuse in cruel street situations. Many among these poor daughters who have migrated to metropolitan areas are provoked by some imposters to find the 'pot of gold' in Dhaka and Chittagong.
At the global-national level, there are human rights-focused activities bolstered by international conventions, declarations, constitutional provisions, and laws of land to protect the rights of these young daughters. There is a gap in globally and nationally defined institutional arrangements for protecting street girls against violence as these street daughters are lost in the fringe of a city's lanes and by-lanes. They are, thus, off the radar screen as missing links.
Advocacy for improving the street situation to give the girl maverick a sense of life is distressingly missing. The role of the feminine movement is being redeemed through persuasion, discussion, campaigning communication, and networking. The protagonists of such a movement project the voices of these daughters, in general. The voices of street daughters do not find any outlet for manifestation.
The plight of these street daughters beggars description. Even then, street daughters are over sighted as the issue of child or child labour policy. Mandates expressed in periodic conferences on children hardly take note of street daughters. They are an out-of-reach vulnerable group suffering recurring odds of urban life.
According to a sample survey conducted by an action researcher, street daughters with no families are exposed to all sorts of trouble, like molestations, police tortures, arrests, accidents and 'declarations of love' by street mastans. Love is a weapon used effectively by street mastans to rape street daughters. Resistance from a raped girl is too low even if the so-called lover refuses to marry her. This is because of the manipulative skill of these hoodlums in a seemingly masstani culture that grips the street corners.
The fear of arrest, mixed with intimidation, is endemic. Once a street daughter is arrested, the brokers try later on to release her in exchange for sexual gratification. This intercession by brokers is a common urban phenomenon.
The sexually abused girls suffer from health complications like abdominal pain, headache, drowsiness, and distaste for food. Some among the raped girls become pregnant, consequently 'losing a baby through induced abortion.' In some cases of abuse, once a girl is known to be pregnant, she is branded as spoilt (nasta in local usage). She is ostracized as well as traumatized.
The trauma level of street girls who might have lost their virginity is very high. They show signs of a behavioral disorder that includes symptoms like traumatic neurosis, anxiety, depression, phobia, abnormality and agitation. Such a behavioral disorder has deleterious effects on her growth. Many a maverick, once abandoned, have to take recourses to mobile prostitution near cinema halls, bus terminals, parks and other public places. They are mostly drug addicts carrying the AIDS virus or a sexually transmitted disease (STD).
Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque is Professor, Department of Public Administration, Chittagong University.
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