There are over 57 million children in Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh has an increasingly stable and growing economy, half of these children continue to live below the international poverty line. Protection, health, education, nutrition, safe water, and hygiene are considered basic rights for all children, yet children in Bangladesh face issues on all these fronts. 26 million children live below the national poverty line. Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. 66% of women (aged 20 to 24) were married before they turned 18. 13% of children are involved in child labor. Child laborers are frequently denied an education and are vulnerable to violence and abuse. Less than 80% of students enrolled in first grade complete primary school. High dropout rates and poor-quality teaching and learning are serious problems for primary schools.[1]
Article 17 of the Bangladesh Constitution provides that all children receive free and compulsory education.[2] By law, children between the ages of six and ten must attend school. However, the quality of education in Bangladesh is generally regarded as poor. According to UNICEF, access to education remains a challenge for working children, disabled children, indigenous children, those in remote areas, and those living in extreme poverty. Only half of all children living in poorer areas attend. Boys are more likely to drop out of school than girls or not enroll at all. One-third of staff at government schools teach without a certificate in education. Interactive and inclusive learning is difficult in the face of traditional teaching methods, which favor rote learning. Students regularly fail to meet required curriculum competencies, so repetition rates are high. It usually takes longer than five years for a child to complete grades one through five. Primary schools that do not have enough space to accommodate all local children resort to a ‘double shift,’ which effectively halves the time an individual spends in the classroom. Regular school closures further reduce class time. In many schools, dark and cramped classrooms continue to hamper learning.[3]
Dropout Rates and Learning Poverty[4] Recent trends show a worrying reversal in dropout rates. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), the primary school dropout rate rose to 16.25% in 2023, up from previous years. The situation worsens at the secondary level, where the dropout rate stands at approximately 32.85%, with girls still dropping out at higher rates due to child marriage and economic pressures
"Learning poverty" is a significant concern; the World Bank reported in 2022 that 50% of children at late primary age are not proficient in reading. Despite attending school, many students fail to acquire foundational literacy and numeracy skills.[5]
Curriculum Reform and Challenges[6] In 2023, the government introduced a new Competency-Based Curriculum to replace the traditional rote-learning method. This new system emphasizes experiential learning and continuous assessment over formal exams. However, its implementation has faced hurdles, including a severe shortage of trained teachers, inadequate infrastructure in rural schools, and resistance from parents accustomed to the old grading system
Digital and Economic Divide Post-pandemic inflation has forced many low-income families to prioritize work over education. The discontinuation of certain school feeding programs has also negatively impacted enrollment in poorer districts. While the government is pushing for "Smart Bangladesh" with digital labs, a stark digital divide remains, leaving students in remote areas (chars, haors, and hill tracts) with limited access to modern educational resources
Child marriage
Child marriage rates in Bangladesh are amongst the highest in the world.[7] Every 2 out of 3 marriages involve child marriages. According to statistics from 2005, 49% of women then between 25 and 29 were married by the age of 15 in Bangladesh.[8] According to a 2008 study, for each additional year a girl in rural Bangladesh is not married, she will attend school an additional 0.22 years on average.[9] The later the girls were married, the more likely they were to utilize preventative health care.[9] Married girls in the region were found to have less influence on family planning, higher rates of maternal mortality, and lower status in their husband's family than girls who married later.[9]
The exact number of street children in Bangladesh is difficult to determine due to their floating nature, but the situation remains dire. While older estimates placed the number around 380,000, recent projections by NGOs and researchers suggest the figure could be as high as 1.5 to 1.6 million nationally as of 2024, with nearly 75% concentrated in Dhaka.[10]
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) published the "Survey on Street Children 2022" in 2023. This was the most complete official data available at the time. Key findings include:
Demographics:82% of street children are boys, and the majority are aged between 10 and 14.
Causes:38% of these children left their homes due to extreme poverty and hunger, while 15% migrated to cities after their parents moved for work. Family disintegration and violence are also major push factors.
Literacy: Illiteracy is rampant, with 71.8% of street children unable to read or write, effectively trapping them in a cycle of poverty.
Living Conditions and Abuse[11] The BBS survey revealed that nearly one-third (30%) of these children sleep in open public spaces—parks, footpaths, or launch terminals—without any bedding or protection. They are highly vulnerable to violence; half of the surveyed children reported being victims of physical abuse, often perpetrated by pedestrians or law enforcement. Girls on the street face the additional, constant threat of sexual exploitation and trafficking.
Health and Substance Abuse[12] Health remains a critical crisis. Without access to clean water or sanitation, these children frequently suffer from waterborne diseases, skin infections, and anemia. Substance abuse is a widespread coping mechanism for hunger and trauma. Recent studies indicate that approximately 40% of street children use drugs, with the inhalation of "dandy" (shoe glue/adhesive) being the most common addiction due to its low cost and easy availability. This addiction leads to severe neurological damage and kidney failure.
Labor[13] survival forces these children into hazardous labor. The informal sector employs about 91% of street children. Common occupations for these children include waste collection (tokai), begging, selling flowers or goods at traffic signals, and serving as helpers on human haulers (tempos). These jobs expose them to traffic accidents, pollution, and exploitation, with most earning less than $10 a week.
Child labour in Bangladesh is common, with 4.7 million or 12.6% of children aged 5 to 14 in the work force.[14] Out of the child labourers engaged in the work force, 83% are employed in rural areas and 17% are employed in urban areas. Employment ranges from jobs in the informal sector such as in agriculture and domestic service, to jobs in the formal sector, such as in the garment industry.[15]
In 2006, Bangladesh passed a Labour Law setting the minimum legal age for employment as 14. Nevertheless, the enforcement of such labour laws is virtually impossible in Bangladesh because 93% of child labourers are employed in the informal sector such as small factories and workshops, on the street, in home-based businesses and domestic employment.[16]
↑Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (2006). Baseline Survey for Determining Hazardous Child Labour Sectors in Bangladesh 2005. Dhaka: Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. ISBN978-9845086257.
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