SEXUAL ABUSE AND EXPLOITATION OF BOYS IN SOUTH ASIA A ...

Members are representatives from the MWCA and the Ministry of Social Welfare, other
ministries and departments, and NGOs. The sub-committees divide the activities delineated in
the NPA and address them through one-year work plans. However, due to the
comprehensiveness of the NPA, with a plethora of defined actions, it has been difficult for the
government and its partners to implement many of the activities within the timeframe of the
document.
During development of the NPA, a set of parallel and somewhat coordinated government
activities was pursued. In 2001, a three-year project called the Coordinated Programme to
Combat Child Trafficking was initiated. Monitored by an inter-ministerial committee chaired
by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the project was aimed at coordinating the work of
government and NGOs on trafficking prevention, rescue, repatriation and reintegration. The
committee established anti-trafficking units in 64 districts, with anti-trafficking police cells
providing data on trafficking cases and victims. The committee met monthly to review the
nation’s anti-trafficking efforts. A deputy attorney general was appointed to coordinate and
expedite the prosecution of trafficking cases. This brought about an increased number of
prosecutions and relatively effective coordination of efforts between government and NGOs
in repatriation and rehabilitation.
Based on a review of the programme, the MWCA and government and NGO stakeholders
developed the National Anti-Trafficking Strategic Plan of Action in 2006, with the purpose of
clarifying the roles of government agencies and NGOs, and coordinating specific actions for
prevention, rescue, repatriation, prosecution and reintegration of trafficking victims. The Plan
addresses both the continuation of activities from 2005-2006 and the initiation of new
activities. The document recommends the establishment of Anti-Trafficking Committees at
the central, district, sub-district and village levels.
However, the Plan is primarily focused on trafficking. While addressing some of the root
causes and protection considerations for non-commercial sexual abuse, it does not encompass
the broad range envisioned in the National Plan of Action against the Sexual Abuse and
Exploitation of Children 2002-2007. Thus, many interventions with direct consequences on
boys, particularly children on the street and boys in prostitution are not addressed.
At the same time, Bangladesh has created a number of administrative bodies, including the
Inter-Ministerial Committee of the Coordinated Programme to Combat Child Trafficking, the
NPA Implementation and Monitoring Committee and its sub-committees, a plethora of
monitoring, anti-trafficking and ‘motivational’ committees at the central, district, sub-district
and village levels, and several overlapping NGO networks. These bodies tend to duplicate
tasks and are time-inefficient for the stakeholders, so consequently they do not appear to
effectively fulfil their objectives of addressing sexual abuse and exploitation.
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