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A Tale of Saleha - Stories - People's Health Assembly - December 2000
A Tale of Saleha
Saleha was a member of the Sunflower Child Council of Gopalpur Upazila
under Tangail Districts. She was a good student of Class VII and could tell
all the Sections of the UNCRC, but she used to say, “When shall we achieve
all the rights?”.
Saleha´s eldest sister was married at fourteen. She died while giving birth
to a child at the age of fifteen. Her father is a sharecropper and her
mother is a worker of a bidi (tobacco) factory. Her younger brother,
Rashid is also a labourer at the bidi factory. Rashid (13 years old)
is a disabled boy. He broke both legs by falling from a betel-nut tree when
a rich family hired him to collect nuts.
Once Saleha had diarrhoea. She took ORS regularly for two days but was not
cured. A villager advised her family to offer Saleha Pepsi, a bevaraze drink
that would cure diarrhoea. Saleha´s father sold three green coconuts and
bought a bottle of Pepsi. But after having Pepsi, Saleha started crying as
she felt severe pain in her stomach. She was hospitalised immediately. But
the necessary medicines were not available there. The physicians informed
Saleha had been suffering from malnutrition. So she should be given rich
food.
Then Saleha´s mother became ill due to working hard. This time, Saleha did
everything for her family. Before going to school she fetched drinking water
from the tube well, washed utensils in the canal, cooked food and fed
everybody.
One day she went to a Fakir´s house for bringing water purified by sacred
text. A villager met her on the way and chose her as a bride for his son.
Rafique was a student of Class VIII in the same school where Saleha studied.
In coeducational schools in Tangail, the girl students go out of the class
with the teacher when class ends and wait in the girls´ common room to
accompany the next teacher to lead them to the next class. Saleha saw
Rafique several times but never talked to him.
In 1999, while the members of 1,400 Child Councils of Tangail district were
observing the Child Rights Week, Saleha and Rafique got married.
Immediately after the wedding, Saleha stopped going to school and went to
her father-in-law’s house. Being a married boy, Rafique used to feel shy
at school and he started to miss classes very often. For this reason, his
father used to rebuked Rafique in abusive terms, and teachers at school used
to beat him in the class. During night Sahela massaged oil on Rafique´s
back and thought, “How cruel the elder people are!” Ultimately Rafique
stopped going to school but his angry father did not stop to abuse him even
in front of Saleha or Saleha´s father. The boy became so upset that that
one day he drank pesticide. He was taken to the hospital. Before his death,
he embraced his father and said, “I did not want to die, father! I just
wanted to threaten you. Please don’t beat me anymore”.
After the death of her husband, Saleha started wearing customary white sari,
which is a symbol of widowhood. She was sent back to her father’s house
very soon.
The leaders of the Sunflower Child Council were able to convince Saleha´s
father to send her to school and Saleha started going to school again.
In August 2000, Saleha was married again with a bidi trader who is thirty
years old and has another wife with two children.
PROBLEMS AND RECOMENDATIONS OF TANGAIL CASE
Problem 1:
Medical facilities:
Recommendations:
-
Access to Medical treatment needs to be increased at government and
non-government level.
-
Establishment of 1 child hospital with 10 beds in every union,
recruitment of a child specialist and presence of the child specialist
at the working station will be ensured.
Problem 2:
Child abuse:
-
Children are physically punished/tortured at the family, school and
especially at the madrasa (religious school).
-
Children are oppressed in various ways in the society, especially girl
children.
Recommendations:
Problem 3:
Early marriage:
Recommendations:
-
The law prevailing against early marriage needs to be effective.
-
In the child bride (wife) live together (with her husband) for a night
only then the marriage will be legally valid - this law should be
cancelled.
Problem 4:
Child labourers in risky hazardous job.
Recommendations:
-
Recruitment of child labourers in the factories, wielding factories,
and bidi (tobacco) factories and other hazardous jobs should be stopped
as soon as possible. The children who are already in the risky jobs
should be rehabilitated in the light-laboured jobs.
Problem 5:
Malnutrition:
Recommendations:
-
No effectiveness is found in the government projects. Steps should be
taken to make them effective.
-
A national campaign for the eradication of worms will be launched,
which is a necessity for ensuring nutrition.
Problem 6:
Acid throwing:
Recommendations:
-
Social awareness, resistance should be developed.
-
Selling of acid should be strictly controlled through state policy and
the effectiveness of the law should be ensured.
Acid thrower must not go unpunished.
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