The country’s out-of-school children rate drops by 27 per cent in a year, but those with disabilities are being left behind, according to a study by Save the Children.
The findings of the ‘End of Childhood Report’ were revealed at National Press Club in the capital on Thursday.
The study was released ahead of International Children’s Day on June 1. It uses indicators of poor health, malnutrition, lack of education, child labour, marriage, early pregnancy and violence to rank 175 countries in terms of most and least threatened childhood.
Bangladesh has been ranked 130th in the world for children to experience childhood, while it was ranked 134th in 2017, according to the study.
Bangladesh scored 701 out of a possible 1000 points, representing a 21-point increase -- the biggest improvement for any country in the South Asia.
The country’s children out–of –school rate reduced by remarkable 27 per cent in just 12 months, and by 36 per cent over five years, according to UNESCO data.
While the report highlights improvements in Bangladesh’s out-of-school children rate, it shows that the progress of other childhood ‘enders’ was slower: more than one-third Bangladeshi children under five are still suffering from stunting, 44 per cent teenagers get married before they turn 20 and nearly 3.5 per cent children die before they turn five.
More than half of the world’s children are being robbed of their childhoods as a result of conflict, poverty and gender-based violence, the report found.
The report titled ‘The Many Faces of Exclusion’ found that the top three countries where childhood is protected are Singapore, Slovenia and Norway.
Despite their wealth, the US (36th), Russia (37th) and China (40th) all trailed behind Western European countries in the new index.
Around 1.2 billion children live under the bread line and almost 153 million children live in areas affected by what researchers identified as the three main threats affecting children’s wellbeing: poverty combined with violence and high levels of discrimination against girls.
