Author: Kushtia
Publication: The Daily Star
Date: February 8, 2008
URL: http://thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=22465
Note: This item is from Bangladesh.
Speakers at a national convention yesterday
urged the Harijan community to be united and raise their voice for their constitutional
rights, which they are denied in the society for a long time.
They also urged the government to take steps
including enactment of law so that these people from the lower caste can enjoy
their rights like other people in every sphere of social life.
Friends Association for Integrated Regulation
(FAIR), a local NGO working with the Harijans, and Manusher Jonno Foundation
jointly organised the event at Kushtia Islamia College ground.
At least 200 leaders, heads and representatives
of Harijan community from 35 districts took part in the convention. Civil
society leaders, government officials, NGO activists, teachers and students,
business leaders and journalists also attended the programme.
Still considered as untouchables, the Harijan
people are denied some basic rights like sending their children to schools
with the mainstream children and access to all places and to government and
non-government jobs, the speakers told the convention.
It seems that the government has completely
forgotten or ignored the rights of the outcastes. They are not being involved
in the development process, they said.
Dr Rashid Askari, writer, columnist and professor
of English at Islamic University, Kushtia, presented the keynote paper at
the convention.
Dr Askari said that there are currently some
40 lakh Harijan people in the country. Divided into eight sections, these
people are living in unhygienic environment.
These people are deprived of the safety net
facilities of the government and they are even excluded from the census, he
pointed out.
"Their only profession is also under
threat and their heath and sanitation conditions are also very miserable,"
Dr Askari said adding that the Harijans are not well aware of their fundamental
and constitutional rights.
The convention was addressed, among others,
by Mahfuz Anam, editor of The Daily Star, advocate Salma Ali, executive director
of Bangladesh National Women's Lawyers' Association, Shaheen Anam, executive
director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, Dr Md Moslem Uddin, registrar of Islamic
University, Abdul Kaiyum Mohammad Kibria, deputy general manager of Basic
Bank Limited, Selim Toha, associate professor at the Department of Law, Islamic
University, Nirmal Chandra Das, secretary general of Bangladesh Harijan Oikya
Parishad (BHOP), advisers of BHOP Rajkumar Bashphore and Kailash Das Hela,
and former joint-secretary general of BHOP Sajan Ram.
In his speech, Mahfuz Anam observed that the
underprivileged communities in Bangladesh are not looked after by the government
as is expected.
The society is organised in such a hierarchical
manner that those who are on top of the society, enjoy all kinds of privileges
and those who are at the bottom, suffer from every kind of abuse, he said.
The Daily Star editor urged the Harijan people
not to be frustrated and be united to fight for their rights.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher
Jonno Foundation, asked people from all walks of life to change their attitudes
towards the Harijans.
She also urged the Harijans to send their
children to school, which will help bring change in their lives.
The convention was presided over by Tofazzel
Haq, chairman of FAIR and also an assistant professor at Southeast University,
Dhaka, while Dewan Akhtaruzzaman, executive director of FAIR, gave the welcome
address. Kushtia Deputy Commissioner Md Nurul Islam inaugurated the programme.
