Shishu Adhikar Forum, an organization working on children's rights, says that in recent times, boys have been victims of sexual abuse just like girls in Bangladesh. However, the issue of abuse of boys has not received much media coverage.
Abdus Shahid Mahmud, director of the Children's Rights Forum, told reporters, "Earlier, there were allegations that only boys and girls were raped in residential schools or madrasas. But the reality is different, now this area has expanded." Currently, it is seen that laborers or street children are being raped a lot. Such incidents are happening frequently in places such as launch or bus terminals, footpaths, markets - places where homeless people spend the night.
The main issue is that the issue of sexual abuse of boys has come to the fore in the media after the police arrested a madrasa teacher in Dhaka on charges of raping a student last Sunday. Although many cases of rape of boys have occurred in Bangladesh, these cases are rarely reported due to the reluctance of the victims or their family members, says Mr. Mahmud. 'We only know about those cases that they are forced to disclose due to circumstances.'
The same trend is evident in the case of the madrasa student who was tortured in Dhaka. The incident came to light only after the student fell ill and had to be hospitalized. However, his family members are now saying that the same teacher had raped the student day after day before.
