Situated on the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh shares large borders with India and a small southern boundary with Myanmar. The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet in Bangladesh to form the world’s largest delta. 159 million people live in Bangladesh, with children comprising 41% of the total population.

Three-quarters of the population of Bangladesh live in rural areas, where families rely primarily on agriculture and fishing, and remittances for their livelihood. Over half of these families and their children live below the poverty line. Bangladesh has made significant strides towards bringing remarkable improvements in income as well as in reducing human poverty, but many children are forced to work to supplement family income. They are thus denied education which is essential to gain a place in the society at a later part of their lives. It is estimated that roughly 7.4 million children are engaged in work in some form or other, and are subjected to violence, abuse and exploitation. Most of these children work in the informal sector, many under dangerous conditions.

Bangladesh has achieved remarkable success in enrolment in primary education, with 91% of children enrolled as a result of the government’s supply of free books and other initiatives.  Even so, 50% of children drop out before they complete primary education.  According to research by Save the Children, attending school is difficult for working children, children with disabilities, children of very poor families, ethnic minority and indigenous communities and those living in remote areas. The teacher student ratio in Bangladesh is around 1 to 47; teachers are not trained in modern methods of teaching, they pursue traditional methods of memorising lessons, and physical punishment and humiliation is a common practice.

Save the Children began working in Bangladesh in 1987, implementing relief programs for the poorest communities in both rural and sub-urban areas. 25 years on, our projects focus more child rights programming, and supporting children to advocate on their own behalf.