Bangladeshi Children at Risk

Nearly one in three children in Bangladesh are at risk from cyclones, flooding and other climate change-linked disasters, the United Nations warned.

More than 19 million children live in the most disaster-prone districts of low-lying Bangladesh, according to a new report from the U.N. children's agency UNICEF. 

The UNICEF study found 12 million children in Bangladesh live near rivers that regularly burst their banks. Another 4.5 million live in coastal areas vulnerable to cyclones and 3 million are at risk from drought, it said. These risk factors are forcing people from rural areas into cities, where children are at greater risk of being pushed into forced labour or early marriage.

"They face danger and deprivation in the cities, as well as pressure to go out to work despite the risk of exploitation and abuse," said UNICEF Bangladesh representative Edouard Beigbeder.

In addition, longer-term changes such as rising sea levels are pushing families deeper into poverty and forcing some from their homes, disrupting children's education and access to health services, UNICEF said.

"Children who miss out on good nutrition or on education, who are uprooted from their homes, or who are forced into exploitative labour, will fail to fulfil their potential as citizens," said the author of the report, Simon Ingram.

Bangladesh ranked ninth in the Global Climate Risk Index 2019, which said it was the seventh worst hit by climate change between 1998 and 2017, with 37 million people affected.

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