Shilpi Rani Dey, PhD Graduate — “It’s a jail… I’m falling so far behind!” This heartbreaking cry from high school students detained at Bangladesh’s Child Development Centres (CDCs) exposes a devastating systematic gap.
A new research insight highlights that children within the country’s juvenile justice system face near-total educational exclusion, shattering their futures long before they ever face a courtroom.
Whether placed in a CDC for “safe custody” as victims or detained for being “in conflict with the law” over alleged offenses ranging from theft to murder, their academic lives are uniformly derailed.
In practice, children detained at these centers are completely barred from pursuing formal education beyond Class Five. This barrier persists even if they were enrolled in secondary or higher secondary levels before their detention.
This institutional exclusion directly violates Bangladesh’s national and international commitments. Although Bangladesh ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1990 and enacted the Children Act of 2013 (amended in 2018) to prioritize the “best interests of the child,” the reality inside these centers tells a starkly different story.
Cages, Not Development Centers: The Voices of Detained Youth
Using a qualitative research approach, in-depth interviews conducted with current and former young detainees reveal that the CDCs operate far more like punitive prisons than rehabilitation centers. Children routinely describe them as “jails,” “prisons,” or “cages”.
Case Study 1: Asiya’s Broken Dream of Teaching
Asiya (pseudonym), a 15-year-old former detainee, spent three years inside a CDC where all access to formal schooling was stripped away.
“The only training I got at the CDC was in sewing, but I want to be a teacher,” Asiya shared. “I tried getting into two schools [after release], but each time my parents were told that the other parents didn’t want me admitted because I was a ‘dangerous girl.’ How can I become a teacher when no school will have me, and people say that I am a criminal? I won’t even be able to get a government job because I have a criminal record.”
Case Study 2: Jalil’s Stalled Path to Engineering
Similarly, 16-year-old Jalil (pseudonym) was in Class Seven when he entered a boys’ CDC. He was held for two years without a single day of formal academic education. The generic vocational training provided did not align with his dream of becoming an engineer, leaving him entirely unequipped for his aspirations upon release.
Gendered Stereotypes Over Real Education
Evidence proves that adolescents at secondary levels receive zero academic schooling while detained. Instead, they are forced into minimal, heavily gendered vocational courses:
-
For Girls: Limited primarily to sewing or embroidery.
-
For Boys: Limited to basic carpentry, electrical work, or refrigerator repair.
This blanket approach completely ignores the children’s age, prior academic achievements, or professional career goals, effectively penalizing teenagers by stripping them of their right to learning continuity.
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| What the Law Mandates | What Actually Happens |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Prioritizing the child's best | Total academic freeze beyond |
| interest & formal education | Class Five |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| Rehabilitation & seamless social | Severe social stigma, school |
| reintegration | rejection, and permanent records |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
The Permanent Shadow of Social Stigma
The crisis does not end when a child leaves the center. The total absence of post-release educational or social support mechanisms means children are dumped back into their communities to navigate intense social stigma entirely alone.
Many schools outright reject these children due to their perceived “criminal” status—even those who were held purely for their own safety.
Furthermore, poorly explained criminal records serve as a permanent structural barrier, blocking them from future higher education and formal employment. The cumulative impact is severe psychological distress, intense hopelessness, and profound emotional trauma.
The Path Forward: Urgent Reforms Needed
To stop reproducing harm under the guise of protection, Bangladesh’s juvenile justice system requires radical structural transformation. Experts suggest several immediate interventions to achieve sustainable success and support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
-
Distance Learning Integration: Provide textbooks and open enrollment paths through the Bangladesh Open University so adolescents can continue higher schooling via distance learning while detained.
-
Flexible Re-entry Policies: Establish flexible, place-based enrollment protocols to guarantee immediate school re-entry after release, bypassing institutional discrimination.
-
Cross-Ministerial Action: Formulate an integrated, coordinated strategic framework combining the resources of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Welfare, and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Providing justice-involved children with their basic right to education is not just a policy recommendation; it is an urgent legal and moral obligation to lower recidivism rates and restore human dignity.
Author – Shilpi Rani Dey, PhD Graduate, Western Sydney University, Australia