Xinhua News Agency, China, 29 September 1999

Bangladesh Observes Child Rights Week

Minister of State for Women and Children Affairs Calls for End to Corporal Punishment of Children

DHAKA (Sept. 29) XINHUA - Child Rights Week-1999 began throughout Bangladesh on Wednesday with the launching of a National Plan of Action for Children and a call to ensure a better living and bright future for all chidden of the country.

The theme of the week this year is restricting child labor in households and prohibiting physical punishment to and violence against children.

Minister of State for Women and Children Affairs Zinnatunnesa Talukder unveiled the week-long program at an inaugural function in the capital city.

Listing the programs the government has taken for the proper growth of latent talents of children, the state minister said the government was implementing a project funded by the UNICEF for increasing awareness and increasing information and documentation and a multi-sectoral project with financial assistance form Norway to stop trafficking of children.

In a message read out at the inaugural function, Prime Minister Sheik Hasina directed the Ministry of Education and the primary and mass education divisions to draft guidelines to bring an end to brutal physical punishment to the children.