Firstly, let me explain to you the environment here in Dhaka. The weather here is swelteringly hot, daytime temperatures of about 39C humidity is high at around 80% or so and nightime temperatures are not much better with an average of around 33C. The political situation is horrendous here, with practically no law on the ground. I’ll give you an example, the drivers of Dhaka never follow the roadside traffic lights, on top of that yesterday on my travels, a traffic warden had asked a truck behind me to stop, the driver continued for maybe a maximum of another 5 meters. His punishment for this was literally a beating with the policeman’s stick. I am regularly stuck in traffic jams for at least 5 hours per day, a simple trip from my hotel to Kamlapur Station, a mere 6 km took over 2 hours. Yesterday, the country celebrated Paila Baishakhi, or the first day of the Bangla New Year. Security was extremely tight, and I am regularly hearing of the woes of living in Dhaka. Power outages occur every hour for about 30 mins which means Dhaka only has electricity for half an hour every hour.
Two days ago, Dr Zaki, our project co-ordinator and Shoeb, our fieldworker accompanied me to Kamplapur Rail Station. This is the hub of many of the marginalised children in Dhaka. We spoke to a number of children, but I wanted to let you know of one child in particular, a young 8 year old boy named Rabbi. He normally roams around the station and is well kn to oour fieldworker, with whom he has spoken on a number of occasions. We wanted to conduct an in depth interview to him, and we approached him around 6.15 pm just as the day was passing to night. Having asked him what he normally gets up to in the day, he answered a mumbled answer which consisted of roaming around looking for scraps of food. We had also noticed that he had a severe bruise on his forehead, and with Zaki being a medical doctor, naturally he inquired a little further.
Initially, Rabbi had told us that he had banged his head against a moving train. Naturally, this would have caused far greater injury than merely a bruise on his forehead and so we enquired a little further. Zaki mentioned that it looked more like he had his head ht against a wall or a floor. With this little encouragement, Rabbi told us that in actual fact he had been pushed against the floor by the station police guard in toilets. He wanted to close the conversation pretty quickly, but we obviously wanted to know what Rabbi had done for the police to have pushed him to the floor, so we continued to question Rabbi. By this time, a number of his friends had gathered around and they were encouraging Rabbi to tell us the truth. Initially Rabbi had feared that I may be some sort of authority figure also, as he didn’t recognise me. But as he was familiar with both Zaki and Shoeb, they explained that I was simply the director of the project they were working on. He then continued to tell us his story. Total darkness had descended and moreover, the power had cut so the entire station was plunged into darkness.
As Rabbi had become a little more relaxed, he told us of how the station police guard had taken him into the toilets and had tried to force Rabbi to perform oral sex on him. As Rabbi tried to run away, the police inspector had smashed Rabbi against the wall of the toilet. Rabbi eventually got away as commuters had come in to use the toilet and the police inspector was embarrassed to continue in front of passengers. At this point Zaki enquired whether or not this type of thing happened regularly. Rabbi and his friends told us that oral sex was relatively minor compared to the sodomy that occurs also. They told of us how local station users and wealthy affluent middle class men would visit the station and use the young boys for the sexual desires. When asked if any of the group of boys worked as prostitutes, they all vehemently denied. I asked Rabbi, if he himself had ever been subjected to acts of sodomy, he replied that he had when he first came to the station more than 6 months ago.
He told us of how a middle aged man had come into the station, began talking with him and then accompanied him to the roof of the station. Here, the man raped rabbi. Rabbi had obviously bled excessively and passed out from the pain. The next thing he remembered was the man admitting him into the local hospital. After some treatment, two days later he was again in the station.
This absolutely put me into a state of shock, I wasn’t sure of how to react but I was also aware that any negative reaction from me would mean Rabbi would not continue to talk to us out of embarrassment. Zaki continued with his questioning.
The group of boys had told us that they could take us to the roof of the station and show us the type of abuse they are regularly subjected to. They also informed us that normally, the customers would pay in the region of 40 taka (40p) for anal intercourse with the boys. They also said that if we didn’t want to go and see the obscenities now, they would take us in the morning when we could still see the blood marks of the night before. Again we inquired if they themselves had been selling their bodies to the station passengers and authorities, which again they denied. In honesty, in my mind and also in Dr Zaki’s, the boys may deny their involvement in prostitution, but aside from the money, there is nothing else that keeps them there.
It was unfortunate that we could not film any of the interviews as there was no light (power outages). It is kids like Rabbi who we have been tracking and keeping in touch with over the past months and who we are now looking to move into our rehab centre. In my next blog, I will let you all know how the building is coming along and our progress in opening the centre. It is such a shame that in a country which is advanced enough to enable me to write this blog as I travel in the back of a car and load it up onto the internet while on the move, that there is not a single politician who is lobbying the case for children like Rabbi. This is a polar country and a polar society and to be really honest, I am not sure where I fit in the spectrum, nor am I sure whether I want to fit in the spectrum.
Till next time, with all the love from children like Rabbi and team Bangladesh, and me, peace out!
Mabrur - 15 April 2009 - a very restless being.