Poverty, Hindus & Orphans in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has made amazing progress in the last 50 years, since the 1970’s when Henry Kissinger described it as a “bottomless basket” case, and George Harrison in Madison Square Garden sang, “Bangladesh, Bangladesh…looks like a mess, 
I've never seen such distress.”

The Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta nation has enjoyed one of the world’s highest economic growth rates in recent years, but still, it remains poor with multiple challenges - food insecurity, severe flooding, the Rohingya refugee crises, inadequate roads/sanitation/health services/access to drinking water, plus religious and political violence, and rising sea levels that might swamp the low-elevation country by the end of the century.

Bangladesh’s 161 million inhabitants are densely congested - 1,134.54 people per square kilometer - and its per capita income is only $4,800. 84.5% of the population lives on less than $5.50 a day, (2016 estimate) and 35% of the rural population lives under the poverty line, with 60% of the men and 88% of the women illiterate. (2019 UNESCO Report)

There’s 64 million children in Bangladesh, 50% grow up impoverished, 4.8 million are orphans. 25% of children between the age of 6-11 work to help support their families, for low wages in dangerous tasks; most children drop out of school at the age of 8. Children are often sold by their parents, girls can end up trapped forever in prostitution villages, like Daulatdia. Orphans and ‘street children” (500,000 in Dhaka) often survive by rummaging in landfills for food; they’re publicly abused, jailed unfairly for petty crimes, or forced into slavery by criminal gangs. Many die young of starvation, and disease.

Hindus are abjectly poor and violently persecuted in Bangladesh, by the majority Muslims. Horrendous violence has been inflicted on Hindus for decades; the 1971 “Bangladesh Liberation War” - when East and West Pakistan separated - resulted in genocide, at least 2.5 million Hindus were massacred, plus 8 million Hindus fled to India, and 200,000 Hindu women were raped. The atrocious “religious cleansing” has continued - in the last 9 years Hindus have faced 3,679 attacks, more than one attack per day. A recent horror occurred in October 2021; a Hindu festival (Durga Puja) sparked Muslim mobs to vandalize and burn 1650 Hindu homes and 343 Hindu temples, brutally murder 14 Hindus, and rape 26 Hindu women, including minor girls.

Hindus once comprised 33% of the Bangladesh population; today, due to migration, they’re only 8.5%. The poverty and violence the remaining Hindus endure leads to children being abandoned, or finding themselves parentless.

Where do Hindu orphans go?

There’s only one orphanage in Dhaka (the capital of 9 million) for Hindu children - the 116-year-old Dhaka Orphanage Society, located by the Buriganga River. (It’s partly financed by Humanist Global Charity, the non-profit I started and co-direct.)

The orphanage superintendent - Kalipada Saha - has worked there for 24 years. He explained to the Dhaka Tribune that “we spend Tk2.2 lakh ($2596.49) every month on managing the orphanage… [this] includes school fees, food, school uniform, medical costs and clothes.” 80 children live at the orphanage, 46 girls. 34 boys, plus there are 3 teachers and 6 additional staff members.

You can buy books and school supplies for Bangladeshi Hindu orphans HERE

(Other minorities in Bangladesh are also persecuted: indigenous people, Buddhists, Christians, and atheists. Islamist groups have killed at least 10 freethinking bloggers)