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Children suffer in silence

Wasim Bin Habib
If doing psychological damage to children is the goal of the ongoing violent politics, then the politicians seem to have succeeded.
Take the case of Dhrubo, a four-and-a-half-year-old boy from Goran. He started howling simply because his mother was a little late to phone him after leaving home on Saturday.
She had started for Shahjalal airport on a GNG-run auto-rickshaw to catch a flight to India.
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Impatient at the delay, the kid asked his father repeatedly why she was not calling. "He burst into tears suddenly, saying blockaders must have bombed the auto-rickshaw and killed her," said his father Shamim.
Trying to calm his son, Shamim asked him what made him think so. "She would have called me by now had nothing like this happened to her," said Dhrubo, a nursery student.
Scores of children like him are giving way to panic after seeing images of blood and arson in the media day after day.
Not only are violent political programmes like hartals and blockades raising children's security concerns, but the programmes are also doing psychological damage to them.
Psychiatrists say frequent exposure to violent scenes can lead children to develop permanent anxiety and unwarranted fear, particularly when they are outdoors.
Psychiatrist Mekhala Sarkar, an assistant
professor of National Institute of Mental Health, said political instability gets easily transmitted into children's psychology, disrupting their mental development and behaviour.
Children who are mentally weaker than others can develop some psychological problems that may manifest themselves physically, such as difficulty in sleeping and disinterest in food or studies, she added.
Exposure to violence can cause some children, especially those from low-income families, to internalise the aggressive behaviours and copy them later in their lives.
Parents say they are anxious to let their children step out of home these days because of the aggravating political situation.
"Going outdoors on weekends is equally risky since we don't know what will happen when. Political parties hold programmes even on weekends, and no one knows which programme will turn violent," said Rehnuma, a
mother from Kakrail.
She noted that children cannot do their jobs properly, be it study or play, as their freedom of movement is being restricted. "Staying indoors for days has bored my two children. They don't want to do anything."
Parents expressed anger about the use of children in the violence, saying that the politicians are teaching bad things to the youngsters in the name of activism.
"On television we often see youths throwing home-made bombs or bricks. The politicians are setting a bad example," said a father.
The psychiatrist mentioned that youngsters who are used in carrying out violence develop a conduct disorder, which is a manifestation of bad behaviour.
"These children, after doing something violent once, start feeling a sense of self-gratification and are encouraged to do more anti-social activities."