Shumi is an 11-year-old girl who is still in police custody for allegedly being involved in a murder she didn’t commit. She has been charged with helping Oishee dispose of the body of the parents which the police claim Oishee killed. Shumi is 11 years old, a wretchedly poor, domestic child labourer living in extreme vulnerability. Since the incident, millions of words have been written for and against Oishee and almost nothing said about Shumi. She is barely seen except as a shadow of Oishee and there is no one to say that Shumi has rights which have been trampled by everyone but particularly the police.
Worse, no human rights organisations either have stood up to say that a child is being forced to suffer. Or is it that we don’t care what happens to Shumi?
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The Oishee story is not really over but the Shumi story never really began in what is clearly one of the worst cases of discrimination. But this is not just by the police but the human rights organisations too who have so many times taken to the streets on other issues, but preferred to remain silent this time. No one really expects the police to take care of human rights in a country where violation is the norm but what has prevented the HR organisations from taking it up? What about the many NGOs that proliferate in Bangladesh? What about the HR Commission which has spoken about Oishee but has not yet said a word about Shumi?
Is this a collective conspiracy of silence or something else?
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What does one make of this police force who promised to find the killers of Sagar-Runi in 48-hours and never delivered? They did arrest a bunch of criminals already arrested in another murder and they tried to pass them as the real killers of Sagar-Runi which nobody bought. And now they are playing with Oishee’s age which has turned into a ridiculous exercise. Oishee started with being 16, became 17 soon and then when challenges were made on the basis of her age, she became 19 to make her arrest and remand legal. It would seem she is on a fast-track growing up system and gained three years in less than three weeks. Just because the murdered was a policeman doesn’t mean the police have more rights over the case than the legal system itself. The cynical manipulation of Oishee’s age was a good example of the state of our law and order. But it reached an absurd level when she was taken to a correction home which is for those under 18. But she is 19 so her place is in jail and now she is there, one of the most unsafe places for any young children. If that is what is done to a child of a policeman what hope is there for a domestic servant like Shumi?
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As we always say, we don’t expect much from the police or any other law enforcement agencies but why hasn’t the HR agencies stood up? This is in particular a question to the big ones like ASK, Odhikar, etc. It’s a mystery to many if this wasn’t where they had a role to play but which was ignored. It’s also possible that the case is too sensitive to handle.
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Or is it that the case exposes the deep seated class maladies of our society where one needs to come from a particular socio-economic segment to be considered for noticing or consumption of rights. A perusal of the media items shows an almost incomprehensible ignoring of Shumi who is probably the worst victim of them all. How much pressure is needed to push a scared, frightened pre-pubescent domestic maid to give in to the demands of an Oishee? She had no quarrel with the murdered couple so why would she be a party to any criminality unless forced? She is barely more than two years above the age of criminal responsibility so how much responsibility can she have? But what is certain is that there is no one right now to speak for her. Why didn’t someone move bail for her? Why didn’t the journos ask about her? Why didn’t HR organisations, who filed a statement almost as soon as Odhikar’s Adilur Rahman was taken in, but not sign and say that here was a child who was being molested by the state and deserved attention.
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If Oishee was a victim, then she has also made Shumi a victim and in this the authorities collaborated with her willingly or not. Perhaps Shumi was condemned to this mistreatment a very long time ago when she was so poor that by discarding her childhood she went to look for work at a home which was so ready for murder. But it’s not knives and drugs that killed her. If poverty delivered the first stab into her belly, it’s our collective indifference to her fate that has twisted the knife in.
Source: bdnews24
