Dhaka, March 17 —Prime minister Sheikh Hasina, speaking on National Children's Day Tuesday, urged all to reach a consensus on protecting child rights. "Let's dedicate our present for the furtherance of future generations," said Hasina. The prime minister was addressing an audience of children and adults at a programme to mark the day alongside the 89th birth anniversary of her father and independence leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at Osmani Memorial Hall. Addressing the children, she said, "I'm dedicating my present days to ensure that you all may live loftily, raising your heads high." "Today is National Children's Day. But I see all elders sitting in the front rows here. Please keep in mind that I'd be much happier today if I saw the children sitting in front," Hasina said addressing cabinet ministers at the front of the audience. Calling upon the affluent in society to stand beside helpless and neglected children, the prime minister said, "We must do our best to ensure a better future for our children so that they are able to laugh and stand upright as worthy global citizens." "We have failed to educate our people to date. The literacy rate is still under 60 percent. I can vouchsafe that if Bangabandhu were alive, Bangladesh wouldn't be seeking assistance today from all over the globe, it would be a model state instead," she said. Advising the children to pursue the path of justice and right, and not to bow down before any wrong, Hasina encouraged them to take lessons from her father's life. "Children must be protected against distortion of history," she added. Reminiscing about her father and his political life, Hasina said, "Like other children, we missed going to school holding our father's hand." "Instead, to meet our father, we had to go to different jails at different times. But we have always been proud of him, because he never compromised himself." "He was the leader of the nation when they killed him. But what did my mother do to suffer the same fate? My brothers? Their newly-wed brides? My ten-year old brother Russel, what was his offence? Rehana and I survived only because we were abroad," said Hasina in an emotional outburst. Earlier in the day, Sheikh Hasina and Awami League leaders, including cabinet members, the chief whip and others, laid flowers before Sheikh Mujib's portrait at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in Dhanmondi.
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