Former Justice Mohammad Abdur Rouf inaugurated the seminar jointly organised by University Grants Commission (UGC) of Bangladesh, Save the Children Sweden-Denmark (Bangladesh Country Office), Save the Children Sweden (Regional office for South and Central Asia), Save the Children Canada (Asia Regional Office) and Department of Anthropology of Jahangirnagar University at Biam auditorium in the city.

Speakers said future of a nation lies on children that constitute more than 50 percent of the population in the category of 0 hours to 18 years.

They also said this category of population of every society needs to be accommodated with their participation as a development catalyst.

They also said there is no specific discipline on child rights in the universities of the country barring one or two.

The speakers stressed the need for a combined institutional effort from the universities to design courses on child rights with appropriate concepts, theories and methodologies.

Speaking as the chief guest, Justice Rouf said the first right of the children is to get breast-feeding but, unfortunately, modern mothers care little for granting such rights to the children.

He also said child rights issues, including breastfeeding of the children should be brought as a subject matter of teaching in all educational institutions at all levels of education.

UGC Member Prof M Mahbub Ullah said it is imperative to look at the issue of child rights from a structurally sustainable and pragmatic perspective and in this regard partnerships between academia and development agencies need to be strengthened.

He hoped that the seminar would bring a process for generating a common conceptual framework and philosophy for formulating child rights as an academia discourse.

Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University Prof MA Faiz, Vice Chancellor of National University Prof Wakil Ahmed and acting Country Representative of Save the Children Sweden-Denmark Kristine Zeuthen Jeppesen also spoke at the session.