Homeless Mother Ties Toddler to Dhaka Street Railing to Ensure Safety While Scavenging

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A grim scene unfolded near the Secretariat Metro Station in Dhaka on Wednesday night, where a two-year-old child was found tethered to a roadside railing with a rope. The sight of the toddler, identified as Mehedi, crawling and pulling against the restraint as he attempted to move toward passersby, drew a crowd of concerned citizens and sparked a debate over the plight of the city’s most vulnerable.

The child’s mother, Mukta, who makes a meager living by collecting plastic bottles, arrived shortly after the crowd gathered. She explained that she resorted to tying her son to the railing to prevent him from wandering into traffic while she scoured the streets for recyclables. According to Mukta, who hails from Netrokona’s Mohanganj upazila, she has no permanent shelter and has been forced to live on the Paltan footpaths with her son after being abandoned by her second husband.

Local security guards operating nearby commercial buildings confirmed that the mother and child have been living on the sidewalk for the past five to six months. Mukta described their daily struggle, noting that she often earns as little as 10 to 20 taka a day from collecting plastic. She admitted that on days when they receive no help from strangers, the child is left to go hungry.

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As the gathered crowd watched the distressing scene, reactions ranged from anger toward the mother to profound sorrow for the child’s circumstances. Imran Hossain, a pedestrian who witnessed the encounter, expressed his shock at the conditions in which the toddler is being raised. He lamented the lack of state intervention, noting that the sight was so jarring from a distance that he initially mistook the child for a captive animal.

The incident highlights the precarious reality faced by homeless families in the capital, where the lack of social safety nets forces parents into desperate measures to ensure their children’s physical safety, even at the cost of their basic dignity. As of Wednesday night, the mother and child remained on the street, illustrating the persistent challenge of urban poverty and the failure to provide adequate protection for the city’s marginalized youth.