69. The BNHRC emphasises that in order to end the regrettable phenomenon of child labour, the legal provisions relating to working hours and conditions as regards children in the Labour Act 2006 need to be amended. The BNHRC thinks the Fifth Periodic State Party Report should have provided more information on the measures taken by the GoB and their impact in this regard. 70. PROTECTION AGAINST INDUCEMENT OR COERCION TO ENGAGE IN UNLAWFUL SEXUAL ACTIVITY The BNHRC is aware that there exist legal provisions that if applied will help protect the children against inducement or coercion to engage in unlawful sexual activity. For example, sexual intercourse with a girl child under the age of 16 with or without consent has been defined as rape and punished with rigorous imprisonment for life and with fine.90 However, the BNHRC notes that this provision does not apply to a married girl child under the age of 16 because the Penal Code 1860 provides that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife not being under thirteen years of age is not rape.91 Death of a girl child as a result a rape or subjecting a girl child to gang rape has been made punishable with the death sentence and with fine. Rape of a girl child in police custody has been made punishable also. Sexual oppression of a child is committed when anyone in furtherance of his sexual desire touches the sexual organs or other organs of a child and it has been made punishable with rigorous imprisonment and also with fine.92 71. The BNHRC is also aware of the fact that children remain at risk of abuse or harassment in their own homes, from relatives and family ‘friends’.93 While disadvantaged and disabled children were more vulnerable to abuse, it has not been limited to them.94 Children who lived and/or worked on the street were especially vulnerable to violence and sexual abuse.95 In public areas, some children—especially street children, child sex workers, and the children of sex workers—were subjected to verbal, physical, and sexual abuse from police, mastaans (miscreants), and the general public. Many kinds of child abuse—especially sexual abuse—were difficult to assess because of the sense of shame children and adults experienced which prevented them from reporting them.96 A UNICEF study suggests that ten per cent of the girls said they had been raped in the homes of their employers, and that the average age of girls at the first sexual abuse was 11.97 A survey facilitated by ILO reveals that 0.8 per cent of the girls reported that they had experienced sexual abuse.98 90 Supra 11, section 9. Contrarily, the Penal Code defines rape as sexual intercourse with a girl child under the age of 14 with or without consent. 14, Section 375. Supra 11, Section 10. 93 UNICEF, Child Sexual Abuse, Exploitation and Trafficking in Bangladesh, available at <http://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/Child_Abuse_Exploitation_and_Trafficking.pdf>, last visited on 13/09/2014. 94 Ibid. 95 Supra 22, p. 14. 96 Ibid, at pp. 13-18. 97 Ibid, at p. 127. 98 Ibid. 91 Supra 92 26