Published by BRAC at Oct 11 2011 In the early hours of 24 August, after several futile attempts to sleep, I found myself doing the opposite of what sleep experts recommend – reading the news. I was scrolling down the online edition BDNews. It’s a good thing I did what I did then, because within a few seconds one news item got me fully awake. It stated that a few hours before a new law on vagrants had been tabled and passed in Parliament! The report stated that this law “Vagrants and Shelterless Persons Act 2011” now permits, amongst other things, forcibly instituting the poor, the shelterless, beggars and vagrants into “shelter homes” through arrests, and would make it a punishable offence with imposition of jail term and fine for attempts to leave the shelter homes.
