Repression and sexual harassment led most women to take their own lives while rape and abduction were identified as most common violations of child rights in 2005.

The women fell victim to repression and violence mainly because of dowry, conflicts in conjugal life and poverty, said the report.

The Mass-line Media Centre, supported by donor consortium Manusher Jonno, prepared the report titled 'State of women and children, 2005' on the basis or reports published in 12 national dailies and 198 regional dailies last year.

Among the six divisions, Rajshahi tops the list of suicide with 425 victims, followed by Khulna with 285 victims while 229 women committed suicide in Dhaka, 106 in Chittagong, 24 in Sylhet and 81 in Barisal, the report said.

Most of the victims took their own lives either by taking poison or chemicals, or hanging themselves.

During the one year period from January to December, a total of 54,954 women fell victim to different forms of rights violations.

The report said 875 women were raped during the period and 165 were killed after rape. And 275 rape incidents, the highest at divisional level, took place in Rajshahi.

Some 1235 women fell victim to repression over dowry. Of them, 505 victims were killed and 428 others injured. Rajshahi division witnessed the most such incidents.

The forms of repression include beating, stabbing, acid attack, burning and forced starvation, the report said.

A total of four women were killed and 189 others injured in acid attacks during the period, but only 66 cases were filed and 50 arrested in this connection.

Besides, at least 195 women were abducted while 329 others fell victim to trafficking. The women were trafficked with a lure of job or marriage, the report said.

On violence against children, the report said 4,125 children were killed and 2,891 injured during the period.

Some 1427 children also fell victim to rape and sexual harassment and 95 children were killed after rape. Ages of one-forth of such victims range between one and ten.

Besides, 775 children were abducted while 435 were trafficked and 204 went missing.

The highest number of 264 trafficking incidents took place in Khulna, the report said.

Despite a number of awareness programme conducted at government and non-government level, 112 incidents of early marriages were recorded during the period.

The number of child rights violations was the highest in Rajshahi with 433 incidents while 339 such incidents took place in Dhaka, 229 in Khulna, 227 in Chittagong, 139 in Barisal and 60 in Sylhet.

Discrimination between girls and boys still prevails in society, the report said, adding that 14 girl children were killed after birth.