Easy prey for predators
The news that a schoolgirl was stabbed on Wednesday by an assailant to avenge the filing of a case against him by her brother shows just how vulnerable girls and women are in our society. The 13-year-old had no part in the events leading up to the attack, nor was her gender an issue, unlike in so many cases of violence of late, yet the culprit, Monirul, chose her apparently because he thought a girl would offer no resistance and he would have his revenge. This is a classic example of how the weak and vulnerable in our society become easy prey for criminals.
Schoolgirls are especially vulnerable because the odds are heavily against them: lack of security, societal attitude toward girls, and poverty. Dropout and early marriage are two of the most obvious outcomes of the uncertainty that surrounds their life. And the fact that 97 percent of the cases involving violence against women and children end with the accused getting scot-free, as a recent study shows, demonstrates why there is a rise in such crimes. Also, as the Monirul case suggests, such an environment leads to repeat offences.
The solution to a problem of security, physical or financial, is not that minor girls would be married off or taken out of school. It is the antithesis of a solution. We've been constantly calling for scrapping of the "special" provision of the Child Marriage Restraint Policy, 2017 because it encourages exactly that. The solution lies in improving the overall security and wellbeing of girls and women so that no violence of any form occurs, and the regime of impunity for the perpetrators is brought to an end.
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