Prevention should get priority, say rights activists

A schoolgirl during counseling at Victim Support Centre spoke for the first time of abuse by an elderly relative of her friend. Her family's prior attempts to get her much-needed treatment when she showed symptoms of trauma had gone in vain. The victim's family, however, chose to refrain from taking legal actions fearing it would not do any good. 

The victim's family has strong connections to bureaucrats and “we assured them repeatedly of maintaining secrecy,” said Farida Yasmin, deputy commissioner of the support centre. “We could not take any action.”

If such is the case of people with means and influence, “we can imagine the situation an average victim finds herself in when seeking legal support ,” Farida said at a roundtable titled "How to combat violence against women and girls" at The Daily Star Centre in Dhaka. NETZ, a charitable organisation registered in Germany and Bangladesh, organised the programme as part of its effort to promote human rights and to mark International Human Rights Day yesterday.  Noted human rights activist Sultana Kamal chaired the event.

With 25 laws and policies in place to ensure protection of women and girls, 1,377 were victims of violence until October this year, according to Ain o Salish Kendra. A 2015 survey by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) found that 73 percent women were subject to torture by their husbands.

Only 2.6 percent female victims seek justice. 

Several discussants expressed doubts as to whether all efforts thus far by the government, civil society and non-government organisations were failing to put a dent in women's rights violation, abuse and exploitation. 

Society as a whole needs to be sensitised to gender violence, said Nasimun Ara Huq Minu, president of Bangladesh Nari Sangbadik Kendra (BNSK).

Representatives of tea garden workers and the minority Dalit community spoke on how women in their areas were at a greater risk of violation and exploitation. 

Social and economic reality has not changed for women working in tea gardens for a daily wage of only Tk 102 while more than 80 percent Dalit women get married before they turn 18. Unicef estimates the child marriage rate in Bangladesh at 52 percent.

In a baseline survey conducted by NETZ, 44.5 percent respondents said girls in their localities were married off at 14-15 years while 40 percent were of the opinion that local girls were married off at 16-17 and 3 percent said girls between 11 and 13 years were getting married.

Ruchira Mitra, senior scientist at icddr,b, said that making both men and women aware of gender violence and women's economic empowerment would be able to reduce women's rights violation.

All stakeholders must act in coordination, devising a plan based on 

evidence to fight against gender violence, speakers said.

Abul Hossain, project director of multi-sectoral programme on violence against women, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, said there was political commitment from the government side to address the issue.

Rensje Teerink, ambassador and head of the Delegation of the European Union to Bangladesh, which is funding projects aimed at combating violence against women and girls, said the EU was supporting 128 civil society organisations and 3,200 human rights defenders.