Cops' centre in aid of tortured women

Police in Barguna have taken a different step to save women, who were tortured by their families, and over 300 victims have already got benefit through counselling in the last seven months.

They set up a counselling centre named 'Jagoroni Nari Sahayata Kendra', a help centre for tortured women, at the police office on November 12 last year.

Barguna District and Sessions Judge Md Hasanuzzaman and Judge for Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal Md Julfikar Ali jointly opened the centre in presence of local elites, lawyers, journalists and politicians.

Reshma (not her real name), 20, of Purbochila village in Amtali upazila was divorced by her husband over family feud , when she found out that she became pregnant.

She informed her husband about the matter but he refused to take her as his wife again.

Finding no alternative, Reshma went to the Sahayata Kendra and filed a complaint.

Sahayata Kendra arranged a meeting between both parties several times and finally her husband changed his decision and they reunited.

“I am very grateful to Sahayata Kendra' as they solved my problem,” said Reshma.

Another victim of Barguna Sadar, who was tortured by her addict husband, informed the Sahayata Kendra and filed a complaint.

Jannatul Ferdous, sub-inspector of Sadar Police Station, also coordinator of Jagoroni Nari Sahayata Kendra, called the husband of the woman and started counselling. After some days, the husband realised his fault and changed his behaviour towards his wife.

The Jagoroni Nari Sahayata Kendra is running under the supervision of an additional superintendent of police and an SI is serving there as a coordinator, while a five-member team receives complaints from victims, a source at Barguna police office said.

This different initiative taken by the police will play a vital role in reducing torture on women, said Nazma Begum, chairman of Barguna Mohila Parishad.

“In the last seven months, we were able to resolve 300 tortured women's problems following their complaints,” said SI Jannatul Ferdous.

“We also filed nine cases with the court as we failed to solve the problems with counselling,” she said.