HELPFUL yet not much known

Similar to the national emergency helpline 999, these two services are dedicated to receiving complaints of harassment, sexual hostility, violence and potential threats against women. But they stay unknown to many.

The national emergency helpline 999 has created a noticeable impact since its launch in 2017, unlike “Joy” and the 24-hour helpline 109, both introduced by the women and children affairs ministry.

The Daily Star has conducted a random survey among over 40 female young professionals and students to know their experiences of using the app and the helpline, or whether they actually know about the two platforms. The responses were eye-opening.

None of them has ever heard of the mobile app, which was launched on July 29, 2018. On the other hand, only five said they heard about the toll-free 24/7 helpline 109 introduced in 2012, but none of them ever used it in reporting incidents of violence against them.

“I’ve heard about 999 but never heard of any other helpline or app for women and children. If the government has such platforms for helping women, there must be enough promotion of those. Otherwise, what’s the use of introducing such smart technologies?” asked Sadia Islam, project officer at a non-government organisation.

The app was funded by ICT Division under its “Access to Information” (a2i) project and developed by the women and children affairs ministry under its “Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence against Women”.

If a victim presses the emergency button on the app in case of sexual harassment, child marriage or any other forms of violence or threat, her GPS location, audio recording of her surroundings and picture will go directly to the 109 helpline, said Sabina Sultana, senior programme officer of the project. 

“Apart from that, a text message will automatically be dispatched to the nearest police station, the deputy police commissioner of the metropolitan area, the SP of the district level and three FNF numbers,” she added.

“One can find the app by typing Joy 109 on the Google Play Store. Women can also file a written complaint by attaching photos or videos,” she added.

Seeking anonymity, a domestic violence victim said the android application offered her instant help when she was in crisis.

“I was once beaten up by my husband badly. He threw me out of his home and I was restricted from keeping my baby with me,” she said, narrating the incident.

“Without even knowing the outcomes, I pressed the emergency button of the Joy app, which I installed in my phone previously, while I was still waiting right outside the door of his home.

“They contacted me immediately and took action. Within 35 minutes they sent local police to rescue my child. And with their help I managed to leave the place with my baby.”

According to the ministry, only 135 emergency complaints have been received through this app so far. Only 4,275 users have installed it on their android mobile devices since December 2019 though the number of mobile internet users crossed 9.37 crore by June 2019.

The ministry spent around Tk 45,00,000 on developing the app but sadly, it can only be installed on android 4.0.3 and updated version.

Needless to say, it is completely unable to provide any support for women having no smartphones. But they can call 109.    

According to the 2019 Mobile Gender Gap Report of GSMA, the global association of mobile operators, 58 percent of adult women in Bangladesh, own mobile phones while only 13 percent use the internet.

According to Sabina Sultana of “Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence against Women”,

they have taken various initiatives to promote the app on social media and created TVC, billboards, stickers, festoons, brochures, sent letters to districts and upazilas.  However, she admits that a large number of women are not aware of the app.

“Wherever I go, I tell people about these and I know women are not aware of this. But I think the media can be a great help in this regard,” she said.

On the other hand, the 109 helpline was launched on June 19, 2012, after it was developed at the cost of Tk 1,25,00,000, funded jointly by Bangladesh and Danish governments. The helpline is also linked to 999 and the government service information helpline 333. 

The 109 service is aimed at receiving complaints against domestic violence, child marriage, sexual harassment, physical abuse, dowry, detention, child custody, and many other forms of violence and abuse against women and children.

For example, if a woman faces any sort of violence or harassment in any place (be it her workplace, educational institutions, public places or her own home), she can call the helpline.

The person who attends the call at first tracks her location and contacts the local police station to send a force to rescue her. The operator would then continue following up with the woman in every five to 10 minutes, depending on the seriousness of her problems.

One very important aspect of the helpline is someone can also send text messages to the number mentioning her situation, as it happens most of the time that women become unable to make a phone call in front of the perpetrator or sometimes they need to be tactful in seeking help.

Raisul Islam, programme coordinator of 109 service, said last year they attended 18,14,991 calls from people mostly seeking information and advice on what to do in a violent situation, how to file a case in police station, what to do if a husband doesn’t provide alimony to his wife and much more.

“The call we get is mostly from Dhaka, Rangpur, Mymensingh and Rajshahi divisions,” he added. 

According to Raisul, they have already placed the helpline number in the textbooks, created TVCs and newspaper advertisements, distributed leaflets, set up PVC boards in all the police stations, created campaigns in districts and upazilas and on the social media.

“The campaign is working well enough, as every day, we attend around 13,000 calls on a daily basis,” he said.

A total of 7 lakh 64 thousand 25 phone calls were made to the number from June, 2012 to February, 2018, according to the helpline centre, says a BSS report.

Last month, Tabarak Ullah, additional DIG of police, who is in charge of service 999, said they too are planning to launch a smartphone application that will include SOS button.

“If any person presses the button, we will receive their location and a 10-second video automatically in our stations,” said Tabarak.

Since the service was launched on December 12, 2017, it has responded to 1.49 crore calls till December 7 last year.

Of the calls, 21 percent (30 lakh calls) were for seeking service and among the 21 percent, 1.75 lakh calls were for police, fire and ambulance services, according to the national help desk database.

According to Ain o Salish Kendra data, a total of 5,733 incidents of rape were reported between 2013 and 2019, while the number was 1,413 last year alone, and 76 of them were killed after rape. 

The number of rape victims in Bangladesh has doubled in 2019 than that of the previous year, found the rights body.

Violation of women rights and incidents of sexual assault also increased last year from 2018. As many as 258 women were sexually assaulted last year. The figure was 173 in 2018 and 255 in 2017.