Domestic violence

One of the least focused social scourges is perhaps domestic violence. Little wonder, it has grown to a dreadful proportion without our being adequately sensitised about it. At the same time, a quiet revolution is taking place among some organised groups to contain it.
This is borne out by the outcome of the two-day national change-makers' convention ending in the capital on Monday. It brought to light harrowing details of torture of women, children and domestic helps and how these were being mitigated through persuasive methods applied to the perpetrators.
One has to go to the heart of the problem and this is what chief adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed and chairman, Regulatory Commission Dr Akbar Ali Khan seem to have done. The CA suggested that women have to be treated equivalent to men in family, social and state systems. Akbar Ali echoed this when he said, " Torture always occurs against the weak." So the consensus among the participants was that the vicious culture be eliminated from the family and society through building social awareness about it and raising voice against it.
Who could do it better than the two lakh male and female change-makers under the leadership of Protirodh Jote, an alliance of 236 social, cultural, volunteer, labour and professional organisations formed in 2004. In three years they have come a long way. The focus should be now on increasing the number of change-makers who can play a catalytic role in turning things around.
It is important that we safeguard women from all forms of discrimination by law and also punish the perpetrators but despite the constitution guaranteeing equality between men and women, we don't find the true reflection of it in real life situation.
Law alone cannot guarantee the dignity and honour to women nor can punishment to the tormentors solely. What is basically needed is a change of mindset. That's where we believe there ought to be dispersal of change-makers within families and communities at large by way of a countrywide social movement against women and child repression. This paper expresses full support to the change-makers' movement.