Repression against women, children remains same despite political change

Two young women of 21 and 22 were picked up from Pashchimdi road in South Keraniganj of Dhaka on 9 August and raped. One of them works in a garment factory and the other one works in a beauty parlour.

Held captive in a house, they were gang raped by six people. The beauty parlour worker was able to escape that night while, the other woman was rescued the next morning after the incident was reported to local students.

Meanwhile a 65-year-old woman, after coming to Dhaka along with a few other women to receive relief, became a victim of gang rape on 7 September.

When people called the emergency services at 999 the next day, police personnel from Shabagh police station rescued her from Suhrawardy Udyan as she required medical assistance.

All three of these victims were admitted to the One-stop Crisis Centre (OCC) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital. As of the latest update, the elderly woman's son has taken her home from the OCC. And, the young women are keeping in touch with the police station for the filing of the case.

These are just three examples of the continuing incidents of violence against women and children throughout the country.

The Sheikh Hasina government fell from the student-people mass uprising on last 5 August. Then the interim government was formed with Dr Muhammad Yunus as the chief adviser on 8 August.

However, despite this transformation in the political landscape, the picture of violence against women and children in the country remains unchanged. It is as rampant as before. Monthly case data reflects this ongoing issue.

According to data from the police headquarters, a total of 12,769 cases have been filed under various sections of the Prevention of Oppression against Women and Children Act-2000 with police stations and courts of the country between January and September this year.

About half of the cases have indeed been filed on allegations of rape and attempt to rape. The number of such cases amounts to 6,202. Of them, 4,332 cases have been filed on allegation of rape while the remaining 1,870 cases have been filed on accusation of attempt to rape.

Apart from that, 3,208 cases have been filed in incidents of torture for dowry, 47 cases for throwing flammable material, 3,287 cases in incidents of abduction and 25 cases have been filed on charges of holding children hostage.

Case information states that 136 women have been killed for dowry with 12 women and 11 children have been murdered after rape during that period.

Various incidents of violence against women and children have been published in media even in the last month. One of the much talked about cases of those was the incident of a 9-year-old child from a low income family being raped by a man in Banani area of the capital on 12 October. The vaginal tract and the anal canal of the victim child had merged in that incident.

Meanwhile, household help Kalpana, 13, was rescued from a home in Bashundhara residential area on 19 October. Owner of the house, Dinat Jahan used to torture the girl. When Kalpana was rescued, she had lost her four front teeth and she had beating and burn injuries all over the body.

The rape victim from Banani has returned home from the OCC with her parents. And, housemaid Kalpana is still undergoing treatment at the burn unit of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

Then on 21 October, there has been an incident of gang rape by picking up a mother-daughter duo from their home on a remote Char in Companiganj of Noakhali.  

In this condition, adviser for women and children affairs Sharmeen S Murshid has stated that ‘rapid response team’ will be formed across the country to prevent repression against women and children.

She has stated this on several occasions that the team would have representation from administration, police, lawyers, councilors and the youths. Reducing the rate of repression down at any cost is one of the key objectives of this government.

After the fall of the Hasina government, there were incidents of attacks on different police stations and police personnel being injured or killed across the country. The activities in some police stations stopped in the absence of policemen amid the state of insecurity.

As a result, there has been no case filed in some incidents of repression while the victims were delayed in filing cases in some other incidents.

In the incident of two young women being gang raped in South Keraniganj on 9 August, a case was filed after 23 days on 2 September. In this regard, investigating officer (IO) of the case and inspector at South Keraniganj police station Nayan Karkun told Prothom Alo, “There was delay in filing the case for the situation at hand.”

“The students had caught and brought an accused named Shipon Mollah, 26, to the police station. Only then the case was filed. Efforts are on to arrest the other five accused,” he added.

According to data from the police headquarters, least number of cases in incidents of repression against women and children has been filed with the police station in August. Compared to other months, there has been 13 to 47 per cent less cases in that month.

There were 786 cases in January, 993 in February, 1,100 in March, 1,236 in April, 1,290 in May, 1,191 in June, 1,240 in July, 684 in August and 1,071 cases in September. Apart from that, 3,178 cases have been filed with the police station based on allegations found from the court.

This data shows that the rate of repression against women and children was high even in July when the movement was at its peak. However, it was noticed while visiting the OCC that less number of tortured women and children came there between 16 July and the first week of August.  

Coordinator physician of the OCC, Sabina Yasmin told Prothom Alo that there were fewer victims coming to the OCC because of the situation. In some incidents, the victims were provided medical treatment then and the cases were filed later.

A woman, 31, was raped in South Dakshinkhan on 13 July and was admitted to the OCC on 17 July. Another woman came to the OCC from Keraniganj falling victim to domestic violence on 24 July.

Then, two adolescent girls from Nawabganj and Keraniganj who were raped by their neighbours were admitted there respectively on 29 and 30 July. Victims were admitted to the OCC on 1 and 3 August as well. However, no victims were able go there between 4 and 9 August though.

Professor Muhammad Omar Faruk, Chairman of the Department of Criminology and Police Science at Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, has conducted several studies on the repression of women and children, as well as the state of case filings and the justice system related to these issues.

He told Prothom Alo that crimes such as repression against women and children are occurring within the social structure. Social values, mutual respect, endurance, and familial bonds are weakening day by day. Since there has been no change in this trend, repression continues unabated, even after the change in the political context.

Professor Omar Faruk added that the existing judicial system and the lack of proper law enforcement are also major factors contributing to the persistence of repression.

The way to get lifted of this situation is to change the social views towards women, strengthening the bond among family, relatives and neighboures, including people of the community in any initiative and to take rapid action against the criminals, he added.

Professor Omar Faruk called for the interim government to take effective steps in building trust among victims to seek justice.

* This report appeared in the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for Prothom Alo English by Nourin Ahmed Monisha.