‘Laws to prevent violence against women not implemented'

Discussants at a roundtable on Saturday said the violence against women was worsening by the day.

Although there are laws to prevent violence against women, the participants of the Prothom Alo roundtable pointed out, these are not implemented properly.

Prothom Alo, in association with the Institute of Informatics and Development, organised the discussion on ‘Strict measures needed to prevent violence against women’ at its Kawran Bazar office. Prothom Alo associate editor Abdul Quayum moderated the discussion.  

Bangladesh Mahila Parishad general secretary Maleka Banu said there had been movements over four decades to prevent violence against women.

“There are many laws to prevent violence against women but these are not implemented. Women are becoming more vulnerable,” she said.

Supreme Court lawyer Sara Hossain said the state is not human rights friendly.

She said there are court orders regarding violence against women in the streets.

These orders are not followed, Sara Hossain said, also pointing to the major problems in the implementation of the laws.

She said the police are bound to record complaints, but frequently refuse to do so. No action is taken against the law enforcers, she added.

Also a human rights activist, Sara Hossain said two female activists of United People's Democratic Front were reportedly abducted. No steps were taken in this regard, she said.

Sara said the scope to protest against violation of human rights is shrinking.

Laws are being applied in the interests of the party in power, she alleged.

Public prosecutor of Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal 5 Ali Asgar Swapan said the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act-2000 was passed in 18 years ago. The law is not properly applied, he said.  

Swapan said there is a provision that the trial proceedings have to be completed within 180 days, but this is not followed.

Chairman at the women and gender studies department of Dhaka University Syed Md Shaikh Imtiaz said they were working on the repression on women in Gangachhara upazila of Rangpur.

He quoted certain male students as saying that it was inevitable that girl students were raped if they dressed ‘indecently’.

 “We have turned our religious leaders into social leaders,” Imtiaz regretted.

The first woman dean of the social science faculty at Dhaka University, Sadeka Halim, said the root cause of violence against women was yet to be identified.

“If any teacher sexually harasses a female teacher or student, we can’t take exemplary action against them due to old proctorial rules. We can only send the accused on forced leave,” she said.

UNFPA national programme officer for gender, adolescent and youth, Humaira Farhanaz said the government was working to stop child marriage and some upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs) were active in their efforts to free their administrative units of child marriage.

“But there is information from different areas that families were getting their children married off in microbuses and boats,” said Humaira Farhanaz.

IID chief executive officer Sayeed Ahmed, IID associate researcher Falguni Reza, Md Nurul Islam of Asia Foundation and Samia Haque of Brac University, among others, spoke at the roundtable.