Preventing Harassment

M Habibur Rahman, a father of two, was seen waiting with his son at the Victim Support Centre in Tejgaon, Dhaka, recently. He had sent his seven-year-old daughter to work as a maid in the capital. She then went missing from her place of work. At first, the father felt a little embarrassed to talk about it, but then his son, M Ripon, 18, shared their story with this reporter.

“Due to poverty, and after my mother died, my father thought my sister would have a better life if she went to Dhaka and worked there. Of course, he was wrong from the beginning. How could someone send his seven-year-old girl to do work as a housemaid? We only had the mobile phone number of the person who hired her. We didn’t know the address of the house where she was working. When we wanted to bring her home for the Eid holiday, her employer refused to send her back. A month later, we learned that she was missing,” said Ripon of his little sister.

According to the girl’s family, police called them on November 3 and informed them they had found her.  Thus, she was reunited with her family after six months. However, the police were reluctant to disclose where and under what circumstances they had found the missing girl. As for the family, it was a moment of both regret and gratitude. Rahman said he was never going to let his daughter out of sight again.

Violence against women and children is taking place every day. But what are we doing to stop such crimes? Nearly 50 percent of our population is young. They are the ones who can make a difference. From November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) through December 10 (Human Rights Day) are 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, mandated by the United Nations to raise public awareness and mobilise people everywhere to bring about changes. This week, Y&I spoke with some youths, teachers, experts and volunteers about preventing harassment against girls and women, and the best possible solutions to reducing such violence.      

Faez Belal, aged 20, is the founder of Barisal Youth Society, a winner of Joy Bangla Youth Award for community development this year. The organisation started its journey in 2014. A maid who used to work at Belal’s house was pregnant. When her husband came to know they were going to have a daughter, he tried to force his wife to get rid of the baby. Belal and some of his friends came forward to help the poor woman and helped her to keep the baby. From there on, Belal found his inspiration and started to work on different community development activities. “At this moment, we have 10,000 active members in Barisal division. They each contribute Tk 10 every month, and with that money, we carry out different types of community work. We deal with violence against women and children. In every district of our division, we have 21 representatives, or district ambassadors. They are the ones who inform us about any wrongdoings. In the beginning, it was hard to gather information. We also have 800 volunteers working with us. We have good connection with law enforcement agencies, and along with the district commissioners, hey help us a lot. We have seven youth clubs. Once, a member of our youth club informed us how her family was trying to marry her off. We immediately went to her house, but we faced some resistance from her family members. In the end, we were able to stop the early marriage. Our future plan is to set up six ‘smart’ villages in six districts,” said Belal.

The victim’s name in that particular case was Kobita Akhter, and she herself told Y&I: “I was a student of class 7 back then. My father wanted to marry me off. Since I knew it was illegal, and it was against my wish, I wanted to save myself. I called some senior members of the youth club. I thought only they can save me from this. So, I called and I was rescued. Today, I am able to continue with my studies thanks to Barisal Youth Society. I want to become a pilot when I grow up.”  The society’s website is www.bysbd.org, and it can be found on Facebook simply by searching the name.

Rohan Kabir, 28, who recently completed his MBA from Northern University, said: “When was I doing evening MBA, I came to meet people of different ages and I had good relations with all of them. One day after our class, some of my female classmates and I were waiting at the bus stop. A bus finally came and after getting on it, we saw all the reserved seats for women, children the physically challenged and the elderly were full. Grown middle-aged men were seated there. One of my female friends asked them to give up the reserved seats, but they refused and started mocking her. Even the bus driver and the conductor joined in, and soon they were verbally abusing my female classmates. Just as I decided to do something, a group of college boys, who were seated at the back of the bus, passed me by. They asked the driver to stop the bus and made the men who were occupying the reserved seats get out of the bus. The strange thing is there was also a police officer on the bus, and he came forward to help the boys. When I asked the policeman why he didn’t do anything earlier, he replied it is better if we take care first and then fight for each other’s rights! He could have done something earlier, but waited to see what those college students would do. There are different types of violence being committed against women and children every day. We can prevent this sort of harassment by creating awareness and protesting against it whenever we encounter it.”

Kamrul Hasan Shawon, a student of anthropology department at Jahangirnagar University, said: “Apart from my studies, I am working as a volunteer at Youth For Change (Y4C) Bangladesh as one of seven national country panel members. Y4C is a global youth-led platform of youth activists working in partnership with non-government organisations and governments to tackle gender-based violence and create positive change for girls, boys, young women and young men. Operating in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the United Kingdom, it is funded by DFID-UK and implemented in Bangladesh by Plan International. The development and humanitarian organisation supports us so we can make Y4C function successfully across the country. With constant assistance from them, as a panel member of Y4C, I aim to successfully end social problems related to gender-based violence.”   

“Since 2014, Y4C has successfully conducted numerous campaigns to address violence against women and children. As panel members, we have been lobbying constantly with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs; we made significant contribution in creating public opinion on the amended Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017. Another notable achievement for us was to establish the fully-functioning Young Change Makers’ Coalition (YCMC), where seven leading youth organisations of the country are collaborating to tackle this social epidemic. The coalition is currently expanding its activities in every district of the country. We always wanted to hold campaigns in a unique, but effective way. And projects such as an interactive theatre show for raising awareness on child marriage, discussion programme on sexual harassment on community radios, and outreach programmes in rural schools and different universities are a few examples. Our path has not been easy all the time, but help from Plan International has always enabled us to overcome the challenges. For detailed information knowledge on Y4C, please pay a visit to our website www.youthforchange.org, or our see our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pg/youth4changebd,” Shawon added.

Jyotirmoy Sen, a senior teacher at Mirpur Sidhanta High School, told Y&I: “Violence and harassment against women and children has always existed in our world. We can say with time, people have become more socialised. But looking at the sheer number of atrocities taking place in our society makes one wonder about that. Now, how can we prevent such harassment against women and children? There are only a handful of organisations that are really working on this issue, others don’t have funds or lack the will. I believe the process of eliminating violence against women and children has to start from the family, then in schools, colleges and universities. The youths are the ones who can stop this, as they are our future.”

Asma Siddiqua, additional deputy commissioner of the Victim Support Centre, said: “On average, we receive 100 victims every month. We deal with different kinds of cases and we provide different types of support. After receiving a case from a police station, we investigate the case and try to find a legal and fair solution. This job is really challenging. For example, we may find a boy or a girl who can’t even remember where they come from or say anything about their parents. We try to make them feel at ease and help them to remember. The good news is we usually manage to find the address of the parents. Over the years, we have found many missing children and we have successfully returned many of them to their parents. If we are not able to find the parents, then we have two options. We inform the court about the situation, and then people who have applied for adoption can adopt them legally. Then again if that does not happen, we send to them state-run children’s homes. Many non-government organisations are working with us, 10 to be precise.”

“There are eight such victim support centres under Bangladesh Police in the country; the centre in Tejgaon can be considered as the main branch. Our doors are open 24 hours a day, every day. We have hotlines where people can inform us about any violence against women and children. According to the rules, we can keep children at a centre for five days, but in exceptional cases, we allow some children to stay for a month. I have been in the police service for a long time now and I do not see the situation getting any better when it comes to violence against women and children. From a personal point of view, I believe we have become more self-centred, we are losing good old family values. Parents do not want to take responsibility. We have to revive the moral values that once taught us how to stay together and be there for one and another,” the police officer added.      

Salma Ali, an advocate and human right activist, said: “When it comes to violence against women and children, we all know such cases are taking place in a great number throughout the country. The main reason, I believe, is lack of accountability. We have many different laws in our country that can prevent such crimes. For example, we have Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Law 2010, but in reality, there is hardly any implementation of that law. We have laws which, if properly implemented, can drastically reduce sexual harassment and torture. The fact is victims many times do not report crimes committed against them, as they think the society will not support them. Again, not many criminals get punished. We need support from everywhere and everyone, day by day the situation of violence against women and children is getting worse. Today, divorce among young couples is common. The children are growing up in an environment that is not child-friendly; they are not getting proper guidance from their parents. The media needs to address these issues on a regular basis.”

Mohit Kamal, professor and head of psychotherapy at National Institute of Mental Health, said: “We normally see or learn about violence against women and children when the news spread through the media and we pay attention for a while. But we do know see or want to address the reasons behind it. Today, not only women and children, but men are facing violence, too. But we live in a society where men tend not to report such crimes. The sense of morality is another thing we seem to be losing. Genetically, spiritually and religiously we humans normally want to choose the right path. Drugs, mental frustration and lack of communication are some of the reasons behind the extreme type of violence we are seeing today. A few days ago, a girl was burned to death reportedly because of a mobile phone. Now, can a healthy mind think of doing anything like that? Harassment is taking part on every level of the society. We are taking all the bad things or following the wrong things from world culture. Parents need to show love to their children, a little pat on the shoulder from dad, stroking of the child’s hair from the mother _ these small gestures have big impacts. Today we hardly communicate with our family members. I think the best way we can prevent family violence is by being honest with each other.” 

Photos: File, Courtesy.

Preventing Harassment

M Habibur Rahman, a father of two, was seen waiting with his son at the Victim Support Centre in Tejgaon, Dhaka, recently. He had sent his seven-year-old daughter to work as a maid in the capital. She then went missing from her place of work. At first, the father felt a little embarrassed to talk about it, but then his son, M Ripon, 18, shared their story with this reporter. Due to poverty, and after my mother died, my father thought my sister would have a better life if she went to Dhaka and worked there. Of course, he was wrong from the beginning. How could someone send his seven-year-old girl to do work as a housemaid? We only had the mobile phone number of the person who hired her. We didnt know the address of the house where she was working. When we wanted to bring her home for the Eid holiday, her employer refused to send her back. A month later, we learned that she was missing, said Ripon of his little sister. According to the girls family, police called them on November 3 and informed them they had found her. Thus, she was reunited with her family after six months. However, the police were reluctant to disclose where and under what circumstances they had found the missing girl. As for the family, it was a moment of both regret and gratitude. Rahman said he was never going to let his daughter out of sight again. Violence against women and children is taking place every day. But what are we doing to stop such crimes? Nearly 50 percent of our population is young. They are the ones who can make a difference. From November 25 (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) through December 10 (Human Rights Day) are 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, mandated by the United Nations to raise public awareness and mobilise people everywhere to bring about changes. This week, YI spoke with some youths, teachers, experts and volunteers about preventing harassment against girls and women, and the best possible solutions to reducing such violence. Faez Belal, aged 20, is the founder of Barisal Youth Society, a winner of Joy Bangla Youth Award for community development this year. The organisation started its journey in 2014. A maid who used to work at Belals house was pregnant. When her husband came to know they were going to have a daughter, he tried to force his wife to get rid of the baby. Belal and some of his friends came forward to help the poor woman and helped her to keep the baby. From there on, Belal found his inspiration and started to work on different community development activities. At this moment, we have 10,000 active members in Barisal division. They each contribute Tk 10 every month, and with that money, we carry out different types of community work. We deal with violence against women and children. In every district of our division, we have 21 representatives, or district ambassadors. They are the ones who inform us about any wrongdoings. In the beginning, it was hard to gather information. We also have 800 volunteers working with us. We have good connection with law enforcement agencies, and along with the district commissioners, hey help us a lot. We have seven youth clubs. Once, a member of our youth club informed us how her family was trying to marry her off. We immediately went to her house, but we faced some resistance from her family members. In the end, we were able to stop the early marriage. Our future plan is to set up six smart villages in six districts, said Belal. The victims name in that particular case was Kobita Akhter, and she herself told YI: I was a student of class 7 back then. My father wanted to marry me off. Since I knew it was illegal, and it was against my wish, I wanted to save myself. I called some senior members of the youth club. I thought only they can save me from this. So, I called and I was rescued. Today, I am able to continue with my studies thanks to Barisal Youth Society. I want to become a pilot when I grow up. The societys website is www.bysbd.org, and it can be found on Facebook simply by searching the name. Rohan Kabir, 28, who recently completed his MBA from Northern University, said: When was I doing evening MBA, I came to meet people of different ages and I had good relations with all of them. One day after our class, some of my female classmates and I were waiting at the bus stop. A bus finally came and after getting on it, we saw all the reserved seats for women, children the physically challenged and the elderly were full. Grown middle-aged men were seated there. One of my female friends asked them to give up the reserved seats, but they refused and started mocking her. Even the bus driver and the conductor joined in, and soon they were verbally abusing my female classmates. Just as I decided to do something, a group of college boys, who were seated at the back of the bus, passed me by. They asked the driver to stop the bus and made the men who were occupying the reserved seats get out of the bus. The strange thing is there was also a police officer on the bus, and he came forward to help the boys. When I asked the policeman why he didnt do anything earlier, he replied it is better if we take care first and then fight for each others rights! He could have done something earlier, but waited to see what those college students would do. There are different types of violence being committed against women and children every day. We can prevent this sort of harassment by creating awareness and protesting against it whenever we encounter it. Kamrul Hasan Shawon, a student of anthropology department at Jahangirnagar University, said: Apart from my studies, I am working as a volunteer at Youth For Change (Y4C) Bangladesh as one of seven national country panel members. Y4C is a global youth-led platform of youth activists working in partnership with non-government organisations and governments to tackle gender-based violence and create positive change for girls, boys, young women and young men. Operating in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and the United Kingdom, it is funded by DFID-UK and implemented in Bangladesh by Plan International. The development and humanitarian organisation supports us so we can make Y4C function successfully across the country. With constant assistance from them, as a panel member of Y4C, I aim to successfully end social problems related to gender-based violence. Since 2014, Y4C has successfully conducted numerous campaigns to address violence against women and children. As panel members, we have been lobbying constantly with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs; we made significant contribution in creating public opinion on the amended Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017. Another notable achievement for us was to establish the fully-functioning Young Change Makers Coalition (YCMC), where seven leading youth organisations of the country are collaborating to tackle this social epidemic. The coalition is currently expanding its activities in every district of the country. We always wanted to hold campaigns in a unique, but effective way. And projects such as an interactive theatre show for raising awareness on child marriage, discussion programme on sexual harassment on community radios, and outreach programmes in rural schools and different universities are a few examples. Our path has not been easy all the time, but help from Plan International has always enabled us to overcome the challenges. For detailed information knowledge on Y4C, please pay a visit to our website www.youthforchange.org, or our see our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pg/youth4changebd, Shawon added. Jyotirmoy Sen, a senior teacher at Mirpur Sidhanta High School, told YI: Violence and harassment against women and children has always existed in our world. We can say with time, people have become more socialised. But looking at the sheer number of atrocities taking place in our society makes one wonder about that. Now, how can we prevent such harassment against women and children? There are only a handful of organisations that are really working on this issue, others dont have funds or lack the will. I believe the process of eliminating violence against women and children has to start from the family, then in schools, colleges and universities. The youths are the ones who can stop this, as they are our future. Asma Siddiqua, additional deputy commissioner of the Victim Support Centre, said: On average, we receive 100 victims every month. We deal with different kinds of cases and we provide different types of support. After receiving a case from a police station, we investigate the case and try to find a legal and fair solution. This job is really challenging. For example, we may find a boy or a girl who cant even remember where they come from or say anything about their parents. We try to make them feel at ease and help them to remember. The good news is we usually manage to find the address of the parents. Over the years, we have found many missing children and we have successfully returned many of them to their parents. If we are not able to find the parents, then we have two options. We inform the court about the situation, and then people who have applied for adoption can adopt them legally. Then again if that does not happen, we send to them state-run childrens homes. Many non-government organisations are working with us, 10 to be precise. There are eight such victim support centres under Bangladesh Police in the country; the centre in Tejgaon can be considered as the main branch. Our doors are open 24 hours a day, every day. We have hotlines where people can inform us about any violence against women and children. According to the rules, we can keep children at a centre for five days, but in exceptional cases, we allow some children to stay for a month. I have been in the police service for a long time now and I do not see the situation getting any better when it comes to violence against women and children. From a personal point of view, I believe we have become more self-centred, we are losing good old family values. Parents do not want to take responsibility. We have to revive the moral values that once taught us how to stay together and be there for one and another, the police officer added. Salma Ali, an advocate and human right activist, said: When it comes to violence against women and children, we all know such cases are taking place in a great number throughout the country. The main reason, I believe, is lack of accountability. We have many different laws in our country that can prevent such crimes. For example, we have Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Law 2010, but in reality, there is hardly any implementation of that law. We have laws which, if properly implemented, can drastically reduce sexual harassment and torture. The fact is victims many times do not report crimes committed against them, as they think the society will not support them. Again, not many criminals get punished. We need support from everywhere and everyone, day by day the situation of violence against women and children is getting worse. Today, divorce among young couples is common. The children are growing up in an environment that is not child-friendly; they are not getting proper guidance from their parents. The media needs to address these issues on a regular basis. Mohit Kamal, professor and head of psychotherapy at National Institute of Mental Health, said: We normally see or learn about violence against women and children when the news spread through the media and we pay attention for a while. But we do know see or want to address the reasons behind it. Today, not only women and children, but men are facing violence, too. But we live in a society where men tend not to report such crimes. The sense of morality is another thing we seem to be losing. Genetically, spiritually and religiously we humans normally want to choose the right path. Drugs, mental frustration and lack of communication are some of the reasons behind the extreme type of violence we are seeing today. A few days ago, a girl was burned to death reportedly because of a mobile phone. Now, can a healthy mind think of doing anything like that? Harassment is taking part on every level of the society. We are taking all the bad things or following the wrong things from world culture. Parents need to show love to their children, a little pat on the shoulder from dad, stroking of the childs hair from the mother _ these small gestures have big impacts. Today we hardly communicate with our family members. I think the best way we can prevent family violence is by being honest with each other. Photos: File, Courtesy.