Sumaiya Sarwat, Research Assistant, BILIA : To think that in spite of living in 21st century women are being treated as sexual objects and falling victims of unnatural lusts and sexual harassment of a large part of the society is itself a pathetic matter. This is also a perfect example of, how a huge portion of our society is being discriminated and humiliated based on their gender.
Discrimination in a sense where as an important part of the society women were supposed to get equal treatment, participation and respect, they are falling behind because of the failure of our society to protect them from sexual violence. Few months back on March a survey report was published by Brac University which showed Around 94 per cent women fall victim to different types of sexual harassment, including molestation, on public transport in the country.
The survey identified lack of law enforcement, overcrowd of passengers and inadequate lighting in vehicles and want of proper monitoring and supervision as among the major causes for sexual harassment. Earlier on February another report published by a passengers’ welfare platform said, at least 17 women were either gang raped or raped inside public transports while four other women were sexually harassed across the country in the last 13 months.
Though it is a common scenario throughout the whole country, the situation in Dhaka is far worse than other cities in respect of sexual harassment and assault. These surveys and reports were mainly published In order to identify the numbers, causes and solutions to this problem and to draw the attention of the stakeholders to take appropriate measures and to raise awareness as well. But the result is not satisfactory, as the situation is getting worse day by day. Cases of sexual harassment at public transports and roads are often taken for granted as mere mischievous incidents and as a result the situation of women is becoming more vulnerable in these places compared to other places for different reasons, such as, lack of women friendly transport systems, lack of space, lack of public transports resulting in over crowed in buses and other vehicles, what give opportunity to some perverted offenders to cause sexual harassment by deliberate touching, shoving/elbowing and patting on buttocks, pinching and to cause other forms of physical contact.
Apart from that, women face humiliation by abusive comments and gestures as well. In 2009, the Supreme Court issued certain directives to prevent sexual harassment at workplace and in public places. Whether these public places include public transports or not was not clarified in these directives. There are also a number of national and international instruments that were introduced to prevent sexual abuse and harassment. But these laws have failed to address present needs and to result expected effectiveness. Moreover, due to faulty and lengthy legal justice system victims tends to avoid seeking legal remedy. Lack of awareness and confidence among women is another reason. The research conducted by Brac also shows that, around 81 per cent of the women surveyed, said, they keep silent in case of facing any such indecent gesture while 79 per cent said they change their seat or standing place rather than protesting such offence. Therefore, women need to build courage and fight back while facing any kind of sexual abuse in any environment. They need to understand that, no one will be able to help them unless and until they don’t help themselves. Moreover, laws and regulations should be made more effective and easily approachable. Lastly and most importantly we need to educate our children, change our prejudicial perspective and insure a society where every individual will receive equal respect and treatment irrespective of their gender.
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