Rights Investigation
Violence against women: Statistics of the last 5 years
Taskin Fahmina
Case Study 1: N (15) an adolescent garment worker of Narayanganj while returning home from her work place, was kidnapped by miscreants on the way, raped and stabbed to death.
Case Study 2: A (23) newly married wife of Salahuddin in Perojpur was strangulated to death by her husband as her parents failed to meet her husband's dowry demand. Her dreams of new life went in vain with the brutal end.
Case Study 3: S (14) of Bogra became a victim of acid attack when she refused a proposal of love by local tout Harunur Rashid. Refused Harunur Rashid along with his accomplices threw acid on Shahinoor and she sustained serious burn injuries on her face and body.
These are the normal but vicious scenario of rape, dowry and acid violence against women in Bangladesh. Violence against women is a universal phenomenon, exists all over the world as well as in Bangladesh. Our socio-cultural structure, so called traditional views, lack of education, non application of laws and justice and many other factors are involved in violence against women. From 2002-2006, over the last 5 years, as per statistics of a human rights organization, Odhikar, total 5128 women and girl children were raped, 1683 were the victims of dowry related violence and 855 women were the victims of acid violence. The ratio of rape, dowry and acid violence against women are 63 percent, 20 percent and 17 percent from 2002-2006, respectively.
Rape: Rape is the most common and vicious form of violence against woman in Bangladesh. In most of the cases, the victim or family members of the victim remain silent due to the social stigma or the fear of the rapist(s) who is/are influential in the society due to his (their) money and muscle to hoodwink the law and justice. The rape victim has to undergo severe mental and social constraints. From 2002 to 2006 as per Odhikar's statistics of the total 5128 rape victims, 3159 were females and 1969 were girl children. During this time total 625 females and children had been killed and 69 committed suicide following rape. However, only 2006 alone total 639 females and children were raped and among them 412 were women and 227 children and in 2005 total 907 women and children were raped and among them 588 were women and 319 children, in the year 2004, total 569 women and 327 children had been violated. In the year 2003, total 1336 women and children were raped and of them 842 were women and 494 children. Besides, in the year 2002 a total of 1350 women and children were raped and among them 748 were women and 602 children.
The law enforcers, who are supposed to be the protectors of law manifested as violators. Between 2002 and 2006 total 20 females and children were raped by law enforcement agencies and among the victims 14 were females and 6 were children.
Dowry: Dowry related violence has proved to be a highly complicated violence in Bangladesh. Due to dowry related violence many women have been killed and the rest victimized by physical and mental abuses. Sometimes husbands alone or in collaboration with in-laws or with the help of other family members torture and kill wives for failing to fulfil dowry demands. Dowry completely demolishes the dignity of women and makes them very helpless in their so called homes. According to Odhikar, from 2002 to 2006 total 1683 women were the victims of dowry related violence and during this time total 1088 women had been killed and other 440 women had gone through severe physical torture. In the year 2006, a total 323 women had been victimized of the dowry related violence and among them, 243 women had been killed by their husbands or in laws. In 2005 total dowry related victims were 382 women and among them 227 were killed due to that violence. In 2004 total 166 women had been killed and total270 were the victims of such violence. Besides, in 2003 total 261 women were killed of 384 victims. Whereas in 2002 total 191 had been killed when 324 were victimized of dowry related violence.
Acid Throwing: A dreadful and gruesome form of violence against women is acid violence. In most cases, the perpetrator throws acid on woman due to rejection of marriage offer or sexual advances. Sometimes land dispute, personal feud, jealousy, dowry related violence, domestic violence also have been marked as the cause of acid throwing. The consequences of the victims of acid attack are the disfiguration, blindness, permanent marks of the body etc.
Between 2002 and 2006, total 855 women were the victims of acid attack. Among them in 2006, 105 women were victimized of acid violence. Besides, in 2005 total 104, in 2004 total 191, in 2003 total 181 and in 2002 total 274 women were the victims of acid violence.
The Laws: The law entitled Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act 2002 and as amended in 2003 has been enforced to deal with all sorts of violence against women. It has been enacted to prevent and punish cruelty to women and children in the form of abuse injury and death caused by demand for dowry and domestic violence. The law deals with the cases of violence against women such as rape, acid attack and dowry related crime. Death penalty is the maximum punishment provided under its provision. Government has enacted Acid Crime Prevention Act 2002, Acid Control Act 2002, restricting import and sale of acid in open markets and awarding death penalty for acid throwing offence. The act contains a provision for making the accused non-bailable during the period of investigation. Nowadays, acid violence has been deteriorated for its strict application. But rape and dowry related violences still remain alarming.
Violence against women is a shameful and extreme human rights violation. The government and law enforcement agencies should be strict to eradicate this kind of violence by punitive measures and also need to develop the public awareness to ensure women's rights in the society. Women's rights and human rights organizations should come up with an action plan to do mass mobilization against such crimes and the corners which provide shelters to such criminals.
The writer is working with Odhikar.
