News Desk :
Twenty years ago, Jalal Ahmed’s sister was sold off by her husband, a man she had married out of love. She was then gang-raped by her captors.
“The rapists told her they would kill her and rape her dead body in the morgue. Since that day, my sister has not spoken a word,” said the chief executive officer of the Bachao.Life Foundation.
“My mother couldn’t bear the shock. When she died in 2018, she asked me to do something to save women in Bangladesh. ‘You are a computer engineer,’ she said. ‘Please do something so you can save at least one girl from this violence.'”
The day his mother died, Jalal declared war against rape and started to research the crime by forming Bachao.Life Foundation. His panel of researchers included sociologists, psychologists, law enforcers and teachers from Dhaka University, reports bdnews24.com.
The end result was a P2P or people-to-people app designed to enable women to seek help when they
need it, especially to save themselves from rape. The app, named ‘Bachao’- a Bengali word used to cry for help – had its soft launch in August this year and was made available for download on Oct 2.
It has already been downloaded by over 100,000 people. Among those who downloaded the app, 55 percent were in Dhaka. The next highest number of downloads was in Chattogram.
“At least 80 percent of rape incidents take place near a victim’s usual surroundings and not very far from their homes. We found that only people in the local community can come forward to prevent incidents of rape as they’re the people immediately available,” said Jalal.
“We have complete faith in our law enforcers, but they can’t be available everywhere when a woman needs help. In Bangladesh, we have only one member of the police for every 800 people. Is it possible for them to rush to a distant scene to help? So, it is the local community or volunteers who can help a victim.”
Even before they launched any campaign, at least 12,000 people downloaded the app and signed up as volunteers, said Jalal. “It’s mostly the youth or students who signed up as volunteers. People are willing to help us in curbing this crime and most of them are students.”
“I downloaded the app and also shared it in our group,” said writer Shepu Chowdhury, who is an administrator of Facebook literary group Janala.
“I’ll be proud if the app can contribute to ensuring the security of women in Bangladesh. This is the first time our group has promoted an app. We took on the initiative as part of our social responsibility.”
“I downloaded the ‘Bachao’ app for my own protection and those of others,” she said.
“I have asked everyone I know to download the app. I showed my domestic aide how to use it and asked her to tell her daughter and her husband to download it as well. I told my driver to download it and asked him to download the app for his wife and daughter.”
“Even my 17-year-old son has downloaded it because, when faced with a dangerous situation, it is essential to inform the police and send them the location of the incident. It is our social responsibility to come forward and help others. That is why I believe men and women should download the ‘Bachao’ app to their phones. The more users on the app, the faster help will come and the sooner we will see a decrease in violence.”
As many as 767 women reported rapes in Bangladesh between January and June 2021, and 24 of them were killed, while five died by suicide, according to legal rights group Ain o Salish Kendra.
Rape cases nearly doubled to 1,413 in 2019 from a year earlier, they said.
The numbers, however, do not show the full picture. Experts say many rape cases go unreported.
“When we conducted our research, many of our responders, especially those from women’s rights organisations, said that not all rape cases are reported. Social stigma and lack of security are some of the reasons for which people do not report these incidents,” Jalal said.
Bachao.Life aims to reduce the number of rapes in Bangladesh. “We aim to halve the number of rapes in Bangladesh; from 17 rapes a day to 8 per day by July 2022,” Jalal said.
“It is a war against rape. We are working in all 64 districts and trying to reach each village. We challenge Bangladesh to reduce the number of rapes by July 2022.”
When asked about the effectiveness of the app, Jalal said that there had already been 60 incidents where the victims sought help and rapes were prevented. But, in five cases, those who sought help could not be found in the system. It is likely that their phone was taken or disconnected.
