A total of 3,703 incidents of torture and sexual violence against children and women took place across the country between January and December 2021. Violence against women and children have become unevenly higher in the outgoing year due to prevailing lawlessness, impunity and lack of moral and social values. Social resistance, an organised power that protects any society from evil intrusion, has collapsed as innocent become convicted, while convicted walk in large in the yesteryears. Violent politics, masculinism, structural corruption, eroded trust in public institutions, total unaccountability and power politics – all work against the dignity of women.
Based on published reports, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad estimated the number of sexual offences against women and children. Undeniably, the figure is the tip of a large iceberg and the real scenario is worse. Violence against women and girls in Bangladesh appears to have further increased during the Covid-19 pandemic. This crisis comes at a time when Bangladesh is marking the anniversaries of two landmark pieces of legislation on gender-based violence and entering the final phase of its national plan to build “a society without violence against women and children by 2025.” In spite of this goal, this report finds that the government response remains deeply inadequate and barriers to reporting assault or seeking legal recourse are frequently insurmountable.
Lack of trust in police is tragically common, and is compounded by the fact that shelter services are so limited in Bangladesh that for most survivors there is nowhere to go to escape abuse. At the same time, violence against women and girls is so socially normalised that survivors often don’t feel violence against them is something that would be taken seriously or is worth reporting. Society needs to be revamped against social evils; however, the political vendetta and impunity and moral degradation pull the societal spirit. The nation must light up again for its own sake, protecting women and children from violence.
