Nicholas Biswas :
The Constitution of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh stipulates article 27: All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law. Article 28 (1): The state shall not discriminate against any citizens on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; (2): Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the state and of public life. The message is very clear for us. There is no ambiguity in it.
Human rights status in the country
According to Ain O Salish Kendra 615 women were victims of attempted rape, rape and gang rape across Bangladesh in 2014. On the other hand, according to Kapaeeng Foundation, similar crimes were committed in 2014 on 55 indigenous women. If aforementioned information of Ain O Salish Kendra covers only the victim women of mainstream population, then the total victims of both Bengali and Indigenous women in 2014 would be 670. Accordingly out of 670 women victim/survivor 8.2 per cent victims are from indigenous community, who are just 1.8 per cent of country’s total population. On the other hand, out of 670 women 91.8 per cent are from the Bengalis, who are the majority in the country with 98 per cent of the total population. From statistical calculation given here it becomes clear that indigenous women are more targeted in crimes like sexual violence than the mainstream women due to their ethnic and cultural differences.
Bangladesh takes unusually longer time for resolution. Indigenous people, largely poor and illiterate, find it hard to hang on to the court case for long. Land grabbers seize the opportunity to put pressure on the helpless victims to sell their property. When the land grabbers fail in their techniques, they eventually go for harming (to the extent of killing even if necessary) their opponents. It has been seen that state actors are also not lagging behind non-state actors in seizing lands belonging to indigenous peoples.
Situation of the rights of indigenous women and girls
The majority of the victims/survivors are children (60 per cent) in the age group of 4-18 years, and 40 per cent were adults above 18 years of age. The striking feature of this crime against indigenous women and girls was that the dominant perpetrators were Bengali settlers in the CHT and Bengalis in the plains (91 per cent in both the cases). In addition, 4 per cent of the members of the security forces are reported to have committed such offence in contrast to a nominal number of indigenous men perpetrators.
Such incidents occur massively due to ethnic and cultural differences. Violence against women and girls is one of the weapons used widely to evict ethnic, cultural and religious minorities from their ancestral lands.
Hegemonic chauvinism to dominate over and subdue minorities also acts as an inducement to exploit indigenous women sexually and physically. Although a few of the perpetrators were put in the jail following the cases filed against them, but soon most of them got released. A culture of impunity along with patriarchy, hegemonic masculinities and gender disparities towards indigenous women bars limited or no access to justice.
Situation of the rights of youth, child and education
The situation of the children and that of education rights in the country have also remained far from satisfactory over the years. The issues of human rights of indigenous youths and children are often overlooked and not much discussed about.
Bangladesh recently enacted the Children Act 2013 in line with the CRC with a view to respect protect and fulfill the rights of children in Bangladesh. However, this law remained largely on paper; the provisions of this act are yet to be properly complied with by the government.
Besides, this law does not have any specific provisions for indigenous children and no mention of indigenous children could be found in the law. In consequence, the situation of human rights of indigenous children in 2014 remains vulnerable. The state of education in 2014 witnessed similar trends despite having some mixed developments. Although a number of positive developments could be observed throughout the year, some of the initiatives taken by the government resulted instead, in the violation of the rights to education.
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The Constitution of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh stipulates article 27: All citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law. Article 28 (1): The state shall not discriminate against any citizens on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; (2): Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the state and of public life. The message is very clear for us. There is no ambiguity in it.
Human rights status in the country
According to Ain O Salish Kendra 615 women were victims of attempted rape, rape and gang rape across Bangladesh in 2014. On the other hand, according to Kapaeeng Foundation, similar crimes were committed in 2014 on 55 indigenous women. If aforementioned information of Ain O Salish Kendra covers only the victim women of mainstream population, then the total victims of both Bengali and Indigenous women in 2014 would be 670. Accordingly out of 670 women victim/survivor 8.2 per cent victims are from indigenous community, who are just 1.8 per cent of country’s total population. On the other hand, out of 670 women 91.8 per cent are from the Bengalis, who are the majority in the country with 98 per cent of the total population. From statistical calculation given here it becomes clear that indigenous women are more targeted in crimes like sexual violence than the mainstream women due to their ethnic and cultural differences.
Bangladesh takes unusually longer time for resolution. Indigenous people, largely poor and illiterate, find it hard to hang on to the court case for long. Land grabbers seize the opportunity to put pressure on the helpless victims to sell their property. When the land grabbers fail in their techniques, they eventually go for harming (to the extent of killing even if necessary) their opponents. It has been seen that state actors are also not lagging behind non-state actors in seizing lands belonging to indigenous peoples.
Situation of the rights of indigenous women and girls
The majority of the victims/survivors are children (60 per cent) in the age group of 4-18 years, and 40 per cent were adults above 18 years of age. The striking feature of this crime against indigenous women and girls was that the dominant perpetrators were Bengali settlers in the CHT and Bengalis in the plains (91 per cent in both the cases). In addition, 4 per cent of the members of the security forces are reported to have committed such offence in contrast to a nominal number of indigenous men perpetrators.
Such incidents occur massively due to ethnic and cultural differences. Violence against women and girls is one of the weapons used widely to evict ethnic, cultural and religious minorities from their ancestral lands.
Hegemonic chauvinism to dominate over and subdue minorities also acts as an inducement to exploit indigenous women sexually and physically. Although a few of the perpetrators were put in the jail following the cases filed against them, but soon most of them got released. A culture of impunity along with patriarchy, hegemonic masculinities and gender disparities towards indigenous women bars limited or no access to justice.
Situation of the rights of youth, child and education
The situation of the children and that of education rights in the country have also remained far from satisfactory over the years. The issues of human rights of indigenous youths and children are often overlooked and not much discussed about.
Bangladesh recently enacted the Children Act 2013 in line with the CRC with a view to respect protect and fulfill the rights of children in Bangladesh. However, this law remained largely on paper; the provisions of this act are yet to be properly complied with by the government.
Besides, this law does not have any specific provisions for indigenous children and no mention of indigenous children could be found in the law. In consequence, the situation of human rights of indigenous children in 2014 remains vulnerable. The state of education in 2014 witnessed similar trends despite having some mixed developments. Although a number of positive developments could be observed throughout the year, some of the initiatives taken by the government resulted instead, in the violation of the rights to education.
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