Sagar Biswas :
The girls are standing in rows on the small ground of Shaheed Nabi High School in the city’s Tikatuli area. A very smart girl — aged 13-14 years — took position in the front. Self confidence and reliability were reflecting on her face, and the same thing was also sparkling on each and every girl’s face.
They are taking training on martial arts and karate for self protection – to save themselves from sexual harassment, eve teasing, acid throwing and such other violence where women are usually the common victims.
They know, after completion of the martial arts training, they could easily face any insulting or hazard situation on the way to their school, coaching centre or other places without taking help from others.
Tarana, Sufia, Lisa, Tania and a few of their classmates – all are smart and energetic – said that they have all achieved self-confidence after taking martial arts training. “I didn’t hesitate to face an awkward situation when some hoodlums tried to harass my friend. None came forward, but I faced the thugs to protect my friend”, Tasbiha Alam Prithibi, a student of Class nine, said in a proud tone.
Echoing the same, the sports and physical training teacher of the school Mohammad Golam Faruk said: “Prithibi is the leader of karate team. Like her, all of the girls are continuing their studies and other curriculums simultaneously with martial arts.”
To address the situation, the students of about 20 city junior girls’ schools, including Khilgaon Girl’s School and College, are now taking martial arts training under the banner of ‘safe school safe society’ keeping coordination with Nari Pragoti Sangha.
“We’ve able to make the girl students self-confident and self-reliable through the martial arts training. It’s a big achievement. This must be included in the curriculum of the students, it is important,” Ranjan Kumar Roy, Principal of Khilgaon Girl’s School and College, said.
Several teachers and guardians said that eve-teasing has been a problem for girls and young women nowadays. In remote areas, many parents are arranging child marriage to save their daughters from eve teasing, though it is illegal in the eyes of law. It is also learnt that many victims of eve teasing have already committed suicide.
According to a study carried by Population Council, about 72 percent girls are being subjected to torture by the guardians in their houses. The number would be increased, if the mentally depressed are counted. Besides, 76 percent girls become victims of sexual harassment inside and outside of their educational institutions.
Coordinator of the project [Dhaka district] Aniketon Achariya said: “We’ve taken the programme to create self-confidence among the girls, as they can fight repression, sexual harassment, rape, kidnapping and such other incidents.”
Although the government has formulated several laws to protect the women from repression, the majority of women do not know about the matter. There are also directives of High Court to stop women harassment. But these are not sufficient to resist the culprits in the male dominated society.
“The martial arts training programme has created a positive impact. So, I think it should be compulsory in educational curriculum,” said educationist Md Mokhlesur Rahman.
Sanaul Haque, Deputy Secretary, also Regional Executive Officer of the project, said: “This training programme has created awareness among the girls, but it should be expanded to boys also.”
A non-government organization named Plan International has taken a different approach to save school girls from eve teasing. They are saying self-defense training will help school girls.
Recently, they have trained forty school girls of a remote village in Nilphamari district. A trainer Kamrunnahar Sathi who is a black belt holder conducted the martial art and karate training. Girls who received the training say they no longer fear stalkers because the training on self-defense has boosted their confidence.
Apart from karate, another form of martial art Taekwondo– originating in Korea — has become popular in Bangladesh in the recent days. It is currently taught in around 100 educational institutions in Dhaka under the supervision of the Bangladesh Taekwondo Federation.
With the overall support from the Bangladesh Olympic Association [BOA], Taekwondo students have drawn attention of all by showing their excellent performance.
