Rights activists on Friday said one in every two women in the country is tortured within the family while domestic violence is still widely considered a private affair.
They at a press conference at the National Press Club cited an international survey which put Bangladesh in the fourth position as regards violence against women.
We Can Alliance to End Domestic Violence, Bangladesh organised the briefing on a training campaign by the change makers to prevent all kinds of sexual harassment including domestic violence.
The activists alleged that about 60 per cent women were being tortured by their husband or close relatives.
The speakers also appreciated the government’s enacting law against domestic violence but added that not only the enactment or amendment of acts was enough.
They stressed elimination of social tolerance of violence against women to curb this crime.
They said seven lakhs of the campaign change makers organised different programmes such as uthan boithak, human chains, poster distribution and cultural programmes across the country to observe international fortnight to protest against violence against women all over the world from November 25 to December 10.
As part of the programme, about 1,600 change makers would travel by train from 2,000 villages of 311 upazilas of 52 districts and conduct campaign against sexual harassment including domestic violence, they said.
The activists said about 500 national, international and local development, labour, occupational and cultural organisations were member of the campaign which reached their message against domestic violence to about four crore people in last six years.
They also said the campaign started in 2004 which was also implemented by countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Canada, Netherlands, and in some African and Latin American countries.
The campaign will organise a national conference to prevent all kind of sexual harassment including domestic violence on the Shishu Academy premises in Dhaka today at 9:30am.
The campaign’s co-chair Fawzia Khondker, national coordinator Jinat Ara Haque, member Shaheen Akhter Chowdhury and Mriganko S Bhattachergee were present at the programme.
