The government has decided to amend the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2003 to make sure it is enforced vigorously in fighting stalking.
The decision came yesterday at an inter-ministerial meeting on framing a law against stalking, said meeting sources. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid chaired the meet at the education ministry.
It was decided that the section 10 of Women and Children Repression Act, 2003 would be amended and for this it will be placed before cabinet.
No timeframe for the amendment could be known immediately.
Section 10 states if any male, in order to satisfy his carnal desires, touches the sexual or any other organs of any woman or child with any organ of his body or with any other object, his action will amount to sexual abuse. Or, if he abuses the modesty of any woman or makes any indecent gesture, his act shall be deemed to be sexual harassment.
Under the section, such a male will be punished by rigorous imprisonment for a term that may be extended up to ten years but shall not be less than three years and shall additionally also be liable to fine.
Sources said the section would be made applicable for stalking by bringing necessary changes to it.
The meeting also decided to speed up social movement against the crime to prevent harassment of girls, and to enact a new law if needed, meeting sources added.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, the education minister said enacting a new law to resist stalking would be time-consuming and that’s why the Women and Children Repression Act would be amended.
“But, we are not leaving aside the enacting of a new law,” Nahid said, adding the government would do every possible thing to ensure punishment to stalkers.
Terming stalking a social disease, he said a tougher law alongside social movement would help combat the crime, which claimed lives of a number of girls in recent times.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury; Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder; Education Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury; Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Secretary M Shahidul Haque, among others, attended the meeting.
SATKHIRA STALKER PUNISHED
A mobile court sentenced a college student to 20 days’ imprisonment for stalking a schoolgirl in Satkhira yesterday.
The convicted, Emrul Hasan, 19, of village Tujalpur is a first year bachelor’s student of Jhhowdanga Degree College in the district headquarters.
Locals said Emrul used to tease the girl, a class-X student of the same village, every day on her way to school and then to home.
Around 9:30am yesterday, he tried to harass the girl near school gate.
Teachers and the school managing committee urged Satkhira deputy commissioner to take action against the stalker.
Instructed by the DC, the mobile court led by Magistrate Sadequr Rahman reached the spot and arrested Emrul. In a trial held on the school premises, the court pronounced the punishment.
