Sex crimes on rise
Authorities lax in implementing HC order
Incidents of stalking and rape have increased considerably even after the government empowered mobile courts to prosecute offenders and the High Court gave directives to protect women from sexual harassment.
In the last eight months of this year from January, according to information gathered by Odhikar, 446 girls and women were sexually harassed. The number of incidents of sexual harassment was 443 and 129 women were assaulted or injured by stalkers, the rights watchdog reported.
Rights activists, lawyers and educationists blamed lack of initiatives to implement the High Court directives, corrupt practices of law enforcement agencies, political influence in favour of stalkers and lack of protection of the victims and witnesses and social awareness for the situation.
In a numbers of cases of stalking and rape in recent times, the offenders turned out to be school or college teachers. The latest incident was reported on Monday when a schoolteacher at Tanore in Rajshahi was arrested on charge of violating a student of the institution on Sunday night.
The teacher, Abu Sufian who confessed to his offence, had pretended to be in love with a class IX student of the school and trapped her. The police arrested Abu Sufian.
On the same day in Pabna, a young man trapped a girl pretending he was in love with her and raped her with the help of a cohort at Udaipur village in Sujanagar of the district. The girl, 23, filed a rape case on Sunday with the Sujanagar police station against the two youths.
Bangladesh Women Lawyers' Association vice-president Fahima Nasrin Munni, a Supreme Court lawyer, told New Age that incidents of stalking and rape were increasing because the authorities concerned were not acting according to the directives given by the High Court.
The High Court on January 26 issued a landmark judgment defining sexual harassment and identifying 11 acts as sexual offences saying it was expected to prevent growing sex crimes in workplaces, educational institutions and other public places.
The court ordered installation of a separate unit or cell or team at every police station across the country to prevent sexual harassment at private or public places such as educational institutions, workplace, transports, markets, bus stops, railway stations and parks. It ordered strict monitoring of cybercafés. The court asked the government, law enforcers and non-governmental organisations not to use the phrase 'eve teasing' for stalking or sexual harassment, observing that the use of the phrase 'eve teasing' makes the offence less grievous.
The police till date have taken no initiatives to comply with an order of the High Court that requires every police station to form a separate team of officers to deal with complaints of sexual harassment.
Inspector general of police Hasan Mahmud Khandker earlier told New Age that no police station had set up a separate cell or team to deal with complaints of stalking, but said, 'We give this issue particular importance as it is part of the court's directives.'
The government has also failed to amend the Nari-O-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain 2000 which the court ordered it to do 'on an urgent basis', incorporating a new definition of sexual harassment, and also to take 'immediate steps' to enact laws for protection of the victims and witnesses of sexual harassment.
Secretary of Odhikar Adilur Rahman Khan said that impunity, particularly influence of politics and money and corrupt practices of police in favour of stalkers were largely to blame for growing sex crimes.
Both Fahima Nasrin and Adilur Rahman suggested a massive social awareness campaign and implementation of the High Court order.
Human rights activist Sigma Huda said that patriarchal mindset, lax enforcement of laws and a number of social factors including fear of further harassment stood in the way of effectively curbing sex crimes.
Mobile courts have been empowered to prosecute people accused of sexual harassment of women but the step has done little to curb incidents of sexual harassment and stalking of women.
The mobile courts have been operating since November last year, and sentencing offenders almost every day in different parts of the country. In the latest incident reported on Tuesday, a mobile court in Jamalpur of Pabna sentenced a stalker to six months of imprisonment for sexually harassing a schoolgirl in Bakshiganj upazila.
The convict was identified as Rashed,25, of village Nilokkhia in Bakshiganj. According to police, Rashed used to harass the girl on her way to school and back home.
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