The New Nation - Internet Edition

Ruhul Motin

A question often disturbed Marium, 28 of Khanpur in Bochaganj upazila, Dinajpur: what's wrong for housewives going outside to attend arbitration if there is no restriction on them working in the field? One day, she told her in-laws, 'it's unjust to raise the excuse of "housewife" when participation in an arbitration comes.'

She was able to convince her in-laws and overcome the hurdles she faced from her family at the initial stage in becoming a member of the Salish (Arbitration) Committee.

'When we started participating in arbitration, we observed that existing community leaders or elected representatives were not welcoming our presence,' said Chameli Rani Das, 50, another member of the committee from Purba Barsha and added, 'the mind-set-up was such that they did not want to see our presence in meetings, raising voices on issues, contributing to arbitration process and getting a position in society. But, at the same time, they could not deny our presence due to the circumstances.'

At first, meetings were held with the general people, mostly marginalized sections, like day labourers and poor housewives to get their opinion on prevention of violence against women as well as dowry and early marriage in the community. Participants of the meeting nominated forum members in every village.

From the beginning, women folk of the community showed huge interest in the issue as it influenced their everyday life,' said Marium and carried on, 'the suffering of rural women encouraged me to be a member of the committee.'

Violence against Women (VAW) in Bangladesh is high due to various reasons. According to the State of the World Population Report released by UNFPA, about 47 per cent of married women are victims of violent acts by their husbands. Another report by ICDDR'B shows 14 per cent of maternal deaths in Bangladesh results from physical or emotional abuse, including homicide and suicide.

In 2000, a study on 66 cases of VAW in Dinajpur district found that half of the respondents had endured violence from their husbands during pregnancy and 30-40 per cent of them had to be admitted to the local hospital.

The UN Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was ratified by Bangladesh in 1984 and adopted as a National Policy for the Advancement of Women (NPAW) in 1997 to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women by empowering them as equal partners in development. Significant changes have been made to the policy in 2004, which now includes key statements related to women's property rights, inheritance rights and political empowerment.

To infuse momentum in activities, the committee meets bi-monthly. If situation demands, committee members meet more than once. 'In emergency, we meet instantly,' said Marium.

The change in the status of women of Bhochaganj upazila, Dinajpur did not happen in a day. Women of the impoverished area always understood their deprivation and obstacles, but had no way of breaching the patriarchic social system.

The deep-rooted problem, however, started to ease when CARE Bangladesh's Partnership for Healthy Life (PHL) started working there. In 2006, the PHL program phased out and another CARE program 'Promoting Rights of the Disadvantaged by Preventing Violence against Women (PROTIRODH)' began working on almost the same issue.

PROTIRODH, a three-year (January 2007-December 2009) project focuses on reducing violence against women and reinforcing fulfilment of women's rights in rural Dinajpur.

Under the same project rights of sex workers is addressed in Dhaka, Khulna and Tangail districts. Initially, the project set target to raise awareness among 276,880 people including 21,000 survivors of violence.

Awareness among community members, law enforcers, clients of sex workers, spouses and partners and local authorities will be raised through advocacy program to make the impact from the intervention sustainable.

Humaira Aziz, Empowerment coordinator of CARE Bangladesh and supervisor of the project says, the means will be community mobilisation, awareness raising and capacity building, improved access to quality services, improved policy and institutional environment through better coordination between organisations to prevent and respond to VAW, and knowledge Management.

In the process of creating awareness, the project involved grassroots civil society members, including religious leaders, schoolteachers, students and elected Union Parishad representatives. In addition, male groups and folk theatre groups were formed to make the program more coordinated and sustainable.

Sohrab Hossain, a Madrasha (Islamic seminary) teacher of the area says, 'as a madrasha teacher I was involved with the committee. A section of people in society oppress women in the name of religion. But, Islam completely prohibits such behaviour. During prayers, I deliver sermons to stop violence against women, dowry and child marriage.'

Like Sohrab Hossain, religious leaders from other community, schoolteachers, local UP members, chairman and young group members are playing active roles in curbing the vicious problem.

Mohammd Azizul Huq, a Union Parishad Member of Ishania Union informed that his election pledge was that if he won he would take steps to curb violence against women.

'When CARE Bangladesh's initiative in formulating a committee on VAW was discussed, I thought that it was the right opportunity to materialize my election promise.'

Raising awareness in civil society members and community people helps salish committee members to get permission from families to attend meetings and other social work.

Mariam said that, now, her husband extended her full support. "When I am in a meeting, he manages the pending family work,' she informed. But once upon a time this husband often raised questions as to why a housewife should go out and participate in a meeting.

Elected representatives from nearby unions are often invited and they attend meetings of the Salish Committee. They also showed interest to replicate the system in their own areas to ensure social justice and curb violence against women, informed Azizul Huq.

Describing success of the program, Jannatul Mawa, Project Manager of Protirodh, says, CARE's work inflicts wide reflection in and outside the area. Government recognizes and takes the program as its own. Being motivated by CARE program, she mentioned, Uddog, a partner NGO of Manusher Jonno, has replicated this model in its working area while Nari Pokkho program has designed its program in line with this model.

'Most of all, the women now realize why their participation is essential in Salish processes and they feel that their participation is vital for creating a gender-sensitive environment in arbitration,' observed Mawa.

My family members often tortured me in the past but now they respect me. I realize how much my position has elevated in society and I feel peace for engaging in social welfare activities,' Aleya Begum, 24, a Salish Committee member, concluded.