A government survey was recently conducted on women which reveals that nearly nine out of ten husbands abuse severely their wives in Bangladesh. The survey was conducted on more than 12,600 girls across the country. It is matter of regret that about 87 per cent of the married women are abused by their cruel husbands and other members of husbands' family. They are tortured and harassed by the large families.
The survey, conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) is titled 'Violence against women survey 2011'. According to the survey, domestic violence exists in almost every household and it's a daily occurrence. Most of the married women were severely harassed by their greedy husbands. In spite of being opulent, most of the husbands created pressure and tortured physically on their wives in order to get dowry.
Even when severely injured, most of the married women don't seek help from the administration because of fear of their cruel husbands. Most of the husbands torture their wives demanding the highest dowry. Many women suffer burn injury.
Domestic violence has not yet been curbed. Most of the husbands and their family members do not perceive torture of wives as offence.
Beating wives for dowry is a punishable and criminal act. But it is matter of regret such offence is increasing by leaps and bounds in villages and towns.
According to the survey, almost one-third of the women suffered marital rape by their husbands. Almost all women were afraid of their husbands. Many of them committed suicide when they had no other way out. Domestic abuse should be brought under law.
The writer is a student in the Department of Statistics, Islamic University. [email protected]
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