Impact of satellite television

Eve-teasing recently has become the burning issue for the country because of its adverse effects on women, especially to the teenage girls. Although the term 'eve teasing' originated from India, in recent times, this vice has spread over all the South Asian sub-continent.  
It usually occurs in public places, public transports and on the streets. The teasers wait in groups in a corner of a street and as soon as girls walk past them, they start passing bad remarks, utter dirty jokes, start whistling and burst into uncivilised laughter. Some feminist writers claim this behavior is a kind of 'little rape' (Bilkis Shahana, 2013).
Eve teasing was not that acute in Bangladesh till 1980s. However, from 1980s, when girls and women, especially at rural areas started going out for education and employment on a large scale, eve teasing started to pollute our social fabric (Kabir M. Anwarul, 2010). Now it has become one of the main threats for the society as it is destroying the social balance. The demerits of eve-teasing are very clear. Due to the brutal rise of eve-teasing in our country, parents and guardians are passing their days in great anxiety for the safety of their children. The normal lives of these girls are being hampered.
Based on an empirical study (2008) the Hunger Project has identified some impacts of eve teasing in rural Bangladesh. These are: a) Curtailed education: Sexual harassment increases girls' drop-out rate from school. Parents concerned about their daughter's honour or safety sometimes keep their daughters home and/or marry them off at an early age. b) Early marriage: Girls who are teased or harassed are also pushed into marriage, before they are physically or mentally prepared. c) Hindered development: Eve teasing contributes to maintaining the low status of women. It also hinders women in participating in the formal employment sector. Apart from these, not only the victim girl may lose his mental balance, the severe impact of eve teasing is taking away the lives of young girls as Bangladesh has witnessed recently. There has been no denying the fact is family, society and of course the country have greatly affected by eve teasing.
Going through the newspapers over the last few months we all must have been shocked realising the unprecedented rate of suicide cases among the young girls due to eve teasing. As reported in the newspapers in the recent past Nurina, Elora, Simi, Trisha, Tonni, Swapna, Tithi, Rumi committed suicide to escape the cruelty of stalkers' repression. Various reports and research findings show that at least several dozens of girls committed suicide in the last five years and they did so to get a respite from incessant teasing and bullying by male youths. No sooner had the death of a Natore college teacher Mizanur Rahman been confirmed, the murder of Chanpa Rani Bhowmik in Faridpur made headlines in the national dailies. And there was more. Only four days into the death of Chanpa Rani, another stalker assaulted three persons of a family in Naogaon, leaving one of them critically injured.
Thus people who had firmly stood against stalking were either stifled forever or left miserably to suffer. In addition to the fresh attacks on the protesters mentioned above, in the last nine months, at least 25 women killed themselves to escape the horror of abuse, while nine men lost their lives for standing up against stalkers, says a report of rights group Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK).
Social psychologists identified indecent clothing as one of the vital factors that leading rapid growth of ever teasing. They opine that most of the victims are women or girls who fail to wear very modest dress. On the contrary, those wearing decent dress are not found to be teased as usual. The previous two sentences imply that not only the evil doer youths, but also the women wearing indecorous dress are equally responsible for it.
Furthermore, girl's seductive dress or make-ups allure eve teasers is admitted by the Indian police where girls are facing enormous eve teasing problem. They reported the media that, one of the reasons behind the increase in incidents of eve-teasing is short dresses and short skirts worn by women. The reason why, decent dressing is an issue again for Magadh Mahila College students. Magadh Mahila College, a prominent institution under Patna University, has issued fresh diktat asking the girls to wear 'decent' clothes. The college administration has banned sleeveless dress or figure-hugging T-shirts on tight jeans. The authorities feel that such dresses spur eve-teasing. Apart from this, some of the boy students of the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda took up the issue of dress code for girl students, blaming them for dressing in an indecent manner, which resulted in their being incited to eve-tease and molest them (vide news item in The Hindu of July 27, 2000).
Needless to say that, there is a close relationship between satellite television channels and indecent clothing as now being seen as a means of cultural assault on developing countries by Western nations. At present young generation is gradually exposed to Western values and modes of life. They are blindly following their dresses an manners - their way of life.  A recent study (Helal, 2013) shows that 16 per cent respondents admitted that, the models in these television channels are presented in indecorous attires. Especially, girls wear very short dresses to show their body by which the males can be easily attracted. Our young girls, even middle aged women, now a days, are influence by these dresses that instigate eve teasing.
The study also shows that, eve teasing is also promoted by Hindi drama serials which are very popular to the people of all ages in our country. Boys are teasing girls and working women in the streets, colleges even in the buses and trains. To some extent, girls are also teasing boys. Viewers of all ages especially our young generation see and enjoy it very much. So, satellite television channels are responsible for eve teasing as well.
In order to get rid from this social curse, people should be conscious about the core causes of eve teasing. Well-mannered dresses should be encouraged everywhere. Especially, parents should play a pioneering role in this regard. They can accustom their children to wear decent dresses at home and outside. Educational institutions should introduce well-mannered dress codes. In addition, the programmes aired in satellite channels should be avoided where models are presented with indecorous dresses as well as those which do not go with our culture.

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The writer is a Senior Lecturer at Social Work Centre for General Education, Northern University Bangladesh.
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