About three quarters or 76 per cent of the ever-married women have experienced some form of violence by their husbands in their lifetime, according to the Violence Against Women Survey 2024 released on Monday.
Key findings
- Intimate partner violence widespread
- Adolescents, marginalised groups vulnerable聽
- Non-partner violence a concern聽
- Emerging digital violence becomes a threat聽
- Culture of silence, limited access to justice聽
- Economic burden significant
Conducted jointly by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and the United Nations Population Fund, the survey found that 48.7 per cent of the ever-married women reported suffering one type of violence like physical, sexual, psychological, economic, and controlling behaviour over the past 12 months of the survey period.
For the first time, the survey reveals the growing threat of some critical forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, with 8.3 per cent of the women experiencing unwanted sexual communications, sexual blackmail or image-based abuse or technology-facilitated controlling behaviour in their lifetime.
These forms of violence were notably higher among younger, urban, and digitally connected women, implying a new frontier for prevention and response efforts, said the survey conducted by interviewing 27,476 women out of a target sample of 28,800 ones across all eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh.
The survey also said that adolescent girls aged 15-19 faced disproportionately high rates of recent violence, underscoring their unique vulnerability. .
A previous survey on the same issue, conducted in 2015, had revealed that almost two-thirds or 72.6 per cent of the ever-married women experienced one or more forms of violence by their husband at least once in their lifetime, and 54.7 per cent experienced violence during the past 12 months.
Bangladesh Mahila Parishad general secretary Maleka Banu said that growing awareness among women at almost all levels of society and their challenges against the patriarchal system led to the rising trend of violence against women by husbands.
The latest survey of violence against women said that controlling behaviour was the most common form, affecting 67.6 per cent of the women surveyed.
Nearly half of the women or around 47.3 per cent have experienced physical violence in their lifetime.
About 29.0 per cent of the women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime, with higher rates in Barishal, slums, disaster-prone areas, poorer households, less educated women, and those with financial difficulties.
About 37.4 per cent of the women have faced emotional violence in their lifetime and around 19.6 per cent of the women have experienced economic violence in their lifetime.
The concept of male domination in society should be eliminated, said the BMP general secretary.聽聽
Nur Khan, former executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra, a rights body, blames volatilities in social, financial, political matters for the growing trend of violence against women by husband affecting children.
Without checking financial and political volatilities violence against women cannot be checked, said Nur Khan.
Rights activists said that the trend ahead of the country鈥檚 graduation from the least developed country bloc in the next year was not good and contrary to the sustainable development goals.
Out of the SDG 169 targets, one calls for the elimination of all forms of violence against all women and girls in both public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.
Another SDG target indicated that the proportion of women and girls aged 15 years and older were subjected to sexual violence by persons other than an intimate partner in the previous 12 months.聽聽
Beyond intimate relationships, 15.0 per cent of the women experienced physical violence from a non-partner and 3.7 per cent of the women in the past 12 months, showed the latest survey.
For sexual violence, the corresponding figures were 2.2 per cent and 0.5 per cent respectively.
Urban women, especially in city corporations, reported higher prevalence of non-partner physical and sexual violence in their lifetime, said the survey.
The survey found slapping and unwanted touching the most common acts of physical violence, while the most common act of sexual violence was attempted but unsuccessful forced sex.
The human cost of violence was compounded by substantial economic burdens on survivors and their families. Survivors seeking health care or taking legal action incurred approximate average treatment costs of Tk 2,512 and legal action costs averaging Tk 4,104 in the past year, said the survey.
