Sexual harassment is a pervasive issue in our society. From workplaces to university campuses and even our homes, it is indeed one of the uglier realities of our society, one that we have to rectify sooner than later.
And with that context, a new study that shows nearly 47% of women on public transport experience sexual harassment is yet another reason for us all to collectively start becoming tougher on sex offenders.
Conducted by Aachol Foundation, the study sampled 805 women aged between 13-35, and it also revealed that 61% of the participants were touched inappropriately by bus conductors under the pretext of “helping” them, while 63.4% reported that they had been subjected to one form of harassment or another while on public transport in the last six months including being bullied, with middle-aged men being the predominant harassers in almost all cases.
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This study comes at a time when statistics of sexual assault and rape are through the roof, and even those numbers are most likely under-reported, as our system does not make it easy for women to report such crimes.
We witnessed a few months ago how a member of our own law enforcement harassed a teacher out on the streets for wearing a teep on her forehead. While the offending officer was brought to justice, it is indeed a worrying notion for such attitudes to pervade our law enforcement itself -- those who we have entrusted to bring such offenders to book.
Bangladesh has made great progress when it comes to economic metrics, but clearly there is still a ton of work to be done in terms of human indicators. Every woman in our society has the right to feel safe when out in public and in general live a life with dignity.
Sexual harassment is a blight, and we need to treat it with the severity it requires.
