Impact of Eve Teasing in the Society of Bangladesh

Impact of Eve teasing in the society of Bangladesh: By: S. khan joy Email: [email protected] com Now Eve teasing is one of the main threats for Bangladesh because it is destroying the social balance. Eve teasing might seem harmless ‘fun’ to some, but gets the nerve of the victims. The severe impact of eve teasing is taking away the lives of young girls as Bangladesh has witnessed recently.
Based on empirical study (2008) the Hunger Project has identified some impacts of eve teasing in the society of 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. ) Hindered development: Eve teasing contributes to maintaining the low status of women. It also hinders women in participating in the formal employment sector. As nearly half of the population of the country are women, for the economic development of the country their participation in employment is a must. d) Eve teasing” leads to young woman’s suicide in Bangladesh: RVEYING the newspapers over the last few months we must have to be 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. Over the last four months, as reported in The Daily Star, fourteen girls, due to repression of stalkers, opted for ultimate destiny of their lives finding no other alternatives. Apart from suicide, one statistics has revealed that during January-July 2008 period only, about 13,000 women became victims of eve teasing of different forms across the country.

This figure counted only the reported cases. Many occurrences remain unreported as the majority of the victims of eve teasing prefer to ignore this out of fear or not to be ‘disgraced’ or part of a social ‘gossip’. The situation has become so alarming that, in general, it can be argued that at present no girl has been spared from being a victim of eve teasing in one form or another.