Causes and Consequences of Eve-teasing in Urban Bangladesh: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The term Eve-teasing refers to the harassment or molestation of women by men. In Bangladesh working women, house wives and even aged women are subjected to eve teasing, while, school and college going girls and female garment worker top the list of victims of eve- teasing. Unfortunately little systematic attempts have been made to investigate the inner causes and consequences of ever increasing eve-teasing problem. Like all other parts of Bangladesh this problem exists in Sylhet. But no research was conducted on eve-teasing before this investigation. Given this background the researcher was encouraged to explore the causes and psycho-social impact of eve-teasing on adolescent girls in Sylhet city by applying the technique of quantitative method. The study findings suggest that this problem is rooted in different cultural and social factors like patriarchic social system, male’s common perceptions on women, conservative family norms, unemployment and illiteracy, cultural and economic globalization, lack of awareness among women and girls, limitations in enforcing laws etc. After being teased girls and women experience serious social, cultural and psychological difficulties and the study realized it as one of the significant causes for social isolation and self-rejection among girls. Victims suggested multiple steps to minimize this social evil that can be undertaken both by the Government and the social institutions.

Key Words: Eve-teasing, Urban, Bangladesh, Cause and Consequence

Introduction

Eve-teasing is emerging as a widespread burning issue throughout the country at present. Though “Eve-teasing” the seemingly innocuous term used to describe street harassment in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries, it is one of the most prevalent and brutal forms of sexual harassment. The term Eve-teasing refers to the harassment or molestation of women by men (Barrett, 2006). Apart from societal deviation of norms, sexual harassment, one of the inherent pathologies of sexual behavior, is probably the most inexplicable and ill identified offences of all. Under the grab of eve teasing, sexual harassment is rampant in public places. The harmless term “teasing” masks the underlining violence against women (Jamshedji-Neogi et al., 2003).

Eve-teasing not as old as eve, but it certainly existed down the centuries. Most civilized societies have taken cognizance of it and have tried to curtail it in different ways. Although the term “eve teasing” originates from Indian society, in recent times, this vice has spread over all the sub-continental countries. Perhaps, India's scenario in this context is the worst and so it has initiated a number of steps to combat this social menace. Eve-teasing was not that acute a problem in Bangladesh till 1980s. However, from 1980s, when girls and women, especially at rural areas started going out for education and employment at a large scale, eve-teasing took a tight grip on our society (The Daily Star, 10th July, 2010).

Eve-teasing is a rampant social evil and a complex problem. From television screen to the nearby streets, we are almost used to seeing girls subjected to teasing. This truth starts at the face of a girl much before she reaches adolescence. Everyday women come across some form of eve-teasing.  It does not depend on how the woman looks, what she wears or where she goes. In Bangladesh, working women, house wives, and even aged women are subjected to eve teasing, while school and college going girls and female garment worker top the list of victims of eve- teasing. Adolescent girls are some of the main victims of eve-teasing. Whistling, catcalling, touching or groping, flashing, blowing kisses, stalking, sexual gesturing or unsolicited photography are all instances of eve-teasing suffered by all sorts of women. Usually the perpetrator of eve-teasing is male. Teasing by female is exceptional. Young men, especially when associated with friends are mainly responsible for eve-teasing. Rowdy boy, political cadre, middle aged person, even old people are also responsible for eve-teasing. According to Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA, 2008), teenage boys, rickshaw pullers, bus drivers, street vendors, traffic police and often supervisor or colleagues of the working women had all been cited as “Eve-teasers.”

Eve-teasing occurs in urban areas as well as in rural areas in South Asia and elsewhere although its name varies from country to country, region to region. It is happen almost everywhere in Bangladesh. It is all pervasive—beaches, roads, parks, cinema halls, public transports and sadly even in educational institutions. Evening and afternoon are the main times for eve-teasing.

In Bangladesh there are the various reasons of eve-teasing, such as patriarchal social system, lack of education, negative attitudes toward women, unemployment, abuse of political power, etc. Eve-teasing is a deplorable act that injects shame, fear, disgust and helplessness in the victim. Being subjected to many eve-teasing is an inseparable part of every girl’s life causing much avoidable mental agony to her. This adversely affects her family and her friends (www.banwasi.com). It is a typical social crime and destroys the victim both physically and mentally, and often results in abduction, rape, murder or even forced suicide. In Bangladesh’s patriarchal social system, attempts are sometimes made to give it a romantic contour, but recent unfortunate events have opened up our eyes to the grim reality of the impact of eve-teasing. In 2002, the death of Simi Banu of Dhaka, Trisha of Gaibandha district, in 2010 the death of Reshma of Bogra district, Pinky of Dhaka, Chand Moni of Kishorganj, Ruma of Munsheganj, Elora of Dhaka, Nurina of Gaibandha district, etc. brought the issue into limelight. They were forced to commit suicide to get a respite from incessant teasing by some local boys. Apart from incidents of sporadic yet acute consequences, eve-teasing causes different unpleasant situations to women at individual and social levels. There can be found numerous instances where due to teasing, girls were forced to discontinue their education, working women to quit their job. As a result, parents feel insecure, and early marriage takes its tool. For example, in 2006, Tonni was one such victim who had been forced to stop going to school to escape from unbearable physical and mental humiliation caused by eve-teasing.

Bangladesh was born out from conflict nearly 40 years ago. However, there is no figure available on how many women were victims of eve-teasing in Bangladesh. According to BNWLA (2010), 91% women have become the victims of eve-teasing at some stages of life. Especially 87% girls between 10 to 18 years of age become victims of this kind of harassment. On the basis of different media information, BNWLA presented a report. According to this report the number of victims of eve-teasing were 24 girls in 2006, 20 girls in 2007, 39 girls in 2008, 54 girls in 2009 and 52 girls in 2010 (till May). During this times 40 girls committed suicide owing to social pressures, shame, daily harassment. In addition, a father and a daughter also committed suicide jointly (Ain o Salish Kendra, 2010). While protecting eve-teasing, 3 men were killed and 4 men were harassed by eve-teaser during 1st January, 2010 to 16th may, 2010 (ASK, 2010). 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 (The Daily Star, 11th July, 2010). 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 eve-teasing in many cases can be identified as the beginning of violence against women. But in Bangladesh, there is no specific law against eve-teasing. The issue was not duly taken into account during the amendment of the “Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act” in 2003. Under the Bangladesh law, there are provisions of punishment to the offences like “motivated physical or verbal gestures or showing of obscene materials.” However, the penalty to such act is light compared to this serious consequence it brings about. Recently, government has taken some initiatives to prevent eve-teasing. Teasing the adolescent girls is increasing sharply day by day. Due to this trouble, sometimes girls and women who experiences such reality, blame themselves and become depressed as well as  suffer from inferiority complex due to her biological construction as a girl or woman. Unfortunately, little systematic attempts have been made to investigate the inner causes and consequences of ever increasing eve-teasing problem. Although the government has taken some legal initiatives to prohibit this evil practice, it has limited impact as the causes of eve-teasing are not properly identified through intensive research which is significant to take appropriate actions against this problem. Like all other parts of Bangladesh, this problem is exists in Sylhet. But no research was conducted about eve-teasing before this investigation. Given this background the researcher was encouraged to unveil the issue through systematic investigation and conducted an intensive study on this problem. This article is the outcome of that research.

Study Objectives

The general objective of this study was to understand the causes and psycho-social impacts of eve-teasing on adolescent girls in Sylhet city. In order to achieve the goal, the researchers set the following specific objectives:
§To understand the nature, causes and trends of eve teasing;
§To know the social and psychological effects of eve teasing on adolescent girls; and
§To find out some recommendations to individual level, family level, non government level as                                     well as government policy level to prevent eve-teasing.

Methodology

This study is explorative in nature. In order to achieve the overall objectives of the research, mainly quantitative and qualitative methods have been applied for data collection. To collect data, researcher has used multiple techniques i.e. interview, case study, and document analysis. It is evident from existing literatures that the school going girls who are in the age group between twelve to eighteen frequently experience eve-teasing. Thus, the study considered them as the source of primary data. The study selected 65 girls purposively in a way that it can represent different sections of population including age and educational background. The research included girls who are studying between seventh to tenth grades. Three girls from each class were recruited from each selected schools. As the issue was sensitive and girls have a tendency to avoid sharing the matter to any stranger, the research team recruited the participants based on their personal interest. These participants were selected from five schools. Among these schools, three had co-education. These schools were selected purposively from all secondary and lower secondary schools in Sylhet city corporation area excluding boy’s schools. Among 65 girls, five was (5) selected purposively for case study based on the severity of their personal experience as prays of eve-teasing. Researchers acted as data collector from the participants. As a female it was an extra advantage for researcher to document a sensitive issue directly from victims who were also females. Interview protocol was pre-tested and carefully constructed so that it did not have any physical, psychological and social affects against the participants. During interviews the researcher was careful so that ethical obligations of the research are maintained properly.

Major Findings

The study explains different dimensions of eve-teasing and its causes and consequences from primary data gathered from girls students all of whom were adolescence and had both direct and indirect experience of being victims of eve-teasing. The major findings of the study are presented here following the objectives of the research.

Demographic Information of the Respondents:
Age structure, education, family members, pattern of the family, relationship with the family members and school related aspects of the respondents have been reflected in this section

There are various forms of eve teasing like verbal teasing, nonverbal teasing, and physical teasing. Here in our study, we found majority respondents (82.69%) have been teased verbally when they went outside their home. They were teased by suggestive comments, whistling, etc. Respondents were also teased by physical teasing when they went to market, to school or on the public transport during travelling from one place to another. They frequently undergo unnecessary touching, pushing, pinching on any part of their body, and blocking, etc. Respondents have given their opinions that they were teased by nonverbal teasing also. These were suggestive gesture or look, licking lips, staring or leering, etc. on the way to go to schools, markets, parks, and cinema halls. In our study, we found 19.23% and 15.38% respondents have been teased physically and nonverbally, respectively.  Guptaa, Nehaa (2000) stated that usually girls have been teased in three forms. These are verbal teasing, nonverbal teasing, and physical teasing.

Causes of Eve-teasing:

Eve-teasing is a complex social evil which is rooted in various social, cultural norms and values. As well as industrialization and modernization, globalization contributed in Bangladeshi society and few of those are found to be responsible for the increased rate of this problem.

Patriarchal Social System and Boys’ Mental Construction:
In any patriarchal social system, eve-teasing is usually considered as a usual behavior of young male. Almost all of the respondents viewed that this issue is ignored within social system. Society views it as part of behavior of a male. These males, especially young boys, sometimes commit this behavior to show their heroism. This problem starts with the way boys are indoctrinated to develop an attitude towards girls. Respondents reported that boys thought a girl is an object with weakness and vulnerability. Not allowing boys to get a greater understanding of the female gender, lack of sex education, and harsh punishments for harmless pranks develop in many adolescent boys a feeling of suppressed anger and resentment towards girls. Compounded to that is the mistaken version that every boy has to be a “macho” man and a girl is a conquest to prove his manhood. Respondents said that when these boys do not get attention from girls, they develop the tendency to tease them; initially from a distance, and then as they grow older, getting closer and closer to them. It does not depend on how the girl looks, what she wears, or where she goes.

Conservative Family and Social Norms:
Religion has a dominant role in social constructions. Many of Bangladeshi values are generated from religious faiths. As a Muslim dominant society, large number of Bangladeshi women follows religious values and sometimes they are labeled as conservatives. Sylhet is not an exception and a portion of people in this region hold up some conservative and extremely restricted mentality and also tend to be overly pedantic on sexuality and thus cannot interact with women freely. According to respondents, this behavior creates strong curiosity towards girls among boys. A large number of respondents noticed that due to these realities women and girls are frequently disturbed in public places, streets, and workplaces. Due to not having socially approved ways to interact with girls freely, boys have misconception about girls and sometimes this realty influences a boy to tease a girl as means of expressing himself in front of a girl, the respondents added.

Illiteracy and Unemployment:

The study established a good relationship among illiteracy, unemployment, and eve-teasing. According to respondents, as illiteracy restricts anybody to enter into job market, illiterate people are unemployed at large number. Because of having unlimited leisure hours, many boys engage in eve-teasing as a way of spending and enjoying their leisure. 96.67 percent respondents point out that many young men are frustrated for unemployment. So, they usually pass their times gathering together in front of school and tease the girls to have some fun.

Literacy develops responsibility, decency, and modesty among people. Though the study failed to calculate the ratio of literate and illiterate among the perpetrators, it documented that an illiterate person had poor idea how to respect the female and thus they were involved in this crime at large number than educated.

Influence of Cultural and Economic Globalization:
There are debates on the affects of economic and cultural globalization in Bangladesh. However, there is a consensus that this affects are not positive always. Theoretically and materially media is considered as one of the significant agents of socialization. People learn behavior, values and norms from media. Just after the introduction of satellite television channel broadcasting in 1990s we observe a remarkable influence of foreign culture in our social and cultural life.  Few people especially young generation are influenced by the characters of different dramas and cinemas.  Particularly Indian movies and cinemas have influenced to shape few young people’s behavior. Those cinemas usually project some major characters that influence boys to tease girls for showing their heroism as the heroes of Hindi film attract heroines like that way. Majority (85 %) of the respondents opined that western media and sky culture was responsible for increasing eve-teasing in recent times. Respondents argued that a good number of people lived in nuclear family, where the parents were busy with earning activates and reasonably did not get much time for orienting their children about our own social values and norms. They also dispossess them from care and affection which make them little bit aggressive. Many of these kids prefer to spend their leisure by watching television and try to become the heroes of particular movies which are not consistent with real social life. Innumerable movies show that eve-teasing eventually “wins” a girl's attention. Boys are influenced by this kind of movies very much and get involved with eve-teasing when they reach adolescent period. According to few respondents, sometimes girls’ garbing works as a source of being teased and it is also the influence of western media.

Globalization has created easy access in various materials and people are becoming materialistic. As luxuries are available in local market, people may have attraction upon it and naturally try to own as per their capacity. Rapid use of cell phone among young generation is this kind of effect. Though this advanced technology makes people’s life easy, few made people’s life difficult by its abusive use. Majority respondents (98.33 percent) of this study reported that they had been teased over mobile phones. Some respondents reported that perpetrator threatened them over mobile phone and tried to intimidate the girl and her family members. Some respondents also said that they were harassed through Facebook in different ways. At last, they were bounded to stop using Facebook for this problem.

Social Education as Girl:

One of the causes which lead to this unacceptable behavior of the teasers is silence of victim and ignorance of the mass people. 96.67 percent of the respondents thought that their personality as decent, silent and non-complaining worked as significant reason for being teased. They felt that their protesting role could have some positive effects in this regard. Respondents viewed this behavior as socially constructed. Society expects that girls should be docile, decent and tolerant, and of course it is because of their vulnerability. Family socializes a girl as per the expectation of the society and naturally she losses her bravery to protest any injustice and abusive behavior against her. As society labels a girl as vulnerable, parents suggest their daughter to avoid and not to protest against eve-teasing. Protest against this evil behavior sometimes generates other problems like threat, physical and social harm, many respondents viewed. Thus the perpetrators easily can continue their behavior if their parents do not prohibit them from this kind of activity.

Weak Law and Enforcement:

It is fortunate that few of the perpetrators are being punished by the law and order agency. Awareness on this issue is increased also due to massive awareness campaign mainly by Medias. However, 98.33 percent of the respondents opined that the members of law and order agency had lack of awareness and they did not take quick action against perpetrators. On the other hand, they also thought there were so many loopholes and farces in the law that the perpetrators seldom got punished.

Impacts of Eve-teasing on Adolescent Girls:

Risks on Sharing the Feeling and Information of Eve-teasing (The Trauma of Eve-teasing)
Researcher found that the experiences of eve-teasing were very traumatic and can leave deep psychological scares which can be hard to heal. Respondents of this study shared that they felt uncomfortable, insecure, less dignified, inferior, humiliated, and angry, degraded, scared, traumatized and loathing when they had been teased. 48.38 percent of the respondents said that they felt angry when they were teased, 28.85 percent mentioned that they felt humiliated, 26.92 percent told that they felt scared. Almost same percentage of the respondents felt traumatized and loathing after being teased by eve-teasers. Teasing causes by the girls’ disorder of mind. Some respondents develop a sense of disbelieve and humiliation towards men. On the other hand, sometimes respondents thought that they should confront this problem. But they did not do it, because their family members, close relatives, friends or neighbors did not want to confront this problem at such young age, and forced to pull back as they thought it would destroy the reputation of the family members as well as the girl.

Eve-teasing is a personal and sensitive issue and most of the victims are hesitant to come forward and not interested to say that something happened to them. The girls are always made to feel that it is because of their fault, and that is why the issue often becomes a “taboo.” This study found 61.54 percent respondents who shared their experience of teasing with their family members, mainly with mother. Few of them shared this experience with their fathers, brothers, sisters and even their domestic workers also. They got both positive and negative reactions from them which created a great dilemma among the respondents.  They were in great depression at the time when it was not possible to share the experience with family members as the family environment was not so friendly to them.

The Reaction of Family Members after Being Informed about Eve-teasing:
The research observed that the family norms and internal culture heavily influenced in showing reaction after learning the information that their daughters were teased. Among the respondents, 50 percent reported that their family members showed sympathy and suggested ways them how to encounter or get rid of that evil behavior. About one third of the respondents’ families raised their voices and took action to protest the situation. But some respondents said that they did not want to report about such incidents unless it became very serious. Girls said that though parents did try to make an effort when incidents of eve-teasing are reported to them; at the same time they blamed their girls for such happening and wondered and why the girls could not distance themselves technically from that kind of behavior. In some cases, family members suggested their girls to avoid and ignore the incidence as it would not bring any remedy if they went for action; rather it might increase and could create insecurity. However, the varieties of reaction have some connection with the social and economic position of the girl’s family, the study observed. Karim (2007) conducted a study which revealed the same result about sharing feelings with family.

The Trauma of Respondents who could not talk to Their Family Members:
The family environment was not friendly for some of the respondents who dared not say anything about eve- teasing to any of their family members. In our conservative society, eve-teasing incorporates some serious issues like reputation of a girl and her family. Out of fear of loss of their reputation some of the respondents did not let anybody know anything about the humiliation they were subjected to. These respondents also figured out that informing their parents of such occurrences would not bring about any positive results for them, rather their parents would be angry with them and might even ask them to quit going out. In such cases, their parents might even decide to terminate their education. The concerned respondents, who never talked about eve-teasing with anyone, became panic-stricken and plunged into depression. Only a few of the respondents said that they saw eve-teasing as a usual characteristic of men and preferred not to consider it as a problem.

The Feeling of Respondents after Being Reproached by the Family Members:
From the study, it was found that families of the respondents who had a lower social status were more inclined to hold the concerned victims responsible for being subjected to eve-teasing. After being informed of eve- teasing, these parents usually reproached their daughters for being in such trouble and advised them to avoid the teasers. From the study it was also found that some parents believed that if girls wore veils and maintained hijab according to Islamic traditions, and then the incidents of eve-teasing would occur less frequently. The victims, whose family members acted like this, felt all the more insecure, scared and humiliated as they did not get any support from their families and their families never attempted to take any action to save the victims from such dishonor. These victims were also frustrated by the fact that they were born as females. Such depression hampered normal course of their lives not to mention their studies. Sometimes they felt so insecure that they were scared to go out of doors.

Suicidal Tendency among the Victims:
From electronic and printing media we learnt that many girls had committed suicide after the incidence of eve-teasing. The number might be higher than those are reported as many people hide the cause of this kind of deaths. According to respondents as both family and society try to ignore the incidence and victims barely get any space where they can get sympathy or remedy; they become frustrated and if the incidence become regular and severe they may have tendency to get self-rejection from life. Some of our respondents shared feelings that when they got negative response from their family after being teased, they made plan to commit suicide. Srabonti (2010) explored same findings in her study.

Restrictions Imposed upon the Victims after Being Teased:
From the study it was found that due to conservative mental set up of the parents, they tend to protect their daughters from all kinds of ill reputations as future life and well-being of a girl is closely linked to her reputation. Therefore, whenever these parents find out that their daughters’ reputation is at stake, they put restrictions on their daughters’ activities and movements, thinking that it would save their reputation. Twenty six (70.27%) of the respondents said that after being informed of eve-teasing, their parents would not let them go out alone and 15 (40.54%) of the respondents said that their parents prohibited them from going out to shop. They were also stopped from attending coaching classes, visiting a friend’s house and even receiving phone calls. They were further forced to wear heavy veils whenever they were allowed to go out.

Eve-teasing Increase Drop-out and Early Marriage:
Eve-teasing increases girl’s dropout from school in Sylhet. Education is an inalienable right guaranteed under the Convention on the Rights of the Child in which Bangladesh is a signatory. Education for the girls is the key to improving the standard of living of society. Anything that results in girls not being educated is a disaster for the society. However, different studies suggest that drop-out rate among girls’ increases with the increase of age and other causes; insecurity of girls expedites this rate. 85% respondents said that eve-teasing is the greatest constraint in smooth schooling among girls. Naturally parents are concerned about their daughter’s honor, safety, and when they observe that their girl’s safety is under threat by eve-teaser, they make alternative thinking and prefer to stop education of their girls and confine them inside the home. Some respondents said they did not go to school to attend the class; they just went to school on particular days when examination was held. Same result was found from the case study also.

Girls harassed by eve-teasing are also pushed into the process of early marriage. Most of our respondents identify eve-teasing as one of the reasons for early marriage. Due to this problem few parents are bound to keep their daughters at home and are compelled to arrange marriage for her as part of her security. In Syhet city corporation area this reality is not uncommon, respondents viewed. Sometimes, local older people and ward commissioner warn the suspected teasers or penalize them with a few amount of money. But after a few days the teaser starts disturbing the girls again sometimes even more seriously than before. Moreover, they don’t abide by anyone, not even their parents so he can do any harm to the victim. In this circumstance, the parents of the victim find marriage as a logical and safe way to protect their girls and their family’s dignity. By this way many adolescent bright future ended with the marriage at very early stage of life. The same result also found in another study done by Weisfeld-Adams (2008).

Steps Undertaken by the Victim after Being Teased:
In this study, the researcher found the girls understood that the current situation of eve-teasing was far more than just making fun. It has turned into a form of harassment. They felt if they stood together they could stop it. But most of the times they did not take steps and did not seek help from others because of the fear of insecurity and the fear of destroying the reputation of the family. Among the 52 victims who were the respondents of this study, 25 tolerated this behavior silently. But some brave and conscious girls took steps after getting teased. 27 respondents noticed that they had taken steps immediately after getting teased.16 respondents protested the occurrence verbally, only 1 respondent hit the teaser and 1 respondent informed the police after getting teased. Surprisingly, most of the time they could not get helps from others during eve-teasing. Only few girls got support from people around. There are some common steps usually undertaken by girls to get rid of eve-teasing. Researcher found 78.33 percent respondents avoid going outside alone, 53.33 percent avoid going outside after dark and sometimes they avoid certain public spaces and spots which were risky to them. 30 percent respondents were veils or head scarf as technique for avoiding eve teasing.  

The Role of Victim’s Family Members in Case of Prevention of Eve-teasing:
The respondents of the study said that parents in our society should have indiscriminate attitude towards both their male and female children and treat them equally. The respondents further emphasized that parents should try to raise their male children in such a way that the boys would develop a sense of respect for women and thus would not indulge in activities like eve-teasing when they grow up. Some of the respondents said that there should be a friendly and liberal environment in the family where the girls may share any of their problems including incidents of eve-teasing. Furthermore, they added that parents should trust their daughters and never blame the victims for being teased but rather sympathize with the victims and support them in such distressful situations.

Steps to be undertaken by the School Authority to Prevent Eve-teasing:
School authority, especially teachers can play significant role in preventing eve teasing. Teachers’ positive attitude towards gender can set good example before the students, especially can inspire young boys to be more respectful towards girls and female in general.  A study of Action Aid Bangladesh found this kind of behavior of teacher as positive in protesting eve-teasing. Respondent recommended that every educational institution launch a focal point where the victim could share her teasing experience immediately to get help from the school authority immediately after the incidence. Besides that, the respondents felt the importance of counseling role for reducing psychological stress of the victim and recommended that every institution should introduce counselor to enable the victims to share their problems. This counselor not only counsels the victim but also the perpetrator so that he never teases any girl again. Every institution should organize a triangulation system where students, teachers, and guardians openly discuss this problem and find out its remedy. The education institution must impose strict rules and regulations to avoid eve-teasing in the school compound. The school authority should prohibit the use of mobile phone of students in school compound. Topics emphasizing the evil effects of eve-teasing can be included in the text books of school.

The Role of the Community in Case of Prevention of Eve-teasing:
The respondents suggested that local elites may pressurize the eve-teasers to stop teasing girls in their community and local clubs and cultural organizations may undertake programs to create mass awareness against eve-teasing. They further stated that NGOs and other social organizations may arrange rallies, campaigns, seminars, symposiums on this issue which would eventually make people from all levels of the society aware of the problems created by eve-teasing.

What the State Can Do in This Regard:
The respondents and community people suggested that in addition with building awareness against eve teasing, provisions and laws against eve teasing be created to get appropriate result. Most of the men think teasing girls is a matter of fun and they are not aware that it is a punishable offence. So, state could take steps to make people aware of the laws against eve teasing with the help of media. They also suggested that proper implementation of existing law be important to prevent eve-teasing. For proper implementation of law, policy makers need to consider if there is a scope to revise the existing laws may. The magnitude of punishment and penalty should be increased logically or new laws can be formulated to ensure stricter and exemplary punishment for the perpetrators. Around 72 percent of the respondents suggested that new laws be formulated with the provisions of strong punishment and 49 percent suggested for the proper and strict implementation of existing law. Around 32 percent respondents recommended law enforcement authority should be sensitive to implement the law. Respondents suggested few indirect steps by the government like reducing illiteracy, increasing employment opportunities, and imposing ban on getting ownership of mobile phone before the age of eighteen to control eve teasing.

Two Case Studies to Understand the Psycho Social Problem of the Victims:
Case Study-1
Nipa (pseudonym) was a brilliant student of class eight and she was 14 in 2010. On the way to school, Nipa used to be teased by a boy named Anwar Mia who was a listed criminal, illiterate, and came out from a broken family. He would always disturb her by vulgar stare, persistent pressure for dating. Her father informed the matter to Anwar’s father after being informed from his daughter. But he got no result. On the evening of 25th august 2010, Anwar blocked Nipa on the way to coming back from school. He tried to kidnap her. Nipa started to shout with fear and then the culprit ran away. From then Nipa changed a lot, she left school in fear, and became inattentive in her study. Since then Nipa always kept silence, got distressed, and was always scared. Her parents were scared and finally they filed a case against Anwar Mia they were in a severely distressful situation and had a fear that there was a possibility that she might commit suicide. Thus the dream of Nipa was entirely shattered.

Case Study-2:
Lipi (pseudonym) was a student of class ten and she was 16 in 2010. She was from a rich family. Lipi was involved in a part time job at a private educational institution for gaining experiences. Rajib a student of that institution became interested to make friendship with her. She was not interested at all and tried to avoid him from the very beginning. Then the boy started to disturb her by mobile. When she kept her phone off then Rajib collected her land phone number, and threaded her family member. The boy started spreading rumor about their so called relationship. The parents of Lipi misunderstood her, became very annoyed with her, and removed her from job. Later they realized, but they couldn’t dare to do anything against that culprit in fear. The parents wanted to keep everything confidential considering their family reputation. When the situation went worse then they took help from a relative who made complaint against Rajib to school authority. Lastly the boy was forced to stop. But unfortunately the parents of Lipi immediately arranged her marriage and therefore Lipi had to stop her study.

From the above mentioned case studies it is apparent that both the cases were between the age ranges of 14-16 years. They were from nuclear family. From the two case studies we could see that in both cases, around 56.67% of the participants were found belonging to the age group of 14-16 years, and 88.33% participants came from nuclear family. The perpetrators were mostly young, and one of them came from a broken family where socialization process for him could not be expected as normal which most probably pushed him to be deviant. In the findings we see that 98.33% thought that weak law and order were also responsible for eve-teasing among young generation. Both the case studies revealed that same result indicating weak law and order.  Mobile technology has become an effective weapon for teasing girls now a day. Teasers frequently use mobile and telephone to disturb the victims. Around 98.33% respondents shared that the teasers used technology like mobile, internet, phone, etc. to tease young girls. Around 96.67% young girls shared that illiteracy and unemployment were to be blamed for indulging in eve teasing which was stated in case study also.

Almost 48.38 percent of the respondents said that they felt angry when they were teased, 28.85 percent mentioned that they felt humiliated, 26.92 percent told that they felt scared. Almost same percentage of the respondents felt traumatized and loathing after being teased by eve-teaser. Case study revealed the same truth. From quantitative analysis, it was viewed that 100% victims felt scared and humiliated after being teased and they thought of committing suicide. Sometimes case study also showed that the victim became very upset and the parents were very worried about their daughter whether she might commit suicide. Also in some cases parents and neighbor blamed the victim for teasing. The victims faced different types of barriers from family. Around 70.27% respondents said that they couldn’t go out and 40.54% victims were prohibited to go for coaching or friend’s home. Finally victim’s parents arranged marriage for their daughter in order to ensure security for her. From case study 2 it was easily assumed that the parents decided to marry off their daughter instead of studying in early age. Thus the result of quantitative data can be substantiated through the findings of the case studies in the current research.

Conclusion

Adolescents constitute 21 percent (UNICEF, 2009) of the total population of Bangladesh. Like many other developing countries, in Bangladesh also, adolescent girls are facing various problems. Among those, eve-teasing is well recognized recently as serious which has series of consequences. It is a stark reality for almost every adolescent girl in this country.  Adolescent girls face both psychological and social problems due to eve-teasing.

At present, the problem of eve-teasing is growing at an alarming rate. It is a typical social crime, where the perpetrators and victims are ordinary people in the society. It is an immoral activity against the honors, dignity, and self-respect of a girl. It hurts the adolescent girls as well as the decency of the society immensely. Incidents of eve teasing can damage the psyche of the victims. Sufferers of eve teasing feel uncomfortable, insecure, less dignified, inferior, humiliated, angry, degraded, scared, traumatized or even loathing. Unfortunately they are not able to take any action against the incident. They no longer feel inclined to trust their male friends. In most circumstances, within the strict patriarchal social system, usually girls are blamed by families as well as the society for the incidents of eve-teasing. Sometimes the victims of eve-teasing are even labeled as deviant both by the society and the family. As a result of eve-teasing, girls are forced to discontinue their studies, get married at their early age, and start a family life long before they are meant to do so. This situation is a drawback to women’s empowerment in the society.

Research on this issue is scarcely limited and thus socio-cultural matrix and its ever changing trends are still widely unveiled. That is why data on this issue is ignorable.  This limitation should be taken into consideration and intensive research on this issue should be conducted to gather the data on causes and consequences of eve teasing. In order to get good result, specific programs should be undertaken based on the findings of research.

Any sort of harassment targeted at a girl is an attack against humanity. However, there is no overnight solution to this problem unless or until the mass people are aware of the basic principles of mutual respect and human rights. Fortunately, the government has taken some steps against eve teasing recently. The term “Eve-teasing” has recently been replaced by the term “sexual harassment” in a ruling delivered by the High Court of Bangladesh. But the enacting laws and introducing policies are not enough alone to minimize this problem. There is need to raise a collective voice against this social evil and ensure spontaneous participation of people in the movement against eve- teasing. Such movement also should be supported within the boundary of political commitment and support. Students, teachers, local leaders, social activists, NGOs (Non Governmental Organization), and of course the government should work together in this connection.

(The author wanted to acknowledge Kamrun Nahar a student of Social Work department for helping in data collection during this research).

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