«
»

Bangladesh drive against bullying

At least half a dozen girls have committed suicide since January due to bullying by boys, according to media reports, prompting a public outcry and strict orders from the home ministry last month for police to take action.Bangladesh has arrested more than 400 men as part of a nationwide crackdown on the bullying of schoolgirls after a spate of teenage suicides blamed on harassment, police said Wednesday.

Many of the men were arrested outside girls’ schools as police across the Muslim-majority nation of 144 million continue their month-old campaign, a police spokesman said.

“The police are investigating 558 people nationwide and have arrested 432 of these targets,” senior information officer for the Bangladesh police, Kamrul Ahsan,

“The crackdown has already led to a decline in the reported number of cases of harassment against girls,” Ahsan said, adding that police were taking “stern action” against anyone found to be involved in bullying.

The country is also tackling the “institutionalised” bullying of girls, with a police constable in the southern district of Gopalganj being suspended Monday after he was caught by villagers harassing locals.

“He had been assigned to launch the campaign in his area against harassment and teasing of schoolgirls. But he was himself found to be involved in this crime,” Ahsan said.

In the capital Dhaka, plain-clothed policemen have been stationed at top girls’ schools identified as “trouble spots” for the last month and have been given the power to arrest anyone found to be harassing female pupils.

“Bangladeshi girls get little respect in many families, and often boys grow up believing girls are not human beings but sexual objects,” said Dhaka-based psychology professor Mehtab Khanom.

The recent increase in reported bullying and teenage suicide cases reflects broader changes in Bangladeshi society as mobile phones and the Internet transform the way young people interact, she said.

Related Ways to Take Action: Powered by Social Actions

the attachments to this post:

Bangladesh institutionalised bullying of girls
Bangladesh institutionalised bullying of girls

Tags: , , ,


This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 4:01 pm and is filed under Bangladesh, Bangladesh, culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

No Comments so far.

Leave a Reply