Around 6.6 percent boys and 15.3 percent girls of the country experience different forms of sexual harassment by their friends, relatives, teachers, and familiar persons, a study finds.
Although the incidents of harassment including rape and different penetrative and non-penetrative acts seldom come to light, the academic progresses of the abused children are badly harmed as the acts impact the victim's psychology, said Farah Deeba, an assistant professor of clinical psychology department of Dhaka University.
Presenting the keynote paper at a discussion, Deeba said the frequency of occurrence of such acts is higher in rural areas than that in urban areas. She suggested ensuring safe and sound environment for the children in their schools and houses.
Deeba prepared the keynote with the findings of a research conducted on 581 children aged 9-17 in Dhaka, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Chittagong, and Sitakunda.
The discussion titled "Sexual abuse in school children's life" was jointly organised by the Department of Clinical Psychology and National Trauma Counseling Centre at Nabab Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban of DU yesterday.
The speakers said the guardians are not conscious enough to ensure safety of their male children from sexual harassment though they are much more careful about the female ones.
The male children often fall victim to sexual harassment, as their guardians do not take it seriously to protect them against such harassment, they said.
The speakers stressed the need for raising social awareness to stop sexual harassment and ensure safety of both male and female children.
Prof Dr Harun-or-Rashid, pro-vice-chancellor of DU, and Dr Abul Hossain, project director of Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence against Women, spoke at the programme, among others, with Prof Dr Shahid Aktar, chairperson of the clinical psychological department, in the chair.
Source : The Daily Star
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