Mostly ineffective, a decade on: research

Legal experts and rights activists yesterday expressed concerns over the effectiveness of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010, a decade after it was promulgated.

Implementation of the law has been very weak in most districts of the country, according to a recent study commissioned by ActionAid Bangladesh. Findings of the study were shared at a virtual roundtable yesterday. 

Prof Taslima Yasmin, associate professor of law at Dhaka University,  conducted 60 qualitative interviews -- including of 20 survivors, and a number of legal service providers, law enforcement officers and other personnel linked to domestic violence cases this year, and analysed around 90 case records for her study titled "Exploring the obstacles in accessing justice for survivors of domestic violence: How effective is the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2020".

"For example, 19 of the 20 survivors never heard of the DVPP Act, under which they could get remedy for violent incidents," said Prof Taslima, while sharing her findings at the event.

"Even when they went to seek remedy from law enforcement agencies or administrative officers, they were not informed that they can get remedy under the law," she added.

The study also found that victims only go to seek remedy when the physical torture reached severe levels, or until they were denied access to the conjugal residence, or the husband remarried.

"Although a victim can go to court to file a petition under this act, the official data provided by the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court of Bhola and Sherpur showed no petition filed under the act during the past 10 years, while the Barishal Chief Judicial magistrate Court received only one this January," said Prof Taslima.

From unofficial sources, the study found that there were mostly one or two petitions filed in other districts, except where local NGOs played an active role -- such as in Jashore, Sylhet and Dinajpur.

Besides, both victims and lawyers generally prefer more straightforward penal sections. In terms of execution of the protection orders, survivors believe it is difficult to monitor and if they go to the court again with this issue, they are not welcomed, said Prof Taslima.

Another important factor is since the number of shelters for women is insufficient and there is a lack of livelihood options, many survivors are forced to return her to the perpetrators.

Recent studies on domestic violence also found that although women mostly prefer to go to union parishad members or chairmen to seek remedy, they had to face victim-blaming, or were sent back to their perpetrators after an unlawful mediation by local administration, without ensuring proper remedies.

Although under the DVPP Act, survivors are supposed to come to local enforcement officers (of the Department of Women Affairs) first, organisations working on preventing violence against women and girls found these officers unavailable for immediate support, and even if they were available, they were unclear about their responsibilities, Sara Hossain said.

She suggested providing training to field workers to provide basic information to the victim about the law, as well as psychosocial counselling to victims.

ActionAid Country Director Farah Kabir said, "We often do advocacy about absence of law and that certain issues would be resolved if there was a relevant law. The law to prevent domestic violence was formulated 10 years ago, so it was important to see what the condition was after it was implementation."

Special Police Super of Criminal Investigation Department RUmana Akhter, noted researcher Meghna Guhathakurta and journalist Shahnaz Munni spoke at the event, broadcast on Facebook by Bangla daily Prothom Alo.