Call to resist stalking

13 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Creating mass awareness against stalking and sexual harassment and enforcing strict laws are imperative to prevent such harassment of girls, speakers at a seminar said yesterday. Stalking is not only a social disease it is also a criminal offence, they said, calling on the media to conduct a vigorous campaign against the menace, which resulted in the death of a number of girls recently. Stressing the need for changes in the mindset towards women, they said all the components of the society including family, educational institution and media will have to work together to resist the social crime as it is not possible for the government to resist it alone. They suggested increasing interaction of the girls and boys by arranging more social and cultural programmes. The Ministry of Education organised the seminar titled 'Ensuring proper educational environment and security of the female students by resisting stalking criminals' at National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) in the city. Speaker of the Parliament Abdul Hamid said an integrated effort of all is a must to remove the problem whose magnitude has increased with the change of time due to decay in values. "We have to consider woman as human being not just women and the attitude of male towards women will have to be changed," he said. "We've to initiate the culture of showing respect to each other." Stressing building social movement, he said the stalkers are also the part of the society and so they will have to be brought to the path of goodness. Home Minister Sahara Khatun said many girls stopped their education and even some of them took the path of committing suicide which is extremely regretful. "We cannot let such regretful incidents happen anymore," she said. The deputy commissioners were already asked to take necessary steps while vigilance of intelligence agencies and patrolling by the law enforcement agencies in front of the educational institutions have been beefed up, she mentioned. The government is mulling reforming the women repression act, she added. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said they will soon send a directive to the educational institutions by combining all the opinions placed in different programmes and discussions. Committees will be formed with people of all strata of life in the schools in district and upazila level to raise public opinions and build resistance against the stalking miscreants, he said. "We want to impose stringent penalties to the stalkers. We cannot resist them by only enforcing laws we have to boycott them socially," he said. He urged the media to portray the stalkers as the most hatred in the dramas, movies and advertisements. The imams of the mosque and preachers have immense role to play, he added. Director General of Directorate of Women Affairs Rawshan Ara Begum presented a keynote paper. Education Secretary Syed Ataur Rahman, Additional Secretary to Education Ministry Sirajul Islam, representatives of different government and non-government offices and teachers and students of different educational institutions also spoke.