Abstract:
|
Over the last few decades, domestic violence against women has received
increasing attention as an insidious problem for women both on the global and
national scale. Despite this attention, studies on domestic violence are still limited in
Bangladesh, as such, many issues remain under-researched, unexplored, or underexplored.
Moreover, studying domestic violence through the qualitative approach is also hardly
visible. With this backdrop, the present study aimed at filling in some of the
methodological and theoretical gaps in the existing literature of Bangladesh. Under the
interpretive framework, the study was based on phenomenology and the case study
approach of qualitative research. This study investigated the victims’ varied experiences
of domestic violence perpetrated by their husbands, and the local community’s
perceptions and activities with regard to domestic violence. In addition, the
implementation of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010 was
assessed based on perceptions and experiences of the frontline implementers. The
study was carried out in different rural areas of two Bangladeshi districts, namely,
Mymensingh and Netrokona, and participants were recruited using purposive and
snowball sampling techniques.
Women that were the victims of domestic violence shared their subjective,
lived experiences concerning the various forms, causes, consequences of domestic
violence. They also shared their experiences with regard to coping strategies and helpseeking
practices. The women experienced various forms of violence, such as physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and economic, and a number of factors
were associated with the perpetuation of such forms of violence. Notably, it was
found that domestic violence was not only perpetrated by the husbands, but in-laws of
women sometimes also perpetrated or provoked violence. On the other hand,
domestic violence brought about many negative consequences, not only for the
women but also for the children and family members of the women. It was evident
that the women that were the victims usually tried to cope with or adjust to the
violence, and only sought informal or formal support in extreme situations.
The participants from the community also shared their perceptions about
various aspects of domestic violence, including its forms, causes, the consequences of
domestic violence, and the coping strategies and help-seeking practices that the
women adopted. In most cases, the community perceptions of these aspects were
similar to those of the women. The community acted as a source of informal support,
and there were few community intervention mechanisms to redress domestic violence.
Salish or local arbitration was the most widely-used intervention mechanism in the
community, and there were community non-governmental organisation (NGO)
intervention mechanisms. Both salish and NGO interventions have some
shortcomings in addressing the problems of violence against women and rendering
necessary services to victims.
On the other hand, adoption of the Domestic Violence (Prevention and
Protection) Act 2010 was an outcome of the long-standing struggle of various legal
aid/women’s rights organisations in Bangladesh and an important breakthrough to
protect women that confronted violence at home. Nonetheless, based on the
perceptions and experiences of the frontline implementers, it was found that the
performance of this policy was exceedingly poor in the study areas. Implementation
of this policy suffered from a lack of publicity, low-level orientation and knowledge
of the implementers, low-level case filings, resource constraints, lack of coordination,
antipathy of the implementers, lack of guidance and support from the top, absence of
special courts, and so on. Surprisingly, there was no strategic plan of action from the
top management at the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MoWCA) to
oversee and accelerate the implementation process of this policy at the local level.
The present study provides a comprehensive, subjective understanding of the
problem of domestic violence based on the lived experiences of the victims and also based on the perceptions and experiences of the members of the community that were
within the close proximity of the victims. Overall, rural women’s vulnerability in the
event of domestic evident in all dimensions. Although the study was predominantly
conducted for the most part with Bengali women and in the Bengali community, on a
limited scale, it also explored the experiences of violence confronted by women from
the indigenous matriarchal Garo community as well as the perception and activities of
some important Garo community members. Patriarchal influence was also evident in
many aspects of this community, which acts as a source of violence.
Based on the findings of the research, two categories of recommendations are
provided. The first category of recommendations includes measures to prevent or
eliminate domestic violence from the society; and the second category of
recommendations includes measures to improve the performance of the Domestic
Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010. Overall, the study has significant
academic and policy contributions and enriches the body of knowledge in the field of
development administration in some important ways concerning domestic violence as
a public policy issue.
|
