Dhaka Being Delhi

‘Dhaka being Delhi’- you people might have thought that how Dhaka is becoming like Delhi. What are the improvements placed in Dhaka all of a sudden. For the time being the people of Dhaka might have become really happy that we are in such a position that we can be a city like Delhi. May be you have thought that I am writing about the metro in Dhaka which is going to be constructed soon. To prove you all wrong, I am not discussing about all the development and improvement happening in Dhaka. I am talking about the sexual assault and rape happening in the city recently. Within these last one month three major incidents were reported which is questioning the security of the woman in the city.

As we all know Delhi is called ‘the rape city’. The city is that well developed that it can give complex to any big cities of the world, but still the city could not ensure the security of the woman till the date. The rape in the bus inside the city is the biggest example of it. Recent incidents in Dhaka, indicates it to become a rape city soon. Three big molestation and rape incidents are pointing a figure on the security of woman living in the country. These are just a few of those, what actually happens in the country in actual. Most of the time, these kinds of incidents goes unheard and unknown, only few comes in the limelight.

The 1st incident I want to mention is the harassment happened in TSC of the Dhaka University Campus that made the biggest education institution of the country ashamed. In the occasion of Bengalis biggest festival 'Pahela Baisakh' (Bengali New Year), several girls were being harassed and undressed in public in the street of Dhaka University. There were no authority to stop them and no people came forward to help them out. People were seen to be busy in enjoying the view and clicking photo to upload on Facebook and other social networks. And after the incident the step taken by the authority was not effective which resulted in the culprits to escape even when the people protest the police beat the protester and even the woman present in the rally which is against the law of the country.

The second biggest incident happened on this 13th may. A 28 year women was going to her hometown Kishorganj from Dhaka via Mymansingh. The bus driver managed to get all the passengers out from the bus with an excuse. Only the driver and the helper of the bus were present and they promised the lady to drop her at home and managed to keep her in the bus. On the way they tried to rape the lady and to save herself she was about to jump from the bus and some people saw this and saved her. The bus driver and his helper were arrested.
The third incident happened on 21st May at around 9 p.m. A 22 years indigenous ‘Garo’ lady was on her way home after work. Suddenly a microbus with 5 people stopped before her. The two guys took her in the car by showing her weapon. They tied and raped her in the running bus. At 11 p.m. they threw her in the street and went.

So, this is how the condition of the woman in the country has become. Already a kind of fear has arisen in the women’s mind. They are scared to go out, especially at night. Though in Dhaka girls staying out late night was never a culture, but to compete with the world for the survival staying late sometimes becomes a must. As I have visited Delhi, I have seen the same kind of fear in the woman’s mind staying out late. Specially, the molestation and rape incidents happening in Delhi make the girls scared to go out. The woman’s security is always a question there, just the way it is becoming a question in Dhaka. So, I don’t think it will be wrong if I say the Dhaka is becoming a second Delhi in this sense. Molestation that happened in TSC, Dhaka can be the worst that can happen to any nation. Publicly sexual assault can never bring anything but a shame to the nation.

We are a nation who fought for the country, who fought for the respect of our mother, sister and daughter and even for our mother tongue. As a nation we never supported any disrespect to the woman. Our history tells how we struggled to get an independent nation. We are the only nation of the world who fought for mother tongue. These Dhaka University students died establishing our right to mother tongue. So how can we forget our mothers? We are the warriors, we should come forward, take a step to make our country worthwhile place to live. And a perfect living can only be possible if both the man and woman in the country can live independently together supporting each other.