SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN BANGLADESH: A NOTE ON LEGAL AND JUDICIAL INTERVENTION

Experiencing sexual harassment in public space remains an everyday occurrence for women who step out of home for daily purposes. Bangladesh has adopted many women-centric laws, frustratingly, no express legal provision is in place addressing ‘sexual harassment’ comprehensively, nor is there any initiative to recognize ‘eve teasing’ as a form of sexual harassment. Moreover, in the backdrop of increasing rate of cyber violence against women, in the form of stalking, bullying, hacking, etc., there is no law that directly addresses such violence. The legal vacuum in this sector has been attempted to be mitigated by proactive judicial intervention, and till to date, the 11-point Directives of the High Court Division defining sexual harassment remain the only law to be followed and observed till adequate legislation is enacted for dealing with sexual harassment. Though the Directives mandate immediate steps to adopt specific legislation, no significant progress has been made in this area. Conversely, the neighbouring countries, like India and Pakistan, already adopted separate laws on sexual harassment and also made necessary amendments to existing relevant penal laws. In this context, this article attempts to study how existing laws address the issue of sexual harassment and how the judiciary intervened in this area, the socio-legal factors that influence the increasing rate of such occurrences, etc. Finally, it suggests taking immediate steps to protect women from sexual harassment by extending the legal coverage by amending existing laws and adopting new legislation.