Main Article Content
Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to examine teasing as one form of child abuse. It seeks to examine to what extent female child teasing affects the human rights in Bangladesh, where the 48.5 percent population is female. The specific objectives are to explore rooted causes of teasing, place of occurrence of teasing, relationship between the victimized girls and the perpetrators, and the process of teasing applied by the perpetrators against the girls. 240 girls from three selected districts of acid attack prone areas of Bangladesh involved in the study. They were selected using the technique of purposive sampling. Survey, observation, FGD, use of key informants and case study methods were applied in order to collect information on this sensitive subject. Self-administered questionnaire, which was prepared to keep in view with the objectives of the study, was used to collect primary data of the survey. Teenagers‟ girls, 90 percent of them were victims of acid-throwing crime, and 77.9 percent of them were in V-X grade of schooling involved in the study. Ineffective law and order, lack of socialization of the perpetrators, fear to protest against perpetrators, patriarchal society, and peer group pressure was identified as causes of teasing. 26.7 percent of the respondents were teased physically, 35.9 percent were teased orally, and 23.3 percent were teased by showing gesture and posture. About 56.6 percent perpetrators were relatives; friends and neighbours of the victims. Public places, school premises, shopping centres, etc. were reported as the physical environment where the teasing takes place. The teasing comes in many forms; such as throwing rebuke related sex, pulling clothes and making barrier on the walkway. Impacts of teasing on human rights were found in terms of discontinuation of education, low performance, insecurity, stress, trauma and suicide. Initiatives to prevent teasing should include enactment of a specific law related to teasing, mass-awareness program, and moral education, and women empowerment, proper implementation of existing laws against teasing through close cooperation of community people, victims and the establishment of law enforcing agencies.