Final paper

Cmn 414

Submitted to
Jenina Islam Abir

Submitted by
Adiba Haque
1520171

Submission date
December 5, 2018
 Title of the policy
In every educational institution, there should be a session/workshop about SEXUAL
HASSARMENT/PHYSICAL GROWTH at least once in every three months.
(For female and male both)
Table of Contents
Abstract ......................................................................................................................1
Introduction ................................................................................................................2
Objective ....................................................................................................................3
The goal ......................................................................................................................3
Problem description ...................................................................................................4
Case study ...............................................................................................................4
Lack of knowledge and awareness .........................................................................5
Adults are not supportive enough ...........................................................................5
Cultural barrier ........................................................................................................5
Policy option ..............................................................................................................5
Policy design ..............................................................................................................6
Conclusion .................................................................................................................7
Recommendation .......................................................................................................7
Appendices .................................................................................................................8
Bibliography...............................................................................................................8
Abstract

The policy paper is about how children suffer about their any physical change or being assault
and importantly how they kept themselves shut because of many barriers. This policy paper will
break the law of being quiet and talk openly about the menstruation situation, and being sexually
assault.
In this paper, there is an objective where the discussion is about the reason of working in this
particular topic. The goals of this policy paper. The problem discussion where I have added a
case study regarding the topic, the brief discussion about the reasons children are not able to talk
about these things openly.
In policy option, the discussion is about the stakeholders. The people who will be working for
this policy and make it happen. After the policy option, the content is policy design where the
objectives are more specified and monitoring, evaluation regarding the objective.
The ending is with the conclusion and the recommendation where the lacking of this policy
paper has shown.
Introduction

Growing up is natural thing. Change in a body is also a natural thing as well. Facing problems
while having a change in a body is also a natural thing as well. But in a country like Bangladesh
talking openly about any physical issue is nearly taboo. Talking about physical growth or sexual
harassment should be as natural as the physical growth is.
We can just take a random example, such as-
A fourteen-year-old girl just had period while going to the school. As she was not aware of it,
she did not have any back up for that. In this situation, she needed to talk with someone who can
help her. But as a Bangladeshi context a girls do not talk about her period or any internal
physical issues with any random person, even though seeking for help from someone is the right
thing to do at that particular moment. Therefore, that girl had to shut herself off for rest of her
day in the school, because she was not even comfortable enough to talk with her teacher as well.
Now this whole scenario would make her feel that she is in some problem, which she was not.
The period thing is something very natural that she needs to face every month. But our culture
does not allow us to talk about the things that made us feel like we are in some kind of a
problem. If that girl were told that earlier that she could talk about her physical change or issues
with any trustable elderly person, maybe she would not feel in that the way she did.
Same situation can happen during any sort of sexual harassment as well. Sexual harassment,
often known as “eve teasing”, is a regular occurrence for the women and girls of Bangladesh. A
recent study by the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association (BNWLA) showed that
almost 90 percent of girls aged 10-18 have undergone the experience. The harassment can take a
variety of forms and the perpetrators come from multiple walks of life; they are rich and poor,
educated and uneducated; according to the BNWLA study, teenage boys, rickshaw pullers, bus
drivers, street vendors, traffic police and often supervisors or colleagues of the workers had all
been cited as “eve teasers". (Weisfeld-Adams, 2008)
After getting assaulted most of us prefers to stay quiet, whatever the reason is. Mainly we stay
quiet because our culture, our surroundings and our society made us to do so. Instead of open up
the things that are arming us, we choose to let it go. Not only are the girls, now days boys also
facing such problems what they cannot share with anyone.
Not being able to talk with anyone about the situation they are in is the worst scenario can a
person ever face. But if the upcoming generation get the right direction about opening up and
start a conversation and get a proper idea or suggestions about the thing can do during that time,
these problem will be controllable.
Objective

The objectives of this policy paper is-

 To let the Children know about their physical growth in the school. To let them know that
talking about physical change or any issue is natural like the other natural things.
 To let the children know about the differences between touch and bad touch.
 To let the children know about period. Period is normal and they can talk about it with
any elderly person if they fell into any sudden situation. This will break their
uncomfortableness.
 To let the children know, as they will be growing up, they might face something that they
did not expect, but instead of hiding it from anyone, they should be more vocal about
their problem. If they are able to let other inform about their problem they might get help.
 Boys and girls both should be aware of the upcoming situation and instead of making fun
of it they should support each other.
 To break the rule that, if anyone get assaulted or need some help for any situation they
have to be vocal rather than keep themselves silent.
 To encourage the students to share their story (if they have any) about anything that keep
hunt them or make them feel uncomfortable.
 To let the girls know that they can help boys if they went through any bad phase. It goes
for the girls as well.
 To encourage children that they can talk to their parents openly as well.

The objectives are long-term process. Because the sessions will be for the minor kids. They
need to grow older knowing that the fact we cannot change, but we can make it less harmless by
be more vocal and being open up.
But due to achieve the long term process there will be some short term process as well which
will complement the long term process to become successful.

The goal

Ultimate goal is to aware the students about their physical situation and make them identifying
that which one is not good for them. This process is long term. On the other hand, to conduct the
long-term process government need to appoint many trained people who will give them proper
comfort zone, proper idea about the situation they will face or still facing.
The sessions will be held on once in every three month. These sessions are not only for the
female, these are for the male as well. Boys also need to understand the situation of a girl. Boys
needs to understand that the mental statement of a girl. Even sometimes boys also face some
physical harassment that is more uncomfortable for them to talk openly.
So, the goal is to giving sessions to school going children (age 7-15) where they will understand
that talking about physical growth or sexual harassment is not taboo anymore. They can share
their thoughts, their stories and they can learn how to break the taboo topic into something very
natural. Slowly they will learn being vocal is more important than staying quiet.

Problem description

The policy is about creating awareness among the minors who are growing up and are not
comfortable to talk about any physical and sexual issues with anyone. But if from the very
beginning they were told that these are the topic they can talk openly about it, problem would not
go so far. Because most of the sexual harassment remain in the darkness as the victim stay quiet.
I have found a case study regarding this issue-

Case study
The case study is about a student named Shahanaz Parveen. She can now openly talk about
aspects of menstruation with other adolescent girls from her village and school.
Menstrual hygiene awareness and affordable napkins used to be something most girls did not talk
about in much of Bangladesh. Student Shahanaz Parveen, for example, remembers how she used
to stay home from school during her menstrual periods. She felt uncomfortable because of the
lack of separate toilet facilities for girls, and the difficulty of discussing the subject. We have
meetings every three months, talking about issues such as sanitary napkins, safe water, latrines
and hand washing.
Now she happily talks openly about menstruation, in a meeting with 20 other adolescent girls
from her village and BRAC program assistant Asma Khatun. “This is one of the five villages I
cover,” Asma explains. “We have meetings every three months, talking about issues such as
sanitary napkins, safe water, latrines and hand washing”.Asma encourages the girls to discuss the
problems they face. They come to these sessions with her, she says, because they see her as their
“big sister”. Shahanaz and the other girls in her school now do not have to miss an education, as
their school is one of the 4,000 in Bangladesh, which, since 2008, has constructed separate toilet
facilities for girls, as a result of the BRAC WASH program. (Dietvorst, 2013)
This case is one of the representation of how Bengalis are suffering for not being vocal about
their situation. On the other hand, if they do they can overcome their situation in a beautiful way.
But BRAC has found that many girls who are comfortable buying sanitary napkins from their
school would be too embarrassed to do so at the market. (Verhagen, 2013)
Not only in any physical issues, In Bangladesh there is a culture of staying quiet even though
someone has got assaulted.
The reasons for the victims cannot able to be vocal-

Lack of knowledge and awareness

Illness relating to sexual and reproductive health may receive inadequate attention as there
problems are shrouded in a culture of silence, embarrassment and shame. The unmet need of
adolescent for reproductive health information and service is huge and diverse in terms of both
quality as well as quantity. The psychological and social behavior play pivotal role that include
shyness of the adolescent to discuss the reproductive health issue, keeping reproductive health
problem secret, traditional values, norms and myths, ignorance about sexuality and
parents/guardians and elderly people (who acts as a gate keeper) who are uninformed about
reproductive health need. (Haque, 2010)
If a whole community do not have any idea about the result of their action, they will not be able
to identify their mistake. This thing happened in Bangladesh. Bangladeshis does not even know
what knowledge they should have and how to apply it. If we are educate enough, we might get
the knowledge and awareness about physical change/growth and sexual harassment.

Adults are not supportive enough

Sometimes children shut themselves out because of the negative approach of the adults. If
children gets enough support from any elderly hood, they might be able to more open about the
situation they are facing.

Cultural barrier
Sometimes education and awareness just stay behind because of the culture. In Bangladesh, we
have a culture of not being vocal about any physical issues in front of any male person.
Mahmuda Islam, Professor at Dhaka University's Social Science Department, says, "Children are
sexually harassed mainly by close relatives in the family or neighbors. This is one of the reasons
why a majority of such incidents are not made public." (Rimi, 2006)
So, this is in our culture. Whether a girl is on her period or she is being assaulted by anyone and
that anyone is her relative, she cannot talk about it because they are not allowed to. Even if she
try to do take such initiative, most of the time she could not because her family says so.

Policy option

In this particular will identify the stakeholders of this policy.

  The main stakeholder would be the government. Government needs to identify the places
where child are being abused still there are no complain about it. If this thing is done
properly, the government might able to approach in a right direction.
 According to the institution, government will assign the well-trained people who can
approach the children in a comfortable way.
 Government can run this policy project independently or they can hand over this to any
well-developed organization.
 Government needs to fund this policy properly as the instructors needs to be very well
trained.
 Institutions have to be corporative with the whole process.
 Institution have to encourage the students separately to talk about their condition, to talk
about the things they are uncomfortable of. They need to gain the trust of the students.
 Not only the institutions, parents also be considerate about the whole thing. Through this,
they will be able to know if their children are going through any bad phase or not. But
they need to gain trust in a first place.
 The instructors/ the people who will do the talking with students should be very good in
handling children, should have good communication skill, should have the convincing
power, should be able to understand the mental statement of any children. In short, they
need to be trained and be experienced as the issue itself is very sensitive.

Policy design

Sl. Objective of the policy Policy action monitoring evaluation

1. Ensuring building up the Workshops/sessions communication After every
confidence among the once in every three and information workshop the
children so that they can talk months officer evaluation
about their physical issues should be done
by the assigned
monitor
2. To teach the differences Workshops/practical Local health After the
between touch and bad examples care center practical
touch to the students example
3. To understand the mental One to one psychiatrist After the
statement of the students conversation with session
regarding the issue the effected children
4. To make believe the Workshops/ Local police In every 6
students that they can practical examples month
seek/ask for help if they face
any sexual or mental
harassment
5. Creating awareness about Conversations/ Communication In every 6
talking about periods, being workshops and information month
 assault is not a matter of officer/ local
shame, it is something that police
should be talked about

Conclusion

Most of the people in Bangladesh are not educated. It is very difficult to eliminate the child
sexual exploitation. Because they do not know about the sexual exploitation and other
exploitation. So we need people awareness to eliminate this type of abuse. Children requirement
to realize that they can talk unashamedly to a trusted grown-up and that they will be accepted.
Children who are casualties of sexual abuse may as well dependably be consoled that they are
not answerable for what has befallen them. Offer consolation for exploited people by supporting
associations that help casualties of inbreeding or by essentially consoling casualties of sexual
abuse that they ought not to feel disgrace or blame. It is paramount to comprehend that grieved
families can benefit from outside assistance and that everybody can have impact all the while.
(Linda, 2018)
The purpose of this policy is to break the rule of staying silent about the physical and sexual
issues among both boys and girls. They should be able to communicate more, being more vocal
and should have the confidence of take stand for themselves. These things should not be taboo
anymore.

Recommendation

This whole policy idea is for the children who are in age of 7-15 and most importantly attending
any educational institution. So the recommendation will be-
 A field where children above age 15 can get some practical examples of life where they
can also be encouraged to talk about the sexual harassment and physical growth and
change
 This policy is for the boy and girls. No third gender criteria is included. So some
initiative for the third gender people because they face abuse and harassment too.
 The children who are not attending any educational institution will be deprived from the
facilities. So some approaches for the children who are not able to any institutions can
save them too.
Appendices

Menstruation taboos stemming from a general lack of menstrual hygiene awareness, pose major
health risks to Bangladeshi girls and women, adding to the already abundant discriminatory
practices towards them. According to the National Hygiene Baseline Survey carried out in 2014,
89% of the surveyed girls who used cloth instead of sanitary pads stored their menstrual cloth in
a hidden place for repeated use without washing them in a hygienic manner. Despite being aware
of the need to properly wash the cloth and dry it in sunlight, girls opt to dry them indoors
because of the taboo surrounding menstrual blood. Girls are specifically taught to keep
menstruation a secret from the male members of their family. (Aowsaf, 2018)
Arif (24) is a student. He shared, “My friend’s dad always used to pick us up after school, and I
would wait in their house until my mum was ready to pick me up. Even though his son was
around, he used to always insist I sit on his lap, and stroked my legs when he got the chance.
Because I was a boy, no one thought it was abuse, they just said he was a creepy old uncle and
laughed it off.” (tasneem, 2017)
Sexual harassment and physical growth is not something that should be kept inside the mind. It
should be spell it out. If children of now days are taught to be more open about these things, they
might suffer less.

Bibliography
Aowsaf, A. (2018, may 28). DhakaTribune. Retrieved from DhakaTribune website:
https://www.dhakatribune.com/opinion/special/2018/05/28/world-menstrual-hygiene-day-
menstruation-taboos-pose-major-health-risks-for-bangladeshi-women

Dietvorst, C. (2013). Open for discussion: taboo subjects like menstruation. IRC.

Haque, D. M. (2010). KNOWLEDGE OF REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH. JAFMC Bangladesh. Vol 6, No 2 .

Linda. (2018, 12 4). Essay UK, Child Abuse In Bangladesh. Retrieved from Essay UK web site:
https://www.essay.uk.com/free-essays/international-relations-politics/child-abuse-
bangladesh.php

Rimi, Y. (2006). Abuse in the Family. boloji.com.

tasneem, s. (2017, 10 24). DhakaTribune. Retrieved from DhakaTribune web site:

https://www.dhakatribune.com/feature/2017/10/24/abuse-not-talking

Verhagen, A. W. (2013). Open for discussion: taboo subjects like menstruation. IRC.

Weisfeld-Adams, E. (2008). Harassment: the effects of “eve teasing” on development in Bangladesh .

The Hunger Project , 5-6\.