Violence against women causes a series of health problems to both victims and their children***

Proper preventive measures to check physical and sexual violence against women and children cannot be taken without having a geographical mapping of vulnerability to these violence, speakers said at a project launch yesterday.

Reasons behind such violence differ from region to region and if the authorities concerned detect the facts behind, the problems will be addressed well, they said.

Tilted "Addressing gender-based violence against women and girls in Bangladesh: From evidence to policy", the project has been undertaken by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR.B) and Population Council.

The launching ceremony was held at the ICDDR.B in the city. Ruchira Tabassum Naved, a scientist of ICDDR'B, gave an overview of the project at the programme.

Quoting a study, she said violence against women causes a series of health problems to both the victims and their children. Often the victims give birth to low weight children, having lower quality of maternal-infant feeding interaction and lower nutrition and growth, she added.

Naved said such violence lead victims to poor health, walking problem, pain, memory problem, vaginal discharge, and dizziness.

Rights activist Sultana Kamal said men actually do not understand what is sexual violence and often apply some degree of force during intercourse.

“It is our cultural problem. Mindset should be changed”, she said.

University teachers, representatives from different NGOs, physicians, and researchers attended the programme with ICDDR.B deputy executive director Dr Abbas Bhuiya in the chair. Gwen Hines, country representative of the Department for International Development (DFID), was also present.