***Though our constitution provides for equality between sexes with proper protection for women and children, people are still governed by personal family customs and rules that fail to give women their due.**

THE status of women in the country has not substantially changed for the better even after an appraisal of the fact that empowering women, meaning redistributing power from men to women, can ensure more balanced development of the country. Gender

inequalities in access to resources and opportunities negate the concept of human development and spirit of democracy. This empowerment that would have given the vast majority of women the freedom of choice for self-development has been appallingly missing.

A World Bank report on women in this region suggests that poverty and deeply etched social attitudes have produced a kind of imprisonment of the country's female population. Notwithstanding the fact that women in the country constitute almost half of the total population, hardly any major, meaningful effort has been taken to enable them to participate actively in the political, socio-cultural and economic life of the nation equally with men.

The two core issues, elimination of social injustice and economic exploitation of the girl child, can be tackled through motivation, policy guidelines, and bold leadership at the government level. The genesis of discrimination and cruelty against women can be traced to the social apathy inherent in the male population of the sub-continent. Though our constitution provides for equality between sexes with proper protection for women and children, people are still governed by personal family customs and rules that fail to give women their due.

It is the dowry system, which makes a daughter a family burden and a son who collects the dowry an asset, that has led to such a situation. Dowry is a social malady that makes the lives of newlywed girls, or even housewives with years of family life, extremely miserable. Stories of depraved husbands trying to kill their wives for their failure to get dowry money from their

parents fill the pages of newspapers with a sickening regularity.

A report published in Prothom Alo on February 15 said that Soma Akhtar, (20), a newly- wed housewife was burnt to death by her in-laws because her father was unable to meet the dowry demand. Police did not record any murder case. Meanwhile, local self-styled religious leaders restrained Soma's father from filing any case with the police and imposed a fine of Tk.5 lakh on Abdul Qadir, father-in law of the deceased Soma, through an arbitration of the local influential mastans and so-called religious leaders.

A woman on fire has made dowry deaths most vicious of all social crimes. Despite vigorous efforts by some activists and women's rights organisations to eliminate this menace, the numbers have continued to climb.

Odhikar, a women's rights organisation, in a report published recently, revealed that a total of 1,257 women were killed, 348 were tortured and 243 committed suicide due to dowry-related violence between January 2005 and February, 2011. The report further added that 526 women were victims of acid violence, while 1,876 women and 1,598 girls were victims of rape.

Although many cases of dowry harassment had been reported of late, a staggering number had not. Despite all attempts to prevent it, an epidemic appears to be in the making. It is a phenomenon that escapes easy answers due to a complex mix of social trends. With get-rich-quick becoming the new goal of life, dowry has become the perfect instrument for upward material mobility.

It is a difficult battle to win for women. They are handicapped by history, victims of firmly embedded gender system. In Bangladesh, women are yet to wake up and take a bold stand against dowry because most

of them do not have education, employment or business to fend for themselves. Sad but true, it typifies the nonchalance towards the crime. The belief that most husbands or families can get away with such a crime is one of the main reasons why torture on wives is so common.

All findings indicate that dowry demands in the country have multiplied tenfold over the last one decade. There is a sticky web of issues surrounding it. Most males belonging to middle class or ultra-poor families, due to lack of proper education and culture and prompted by unusual greed, have realised that dowry is an easy way to acquire wealth.

There exists a toothless attitude in a majority of families who participate in dowry based marriages instead of opposing it. People talk glibly about dowry prohibition and anti-dowry movement but when it comes to their own sons and daughters, most people would do the same thing. In most cases affluent parents think that big dowries will strengthen their daughter's position in the husband's family. But, should the marriage go wrong, there is no way that these fabulous gifts in the form of cash, jewelry and property can be retrieved.

In most cases girls do not have any knowledge of or participation in any deal. Dowry is often a monetary deal between two menthe bride's father and the groom or groom's father. Despite promulgation of dowry prohibition act, the number of dowry-related atrocities and deaths is climbing. The law may help in taking temporary punitive action, but women need real social, financial, moral, and ideological support to stand firmly against an age-old system that has almost got an unwritten societal sanction. A big social movement is a must to stop the giving and taking of money.

Women face double peril. Inside the closed doors is humiliation, outside awaits public ire. Harassed and tortured women these days are going to court or police for protection, bur even if appeals for protection are met only scorn greets them when they return home. Despite the stigma, dowry continues to be a nightmare in marriage. The odd NGO groups or women activists or human rights and women lawyers' associations may pursue one or two cases and rehabilitate some tortured women, but a major breakthrough is hardly possible because social intervention is low and ignorance high.

The laws these days, because of the intervention of the apex court, tire very stringent. But a dowry death is relatively easier crime than murder to prosecute and so the crime continues. Due to several factors, most deaths go unreported. The majority of the victims belong to the underprivileged classes and do not have the means to fight out the lengthy legal battles. Because the court appearances and seeking police protection are a traumatic experience, most women prefer to sweep their bitter experiences under the carpet. Surveys conducted by the World Bank and NGOs reveal that economic progress and a change in social attitudes can halt the degradation of women's status.

The laws relating to marriage and divorce are being violated with impunity. Control over law and order and protection of women's rights, or for that matter any form of rights, has long since passed from the hands of administration to some so-called religious leaders and in most cases to some hoodlums or crime syndicates enjoying patronage and protection at high levels.

The people in the rural areas who give fatwas oppose literacy programmes and women's employment. There are reports that women have been subjected to torture, humiliation and divorce on the basis of fatwas or edicts issued by these people. The farcical side is that social prejudice and double standard of morality tend to stigmatise women even if they had been sinned against instead of sinning.

The writer Is columnist of The Daily Star. E-mail: aukhandk@gmail.com