Sexual abuse and exploitation have become a curse in Bangladesh. Countrymen have little chance to pass a day without being informed of any kinds of sexual violation news on the media. It occurs daily everywhere including homes, educational institutions, and the workplace.
Data available from a number of sources say that most sexual exploitation of children is perpetrated primarily by extended family members, relatives, and neighbours. Many celebrities in the entertainment and sports world often publish their childhood abuse tragedy by their extended family members and relatives.
Women are not safe anywhere in the country. Garment workers are reportedly being sexually exploited at their workplaces. Educated female employees working at private organisations including media, off and on, often bring allegations against their male colleagues. Street children get sexually assaulted regularly by local goons at the very corner of the capital.
Terre des Hommes Netherlands - an international development organisation - has run several projects to eliminate sexual exploitation and assault in the country. It also works to cut commercial sexual abuse of children and child trafficking.
Recently, it has concluded a project named Building Back Better (BBB) project which has worked against the sexual exploitation of children.
Mahmudul Kabir, Country Director at Terre des Hommes Netherlands (TdH), said, "We work to stop child abuse and child trafficking in the country. TdH has implemented many projects to eliminate sexual harassment and assault of children including the BBB project and Combating Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CCSEC) in Bangladesh. Sexual exploitation will decrease gradually by our united efforts."
"We believe, if we work properly to stop child exploitation besides the government, the situation will surely improve one day in the country," Mahmudul asserted.
The new domain of sexual abuse is the internet. There is a lot of content on the internet to spread exploitative sexual behaviour among people including children. Children are getting pornographic content by browsing internet easily impacting them badly.
The availability of the internet has introduced commercial webcam sex - a new phenomenon of its kind. A large number of children are being used for this purpose. Bangladesh is at risk of online sexual activity, it might happen at any time in the country due to its global connectivity and easy access to internet.
The government is very active to prevent any kinds of sexual exploitation in the country. Law enforcers are taking punitive actions against the offenders. Nevertheless, the number of sexual exploitation has been increasing all over the country.
People concerned observe ensuring promote justice can reduce the number of sexual exploitation. Besides, mass awareness is also an important tool to bring the menace under control.