Twenty adolescents and young women, victims of violence, child marriage, dowry, torture, sexual abuse, trafficking and repression, began a new journey for construction their life again after ceremonial rehabilitation.
The Women’s Rights Unit of RDRS Bangladesh rehabilitated them after providing long-term treatment, legal aid, counsel, education and vocational training paving their ways to achieve self-reliance through income-generation activities.
The NGO arranged a ‘Closing Ceremony for the Habitants (6th Batch) of Rehabilitation Centre’ named ‘Alokita Bhuban’ at its Begum Rokeya Auditorium here on Tuesday.
Additional Divisional Commissioner (General) Narayan Chandra Barma attended the function as the chief guest. He appreciated the noble initiative of RDRS Bangladesh and distributed certificates, inputs and assistances among the rehabilitees.
With Head of Programme Coordination of RDRS Bangladesh Monjusree Saha in the chair, its Head of Microfinance Humayun Khaled and Head of Human Resources Sabina Shamshad addressed as the special guests.
Assistant Coordinator of Women’s Rights Unit of the NGO Mezbahun Nahar delivered keynote paper narrating the victims’ tragic and dreadful experiences those shattered their hopes and aspirations in early life and the complete rehabilitation process.
She said the victims were married with dowry, violated, trafficked or tortured and experienced inhuman torture, violence and sexual abuse at early ages before they started understanding the meaning of life.
The victims were exposed to uncertainty after being divorced, left or driven away by husbands as their families failed to pay dowry to save them from being abused, tortured or violated by polygamist husbands and some of them became unmarried mothers.
The twenty rehabilitated victims said they were physically immature having no knowledge about conjugal life etc, but witnessed horrifying episodes amid merciless tortures in lives.
Many of them could not even record cases with police stations and even after filing cases, some of them had to stay in safe custody of police.
Some of us even lost mental balance and some others even tried to commit suicide to get rid of agony in life as the whole society became a dreadful place for them, the victim girls aged between 13 and 17 years said.
After getting training at the ‘Alokita Bhaban’, the victims are now confident to become self-reliant through income generation activities at homes like the previously rehabilitated 155 similar victims to lead better life with honour and dignity, they said.
While narrating their dreadful, miserable and painful past to BSS, the victim girls expressed firm determination to move forward in becoming self-dependant and rooting out early marriage and dowry from the society.
In his speech, the chief guest appreciated the self-confidence achieved by rehabilitated girls through training activities provided by RDRS Bangladesh and asked them to move forward in rebuilding career to participate in the nation building activities.
He distributed certificates, sewing machines, clothes, traveling bag, ‘karchupi frames’, sewing frames, catalogue books, scissors, scale, thread, sewing frame, paint, cooking and beauty parlor inputs to each victim to establish them as small entrepreneurs.
-BSS, Rangpur
