# Introduction iolence against Women is a common phenomenon throughout the world though the nature and extensity vary from country to country, the worst atrocity of which may be followed in developing to least developed countries with least recognized as infringement of human rights. Violence knows no boundaries of geography, wealth or culture and as long as it continues, no nation can claim to be making real progress towards development, equality and peace in the world (Annan, 1999 cited from Khatun and Rahman, 2012). WHO found that 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence whereas, 38 percent of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner (Begum, 2014). VAW in Bangladesh is not new, got its supremacy at the very end of the 20 th century but harmful and discriminatory practices against women are dominant yet that rooted in traditional patriarchal social norms. Unfortunately, despite magnificent history of women's freedom commotion and noticeable achievements in women's development filed, incidences of violence against women are still burning issues (Hossain, 2016), especially in Bangladesh. Considering VAW, the government of Bangladesh has enacted various laws, legislations, and policies; sanctioned numerous conventions, guaranteed constitutional rights; numerous NGOs are working to safeguard women rights and empowerment; yet the trend, in some cases, is on increase. Even perpetrators often go unpunished by legal jurisdiction as victim not seek legal remedies to become superfluous stigmatized by the society. BNWLA reported that victim dares not file complaints fearing negligence and harassment in police station, courts, and society while the members of the police, in most cases, look down upon the oppressed women and will not to take their complaints unless they are pushed from a higher authority (Basu & Jaising, 2005). # II. # Methodology Hundreds of studies have been carried out marking VAW in Bangladesh since independence but poor concentration was put to analyze its long-term trends, almost left this segment to the dark. Hence the overall objective of this study is to critically review and sketch the trend of VAW in Bangladesh with suggestive measures. Basically 2001 to 2015 VAW recorded data, especially from documentations unit, annual reports, and human rights reports of numerous NGOs working with women have been collected and analyzed in three phases (2001 to 2005, 2006 to 2010, and 2011 to 2015) through statistical methods, and finally presented in report using Microsoft Excel to look into the trend of VAW and in depicting real pictures. Comprehensive literatures on VAW in Bangladesh were also reviewed from various published sources. Additionally, 10 Indepth Interviews (IDI) were carried out on employed women, excluding administrative professionals as they are less susceptive to violence in workplace and commute to work, and placed as primary data to this research. III. # Findings Violence in family sphere was not considered as problematic issue till 1960s due to cultural norms but the second wave of feminist's movement in United State after 1970s provided major contribution in this direction (Kelmendi, 2013). On the contrary, woman's lower socioeconomic background made their position less authoritative in comparison to their male counterparts and that is why many new jobs have been created and the access of women increased in th e apparel industries of Bangladesh since 1980s (Al-Amin & Hoque, 2015). The access of women in job market boosted at the very end of 20 th century followed by differential violence in commute to work and workplace. Hence the trend of Rape by Law Enforcement Agencies: Rape by law enforcement agencies is surprisingly uprising in Bangladesh who being the safeguard to women. Figure 3 shows that the statistics unit of Additionally unreported violence, as victims testament not to report, in public sphere include eveteasing, harassment through social and electronic media, and trafficking for forced labor and prostitution outnumber the incidents of previous years. # V. Violence in Commute to Work Violence in Commute to Work: Women's access into the employment market has made them more susceptive to various forms of violence as they went outside of home (Basu, & Jaising, 2005). Workers face harassment in commute to work regardless of their age. "During the day, offensive and suggestive comments and whistling from pedestrian, rickshaw pullers, storeowners as well as personnel and passengers on public busses are widespread" (Siddiqi, 2003, P-41). Data shows that the conductor and driver of public buses behaved roughly to 70 percent of women garment workers who used public bus (Paul-Majumdar and Begum, 2000). On the contrary, bus passengers-especially older males-also squeeze, shove, pinch, and made suggestive comments (Siddque, 2003). One respondent narrated, "Boys are like dogs and they may bow-bow behind me like where is your house, what's about your family, very rare cases what's your rate or how much will you go for! But it's not my duty to protest rather it is better walking droop along the route" while another respondent stated, "Incidents like usage slang, pinch, and whistling are normal. Stalkers may do whatever they like but it is not wise to protest". V iolence in Workplace: Workers in workplace accused linemen, supervisors, production managers, and line chiefs for various forms of physical abuse-slapping, pulling hair, hitting on the head, touching the body, stroking, and even kissing; where, non-verbal forms of harassment include staring, winking, whistling standing very close and pinching (Siddque, 2003). Women are more prone to violence in night shifts as supervisors may call them to a desolate area demanding talk them about work related mistakes (Chowdhuri, 2007) future" where another woman described in the same ground, "Often bosses use slang in cases of mistakes and they cannot teach us without using slang. They also threaten us to terminate our jobs in cases of mistakes". Nor organizations maintain a full-fledge report on workplace and commute violence, neither these incidents come out in public except rare cases. These incidents are tremendously rampant in our country day after day. (Rozario, 2001). Odhikar, a leading human rights NGO of Bangladesh, documented 5151 dowry related violence on its documentation unit since 2001 to 2016. Though dowry in domestic sphere was traced out since many years before, resulted the enactment of dowry prohibition law in 1980, it is found out of control yet. Figure 6 shows that in last five years, dowry related incidents increased more than 14 percent in average in comparison to the incidents of previous 10 years. In describing Dowry demand, one of the respondents stated, "I had to give dowry to my husband in time of marriage. What I should say, I am asked yet to give more to him very often, even by his parents too. There is no end of their demands". Additionally women also face some other forms of violence in domestic sphere including child marriage, sexual harassment, and non-participation in decision making including pregnancy, abortion, and sterilization. On the contrary, in educated and wealthy family, psychological violence get new shapes including humiliation, dominance, threats, verbal abuse, denial and blame etcetera but all these forms of violence go unreported. # VII. Policy Recommendations Firstly, accurate and systematic record on the incidents of VAW should be maintained by both governmental (police, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Women and Children Repression and Prevention Special Tribunal, Department of Women Affairs, and local government) and non-governmental organizations, and make available to masses to comprehend its trend and severity, might open the door of further researches. Secondly, workplace violence requires urgent and special concentration with measures while rape, eveteasing; and of trafficking in public sphere; murder by husband and husbands family, dowry, and psychological aspects (require psychological counseling and treatment) in domestic sphere. Finally, legal and other initiatives i.e. castigating perpetrators (lifetime imprisonment in special cases) as well as motivation and awareness program are highly encouraged. # VIII. # Conclusion The overall trend show that some of the violence in family and public sphere are on decrease i.e. acid, fatwa, and suicide etcetera while rape, murder, and dowry related violence are on increase in the same sphere yet. Additionally, women often victimized by different sorts of violence in commute work and workplace but no proper records are maintained. In terms of measures addressing VAW, Bangladesh has enacted various laws, legislation, policies, and sanctioned numerous conventions to punish perpetrators. In the same way, many NGOs and women organizations also work to ensure the rights of women. The matter of exhaustion is that off enders often go unpunished yet as victims do not claim remedy or file any cases due to social stigma. Furthermore, corrupt police officials, less delegation of women in authoritative positions, parental tendency to put their girls to ferocious husband, illegal practices of politics, lack of proper record and documentations, and patriarchal family system kindling it. Sensitization of masses with awareness program, maintenance of proper record, transparency in police departments addressing patriarchy may lead to women's emancipation. Special attention requires in workplace challenging security, and safety in commute. ![Volume XVI Issue VI Version IAuthor: e-mail: ajita_mitra01@yahoo.com Trends and Patterns of Violence Against Women in Bangladesh public sphere violence, violence in commute to work and workplace, and domestic violence get place in this study.IV.Violence in Public SphereAcid Violence: Basu & Jaising (2005) identified acid violence as popularized crime in between 2001 to 2005 in Bangladesh depicting its use as a means of revenge by rejected suitors since 1980. Nowadays, the slope of acid victimization in Bangladesh is diminishing day by day. The documentation unit of Acid Survivors, a renowned NGO of Bangladesh, documented total of 2898 incidents of acid attack from 2001 to 2015 where the number of total victims were 3254. Figure 1 shows that the percentages of acid victims from 2001 to 2005 and 2006 to 2010 were more than four times and two times higher consecutively in comparison to the total victim of 2011 to 2015. Source: Documentation Unit 2001 to 2015, Acid Survivors Foundation Rape: Rape cases underreported due to the fear of losing family admiration and even not being approached to marriage (Chowdhuri, 2007). Following figure 2 shows that in last five years, as recorded by the statistics unit of Odhikar (2001 to 2015), the percentages of rape victim increased 10.61 percent in comparison to its previous five years though the slope diminished in comparison to 2001 to 2005. Disproportionally, increase of child rape incidents is a thought-provoking matter that went up to 12 percent in last five years in comparison to the incidents of 2001 to 2010. Source: Statistics Unit on Rape 2001 to 2015, Odhikar.](image-2.png "") 1![Figure 1: Acid Violence against Women](image-3.png "Figure 1 :") 2![Figure 2 : Rape Incidents, and Children Victim of Rape](image-4.png "Figure 2 :") 10062.46%57.71%5025.47%28.46% 12.07%13.83%Total Incidents0Total Victims2001-20052006-20102011-2015100%34.78%23.66%41.56%50%44.59%22.39%33.02%0%2001-2005 2006-2010 2011-2015One of the respondents stated, "In all cases I am not safeto the police as they rarely come forward to help me andvery often avoid feigning not to see me in time of crisismoment".Odhikar (2001 to 2015) has documented 77 rape incidents committed by law enforcement agencies from 2001 to 2015 reporting 44.16 from 2011 to 2015, that is 14.29 percent and 18.19 percent higher in comparison to the incidents of 2006 to 2010 and 2001 to 2005 successively. Rape is the second most common form of violence among police (Chowdhuri, 2007). 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