ABSTRACT: The constitution of Bangladesh guarantees equal rights for both men and women in all spheres of state and public life. It also declares that steps shall be taken in ensure participation of women in all spheres of national life. Bangladesh Government has been continuously adopting of the preemptive policies, legislation, strategies and taking national affirmative action plans and program for accelerating the implementation process in achieving the goal of holistic empowerment of women. Violence against women (VAW) is a global phenomenon that exists even beyond cultural, geographical, religious, social and economic context. Violence against women is widespread in terms of Physical, psychological, sexual and economic aspects. Despite the increased attention to the problem of VAW, there is still a substantial lack of information and data on the scope and extent of the incidence. Detailed data on women’s experience of violence is needed in order to better understanding the phenomenon and developing targeted policies and measures to prevent and combat VAW. Bangladesh has become one of the pioneers through conducting the VAW Survey 2011. The results of VAW Survey 2011 identified that as many as 87% of currently married women have ever experienced any type of violence by current husband and 77% reported any type of violence faced during the past 12 months from the survey time. The higher percentage of any type of violence is predominantly contributed by psychological violence. Almost 90% of those who have ever violated by current husband has the past 12-month experience of violence which implies the persistence nature of violence by the husband. 65 percent of married women reported that they had experienced physical violence committed by their current husbands during their lifetime. About one-third of women who have ever violated by non-partner have the past 12-month experience also. More than four percent of women have ever experienced sexual violence by non-partner, and one percent of women experienced during the past 12 months. To maintain international comparability the standard questionnaire recommended by United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) was customized to fit with the socioeconomic context of Bangladesh. For this customization group consultation meetings were conducted with different stakeholders. Local female registrars among BBS’s Sample Vital Registration System (SVRS) were recruited as interviewers as they are well trained on data collection and have rapport with the ultimate respondents. Stakeholders like UN agencies, civil society and INGO/NGOs working for VAW issue along with different government bodies were involved with the survey processes. The report on Violence Against Women survey recommended to conduct the survey to follow up the changes in the results at every two years. Consultation with the users, experts, policy makers, planners, researchers and NGOs should be expanded with special care for future episodes o

1. Measuring Gender-based violence:
Results of the Violence Against Women
(VAW) Survey in Bangladesh
Presented by
Md. Alamgir Hossen
Deputy Director, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS)
Statistics and Informatics Division (SID)
Ministry of Planning, Bangladesh
Email: alamgir.hossen@bbs.gov.bd

2. Outline
 Bangladesh at Glance
 Background
 Objective of the Study
 Goal of the Bangladesh VAW Survey
 Sample design and Methodology of Bangladesh VAW Survey
 Indicators and Result
 Challenges faced by BBS in Questionnaire Development and Data Collection
 Lessons Learnt By BBS in VAW 2011
 The Role of BBS and Other Stakeholders
 Challenges faced in analyzing the data
 Conclusion
 Recommendations

3. Bangladesh at a Glance
 Bangladesh emerged as an
independent and sovereign country
in 1971 following a nine-month war
of liberation
 The country is covered with a
network of rivers and canals forming
a maze of interconnecting channels
 Bangladesh has an agrarian
economy, although the share of
agriculture has been decreasing
over the last few years

4. Bangladesh at a Glance … (cont.)
Area : 1,47,570 Sq. km.
Total Population : 149.7 Million ( Male 50.6%, Female 49.94%)
Density : 1015 Per Sq. km.
Sex Ratio : 100.3 Male per 100 Female
Pop. Growth Rate : 1.37 %
Literacy Rate : 57.91
GDP Growth Rate : 6.12 % (2013-14 FY)
Per Capita Income : USD 1,190
Capital : Dhaka
State Language : Bangla
Major Religion : Muslim (88.8%)
State Currency : Taka divided into 100 Paisa

5. Background
 Violence against women is associated with the gender disparity
status of the society and state
 The Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees equal rights for both men
and women in all spheres of state and public life
 Some of the articles in the Constitution are firmly patronizing towards
women rights:
 The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion,
race, caste, sex or place of birth-Article 28 (1)
 Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making special provision in
favour of women or children or for the advancement of any backward section
of citizens- Article 28 (4)
 Steps shall be taken in ensure participation of women in all spheres of national
life as a fundamental principle of state policy- Article 10

6. ... cont.
 Bangladesh has also signed its commitments to the Convention for the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984
 Bangladesh Endorsed Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) in 1995
 Bangladesh Government has been actively engaged in adoption of preemptive
policies, legislations, strategies and taking national affirmative action plans and
programmes
 Notable actions have been taken by the government to protect women's legal
rights and improve their social status:
 The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1980 which forbids anyone from giving or receiving dowry
 The Nari-O-Shishu Nirjatan Daman Ain, 2000 (Law on the Suppression of Violence against Women
and Children, 2000) expanding the definition of rape and sexual assaults
 Acid Crime Prevention Act, 2000 and Acid control Act, 2000 as a primitive measure to protect from
the acid violence
 Family Violence Prevention and Protection Act, 2010 and National Women policy, 2011 was
adopted for the empowerment of women

7. ... cont.
 The contribution of women in employment is encouraging as about 16.8 million of
females are engaged in different economic sectors
 The women share in full time worker in Permanent Economic establishment
estimated about 48% while female workers are more than 40% of total person
engaged in all permanent economic establishments
 The Head Count Ratio (HCR) of incidence of poverty observed significantly less
(26.6%) for female-headed households than that of male-headed households
(32.1%)
 The adjusted net enrolment rate in primary education for girls are 87.8 percent and
dropout rate at primary school cycle (Grade I-V) is 12.2%
 Gender parity index in primary level enrolment is 1.02. Special emphasis has been
given to girl child’s education
 Government intervention for stipend for girls, free education up to primary level
have resulted in increased enrolment of girls and decreasing dropout rates

8. ... cont.
Women are holding an increasing share in public life and decision making
also:
 20% of seats held by women in current national parliament
 Women's share of government ministerial positions 8.16% among 49 ministers
 The position of prime minister and leader of opposition in the parliament is hold by women
during the last two decades
 The speaker of the parliament is a woman in the current parliament underway from the last
parliament
 Under the Local Government Act, 1997 three seats have been reserved for direct election of
women
 The Representation of People’s Order, 2008 provided for two elected Vice-Chairman for Upazila
Parishad (Sub-district Council), one of which must be a woman
 About 19% of managerial positions in the public service are hold by women
 All these statistics reveals that Bangladesh is marching ahead with the appropriate
mindset and progress on all socioeconomic fronts including women’s empowerment is
palpable

9. Violence Against Women (VAW)
... cont.
 Violence Against Women (VAW) is a global phenomenon
 Widespread in terms of Physical, psychological, sexual and economic aspects
 Certain types of violence, associated to traditional or customary practices
 Majority of abused women never seek help from the law enforcing agencies-formal
sources underestimate the magnitude (UNECE, 2010)
 Detail data needed to understand the phenomenon and policy measures (U.S.
Department of Justice, 2000)
 UNSD requested the UN member countries to establish system for data collection
and analysis by 2015
 Bangladesh has become one of the pioneers by conducting VAW 2011

10. Definitions of Violence used in VAW 2011
 Physical: Violence including slapping, fisting, boxing, throwing something to hurt,
pushing, shoving, pulling hair, shaking with hot things, throwing acid or hot water,
intentionally suffocating, shocking, burning, threatening with gun, knife or any sharp
weapon, beating etc.
 Psychological: Violence including controlling behavior like hindering to contact
with the friends and relatives, behavior like suspicion, hindering to see the physician,
forcing to wear hijab, obstructing in study or work, forbidding to go out for
recreation, using attacking word against parents, forcing or forbidding regarding
contraceptive use, misbehave for giving birth of daughter etc. and abusing like
insulting, belittling or humiliation, intimidation, threatening for marriage again or
divorce etc.

11. ... cont.
 Sexual: Violence by husband including hurting or forcing to have sex against her
will, having intercourse against her will, degrading or humiliating behavior while
intercourse or any other sexual violence; and violence by non-partner including
forcing to have sex or proposed to have sex or any sexual act against her will which
she found humiliating or disregarding. It also include childhood abuse physically,
mentally and teasing.
 Economic: Violence including refuge to give enough money for household
expense, pocket money, taking dowry (money/property) as condition of marriage,
pressurizing to get money from wife’s parents house.

12. Objective of the paper
To analyze the result of the VAW Survey 2011
To assess Indicators produced, disseminated & used and
rationale linked to those
To assess the challenges and lessons learnt by BBS in
collecting data on VAW survey 2011
To assess the role of BBS and other national stakeholders
involved in the survey
To identify the Challenges faced in analyzing the data

13. BANGLADESH VAW SURVEY 2011

14. Goal of the Survey
To generate official national statistics on the prevalence of
violence against women and to observe the overall
situation including the forms of violence along with their
magnitude in Bangladesh

15. Sample design
 A two-stage stratified cluster sampling was followed in the survey.
The whole country was divided into 7 divisions: each division treated
as stratum and each stratum again divided into two sub-strata:
urban & rural areas
 At the 1st stage, 420 Primary Sampling Units (PSUs) were selected as
Enumeration Area (EA) from the then 1000 IMPS* taking 210 PSU
equally from rural and urban
 At the 2nd stage, 30 HHs were selected from each of the selected EA
 A total of 12,600 eligible women over 15 years of age were selected
for interview (One woman randomly selected per household)
*IMPS: Integrated Multipurpose Sample.

16. Methodology of the survey
 A long questionnaire was used for direct interview
 The questionnaire was designed as per UNSD guidelines
 Series of consultation meetings to finalize the questionnaire
 The questionnaire consisted of two parts:
Household part: comprised of the household and individual modules;
and
Woman part: comprised of the current husband, previous husband and
non-partner modules

17. Data collection and response rate
Data collection period 19-28 December, 2011
Number of eligible women found in the
sample
19,534
Number of women randomly selected for
interview
12,600
Number of women actually interviewed 12,530
Response rate for interview 99.44%

18. Result of VAW Survey 2011
65
VIOLENCE PERPETRATED BY CURRENT HUSBAND (%)
36
Ever Last 12 Months
82
53
33
24
72
32
PHYSICAL VIOLENCE SEXUAL VIOLENCE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE ECONOMIC VIOLENCE

19. 45
Violence perpetrated by current husband (%) by age difference
83 82
79 78
83
91
83 82
35
56
53
46
40
43
51
60
47
67 65
59
56
62
76
66
53
10
39
35
32
26
34
40
37
29
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Less than
0 year
0-4 years 5-9 years 10-14
years
15-19
years
20-24
years
25-29
years
30-34
years
35 years
and abo
EVER
Psychological Economic Physical Sexual
30
76
74
71
69
66
82
71 71
5
35
33
28
26
30
32
40 41
20
49
48
42
36
41
57
28
23
20
15
19
21 20
18
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Less than
0 year
0-4 years 5-9 years 10-14
years
15-19
years
20-24
years
25-29
years
30-34
years
35 years
and abo
DURING LAST 12 MONTHS
Psychological Economic Physical Sexual

20. Violence perpetrated by Previous husband (%)
59
32
Ever Last 12 Months
73
49
20
9
32
16
PHYSICAL VIOLENCE SEXUAL VIOLENCE PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE ECONOMIC VIOLENCE

21. Violence perpetrated by Non-Partner (%)
25
Ever Last 12 Months
24
4
8 8
1
PHYSICAL OR SEXUAL VIOLENCE PHYSICAL VIOLENCE SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Non partner: Anybody other than husband.

22. Violence by non-partner: First Forced Sex
At age of Percentage
05-09 1.7
10-14 41.8
15-19 34.3
20-24 9.9
25-29 4.9
30-34 4.1
35-39 2.3
40+ 0.9

23. Getting treatment due to violence
Reasons for not taking treatment due to
violence
Current husband
(%)
Previous husband (%)
Treatment received for violence 51.8 51.3
Afraid of husband 17.3 22.6
Husband didn’t allow 15.2 8.9
Not necessary 51.6 41.0
Afraid of other family member 3.4 2.9
Afraid of social prestige 8.6 6.0
Other 4.0 18.6

24. Economic violence: Dowry status
Dowry Status
Current husband
(ever)
%
Previous
husband (ever)
%
Condition for giving
money or property
during marriage
33.7 24.0
Pressurize to bring
money or things from
parent’s house (after
marriage)
12.6 17.7

25. Physical & mental impact due to violence
Type of Impact
Violence by
Current Husband
(%)
Previous Husband
(%)
Mental sickness 42.2 42.9
Attempted to suicide 7.1 12.9
Non-sleep 17.1 5.4
Other 0.2 1.8
No appetite 18.4 7.6
Abortion 1.1 1.4
Non-response 13.9 28.0

26. Reason of not taking legal action due to violence
Why legal action wasn’t taken
Current
husband (%)
Previous
husband (%)
In fear of husband 8.1 14.5
Husband has right to torture 6.7 6.4
Husband didn’t allow 2.7 1.6
Wasn’t necessary 40.1 27.7
In fear of members of the household 2.8 2.9
Thinking future of the children 20.9 12.1
Thinking of family or own defame 16.5 12.2
Others 2.2 1.3
Not reported - 21.3

27. Perception about violence by place of occurrence
21
16.2
12.8
4.9 7.2
87.7
5.3
13.3
5.8
14.2
0.7
22.26
25.5
8.7
4.6 5.6
85.8
5.3
12.1
6.8
11.3
0.6
15.6
28.9
43.5
10.3 9.9
54.4
8.6
12.4 12.1
16.4
1.3
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Physical
Psychological
Sexual

28. Challenges faced by BBS in Questionnaire Development and
Data Collection
 Customization of UNSD standard questionnaire to fit with the
socioeconomic context of Bangladesh
 Incorporating the stakeholders’ demands from different points of
views
 Recruitment of gender sensitized interviewers with required
qualifications
 Gender sensitization of the field force involved in the survey
 Rapport building with the respondent.
 Getting the respondents alone for the interview
 Unwanted presence of family members while interviewing
 Ensuring confidentiality of the personal information

29. Lessons Learnt By BBS in VAW 2011
Conducting such a sensitive survey without having enough
relevant experience
Handling and coordinating with the stakeholders involved
Introducing ICR technology in a standalone survey

30. Role of BBS and Other National Stakeholders
A convergence approach steered by BBS starting from
survey tools development to data dissemination
Stakeholders like UN agencies, Other government
agencies, civil society and INGO/NGOs working for VAW
issue
Stakeholders were also directly involved at the field level
training

31. Challenges faced in analyzing the data
Introduction of ICR technology to save time and avoid
redundancy and inaccuracies
Manual edit of the questionnaire with proper care of ICR
guidelines
Substantial misread information was found in the scanned
results
Pre-scanning, editing and cleaning for untidiness and
overcoming inconsistencies
Shortage of time, ICR equipment and skilled manpower
were the major challenges to complete the data analysis

32. Conclusion
 Violence Against Women Survey 2011 was the first nationally
representative survey in Bangladesh
 The statistics concludes that combating the violence from the society,
immediate action plan should be taken to make the society safe for
the women by prioritizing the contextual factors
 Bangladesh government has signed many international treaties and
conventions, and enacted different national laws and policies-
Domestic Violence Act in 2010
 Ensuring the involvement of men and youth is essential
 Report of VAW survey can be a guideline to set priority for combating
the violence against women

33. Recommendations
 Customization of the questionnaire to avoid biasness
 Customization of the questionnaire by sensitizing with gender issues
 Separate result with the contextual variables side by side with all
variables
 Generating composite index for each type of violence
 Categorizing the violence by severity in the questionnaire
 Conducting follow up VAW survey regularly to get the substantial
changes against different approaches and efforts
 Expanding the consultation with stakeholders with special care for
future episodes
 Sharing and adapting the global experience for future episode of
VAW

34. References
BBS. (2011). Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010. Dhaka: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
BBS. (2012). Report on Sample Vital Registration System 2010. Dhaka: BBS.
BBS. (2013). Violence Against Women Survey 2011. Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
BBS. (2014). Labour Force Survey 2013. Dhaka: BBS.
BBS. (2014). Provisional Report on Economic Census 2013. Dhaka: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs. (1972, November 04). The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Retrieved from Laws of
Bangladesh: http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/sections_detail.php?id=367&sections_id=24576
MoWCA. (2009). Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women Bangladesh. Dhaka: Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, GoB.
U.S. Department of Justice. (2000, November). Full Report of the Prevalence, Incidence, and Consequences of Violence Against Women. Retrieved July 23,
2014, from National Criminal Justice Reference Service: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/183781.pdf
UNECE. (2010, March 2). Interviewer’s manual: Violence against Women survey using the UNECE VAW Module. Retrieved July 23, 2014, from United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe:
http://www1.unece.org/stat/platform/download/attachments/24117336/VAW+module+Interviewer%27s+Manual+%282+March+2011%29.doc?v
ersion=1
UNICRI. (2014). Violence against Women Survey. Retrieved 2014, from United Nations Interrigional Crime and Justice Research Institute: Violence against
Women Survey

35. Thank You
www.bbs.gov.bd