Challenging the Norms: Breaking the Silence’s Quest to End Child Sexual Abuse
A group of people were shocked by the hush around child sexual abuse 29 years ago. In 1996, they founded “Breaking the Silence” (BTS) in the hopes that debates and other initiatives would increase public awareness of the issue. BTS did not anticipate that their efforts would result in a record degree of public awareness, though. By speaking up, they contested the notion that sexual abuse was a “normal” occurrence.
Early marriage, Forceful manipulation or Non-consensual rape, and Romantic or sexual encounters are the three major methods of child sexual abuse. This is challenging in Bangladesh because of the high rate of child marriage. While BTS is now working on this issue, its main attention is on children who have experienced sexual assault and who are powerless to stop it because there is no social awareness of or comprehension of this as abuse.
Based on over 100 case studies from both urban and rural regions, BTS issued its ground-breaking report, “Non-Commercial Sexual Abuse of Children in Bangladesh,” in 1994. The investigation made two previously unrecognised discoveries: first, manipulative sexual abuse, which is pressured, forced, pushed, or emotionally manipulated, predominating the sexual abuse scene rather than rape. According to Bangladeshi law, this is the same as rape.
A portion of the media first expressed harsh hostility, but the majority supported the report and gave it considerable attention. The quiet surrounding sexual assault started to break loudly as people and authorities started to face the facts they already knew and talk about what could be done.
BTS is a social service organisation that is managed by engaged members who are united by a shared commitment to the mission. Name lenders are not nominated, professional, or prestige-driven individuals. As a result, a coalition of regular people who care about BTS has formed. Maintaining the gains obtained has relied heavily on the leadership’s consistency. Tasmima Hossain, Editor of Ittefaq and Anannya, and General Secretary Roksana Sultana have served as Chairperson since their inception. The majority of current members have been with BTS since birth or shortly thereafter and intend to stay until the end.
Civil society actors took up a challenge in their research on the subject and raised societal awareness at a time when it was not on the policy agenda of the government or even the UN. Swedish Save the Children (Radda Barnen) played a vital impact in the improvement of INGOs’ knowledge and willingness.
BTS’s information-based advocacy was highly successful. The organization’s community-based fieldwork and public mobilisation provided strong proof that the issue required attention. The rest was simpler after the Government of Bangladesh endorsed the issue.
The work of BTS, which was started nearly 30 years ago, demonstrates that regular people can make a difference even without a lot of resources and bring a problem out of the darkness of denial and neglect and into the mainstream or light if not quite enlightened. The taboo around child sexual assault has been broken, and BTS stayed true to its word.
Source: UNB
