Friday, 31 March, 2023
E-paper

Make digital space safe for women

Make digital space safe for women

In recent times, Bangladesh has made a remarkable progress in improving the lives of women. Despite the fact, women face lots of challenges in our society. As per press reports, 82 percent of married women suffer from gender-based violence. Pervasive sexual violence prevents them from achieving their full potential. Many a time the bright light of life goes out because of such incidents. Of late, Bangladeshi women fall victims to a new type of crime—cybercrime. Criminals are committing this sort of crime following misuse of information technology (IT). We are quite concerned at the rising trend of cybercrime against the country’s womenfolk.

Because of such crime, personal lives of thousands of women have turned miserable. The life of a victim is just as miserable as it is emotionally damaged. If such an accident happens to a woman, she has no way to move normally outside the home. It is sad indeed that even though such incidents are on the rise for some time, there are a very few instances where cyber criminals have been punished. Definitely, a major part of the responsibility to stop such crimes falls on the police force, especially the cybercrime fighting unit.

But a question arises—how many victims have been provided with prompt and necessary support by the police unit till date. The law enforcers must have the willingness and required manpower and tools to reach out to all the victims who report to them about their woes. All of the cases filed in connection with cybercrimes must be disposed of quickly, which will act as a deterrent to prospective criminals. Stringent measures should be taken against the criminals. It is the duty and responsibility of the government to make digital space safe for women. What more needs to be done on a priority basis is raising awareness among young users about the harmful aspects of the internet.  Parents and educational institutions have also a major role to play to address the pertinent issue.