Coordination between organisations fighting for workers’ rights is imperative to ensure rights of tea workers, said speakers at a workshop yesterday.

Rights activists have demanded amendment of section 155(4) of the Evidence Act to protect rape victims from being demeaned during cross-examination before court.

National Forum for the Prevention of Violence against Women, a platform of 26 human rights and development organisations, have expressed grave concern over the acquittal of five accused in the Raintree rape case.

Reaching deep inside the Sundarbans, one will be taken aback to see mobile banking agents at such a remote place. But their set-ups inside the forest do a lot to help thousands of anglers, who build temporary houses there during fishing season.

Law enforcers stood mum as the marauders conducted their mayhem at the puja mandaps during Durga Puja, several of the victims told the hearing while giving their deposition to it.

‘Justice denied on grounds of character, for how long?’ was the slogan of the women who took to the streets of the capital at midnight on Thursday.

The country’s people should work together to establish the secular Bangladesh that Manabendra Narayan Larma dreamt of, said speakers at a meeting yesterday.

“On this day in 2016, three Santal brothers were killed but they did not get justice till today. The killers were identified but never arrested. This five-year-long trial is not moving forward either,” former caretaker government's adviser and human rights activist Advocate Sultana Kamal said today.

Marginalised people in the country are facing discriminatory attitudes in many cases while seeking government services and benefits, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) said in a study today.

Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Alliance demanded judicial investigation into the recent communal violence, including arson attacks on the houses of Hindus.

Right activists yesterday urged the government to form a separate ministry and commission to safeguard the rights of indigenous people across the country in the wake of constant attack on their ancestral land.

Although the rate of child marriage in Bangladesh has dropped by 40 percent since independence, 13 million girls in the country are still married off before they are 15, mostly at the compulsion of family or society. 

Thirteen environmentalists, rights activists and prominent citizens have issued a letter to Sylhet divisional commissioner, demanding protection of the ancestral and customary land of the Khasi people living in Daluchhara and Belkuma Khasiapunji, located in the Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar.

The minimum wage board for tea workers, a government-led tripartite body, have continued the 170-year-long “tradition” of depriving workers by recommending an unfair wage structure that conflict with existing laws, said speakers at a virtual dialogue yesterday.

A recent study on the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on child marriage situation in Cox’s Bazar found that its rates have increased significantly in the district since March 2021, with the highest increase of 82 percent in Eidgaon upazila.

“I don’t believe that expressing an opinion can be considered a crime. I still believe in freedom of speech.”

Around 57 percent tea garden residents still defecate out in the open, speakers said at a press meeting yesterday. They said this is due to cost-constraints, negligence from tea garden authorities, and lack of space inside households.

Jhuman Das is still in jail, a day after the High Court granted him bail, as the order is yet to reach Sunamganj.

For the last 20 years, Chinami Madraji has been working at a tea garden in Moulvibazar. Rain or shine, the 35-year-old mother of five works for eight to 10 hours a day.

One-year-old Ishan Das Shoumya was all smiles as he played on the bed, but his mother Sweety Rani Das could not fight back the tears as she spoke about the nightmare that was the last six months.