Dhaka: Young girls living in slums cannot often disclose the incidents of sexual or physical violence committed against them, nor seek medical help because of the stigma surrounding rape, abuse and domestic violence.

‘The main issues are the stigma and their sense that they have no alternative - even though their husbands are assaulting them, they think they will have to stay with him. Some see it as their fate,’ said Moury, a physician who treats victims of sexual or physical violence in a clinic at Kamrangirchar.

International medical organization Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) runs three clinics in the areas of Alinogor, Thoda and Jawlahati under Kamrangirchar for the treatment of women who faced abuse in different forms.

‘We see women are often too scared to seek help, but as awareness is growing among them of such services being available, more and more women are seeking treatment,’ Moury added.

According to MSF data, the number of women treated for sexual and gender-based violence in the three clinics almost doubled in 2015, with 1154 patients compared to 684 patients in 2014. The victims included those who experienced rape, intimate partner’s violence, sexual violence and domestic violence.

Emilie Gassier, MSF’s project coordinator in Kamrangirchar said ‘As soon as we opened these decentralised clinics with programme of raising awareness locally we saw a large number of women and girls who needed medical care.’  

Gassier said usually women come to get help when their husbands or relatives were at work. Often they cannot afford the cost or get time to go to other areas of Dhaka. So it is important to have clinics near their homes to help victims go there without needing to explain anything to anybody.

MSF collaborates with the One Stop Crisis Center (OSCC) run by the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs at Dhaka Medical College Hospital in severe cases that require referral services, Gassier added.

According to the World Health Organization’s 2013 data, almost one-third (30%) of all women have who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by their intimate partners.