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Dhaka: Bangladesh plans to include the issue of domestic violence in school textbooks as part of a growing campaign against gender-related violence. This, as a study conducted by a leading think-tank has found that as much as 10 per cent of the country's GDP is wasted due to "spousal violence" alone.
"We are working to include the domestic violence issue in the primary textbooks to make people aware about it from their childhood," women and children affairs adviser of the interim cabinet Rasheda K. Chowdhury said as Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) disclosed the finding at a seminar late on Saturday.
The government, she said, had already taken the initiative to strengthen the monitoring system and toughen legal actions to check domestic violence.
Bills
The CPD study showed 342.3 billion taka (Dh18.3 billion), which was roughly 10 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), was spent each year towards the medical and legal bills of tortured or injured spouses.
The study said, of the total cost associated with violence against women by their husbands, 131 billion taka, or 4.1 per cent of the GDP, went towards the medical treatment of the injured or traumatised wives.
The women need to spend 18.9 billion taka for treatment, displacement, arbitration, legal service, criminal justice and lost working days due to spousal violence.
Chowdhury said all political parties should declare their plans for tackling gender violence as the country was set to go to the polls in December this year, ending a two-year emergency rule.
"This spousal violence should be seen as a law enforcing responsibility of the state," CPD chairman Rehman Sobhan said.
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