Garo students to escort working women from their community to home at night

Garo Student Union (GaSU) has announced a security plan to escort the women from their community when they will return home from work in the capital at night during the upcoming month of Ramadan.

The programme, Indigenous Woman Security, was announced on Monday, four days after the gang-rape of a Garo girl in Dhaka.

GaSU President Deni Drong told bdnews24.com: “The recent rape incidents have exposed the state’s failure to safeguard women. That’s why we have to ensure our own security.

“Garo Student Union will take necessary measures so that the sisters from indigenous and Garo communities, who work until night... can reach home safely.”

Garo women, hailing from Mymensingh, mostly work in shopping centres and beauty parlours in Dhaka.

Drong said: “(Garo women) have to work until midnight before and during the Eid (ul-Fitr). We’re going to launch the voluntary programme to safeguard them during that time.”

The Garo girl, who was raped on Thursday, works at a shop in Jamuna Future Park at Kuril. A group of youths picked her up in a microbus when she was waiting for bus to return home from work.

Drong said they had divided Dhaka into four zones to implement the security plan.

Uttara, Khilkhet, Banani, Gulshan, Kalachandpur, Shahjadpur, Badda and Mirpur fall under Zone-A, Mohakhali, Mirpur, Farmgate, Monipurparha, Tejkuniparha, Tejturibazar, Rajabazar, Green Road and Kathalbagan under Zone-B, Zigatola, Dhanmondi, Satmasjid Road, Mohammadpur and Sukrabad under Zone-C and Motijheel, Paltan, Shahbagh, Dhaka University area, Azimpur, Old Dhaka and Lakshmibazar under Zone-D.

Drong said they were preparing a list of working women from the indigenous community.