In recent times there have been increased media report of violence that are being meted out to women, children, vulnerable groups and in some instances, men by people who are seen as superior or stronger.
Some of Gender Based Violence range from false marriage, child marriage, rape, defilement, physical violence and emotional violence. Some of these violence have resulted in the death of the victims, the most affected being women.
Though stakeholders and government has put in some effort to eliminate or reduce these violence in our communities, there seems to be a rise in the occurrence of these vices in our communities, especially in rural communities.
Speaking as a panel member on the Community Watch Show on Word FM in Zuarungu as part of awareness creation on the use of two applications : Let’s Talk App, and ClearnApp Ghana, that have been developed by the Ghana Statistical Service to increase citizens reporting on Sexual and Gender Based Violence and Sanitaion issues, The Deputy Director of Social Welfare of the Bolgatanga East District, Madam Paulina blamed the rise in the reported cases of Gender Based Violence on cultural practices, the fear of women losing their marriage and low law enforcement.
” There are so many reasons why there is a rise in Gender Based Violence cases in our communities. Some of them are our cultural practices, the fear of women losing their marriages if they report and the low enforcement of our laws by the appropriate authorities.”
She said some societies forbid women from reporting violence against them with the excuse that when such issues are reported the perpetrators would be disgrace.
“Look, in some communities, the women are forbidden from even speaking about their ordeal because those societies think that the men would be disgraced if they are reported. Women who report their husbands are seen as bad women who have bad character and are usually chased away from their marriages. So they fear to even mention it. The victims see it as normal to be abused. That is bad!”
On the issue of low law enforcement, she was not happy that though there are laws forbidding some of these vices, the law enforcers let these victims out of the hook without enforcing the laws.
Madam Paulina and her other panelists, Madam Sadia Sampana of the NCCE and Yussif Alhassan of the Bolgatanga East District all encouraged victims or anyone with the knowledge of someone who is being abused to use the Let’stalk app to report the cases of GBV which would subsequentlybe taken on by the appropriate law enforcement bodies.
The two applications, The Let’stalk and the CleanApp Ghana can be downloaded from appstore or playstore.
By: Simon Agana Blessing:mywordfmonline.com