Women and Children Ministry to launch Quick Response Strategy

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Dhaka, Nov 24—The Ministry of Women and Children Affairs is preparing to launch a Quick Response Strategy (QRS) to ensure action is taken within 24 hours in cases of violence against women and children.

Sharmeen S Murshid, Adviser to the ministry, shared the information at a press conference marking the start of the 16-day International Day for the Prevention of Violence against Women, held at the Information Directorate at the Secretariat on Monday.

The adviser said she has spent the past year working to reorganise the ministry so that information about any violence against a woman or child anywhere in Bangladesh reaches the ministry within 24 hours.

“The ministry must become active within 24 hours. That is the vision and goal. We must reach that girl within 24 hours,” she said.

She explained that the Quick Response Strategy has been under development for the past eight to nine months, and the Quick Response Team (QRT) is now at the initial stage of implementation.

She mentioned that the ministry currently has structures up to the upazila level but none at the union or grassroots level. “We need to expand the ministry and reach the union level,” she said.

Sharmeen S Murshid said children’s and teenage clubs are being revived and will act as the ministry’s “front desk” at the local level. Since these clubs exist in every union, they will be used to collect information about violence from every village and send it to the ministry.

“This will be our chain of command—from top to bottom and bottom to top. The process we need to set up to make this work smoothly is what we are launching through this 16-day programme. This is our experimental phase,” she added.

Speaking about the safety of girls in schools, she said, “Why can’t a girl in Class Six continue her studies like a boy in Class Six? We must think about this. And not only the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs—those who run the schools must think about it too.”

She stressed the need for separate toilets for girls in every school. “In my view, a school without a separate toilet for girls does not deserve to be registered. Because of such negligence, girls are denied access to education. Our society is so insensitive,” she said.

She added that school authorities often fail to recognise how such a small facility can make a huge difference in children’s education.

“I have asked the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to closely monitor and ensure the proper standard of toilets needed for girls to attend school safely,” she said. - UNB