Committees to prevent sexual harassment in schools, colleges and madrassahs across the country have remained largely non-functional amid negligence of authorities concerned, lack of coordination among different bodies, underreporting and social taboo.
In this backdrop, incidents of sexual harassment have continued to take place in educational institutions, with the perpetrators in many cases not being brought to book.
The High Court on May 14, 2009 directed all educational institutions to install the sexual violence prevention committee, and the education ministry sent orders to the institutions accordingly.
Though, as per the education ministry, around 80 per cent schools, colleges and madrassahs already have this committee, the officials concerned could not provide any statistics of sexual harassment.
More agonisingly, officials of the Wifaqul Madarisil Arabia Bangladesh, one of the six boards for Qoumi madrassahs, claimed the High Court directive was not applicable to them as they were not under the education ministry.
Researchers, rights activists and officials of the ministry said that most of the incidents of sexual harassment went underreported due to social taboo.
Weak monitoring, lack of coordination among the authorities and absence of a law to implement the High Court rule are the major reasons for the ineffectiveness of these committees, they added.
A 2024 survey report of Aachol Foundation, a youth-led social organisation working on mental health and well-being, conducted on 1,570 students from 88 universities in the country showed that 1.8 per cent of these students faced sexual harassment on campus while 59.4 per cent students could not find any teacher to express their problems.
The Violence against Women Survey 2024, published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in 2025, 1.3 per cent women aged 15+ faced physical violence by male teachers and 0.8 per cent by the female teachers.
Currently, a set of guidelines, prepared by the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, on providing protection from sexual harassment in all offices and government and non-government educational institutions under the directorate, is awaiting approval from the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the education ministry.
In January this year, the draft of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Ordinance was given in-principle approval by the previous interim government.
Kamrun Nahar, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education assistant director and focal person of the committee to implement the instructions and policies to prevent sexual harassment in educational institutions and workplaces, said that soon after the HC ruling they sent order to the educational institutions to install the committee.
‘But at that time the institutions did not implement the order,’ she said.
Later, on December 8, 2022, the directorate sent a letter with seven instructions to the institutions under it, Kamrun said, adding that since then to till now around 80 per cent of educational institutions under the ministry installed these committees.
She, however, could not give any further statistics in this regards.
The directorate also has very little or no information on how effective these committees has been.
Most recently, for the first time, they collected the number of complaints of sexual harassment from the educational institutions, Kamrun Nahar added.
‘Between March and November last year, we got 187 such complaints,’ she said and added that they sent letters to the authorities concerned to collect data that how many of these complaints were resolved so far.
Professor Mir Zahida Naznin, DSHE planning and development wing director, said that these committees mostly remained ineffective as in most cases the female students do not want to lodge complaints even if there are these committees due to social reasons.
While talking with some school authorities in different districts, teachers of Kaziarchar Samiruddin High School at Zajira under Shariatpur and Sharashia Basharchala High School at Sakhipur under Tangail have said that though they have this committee, there have been no complaints.
Teachers of Jakalia Girls High School in Katiadi under Kishoreganj have said that they do not have any such committee as yet.
Currently, there are 58 public and 116 private universities in the country, as per the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh.
According to the UGC international collaboration division director Jesmin Pervin, all of the universities have these committees, and soon under a UN Women project, they will begin collecting data to see how many of these are effective.
Dhaka University’s women and general studies professor Tania Haque, who was member of a previous committee, says that the committee works effectively but the university authorities should survey how many students and teachers know about this.
Campaign for Popular Education executive director Rasheda K Choudhury said that there is no news, information, or monitoring regarding these committees.
‘Action is usually taken only when there is an incident,’ she said, adding, ‘while the ministry has issued instructions, there is no follow-up or monitoring system in place.’
She also said that monitoring harassment should not be the sole responsibility of just one ministry as it is also the responsibility of the ministries of women and children affairs, home affairs, and the local government.
Bangladesh Mahila Parishad president Fauzia Moslem said that when the High Court directive first came out, it needed to be translated into a law to be properly implemented.
‘Without a law, it is difficult to take action or enforce the directive,’ she said, adding, ‘violence is not being prioritised, so these directives do not remain effective for long.’
Meanwhile, there are around 30,000 Qoumi madrassahs only under Wifaqul Madarisil Arabia Bangladesh, one of the six boards for Qoumi madrassahs, said assistant director general of the board Ismail Hossain.
He said that the 2009 High Court ruling is not applicable to them as they are not under the education ministry.
Responding this, Kamrun Nahar and Rasheda K Choudhury both said the ruling is applicable to all educational institutions, and if anybody tries to bypass it, it is contempt of court.
Meanwhile the DSHE on August 13, 2024 sent the draft guideline to the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the education ministry for its approval.
On November 12, 2025 the directorate again sent the letter.
Till now there is no approval, Kamrun Nahar said.
DSHE director general Professor Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel said for monitoring these committees they will consider including a component in their existing Digital Monitoring System.
