Why is it always her world that shrinks?
Today is International Day of the Girl Child. But after all these years, can we honestly say our girls are safe?
Reading
This week, a 15-year-old schoolgirl in Lalmai, Cumilla, was heading home. Police say the auto-rickshaw driver she got into raped and killed her, and that he has confessed. Somewhere, a family is grieving a child who should have been doing her homework tonight.
She isn't alone. Between January and June, the Human Rights Support Society documented 1,621 women and girls subjected to violence, up 56 per cent on last year. Of 404 rape victims, 238 were children and teenagers.
And justice? It crawls. More than 116,000 cases were stuck in the women and children tribunals at the end of June. Over 26,000 had been waiting more than five years.
Yet we keep telling girls to change their route and be home before dark. Why is it always her world that shrinks?