Abstract

Like most South Asian countries, domestic violence was alarmingly high in Bangladesh, but it saw a surge during the prolonged lockdowns in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. Several factors triggered increased tension in the family, subjecting female and adolescent members to emotional, economic and physical abuse. Two factors among them were cited most frequently by NGOs: a) financial hardship, and b) lockdown rules which forced both men and women to stay indoors at all hours of the day. Against this backdrop, Nijera Kori, an NGO known for its different approach to mobilising landless people, came to learn that during the pandemic incidents of domestic violence were taking place among members of landless organisations that it helped form and guide through various difficult times. Questions then arose about the strategies Nijera Kori employed in its practice, especially about what role those strategies were playing in containing intimate partner violence (IPV) among members of the landless organisations. Commissioned by Nijera Kori, this qualitative research aims to understand the extent to which female members of the organisations experienced IPV both before and during the pandemic, and also, how it could achieve more in effectively containing IPV among the organisations’ members.

Supported by secondary literature and extensive quantitative data, this paper also explores members’ perceptions about violence against women (VAW), sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), sexuality, decision-making, birth control, and early marriage and dowry because all of these issues are ideologically inter-connected. As members of organisations that uphold democratic values in their practices, these landless people are better equipped than the average person from an identical socio-economic background to know how to tackle issues of domestic violence. It explains why many of the findings confirm that Nijera Kori’s strategy of collective action, as opposed to palliative micro-credit or service-oriented action, is a step in the right direction. However, findings also suggest that IPV is not altogether absent in the lives of these respondents, whether there is a pandemic or not. This research proposes that while most of the respondents have gone through transformations after having been involved with the landless organisations, many of them are still heavily influenced by patriarchal thoughts regarding violence and SHRH issues, and that there is need for more campaigns and interventions aimed at further ideological transformations towards a truly democratic understanding of women’s rights and other related concepts.