Law Minister Anisul Huq today said the repression of women is a big hurdle to achieve the expected development of the country.

The women who are lagging behind are often the victims of social exploitation and torture in every sphere of lives although the constitution of the country has provided their dignity and rights equal to those of men, he said.

The minister came up with the observation while addressing as the chief guest at the inauguration of a special training course for special public prosecutors of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunals at the Judicial Administration Training Institute (JATI) in Dhaka.

The government led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has taken various steps to remove the hurdles in the course of achieving the expected national development, Anisul Huq said.

One of the steps is the modernisation of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, he said.

The minister said that the government set up 41 more Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunals in 29 districts last year along with previous 54 such tribunals and appointed judges for them in order to quickly dispose of the cases filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.

He said no new backlog of women and children repression related cases took place, rather the backlog of 1,831 such cases have been reduced in last one year.

The law minister asked the special public prosecutors of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunals to abide by all the instructions regarding the court’s time management in order to accelerate the disposal of cases.

JATI Director General Justice Khondker Musa Khaled and Law Secretary ASSM Zahirul Haque Dulal also spoke on the occasion.