# **Table 1:  Bivariate relationship between knowledge of conflict and region in the last year**

||**Barisal**|**Chittagong**|**Dhaka**|**Khulna**|**Rajshahi**|**Sylhet**|**Total**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Incident of conflict|_% reportin_|_g yes_||||||
|Anyone's money taken away against<br>his/her wish|13.33|20.28|17.55|17.23|10.29|9.06|15.29|
|Anyone opposed women working<br>outside the home|1.45|13.4|2.43|4.4|5.35|3.17|5.29|
|Anyone physically assaulted outside<br>the home|8.98|23.94|5.89|13.79|16.37|6.83|12.92|
|Anyone encountered harassment<br>while traveling|5.78|14.99|4.14|12.18|8.6|2.38|8.14|
|Anyone physically hurt for political<br>reasons|10.92|23.81|6.71|23.34|9.42|4.61|12.54|

Source: Authors‘ calculations based on World Bank Gender Norms Survey 2006 Note: The relationship between region and gender norms/violence discussed in greater detail in World Bank, 2008 _People seem to ―live in harmony‖ in the community but violence against women is high._ While perception and knowledge of violence in the community are low, levels of violence within the family seem to be high, based on survey data. The WBGNS 2006 asked questions on spousal violence and found that 24 percent of women in the 45-60 age group and 30 percent of women in 15-25 age group reported ever experiencing violence by their husbands. An even higher proportion - over 43 percent of male heads of households reported ever having been violent to their wives. The extent of violence reported by husbands against their wives is much higher than this in the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2004<sup>6</sup> . Women in the WBGNS 2006 were also asked if they had experienced violence at the hands of anyone else and only 2 percent reported that they had.

Dowry has been increasing in Bangladesh over time and the social norms moved from a regime of bride price to a regime of dowry in over the last two generations surveyed in the WBGNS 2006. It was practically non-existent in the older cohort of women surveyed– only 7.7 percent of these women compared to over 46 percent of younger women had to pay dowry at their weddings. Its increase over time and the ―inflation of dowry rates‖ has also been associated with harassment of the woman and her family for more dowry (as reported in World Bank, 2008). Concomitantly, government and legal aid activists have realized that local dispute resolution systems are needed mainly to address family related matters (Asia Foundation, 2007; Hassan, 2006).. This picture is also in keeping with the type of cases that the major legal aid organizations receive. Thus, about three-fourths of the cases handled by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust **(** BLAST) and (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) are family related (Hassan, 2006). Among these, inheritance (intra-family property related disputes) seems to form a large part. We have no information of the type of conflicts that arise against the state or service providers. The picture we get from our surveys and from the existing literature is that the level of perceived conflict in the community is low and cases that do go to legal aid organizations are mainly family or property related. The extent to which there is provider bias -

> 6 A much more detailed analysis of this can be found in World Bank, 2008

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