Let us however, not confuse perception of harmony with lack of conflict, or conflict with violence. Here the WBGNS 2006 has limitations. It focuses on _knowledge of incidents of conflict_ . It does not capture civil disputes such as those regarding property, about which complainants may seek mediation or other recourse. The disputes that come to the Madaripur Legal Aid Association (MLAA), discussed later, are primarily family related but property related matters and enforcement of contracts also form a large part of the case-load. Our content analysis of shalish ―stories‖ also shows that minor property disputes are common sources of tension between households. Other property related disputes stem from petty thefts. In addition, shalish of all types and our own data from village courts indicate that there are large number of cases of theft, street fights and property disputes.

<!-- Start of picture text --> Figure 3: Perception of occurrence of spousal violence in the<br>community safety of women<br>Perception of occurence of spousal violence in the community<br>Based on the question “Is it usual in your community for xx to happen”<br>Based on the question "Is it usual in your community for xx to happen"<br>100 Source: World Bank Gender Norms Survey 2006<br>90<br>80 Older Women (45-60)<br>70 Younger Women (15-25)<br>Men (25-50)<br>60<br>50<br>40<br>30<br>20<br>10<br>0<br>%<br>Wife beaten for going out without telling husband Wife beaten for not getting money from natal home Wife beaten for neglecting house/children Wife beaten for not cooking properly Wife beaten on suspicion of being in realtionship with another<br><!-- End of picture text --> There could be several reasons why the reported perception of harmony is so high. First, pride in their community may prevent residents from admitting to conflict. Second, petty thefts may not be perceived as conflict. Third, property disputes are often intra-family disputes and as such may not be understood as causes of conflict within the community. Finally, violence may actually be preempted through acceptable dispute resolution mechanisms and the promise of recourse. Of course each of these explanations is speculative, and there may be in fact be something in the way the question is asked that gets us these responses, underscoring the difficulties in measuring these issues. What is clear is that perception of harassment of women and girls is much higher than perception of general conflict in both India and Bangladesh.

Another limitation of the data at hand is that they do not capture conflicts arising from the demands for accountability by the citizens from the state. Our tabulations from the WBGNS 2006 indicate that access to services such as health and education are important problems listed by respondents. Yet, whether grievance mechanisms to address these issues are working or not is not clear from the extant literature on Bangladesh. The Research and Evaluation Division of BRAC, for example, finds in its 2007 governance report that ―insecurities arising from administrative and judicial systems‖ were reported across three in-depth community case studies.<sup>10</sup>

> the WBGNS 2006 the questions were based on whether the respondent **had heard of** the occurrence of similar events in the community.  Therefore, the Bangladesh numbers look higher.

> 10 BRAC Governance Research Group (2007), p. 18.

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