Speakers at a rally in the Sylhet city on Saturday called for stricter maintenance of law and order to stop violence against women.
They also stressed social movement in this regard.
They were addressing the rally in front of the Central Shaheed Minar at noon after a sit-in programme in demand of putting an end to repressions against women in the country and giving exemplary punishment to the guilty persons.
Sylhet district unit of Sushasaner Janya Nagarik, people for good governance, and non-government organisation The Hunger Project Bangladesh jointly organised the programme participated in by the representatives of different professional and social groups.
The speakers said 56 women are harassed and 11 raped on an average every day in the country.
They apprehended that sustainable development, achieved through increased participation of women in the development activities, would be hampered seriously if harassment of woman was not controlled immediately.
SJN Sylhet unit president Faruk Mahmud Chowdhury chaired the rally addressed, among others, by Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal district general secretary Lokman Ahmad, District Press Club president Aziz Ahmed Selim and general secretary Sangram Singha, Sylhet chamber of commerce and industries director Layes Uddin, Workers Party polite bureau member Sikandar Ali, Sylhet Woman Chamber and Commerce president Nurunnahar Baby, indigenous community leader Gauranga Pathra and S Rina Devi and Green Foundation for Disabled secretary Rajab Ali Khan Nazib.