It is only woes without empowerment.
Md. Asadullah Khan
WHILE the nation celebrated the 100th International Women’s Day, the stark reality is that the status of women has not substantially changed for the better even after an appraisal of the fact that empowering women, meaning redistributing power from men to women, can ensure more balanced development. Gender inequalities in access to resources and opportunities negate the concept of human development and the spirit of democracy. Empowerment that would have given the vast majority of women the choice and self- development is missing.
Reports on women’s work and their plight suggest that poverty and deeply etched social attitudes have produced a kind of hidden upheaval in the country’s female population. Though women constitute more than half of the population, hardly any meaningful effort has been taken to enable them to participate in political, socio-cultural and economic life equally with men.
Social injustice and economic exploitation of the girl child could only be tackled through motivation, policy guidelines and bold leadership at the government level. Women seem to be discriminated against in the society in ever greater proportions, the genesis of which can be traced to the apathy inherent in the male population of the sub-continent. Though the Bangladesh constitution provides for equality between the sexes with proper protection for women and children, people are still governed by customs and rules that fail to give women their due.
Unfortunately, people have been watching during the last few years an unending feud between the leading political parties that has stifled all nation building activities and pragmatic planning. Till now, the energy, imagination, talent and potential of our young men and women could not be fruitfully channelised to take the country forward. The edifice of a prosperous society could be built with firm commitment and policies towards halting the trafficking of women for forced labour, domestic servitude and sex exploitation. Because, when women are guaranteed basic human and labour rights, the whole family and the community benefit. When women gain the knowledge and power to make their own choices, society is better able to break the chains of poverty.
Despite growing consensus on the importance of women’s work, gender disparities and inequality of opportunity and treatment persist. Too many women are denied the right to go to school, or to take a job for which they receive equal pay. Too many women are concentrated in the informal work sector. Scores are barred from access to loans or credit, or from exercising the most basic legal rights. That means when the male member in a family dies or becomes disabled, the family lands in a sea of calamity and distress.
Against the backdrop of such a bleak scenario that cripples development, women are the most neglected and tortured. The poignant picture that comes to mind is that of something killing or neglecting the girls and young women. The single culprit is the dowry system, which makes a daughter a family burden and a son, who collects the dowry, an asset. For many, dowry is a social malady that makes their lives extremely miserable.
Even in a country where abuse and neglect are facts of life for many women, acid attacks are alarming for their frequency. Incidents of acid attacks have been reported from all corners of the country among practically every economic class. The reasons range from property feuds to sexual advances to rejected marriage proposal. Speaking in general, although the acid victims usually identify their molesters, whose guilt can then be established with certainty, many women find court appearance traumatic. Women’s rights activists have rightly said: “We keep making new laws, but wherever we go, we just see violence and more violence against women.”
For women, it is a difficult battle to win. They are handicapped by history, victims of a firmly embedded gender system. Still some women — though a minority — are fighting back. More aware, better educated and exposed to a liberal culture, they refuse to be conveniently fitted into stereotyped roles. It is an impressive defiance but it comes at a cost.
Because of orthodox or conservative notions that keep women away from any constructive or meritorious work, the picture in Bangladesh is now pretty dismal. Although Bangladesh has a male-female ratio of 96:100, women have been neglected in the society. The majority of petty construction workers are women. These hapless women, some with babies on their backs, haul bricks on their heads to soaring heights in the numerous buildings under construction. Female workers, despite the fact that they work for longer hours and with all seriousness, are given lesser wages than their male counterparts for the same work.
The neglect in educating girls is doubly alarming because education leads to a drop in infant mortality and a reduced birthrate. The Indian state of Kerala has a per capita income of only $156 but the literacy level is an impressive 90 percent. Because of the high literacy this state has been able to solve many problems that seem so intractable elsewhere in the sub-continent.
The dropout situation of girls in the country is appallingly bad. According to a government statistics made public in December 2008, 36 percent of the girls dropout before reaching class eight, and the dropout rate in between class nine and ten is 73 percent. Without a shadow of doubt, the country suffers inexorably because of its flawed and discriminatory education system.
While we talk about improving the economic condition of the people, we tend to forget that this can only be realised if the political climate improves. The stability that people look for in the days to come might unleash the entrepreneurial drive in the country, not only for men but women as well. The literacy rate, meaning not the mere knowledge of three R’s but signifying a level of quality education, is an indicator of the progress the country can achieve. If education is a means to learn skills and transform lives, then a sub-standard education is of no use.
In Bangladesh, remarkable changes have come about in recent years. Primary education is compulsory. More children are now going to school but the enrolment of girls remain poor, at about 10 percent compared to 23 percent for boys. Government during all these years attempted to get certain percentage of population onto schools but did little else. Other than the extreme poverty situation that stands in the way to women’s emancipation, parents in the rural areas consider it a priority option to marry their daughters off to prospective candidates in the village in the early years of their adulthood.
Moreover, other than the financial problems, the insecurity involved in keeping the girls onto schools and colleges as they grow up because of social vices in the form of harassment, lewd comments, teasing and even gang-rape discourage the parents to allow their daughters to schools and colleges for education. Subjected to teasing by village hoodlums day in and day out, as The Daily Star report on March 10 indicated, Reshma, daughter of a poor rickshaw puller Abdul Jalil and a student of Sherpur Technical school and college ended her life by taking pesticide on March 2. How can poor parents in rural areas muster strength and courage to send their daughters to schools and colleges when such social vices like teasing, acid throwing, abduction and even incidents of rape go unabated?
Pathetically true, despite existence of laws and stringent penalties, social attitude towards women’s status seem to permit these social aberrations.
Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.
e-mail : aukhanbd@gmail.com
Source: http://www.thedailystar.net
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