WHILE addressing the inaugural ceremony of the International Women’s Day Programme at Osmani Memorial Hall in the capital on March 8 last, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made vows to repeal the existing laws that discriminate against women. The prime minister made pointed reference about the salient steps her party and government have taken including the nomination of maximum number of women candidates in the last JS polls, induction of women members in the cabinet and a firm pledge to increase the number of seats for women in the Parliament to 100 in future.
With her announcement that her government will reintroduce the National Women’s Development Policy adopted during the last AL government to ensure gender equality in society, there is a flicker of hope in the air. Despite what the prime minister says and her government proposes to do, the reality is somewhat different. Laws are enacted in the parliament but never enforced in the houses and streets. In the meantime, the plight of women in the country has gone appallingly high.
Undeniably true, Article 27 and sub-section (1), (2), (3) and (4) of Article 28 of the constitution speaks volumes of equal rights of citizens in unequivocal terms. Sadly, the portrait of the country people envisioned 38 years ago with women having equal rights and opportunities is yet to be materialised. Till now it is hard for women to take up any vocation, either job or business, or any project and carve out a future for them. They are the most deprived and neglected section of the society. Most women in the country after these long years have little support from either parents, or husbands or in-laws or society at large.
A World Bank report on women’s health in the recent past concludes that poverty and deeply etched social attitudes have produced a kind of hidden holocaust of the country’s female population The closest thing to a single culprit is the dowry system, which makes a daughter a family burden and a son, who collects the dowry, an asset. But there are other factors, including the illiteracy or the low level of education in the villages, where many girls meet their fate.
It is always hard to comprehend violence — the greed, anger, jealousy or plain sadism that can drive people to commit acts of unimaginable horror. A report published in The Daily Star on March 10 last indicated that Lucky (16), a young housewife married for only nine months in Meherpur became a victim of acid attack by none else than her husband and members of his family. Lucky, a student of class nine in a school under Mujibnagar upazila was married to Jamal, a peon in another high school. Immediately after the marriage, Jamal’s family demanded two bighas of land as dowry but Lucky’s family was too poor to meet the demand. As Jamal and his family started torturing Lucky for not complying with their demand, Lucky filed a case against Jamal in Meherpur court under Women and Children Repression Act and Jamal was arrested. After coming out on bail, Jamal started hurling threat to Lucky and her family and at one stage while she was collecting water from a tube well, Jamal mangled her body by pouring acid. Lucky is now fighting for her life in Meherpur hospital.
It is hard to comprehend and harder still to believe. It sounds horrific as one goes through a report published in The Daily Star on March 10 last indicating that a 4-year old girl at Boalkhali under Dighinala upazila in Chittagong was violated by one Mostafa in the same village on the day the International Women’s Day was observed in the country. Another report published in the same newspaper on the same day indicated that a woman trafficker was caught red handed at Ishwardi while fleeing with five children, four of them girls and all of them students of class four in a school there.
Pathetically true, scores of children and women in Bangladesh are either trafficked or attacked in the manner indicated above every year. There are about 200 acid attacks every year, according to Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association which provides legal aid to the victims. It was revealed in a workshop arranged by the Acid Survivors Foundation last year that there were 1090 acid terrorism cases in 18 districts in the country in 2007 but the courts could deliver verdict in only 89 cases and in most of the cases the perpetrators numbering about 377 escaped scot-free. With 781 cases withdrawn through reconciliation or compromise settlement, 315 cases have been dismissed for want of adequate evidence and loopholes in the investigation.
The two core issues, namely elimination of social injustice and economic exploitation of the girl child could only be tackled through motivation, policy guidelines and bold leadership exercised at the highest level of the government. Women seem to be discriminated against in the society in ever greater proportions. And the genesis of discrimination and cruelty against women can be traced to the inexplicable attitude of social apathy inherent in the male population. Speaking about Bangladesh, though the constitution provides for equality between sexes with proper protection for women and children, the score card is dismal.
The fact is mere formulation of policy guidelines unless implemented in practice will never bring about emancipation of the women folk in the country. People are still governed by family customs and rules that fail to give women their due. Economic progress and change in traditional attitudes will be needed to halt the degradation of women. Even more important is education; as female literacy rises, birthrates drop, life-span increases and the status of women is enhanced.
Without a shadow of doubt, the country suffers inexorably because of its flawed and discriminatory education system. The country has always had problems — in multitudes. Today the emphasis is on its potential — 150 million people, more than half of whom are women. Despite a growing consensus on the importance of women’s work, gender disparities and inequality of opportunity and treatment persist. Too many women in the country are denied the right to go to school, to be qualified to take a job for which they receive equal pay. Too many are concentrated in the informal work sector, underemployed or unemployed. Scores are barred from access to loans, credit or exercising the most basic of the legal rights. This means when the male member either husband or father in a family dies, or becomes disabled due to disease or accident, the whole family lands in a sea of calamity and distress.
Because of some mistaken religious taboos, traditional customs and beliefs that women must remain indoors and there is no need to educate them, held fast by a section of our populace, the picture of Bangladesh now is pretty dismal. Women are the most neglected section in Bangladesh society till now. According to official statistics, about 36 percent girl students drop out from classes six to eight, the drop out rate is 73 percent from classes nine to ten and at the higher secondary level it is a galloping 83 percent. The reason can be attributed to poverty, early marriage, lack of security and gender disparity. But the fact is no boom can be sustained without making proper effort to educate our girl child.
The country now bears the brunt of depriving women their right to education. It has been said before but it needs to be repeated ad nauseam that literacy is the key to development, healthcare and job. Above all, it is the key to population control. It has been proved over and over that literate women tend to have fewer babies. In village after village, one could see that it is the poorest, most illiterate women who have the most babies. There is something sickening about the country going into the 21st century with the largest number of illiterate people.
Source: http://www.thedailystar.net
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