Md Abdur Rahim Khan

The Constitution of Bangladesh has conferred equal rights and political, social, educational and employment opportunities to women. Over the past decade and a half, women are becoming more and more conscious of their constitutional and statutory rights. The Bangladesh government is undertaking all possible measures to establish gender equality and social justice needed for women’s advancement. It was President Ziaur Rahman who first took up the cause of women and development with great public zeal. A separate Women’s Affairs Division under President’s Secretariat was created in 1976. This Division was later reshaped into a full-fledged Ministry (the first in the Asia Pacific Region) during 1978 and charged with the responsibilities of formulating policies and strategies for women’s development and implementation thereof.

Over the years, collective commitments and actions of government and NGOs have resulted in a quiet revolution in even the remotest village of Bangladesh. Bangladeshi women may still be veiled, but today they often stride ahead of their menfolk. Two most important secrets for Bangladesh’s turnaround are micro-credit and exportable garments. These sectors have contributed to accelerate the process of women’s mobility and visibility both in the rural and urban areas. The government is keen to increase female literacy rate to enable women to participate in various socio-economic activities. Elaborate programmes supported by substantial allocation of resources have already been undertaken in this respect. The gender gap in enrolment at primary level has been totally eliminated. The stipend programme together with other pragmatic steps undertaken by the government, the female enrolment at the secondary level of education has increased tremendously.

The programme run by Government of Bangladesh entitled “Programme to Motivate, Train and Employ Female Teachers in Rural Secondary Schools” is facilitating and, accelerating a smooth transition to a more gender-sensitive and equitable society in rural Bangladesh through promoting more girl-friendly secondary schools and high quality gender-sensitive teaching in rural areas. The programme will support Bachelor of Education (BEd) training for 6,800 serving and potential graduate female secondary school teachers and provide permanent employment of up to 2,800 female BEd graduates and temporary employment for about 3,200 female graduates in rural non-government secondary schools.

In the economic sphere government is making all-out efforts to integrate women in the development process and to create opportunities for employment and income generation. This has resulted in women’s participation rate in economic activities to go up to 55.9 per cent in the year 2003. The current trend also indicates that the traditional roles of women are changing fast. In 1989 females comprised 21.0 million (29.5 per cent) of the total labour force of the country. The present women labour force is 39 million. (The writer is director of Social Science Research Council, Ministry of Planning, Government of Bangladesh)