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Chauvinists rule the DCC

SULTANA RAHMAN
Female ward commissioners in Dhaka feel discriminated against their male counterparts when it comes to development work
The female commissioners allege the local government division is not aware of their problems, which hamper their participation in the development work.
As per the rules of Dhaka City Corporation (DCC), a female commissioner, elected from three seats, should carry out 25 per cent of the development work in each ward. But it is alleged that the DCC is not following the rules.
"We are not getting even 25 per cent of the work," said one of the DCC commissioners.
The DCC senior officials also alleged discrimination. "Workless female commissioners are engaging in tadbir that hampers official work," she said.
Due to the discriminatory distribution of duties among male and female commissioners, the women representatives cannot fulfil their election pledges. They tend to feel downgraded.
"We have no peon or office staff in our offices only to double our problems," alleged Rabaya Alam, another commissioner.
A total of 30 female commissioners from reserve seats called at the DCC budget meeting for distributing and ensuring their participation in development as per local government rules. Last month, they forwarded a letter to the local government ministry before the
budget.
"After much discussion with the DCC and local government division, the women commissioners have got only Tk 3,000 taka a month in rent for each office," said Rabaya. "An office is hardly available at Tk 3,000. The minimum rent of an office is Tk 5,000 that we give on our own," she added.
"Women commissioners would lose credibility and popularity if they are not allowed to work for voters. It has been over one year and four months we have been elected. But we have not been able to do anything important. This is disappointing," said Commissioner
Shireen Rukhsana.
The direct election of women commissioners to the DCC was a major step toward women's empowerment to ensure their participation in nation-building on people's mandate.
"The word 'empowerment' means nothing to women representatives because of being so called 'half-commissioner' -- the reality that left us out of development work as we promised to people," said Shireen.
AYBI Siddiqi, local government secretary, says, "If we receive any complaint of discrimination, we will monitor and solve the problem."