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Has Women's Position Changed Since Independence?

By Dr. S:\jeda Amin
The birth of a nation provides scope for revolutionary change. Post independence Bangladesh was a confusing - time: mixed with the euphoria of freedom was a deep sense of loss for the dead and a widespread sense of vulnerability. The turmoil of the war of independence, the tidal bore preceding it, the 9-month long war, and the flood and famine of 1974-75 combined to create a profound sense of insecurity tn the society.
The poverty of the 1970s pushed unprecedented numbers of destitute and poor women into the labour market. Women emerged from purdah to take up various forms of manual labour. The extreme crisis of the early 1970s provided the critical thrust needed for society to accept women's participation tn income earning activities outside the home.
The number of women tn the labour force has Increased gradually in the last couple of decades, even though the overall level of participation remains low. In the past five years, the growing garment industry had a widespread and truly visible impact on society in terms of women's mobility. As one occasional visitor to Dhaka observed: the number of women (garment workers) seen these days was unheard of In the early seventies ... they alone Indicate a sea change in the mobility of women.
The crisis of the 1970s spawned other changes with Indirect implications for women. Our dependence on foreign aid increased. Donors sought channels to disburse funds and manage poverty alleviation programmes, giving rise to a new breed of nonprofit, non-government organizations — popularly referred to as NGO'a—There may be exception. but the ruling ethos of these organization is to be progressive and oriented towards change — fighting the dead hand of tradition. These organizations often provide a friendly forum for feminist activism and have been effectively used in many Instances.
NGO's have brought more concrete benefits to the poor and to women. Some of the large and vciy effective organizations work all over Bangladesh to provide credit, education and health services that arc effectively geared to the poor. Before 1970, institutional credit to assetless rural
tent. Thanks to the work of Grameen Bank and other agencies, there has been a phenomenal increase in the amount of credit available to women for non-farm operations. The Grameen Bank alone has over 800,000 female bor-
rowers. Similar special credit programmes reached about 1.5 million women in 1985-89, that is 10 per cent of women in families that are functionally landless.
Poverty and increasing landlessness puts pressure on the traditional family structure. Unprecedented numbers of families are now fragmented or nuclear. While western influence and modernization are usually associated with nucle-
when bereft of a male partner, through widowhood, divorce or abandonment, not having a family to fall back on can have excessively negative consequences: as one author de scribes It, often the only option for elderly widows to turn to is early death. Given the large age difference in mar riage. prolonged widowhood is a virtual certainty for the average Bengali woman.
Rapid population growth
ation, In fact, there is probably a more rapid nucleation in progress that is triggered by landlessness, poverty and population growth. While nuclear living arrangements may be heralded because they represent a certain degree of freedom from patriarchal control, there are substantial costs that have to be borne by women. Since most women still have limited access to Income earning opportunities.
Photo by Stuart Rutherford has some adverse effects for women in the marriage market" the root cause for which Is a cultural preference for husband's to be much older than wives. Man are on average 8 years older than women when they first marry. As a result, there are many more ever-married women than men — one study estimates a 30 per cent excess of ever-married women. Since women become "eligible" for marriage at a
much earlier age than men, there are more women than men on the marriage market The recent high growth rates that we have experienced tn the past 30 years or so. has compounded this problem of excess. The emergence of dowry during this same period of rapid population growth bears concrete testament to the deteriorating bargaining position of women In marriage
By far the most widespread change 1n women's lives must be In the realm of birth control. In 1970 the average Bangladeshi woman had over 7 births, while in 1991 the average women has fewer than 4.5 births. Only 7 per cent of married women practiced contraception then while now over 40 per cent practice modem contraception. Even in the remotest areas women have access to multiple meth-oils of birth control. However, since the programme was geared towards reducing population rather than giving women reproductive choice, it has many negative aspects, such as poor care, elements of coercion (women are often forced to accept methods that may not be suitable)—nevertheless. the access to contraception has meant a radical change tn the live's of Bangladeshi women in every social class.
In terms of overall change since the 1970s, It is clear that a series of economic setbacks created a situation o( particularly high levels of economic uncertainty and Instability. The combined effect of events of the 1970s may well have precipitated a welter of social change of which the changing role of women was a part. Unprecedented population growth, led by mortality decline occurring sometime in the middle of the present century, set off a process of impoverishment and land scarcity and finally brought the society to a threshold whereby the traditional patterns of female seclusion, family formation and fertility are no longer sustainable. These varied changes, in the social structure have positive and negative Implications for women. Women today have greater autonomy and mobility than they did at the time of independence 22 years ago and they have a bet-tc? opportunities, especially if they are educated. On the other hand there has been a transformation in the family such that marriage has bleaker prospects. Are women better off then before? The answer can only be yes if we can get a fix on the institutions of marriage and family.
The writer is a research (el low in liangladesh Institute of Development Studies IDIDS).