***It must be remembered that we are at the threshold of twenty-fist century and women all over the world are making strides in their efforts to have their voices heard. Bangladeshi women also want their voices and demands to be heard and recognized. They don't want to be used as vote bank. They want meaningful representation.***

Recently the Prime Minister, while laying the foundation of a 12-story complex for Jatiya Mahila Sangstha Bhaban on November 30, 1998, stressed on the importance of women's empowerment for our national development as well as strengthening of our nascent democratic order. She is correct in saying so since an operative democracy. not to speak of a successful democracy, is not possible if country's women folks, who constitute 48 per cent of the total population, are not given any opportunities to make their voices heard and unable to bring any influence on the policy formulation of the government. It is not simply possible to enhance the consolidation of our nascent democratic system without broadening the democratic base, which can happen only with the mainstreaming of women into the system. Have we been able to do so? The answer is a dismal no. So far there have been only rhetorics (and we are very good at it) but no sincere efforts or commitments to the cause. There are numerous ways, evidenced in the developed democracies, by which women can be integrated Into a political system. But in a country like ours, where we need to take short cut routes, one of the most effective ways to do that would be to ensure women's meaningful participation at the national level politics.

But wait, I can see our political class (100 per cent of whom are male) getting ready with sharpened arguments to drown my premise even before I have a chance of presenting it in full context. Let me cite some of the very well acquainted, casual and at times silly (forgive my audacity) remarks made by Bangladeshi western educated secular elite whenever women's issues are brought up. They would loudly proclaim that the top leadership of the country is in the hands of women. 10 per cent of the seats of 300-memoer

parliament are reserved for women, there is a quota system for women in every cadre of civil service and at the Union Parishad level one-third seats are reserved to be directly elected by the women etc. etc. So what more do we want?

While not disagreeing with the statement that there has been encouraging progress of women's involvement in the political process in the country during the last one and half decade, in reality their ratio is minimal when compared with the vast number of women living in the country. And in spite of increased female participation in the national level elections, the desired goal has still remained a far cry.

In order to mainstream women in the national political power structure, the need of the hour is to thoroughly examine the existing electoral system. The system has produced women parliamentarians (from the reserved seats) whose role and effectiveness have nothing* but one big disappointment. Thanks to the mode of election (rather selection by the winning party stalwarts) they have basically served as a vote bank' for the majority party and remained satisfied by playing a secondary role to their male counter-parts. Till date, there have been only a few women cabinet ministers in the high-est-decision making body. So it is quite evident that women's presence are minimal at all spheres of decision-making bodies. As a result, women have not made significant advance from lower levels uf professional and corporate ranks into position of power and leadership. The almost insurmountable impediments of

women's endeavours to get into national power structure of country are numerous, and I do not want to get into the details of those factors. One big issue which should be taken up immediately Is the question of women's representation In the National Parliament and make It effective and meaningful.

The Action Plan adopted during the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing in September 1995 — the Government of Bangladesh lias ratified, with minor changes in clauses 192. b and d — propagates to 'consider measures in electoral system that encour ages political parties to inte-

grate women in elective and non-elective public positions in the same proportion and levels as men.' and 'review the differential impact of electoral systems on the political representation of women in elected bodies and consider where appropriate. the adjustment or reform of these systems.'

The major burden of the responsibility. 1 am afraid, lies on the shoulder of the political parties alone. Although the major political parties have women s wings, posts of women's affairs secretaries at various tiers of their party organizations and women workers in their central and working committees but their number is insignificant. Moreover, the womens wings work more as a fifth wheel of the party and

have little or no influence on their respective parties' decision-making and policy formulation process.

The parties do not care to nominate those women who worked either at the district or grassroots levels, which usually are the breeding grounds for young, motivated and aspirant women leaders. These leaders are not given any chance to demonstrate their political acumen. I found this out while working in a workshop for the women candidates (not the nominees of the major political parties) who contested the 1991 election but could not get elected. Through my interac-

lions with these women political leaders, their political sagacity, skill, intuitiveness, dedication, willingness and commitments to bring about a societal change, especially with regard to women's issues astounded me. Most of these hard working women could not get elected because they had no party machinery to back them in their electioneering endeavours. So the nature of women's representation remained similar to the previous one. A few women stalwarts were directly elected who were effective but their minuscule number could not create any effective impact. And the thirty women MPs from reserved seats who certainly did not represent any section of the population, not to speak of the women population.

as such, were not much of any help.

Obviously, if we do really want to integrate the women into the mainstream politics, isn't it about time that we start healthy debates and prepare meaningful suggestions so that womens representation becomes really effective and replace the present constitutional provision, which has utterly been ineffective In representing women and would expire in 2000 AD? Here is an area where state intervention is a must and if necessary there should be constitutional provision so that the parties are bound to take steps to improve women's peripheral situation in the political arena. A number of steps can be taken to alleviate the situation such as making mandatory provisions for all political parties to reserve 10 per cent nominations for the women. Such mandatory provisions exist in Nepal where every political party is bound to keep 5 per cent of the nomination reserved for women. Such arrangement may not be enough as male politicians are adroit enough to make sure that women are given nominations in those constituencies where the chances of winning is indeed precarious. Nonetheless it is a right step in the right direction.

The point is. even in the developed democracies the electoral system is constantly under scrutiny so that there is effective representation of all segments of the society so that no special or interest group is able to take advantage of it and thereby misuse it. Given.that criterion the question naturally arises so as to why the major political parties are silent on this issue. How do the interests of the major political par-

ties serve under the present electoral system for women's representation? The answer is quite obvious. It has been mentioned earlier: Both parties want to use the thirty reserved seats for women as vote bank. We may recollect in this connection how both BNP in 1991 and the Awami League in 1996 managed to get the required majority to form the government.

Isn't it then obvious why the major political parties' maintain such ominous silence on the issue? And why does not the Prime Minister while presenting the list of revolutionary steps taken for women's empowerment talk about much needed electoral reforms so that the women are really represented in the Parliament and in the decision-making process? Does it not then erode the credibility of our leadership's commitments toward women's political empowerment?

It must be remembered that we are at the threshold of twenty-flst century and women all over the world are making strides in their efforts to have their voices heard. We. the Bangladeshi women, also want our voices and demands to be heard and recognized. We don't want to be used as vote bank. We want meaningful representation. A national debate on the issue should ensue as soon as possible. Hopefully, the leaders of our country would lead us to a world characterized by equality, development and peace and would not be indifferent to our most vital need i.e. ensuring direct political empowerment of the women so that we can take part in our national development. . Mere awareness and campaigning for political parties, which are in no way less significant, is not enough to fulfil our potentials. We must become effective legislators. cabinet ministers and formulate policies so that we can shape our own destinies and our own future.