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Education is prerequisite to women's emancipation

Bitter'trutH
UNDER pressure from activists - and to help win over female voters — successive governments in the past tried to enforce laws to protect women. In 1995 as the acid attacks spiralled, the Parliament passed the Women and Child Repression Control Act, stipulating death sentence as maximum penalty for such assaults. Sadly true, laws are enacted in the Parliament but never enforced in the houses and streets of the country. In the meantime the plight of the women in the country has gone appallingly bad. With the Chief Adviser making a disclosure in the 11th national conference 2008 of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad on January 17 last in the city that the government would announce a women development policy soon to ensure gender equality in society (The Daily Star, Jan 18), there is a flicker of hope again in the air.
The portrait of the country people envisioned 37 years ago with women having equal rights and opportunities is yet to be materialized. Till now they are perhaps the most deprived and neglected section of the society. Most women in the country 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.
It is always hard to comprehend violence -- the anger, jealousy or
plain sadism - that can drive people to commit acts of unimaginable horror. How, for instance, are we to understand the evil spite of a group of miscreants led by Abdur Razzaq, who crept into Taslima Khatun's (26) house at Ganeshpur village of Kaliganj upazila in the Satkhira district in the middle of night, poured acid on Taslima and three of her family members and walked away as she woke screaming. All because she refused to sleep with him as reported in the Daily Star on February 12 last. A report published in a Bangla daily on February 14 last indicated that Nilufa Begum, a young estranged housewife at Gournadi, Barsal became a victim of acid attack by none else than her husband Babul Mridha after continuing an abusive relationship for ten years all because Nilufa filed a torture case against her husband.
Pathetically true, scores of women in Bangladesh are attacked in this manner every year. There occur about 200 acid attacks every year, according to Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association which provides legal aid to the victims. A report published in a Bangla daily on February 19 last indicated that when Hasina Begum, just in her teens, refused to respond to the sexual advances by the boy servant in her house and informed her family about his vile motive the* boy servant, poured acid on her face and different parts of her body. For three years and a half, the police could not arrest the perpetrator but as the harrowing tale of her suffering was published in the media, the police nabbed the perpetrator in just 24 hours! Hasina narrated the tortuous experiences of her family in police station and court during all these years in a workshop arranged by the Acid Survivors Foundation at the Brae Centre on February!8
last.
It was revealed in the workshop that there were 1090 acid terrorism cases in 18 districts in the country during 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.. Often the perpetrators are spurned suitors who feel that, if they cannot have the women they desire, they must mangle them so badly that they have no takers. Others use acid --most people do not know where this is available despite the restriction imposed on its sale -- against women as punishment in property feuds, or because a bride did not bring enough dowry. These men are driven by revenge, and it seems as if throwing acid has become a common thing or fun forthem.
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. Though the constitution provides for equality between sexes with proper protection for women and children, the score card is dismal. While the Chief Adviser of the CTG has reiterated his intention to declare Women Development Policy and Citizenship Act that will ensure equal representation of women in running the statecraft in the
National Conference of the Mahila Parishad, there are hurdles on the way that the Chief Adviser must have envisioned.
The fact is that formulation of policy guidelines unless implemented in practice will never bring about emancipation of the women folk in the country. Pathetically true, people are still governed by family customs and rules that fail to give women their due. Undeniably true, economic progress and change in traditional attitudes will be needed to halt the degradation ofwomen. Even more important is education, as female literacy rises, birthrates drop, lifespans increase, and the status of women is enhanced.
Unfortunately, people watched unending political feuds and a mad race for either clinging to power or going to power between the two leading political parties that has stifled all nation building activities and pragmatic planning. Because of the politician's failure to lead the nation and give proper policy directions, the country has, of late, been a hotbed of chaos. With terrorism, killing, hijacking, abduction, drug addiction and trafficking of women and children on the rise, people were sick of the government and politicians of all hues. True, with firm commitment, and policies towards halting the trafficking of women for forced labour, domestic servitude and sex exploitation, the edifice of a happy and prosperous society could be built. Because when women are guaranteed basic human and labour rights, the whole family and the community benefit. More so, when women gain the knowledge and power to make their own choices, society is better able to break the chains of poverty.
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 learn to read, to be qualified to take a job for which they may receive equal pay. Too many are concentrated in the informal work sector, underemployed or unemployed. Happily, the Chief Adviser while inaugurating the second National SME (small and medium enterprise) Women Entrepreneurs Conference 2008 at a hotel in Dhaka recently (The Daily Star, February 14, 2008) has asked the banks and financial institutions to ease lending system, waive collaterals and lower lending rates for women entrepreneurs. But the fact remains that scores are still barred from access to loans or credit or exercising the most basic ofthe legal rights.
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 jobs. Above all, it is the key to population control. It has been proved over and over that literate women tend to have fewer babies. As I traveled through the far flung areas of Satkhira, I watched in horror the extent of our population problem. In village after village it is the poorest, most illiterate women who have the most babies. As I watched their living conditions, what struck me was that the conditions in which these women and children live are worse than where the village animals live. There is something sickening about the country going into the 21st century with the largest number of illiterate people. Isn't it possible to shame our leaders and policy planners into doing something?
Md Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.
***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 jobs. 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 it is the poorest, most illiterate women who have the most babies. There is something sickening about the country going into the 21 st century with the largest number of illiterate people.***