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Round Table on Women's Rights

Mahfuz Anam Editor, The Daily Star
PRIP Trust, in association with Oxfam-GB and The Daily Star, organised a Round Table at The Daily Star conference room on September 28,2008. The theme of the Round Table was 'Women as Citizens: Ensuring Women's Economic and Political Rights and Slopping Violence Against Women in the Light of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).' The Round Table was moderated by Ms. Aroma Dutta, Executive Director of PRIP Trust. The keynote paper was presented by Dr. Kaniz Siddique, International Consultant, Ministry of Finance, and Gender Expert. The discussants at the Round Table included political figures, NGO experts and civil society members.
Details of the discussions at the Round Table follow on this and the following pages—
We would like to welcome you to this gracious session on women's empowerment This is an important issue, which has been initiated by Oxfam and PRIPTYust. My role here is only to facilitate the session 1 will deliver a welcome speech on behalf of The Daily Star and Aroma Dutta will conduct the main program On behalf of The Daily Star, I would like to point out that, as an organization, The Daily Star is committed towards women's empowerment. Therefore, we are truly proud to be a partner in such an endeavour.
Here, I would like to mention three points or aspects of women empowerment. These are economic, social and political empowerment of women. What had been somehow ruled out or taken to be as taboo in the past, women's economic empowerment is now an accepted norm or value I feel this is a very positive development. To give you a simple example: we can look at the garments sector, one of the major exports and foreign exchange earners for Bangladesh. In this sector, 80 percent of the labour force is women. One of the vital economic sectors is our agriculture. Here again women are the major economic contributors. For this reason, the recognition of women's contribution has increased significantly. However, they are deprived of the benefits of the economic contributions they make.
In addition, I would like to take this opportunity to mention, as another example, the ominous acid throwing that calls for a social movement against it. Unfortunately, only a few days back, The Daily Star had to report on it. Though they may seem insignificant and sometimes isolated incidents, these isolated and insignificant incidents depict a painful picture of our society and we should check these incidents so that these do not go on unabated. We are sincerely concerned about the victims and the criminals who are responsible for these crimes. Besides these, the problems of dowry and rape are recurrent and also have been bothering us.
Politically.it is advancement that women represent 33 percent of the seats in the Union Councils, though there are severe limitations in their participation. Altogether, we think that since the general elections are near, this is the appropriate time to apprise the political parties of women's rights and obtain a strong commitment on the selection of candidates. So I thank the organizers of the programme, PT and Oxfam, for their hard work in this joint effort. We will sincerely appreciate your assistance on selecting a clear policy based on people's expectations. We have many leaders with us and we believe we will be able to implement those with their help. Thank you again.
Heather Black Well
Country Director Oxfam GB
Good morning and welcome to this round table discussion this morning. Looking at the importance of including women's rights and women's advancement in the PRSP process, gender equality and gender equity are the two most important requirements for development in Bangladesh. This is widely recognized as a core for any development and already has been recognized in the first Poverty Reduction Strategy for Bangladesh.
Due to lack of political will and lack of effective consultation, we missed opportunities to really address women rights and advancement issues indeed effectively and completely in the Poverty Reduction Strategy In the first year, in the first draft of PRSP where initiatives have been taken by interested groups and women activist groups and women movement as part of this, Oxfam GB and PRIP Trust have jointly undertaken a serious advocacy. There have been initiatives at national and local levels with the aim of reflecting women's rights and gender equality issues more effectively in the national strategy of poverty reduction.
We have undertaken dialogue in line with CEDAW, the Beijing platform for Actions, MDG and national women advancement policies 1997. PRIP Trust and Oxfam GB conducted discussions at district, divisional and national levels and consultations with a variety of stakeholders and identified three main issues that needed to be addressed. The first, which is violence against women, second, increasing women economic leadership and empowerment and, third, increasing women political leadership Following these local level negotiations, three national workshops have been held from January to April 2008 to answer the question of whether national poverty reduction strategies are strong in some areas. We also identified the limitations in addressing women's rights and gender equity issues. Some examples of the weaknesses in the current strategies relate
to limited analysis of women's poverty dimensions, lack of emphasis on CEDAW implementation, weak recommendations to improve women's political participation and, lastly, missing of gender perspective in service delivery of the govern ment. These arc just examples of some of the findings, as today Dr. Kaniz Siddiqui will present the core findings of the three national work shops in a keynote speech .To conclude, poverty reduction is a road map to development and it is absolutely crucial that the issues of women's right and delivery of gender equity are fully comprehensively addressed.
Finally, in this context we expect that the government and all political parties will act on their commitment and as per international and national policies and conventions have that commitment reflected in the new national strategy on poverty reduction in Bangladesh.
Today we are seeking to have discussions and gather your views on the three issues highlighted and to be addressed in poverty strategy and to generate commitment from political parties on how they will work on these issues for the upcoming elections and in their manifestoes. So again a very big Thank you for your attendance and 1 hope for a fruitful discussion on the issues raised.
Abdul Awal
Executive Director, SUPRO
Our political leaders have told us many things about PRSP. In the context of Neo Liberal Economy the document named PRSP has been formulated in this current world. Neo Liberal Policy has been turned into a philosophy, then into politics and these are the basis of PRSP. I want to focus on one point as a grassroots activist — that we need to have a critical engagement with the PRSP document. The policy agendas have been shown here and those that have been highlighted as major agendas for 2009 to 2011 all have illustrated the same paradigm from the same type of table. We never see any initiative to come out and identify the structural causes of poverty, violence and inferior position of women. Alleviation of poverty is impossible from this position. It is shown again and again in PRSP that poor people and women are the debtors of micro credit. But we do not see any program that can help the poor people and women to be self dependent out of the safety net program. The growth centres which have some opportunities for women entrepreneur in every thana and union have been closed down. The community clinics of every thana and union also haven been closed. This program intervention provides no specific instructions for the community clinics and growth centres.
Women who struggle at the grassroots level have to be treated as producers and to be allowed to access and ensure their health facilities. We are facing food crisis which is to bring more suffering for especially the poor; but we clearly find this crucial issue is absolutely absent in PRSP. Finally, I think agrarian reforms and land reforms are urgently required for women's empowerment and for a reduction of their poverty.
Ayesha Khan am
President
Bangladesh Mohila Parishad
Over the last few weeks, we have heard much about the economic policy of Bangladesh and are surprised to see the global economic recession. I am not aware if the newspapers are covering news on socialist management and capitalistic economy. In this situation, weare asked to accelerate the PRSP, but we know nothing of the implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and what the findings of the Finance Ministry are. The acceleration is being asked for keeping in view women's issues, which is very important.
Next is the issue of citizens and how the term 'citizen' is viewed. In clause 18 of the Constitution, the issue of public life is dealt with, but there is no mention of private lives. Therefore, it is important to see how much the Constitution recognizes women. Since some argue that the Constitution is one of the best in the world, I would say that for our betterment, the law regarding citizenship is discriminatory and has not been changed for the last 37 years. For this reason, women as citizens do not enjoy this privilege equally, both legally and practically.
We want to reiterate again that we need to revisit and relate the question of women's citizenship, which 1 think is important. PRSP is wholly an economic issue; therefore, we need to look into whether a rights based approach and women's question of citizenship are a part of it. Later, follow-up has to be done accordingly. We should also see whether PRSP addresses integrated policy formulation as women constitute 50 percent of the population in Bangladesh.
Regarding the term "reflection’', used by Dr. Kaniz Siddique, I would like (o rearrange the sequence as: Human Development is the foremost priority; second is economic development, and then there is legal empowerment; which relates to legally unequal position that does not ensure political empowerment of women. I believe political empowerment means not only that women can vote, hut also women as candidates, as workers, and as campaigners Therefore, the whole issue of women should be put into perspective.
Members of different political parties who are present here and we have shared this issue -- which is, how women's political participation can be ensured from die Parliament to die grassroots level. How will we insure 33 percent women representation in the Parliament and 40 percent at the local levels? We all agreed to that and we are hopeful that this will come about eventually.
Therefore, not only in the PRSP, the political parties should decide how they will take the women's issues forward and how to prioritize the 23 point demand. When the Election Commission declared that 40 percent of the women should be represented in the local government level elections, to strengthen the local governments, some of the political parties opined that this is not possible before 2020.
We want to say that the women of Bangladesh have come a long way and this view has been substantiated by many researchers as well. They have advanced much in their role and in their attitude, but these were not possible because of the practical situations they are facing in their lives. The problem lies with the politicians' gap in understanding to evaluate the women's expectations, needs and their wants. The challenge is to minimize this gap and lead the women forward whether it is in the PRSP or not.
Another issue is violence against women. What is the logical result of this? I hope our leaders will discuss it. When the elections are held in December 2008, how will our leaders put forward the issues of women empowerment and bring them into their manifestoes? Flow will the Parliamentary or the Standing Committees take up women's issues?
Regarding the Constitution, we do not have the Constitution that was written in 1972. What we have is a communal constitution. Will our political leaders discuss it before the elections? We now ask: who will we vote for? There is also the question of war criminals, the people who are constantly against women's issues, and what stand the political parties take against them. What is their stand? We should relate these issues to the PRSP
Tania Amir
Lamy er
What I want to start with is that males comprise 50 percent of the population in our society and they have to change their mind set, which should be parallel to the women, which is most important. The question here is what we understand by society. Secondly, we hear about apologies on women issues from the political parties; because such issues (in relation to women rights) were not implemented in our neighboring country, or in some other country, and so forth.
Next, we have to resist religious fundamentalism to take forward the women's movement. The left parties use women to voice their concern to resist fundamentalism. For this, they say, we men are with you. For the right wing politicians, women are a "production unit”, which is totally a negative attitude. The women are used to increase profit and cheap labor. From the political spectrum, what we are seeing is women are not viewed as partners for national development. Can we proceed with that mentality?
A few of the political groups want to register with the Election Commission as political parties and I know that given the current law, it will be against the Constitution of Bangladesh and hence, they can't register as political parties. Then, why were there no suits against the offenders? In our country, the highest policy forming body is the Cabinet. The 2008Women Policy was approved by the Cabinet. There can be no extra constitutional or review body above this Cabinet. Therefore, 1 think there is a Women Policy. If there is any problem we will fix it and we will take care if there are any weeds in the process.
Dr. Mustafizur Rahman
Executive Director
CPD
Thanks Aroma. Also thanks to PRIP Trust, OXFAM and the Daily Star for taking this initiative today.
Today's discussion is very important. Our introductory discussion is on how we can focus on these issues on the basis of Dr. Kaniz's presentation on PRSP The criticism of PRSP has already come. I want to say that
this document already exists; perhaps a new political government Is coming; they may change this or may prepare another new one But we will need to have a plan. It Is very important to discuss how those women issues will be reflected in PRSP. So, there can be a debate on how PRSP was prepared or whether the politicians were related with this, or five year plans were good or not. But we feel that in our country five year planning could not play a vital role in poverty alleviation.
What shall we do with PRSP? Why are we preparing five year plans? So, there may be different opinions. Without the previous PRSP having been gone into, a second PRSP has been done up to the year 2009 2011. As a researcher, it seems to me while preparing that first PRSP a little discussion was held within the government, but very little discussion has been held to prepare the second PRSP. The main weakness of PRSP is that it is not developed in a participatory way. Politicians and others, civil society members, were not part of this and for this reason no discussion was held in parliament. After that we are discussing the issue because the election is already knocking at the door. It is very important to discuss how it will be included in the political manifestoes, and how much reflection can be made on this. In this case, I refer to Marx, who said, "Politics is concentrated expression of economics." Without economic empowerment, political empowerment does not occur. We know that once our society was matriarchal and women were the owners of property. In course of time when it changed to a male-dominated society, ownership went into the hands of men, which as mentioned by Engels was the "first historic defeat ofwomen."
We should remember that the donor agencies contribute almost 1 billion dollars per year to Bangladesh. Last year we had 18 billion dollars from exported goods and services.
It is needed to think, from where the pressure is coming, is it our mental pressure or other things, or is there really such a situation. Actually there is no reason for us to depend on foreign development partners. One billion dollars of foreign aid are coming in exchange of our 18 billion dollars' worth of goods and services. Why such mental dependency? Actually this dependency is very dangerous. We don’t need such type of dependency.
GM Quader
Presidium Member
Jatio Party , , ,
Firstly I congratulate Dr. Kaniz Siddiqui for her excellent keynote paper presentation. Overall the summary of her presentation is nice, but I don't agree with all the points of her keynote paper.
Discrimination, injustice, deprivation against women are even now realities. And we all are trying together to reduce such discrimination and injustice and to establish a just democratic society. So far as I remember, Dr. Kaniz Siddiqui was closely related to PRSP in Bangladesh from its beginning. I would like to share my experience at today's forum. At the beginning of introducing the PRSP most politicians in Bangladesh were in the dark, except for one or two ministers and high government officials. It is unfortunate for a nation. I was the first person who raised the issue in Parliament and demanded time allocation for MPs to discuss this crucial issue. But unfortunately the demand was unable to draw the interest or attention of the government.
That is why we do not want to believe that those who were involved in the process during this period did not take any donors' suggestions or prescriptions. Though that is their ideological point of view, it is also our national interest. We know that they were more interested to introduce PRSP only to get huge amounts of money from the donors and that was their major concern.
Now I give importance to three major issues
1. Economic empowerment of women
2. Political empowerment of women
3. Violence against women In the resent situation women's participation in the economic arena is increasing day by day. And we can see easily here that a woman can be a guard of the prime minister if she wants. This is advancement.
Political empowerment of women is closely involved with their participation in the political process. Recently one law was made by the Election Commission --- that 33% office bearers in a political party being women is mandatory. I think this is not practical in light of our past experience. The Jatiya Party had taken such an initiative but our experience is that women are more interested in getting nominations and becoming members of Parliament member rather than office bearers. And this context is also supported by a strong socioeconomic background. In our society women have a lower status than men in every sphere and their low status in economic and social matters confines them to their low political status. Family and society are habituated to seeing women spending more time in their household activities. So naturally this attitude is not In favour of women becoming party office bearers. And also women themselves are not interested in
taking part in regular processions, confrontations, meetings and other political activities.
My last point is the legal empowerment of women and violence against women.
D'gal empowerment Is urgently required for women to help them protect their human rights and ensure justice. Law is always playing a key role to protect and ensure justice Generally the law is a reflection of a certain socio-economic context. We have got different types of law to protect women's rights and reduce violence against women, such as Anti-dowry Law, Violence against Women Law, Acid Throwing Law, but we are getting very minimum benefit from these laws. Simultaneously we are not being able to introduce many necessary laws, such as Inheritance Law and Equal Property Rights Law because of social barriers. This is the reality. Because politicians are bound to respect existing values, norms, and people's emotions, they cannot do whatever they want Many are trying to introduce an Inheritance Law but are not able to do because of fundamentalism.
So I think that we have to proceed to our destination step by step. And I do believe firmly if we work and fight jointly against all fundamentalist forces, we will meet with success and establish a secular democratic Bangladesh in future #
Dr. Sadcka Halim
Professor
Department of Sociology University of Dhaka
Firstly I congratulate Dr. Kaniz Siddiqui on her keynote paper. But I would like to comment on the whole PRSP. The paper that has been provided to us contains a table which has no data source and the violence statistics are from 1997. I think it should be updated. Many of us have the statistics up to 2006-2008. You also said here the ownership of the PRSP document is the government's. I suppose many of us would call it a perspective document So far as I remember, PRSP is the continuation of Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), that failed not only in Bangladesh, but in many countries of Asia and Africa as well. As a result, most of our jute mills have been closed, our gas, oil, electricity sectors have been privatized. So the stroke of SAP on gender specific impact enhances the poverty. All of it should be alluded to the second PRSP
On your own confession you said for the reason of inadequate consultation scope on the policy matrix failed to reflect it properly. But we know of the whole consultation process relating to BRAC and there were 21 consultation meetings and we know who were present at those meetings. The gender chapter of PRSP didn't include the socially excluded groups. We have more .than 45 ethnic tribes, the women among whom are victims of the impact of land distribution. We should not bring them together with women on the plains.
According to the report of the Home Ministry of the government, 11,222 women are victims of violence. The report is showing only the cases of violence. It is not articulating the comprehensiveness of violence. Violence is not occurring only in the universities, but also in the garments factories, offices, in the media, indeed everywhere. From an economic viewpoint garments workers are getting exposure. At the same time, though, the women workers of the shrimp industry are not getting exposure, though they come under the jurisdiction of Labour Act 1965. And then they have no right to form trade unions. Most them are casual and seasonal workers.
I would like to say with my full respect that most of the NGOs have turned into machines to disburse micro credit. Other social dimensions have been obsolete to their activities. That means if we like to coordinate violence and development, we will find a gap. I hope the political parties will be committed to fill up the gap.
As a teacher of such a big university very often I have had to participate in some syndicate committee against sexual harassment. In my experience, the students' wing of a big political party support the accused teacher. In this case, I will pay the credit to the left student organizations for their protests, processions and hunger strike against sexual harassment. In Jahangirnagar University, very recently we saw the syndicate members coming out under the shelter of the nationalist banner. Before it we saw a rapist sitting for the exam at the VC's residence. In Dhaka University, very recently we saw such perpetrators of crime trying to take shelter in the same way. The political parties should have a commitment against it in their election manifestoes.
1 think the National Policy of Women Development has become a political hostage and we must come out from such a condition. We have the CEDAW, though there have been some reservations on Sections 2 and 16 (c) of CEDAW. Our state has already made a paralegal contract with CEDAW. But still we cannot ensure the state to be responsible. The government report on CEDAW is very’indistinct.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
Sultana Kamal
Executive Director
Ain-o- Satish Kendra
Former Advisor
We would like to thank the organizers of this round table conference. PR1P Trust. Oxfam, and The Daily Star Heather, the representative of Oxfam GB is present here and I would like to thank I leather for being with us for a long time and 1 would like to thank to all who are present here for this occasion 1 do not want to speak much about the PRSP However, I think PRSP has failed to relate with people's lives and therefore, we arc witnessing the problem of building a framework. As a result we have to admit that after so many years we know so little about PRSP If 1 remember correctly, 1 participated in a PRSP conference and found that PRSP had no linkage or relation with our 5-Year Plan; neither had it had any relation to the MDGs. Actually, we are producing instruments like PRSP and MDGs and these instruments have no links or relation to each other. More importantly, we are not sure why are we producing such documents and where are we heading with these sort of documents and it is getting us nowhere. I believe this is why PRSP is so much under criticism now.
Another important point that 1 would like to mention is when we discuss any issue with the politicians, we raise it because the politicians have the capacity to change things and, more importantly, people have voted them for such changes We do not have the political power, neither do we have the authority’ for any change; we can only raise issues through them. So, we expect response instead of reaction. There is a difference between reaction and response; and we see that whenever we raise any issue, we only get reaction and do not get any response.
We do not want any defensive reaction eitlier. We are the citizens of this country and we understand the limitations and the difficulties in getting a proper response on any issue. With such a huge population and limited resources, we are always working together in spite of the various factors that are interplaying, not to mention the different opinions that also have to be considered in the process. It is also true that in a democratic process, there will be different opinions and we are open to taking different courses. Sometimes, what may seem confusing may actually be a way for us. What we can expect from the learned politicians is to show us the right way.
Who should show us the right way? It is the politicians who are responsible for showing us the right way and we put our faith in them for that responsibility. An important issue that has been raised several times in the recent past is that some of the political forces get funds. But how do they get those funds? If you take our organization. Ain o Salish Kendra, as ■ an example, we receive funds from outside and we have to report each and every taka that we spend. Those who are engaged in religious political activism do not have to report their expenditures. It is the responsibility of the government to look into this issue of accountability’ of those religious political parties. How come they receive so much funding and monies? How are they able to carry out so many activities? These have been clearly mentioned by Ayesha apa. Who is responsible for promoting these consistent antagonistic forces? Who will develop the condition for taking such responsibilities?
At present, we are witnessing a dangerous trend in our society. It is being propagated by these forces so that all the girls wear hijab. I would like to mention that thost who wear hijab make their choice and those who do not wear hijab equally make their choice. I have talked to many girls who mention that only if they wear hijab their parents permit them to go out of their houses. They also say that if they wear hijab, they feel safe in their workplace and from the eve teasers. Part of the impact of hijab is it is a license for movement. If something goes wrong with a girl without hijab, the parents or peers would blame it on the girl for not wearing one. If you wear hijab you may be safe, actually that becomes a norm or a standard. If the politicians are vocal on these issues, then only we might be able to stop these.
Different political parties, like Awami League and other political parties, are saying that we have not been informed about PRSP My question is: why should they not know? 1 think if all had voiced their opinion there would be no problem on this issue; if not you become alone. If Parliament had been the actual centre for such discussions, we would have been relieved of many problems. However, it is not expected to come soon. Maybe one of the political parties has a majority in Parliament now; what if they do not have a majority in the next term?
The politicians have been given responsibility and for this the people are paying taxes for that service from which you enjoy certain benefits. This is the people's way of respect and there is a value with it. We expect you to keep this respect and there is no question of confrontation involved in it. There are expectations from you similarly. It is obvious that we would like to receive from you too since we have given you so much. Our expectation is there for nothing We expect because we have given you.
I repeat again that there is no question of confrontation. One of the discussants mentioned that we always blame the politicians. May I humbly inform you that 1 blame the politicians for many reasons. At present we are in a peculiar state of governance where nobody knows who is responsible for running the country. Is it the Chief Advisor, DGFI, or the army?
'Those who arc out of jail on bail still have charges against them, but they are behaving like heroes. The new heroes on the block should remember that they are on bail only and the court did not dismiss those charges against them The situation of the country went from bad to worse because of the fault of some politicians and those who arc at fault don't
think that they are guilty. Therefore, they should be careful in the future.
Khondokar Ibrahim Khaled
Chairperson
Bangladesh KrishiPank
We should admit that by keeping women out of politics and PRSP, it is an historical incident that the women arc lagging behind. When we look at the free society or developed countries, like America, we see that the rights for women to vote came less than 100 years ago, similar to Europe But from day one, we have taken advantage of women. 1 did not mean men when 1 stated the word "we . what I meant was we as men and women both. In a population of 15 crore, when 1 say “we", it does not refer to us as people but asanation.
It is a historical event that when we speak about human development, the women are behind and we need to come out of this situation 1 want to emphasize why it is so that women are falling behind. There is where the problem lies. This is where the Americas and Europe had to pull up the women, and we have to do so. But 1 think we are in a more advantaged position then they were. We arc not lagging behind than they were, rather we arc more ahead that they were. We want to separate the political, economic, and social issues into two. On these issues we have to take legal measures, while with the others, legal or cultural actions won't suffice, the people have to accept that.
If the people think it is illogical, people do not want to accept the law. Therefore, everything can't be done through law only. So, women's development is not a question of laws only. Female education is free up to grade eight and 1 think it should be made legal as well and every one should be brought into the schools. I think education is the first right for women.
There are a lot of developed countries, Singapore being the nearest to us. There are laws that if after marriage the husband buys a house, the wife owns one-third of the house. One other issue, which needs further thought, and 1 think will be difficult, is for women to have equal share of property. We don't have sharia law here, we can do it personally. If 1 like to speak on this issue here, the religious leaders will become violent and say that I am against religion This equal distribution of wealth for men and women can be brought about slowly. Another issue is, if we force human rights, women rights will be developed automatically. Where there is a violation of human rights, there is a violation of women's rights as well. I think through this violation of human rights, both men and women are deprived of rights on a regular basis.
We should be uplifting the women and for that the quota system should be increased for women. After the liberation of Bangladesh, women's jobs in the government were increased through quota system and we have already had benefits from that. Currently the quota for women regarding government jobs isl5 %; it should be increased to 2025% and this percentage should keep on increasing. Though this is done through laws, what we don't do is implement those laws.
When we want to change the norms of culture, it can’t be done through laws alone. This should be practiced and law can help this practice, but this should be mandatory. I think those who want their rights to be established, should take their own initiative. Otherwise it will be difficult to achieve rights. For example, when labour rights had to be established, the labourers themselves had to fight for them. So, when women want to establish their rights, they have to fight for them; men or political parties won't do that for them, it is not logical. This should start from the ground level, from the villages they should be organized for it and have a formal organization without which their rights cannot be established. I would like to suggest that those of you who are with various organizations should be active through your organizations and it would be a big step forward for women.
Newspapers are an important medium to change culture. A lot of news is not covered in the newspapers, like social abuse, among which violence against women is a big issue. I think this is an example of social decadence. Therefore, wherever these incidents happen, the women's organizations, the political parties and civil society should be present there. We still read in the newspapers about fatwa and hilla marriages which are illegal. How many of us have come forward to mitigate or prevent those? We thank the newspapers for this news. However, if we, the women's organizations, and the political parties cqme forward on these issues, it will create a different impact.
Motia Chowdhury
Presidium Member Bangladesh Awami League
I would like to thank the organizers of the seminar on economic and political empowerment of women as citizens and stopping violenccon the basis of PRSP
The political parties were not involved when the first PRSP was prepared and not even during the second PRSP. I do believe that in democracy parliament is the center of all decision-making. Unfortunately, PRSP was not discussed in parliament. So our main politicians are not committed to own it. In one of the research papers the CTD said that an additional 40 million people have gone under poverty because of price hike of essential-. As a result, poverty is increasing rather than reducing. After that, what we will do to formulate the second PRSP? I think the donors, consultants, civil societies and NGOs have benefited from the PRSP. not the general body of people.
Another point is about women's health The slogan of women's reproductive health is very popular now. It means, to my mind, that women should not have other health such as kidney disease or blood pressure or diabetes. If women arc suffering from those diseases they should be taken care of. Naturally women have reproductive ability For that reason, they should be given extra care. But as human beings women should have the right to
demand proper health measures. So our fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution, such as food, clothing, housing, medical care and education, have to be fulfilled for every citizen. If we can formulate the economic, social, political policies to ensure these rights, we do not need the PRSP.
Our general people know nothing about PRSP.
1 think PRSP has failed to carry any positive result. After exercising it for about a decade, we see that an additional 40 million people have come under poverty. Moreover, if the educated do not know even the abbreviation of PRSP let alone the general people. So why do we start the second phase of PRSP? Why do we dissipate our time with meetings or seminars about it? I suggest that you should pressurize the political parties to be committed to meeting die fundamental rights of the people before the coming election.
Civil society and NGOs have the right to do it. This demand should be raised at all levels of society. You should do massive campaign to awaken the people rather than follow the instructions of donors. You should monitor the representatives who are being elected, sec how much they are fulfilling their commitments after forming the government. 1 can say on behalf of my parly, we were unable to fulfill many things, but wc made die country independent, we tried to establish non-communal politics and still we are struggling to do it. And we were the first to recruit women in the defence services.
We are trying hard to increase women's participation in light of reality. In our presidium there are three women leaders apart from die president of the party. Moreover, we have many female secretariat and central committee members. If possible we will reserve 33% seats for women in the coming election. Lastly, I am requesting again to go forward on our own and ignore foreign prescriptions. In this way we can ensure the progress of the nation.
Shirin Akhter
Vice President
Jatio Samajtantrik Dal President, Karmajibi Nari Thanks to Oxfam, The Daily Star, and PRIP Trust for organizing the discussion session. This type of discussion has been going on for a long time In Bangladesh. The women are working and they are working very hard, that does not mean that the political parties are not working. I have an advantage. I am. on the one hand, engaged in a women's organization and. on the other hand. I also belong to a political party. I have positioned myself in the decision making process of this political party. I believe that that the political, social and cultural organizations can come on one platform. We should build such a relationship so that we Teel wo are on the same platform. Whenever we sit with other political parties and other organizations there seems to be some differences. Unless and until these differences are sorted out, we won't be able to reach our goal.
''Poverty reduction is our firm commitment.” Recognizing this, we want to say some thing on PRSP on the basis of our commitment. To reduce poverty in Bangladesh we should take the 5-Year Plan and the other short-term and longterm measures rather PRSP. Then I believe, we will be able to achieve our goal of poverty reduction. Secondly, it seems like that development' is only women centered. Development and poverty reduction that is, all development is concentrated around women. However, women in Bangladesh are not only poor; there are poor men as well. In the present economic condition and the wealth that is being accumulated as a result of increased GDP, but the problem is that the difference between the rich and poor is increasing along with it. If we don't address this problem, all our efforts in poverty reeducation will fail. Therefore, if we talk about poverty reduction in PRSP, then we should create employment for the women.
Thirdly, wc should identify the areas where terrorism is committed against women and preventing women from their rightful work and decision-making. We should recognize and respect the work and the labor involved in women's work like the slogan, "Work yes, but with dignity”. When there is no dignity in women's labour, it is an injustice for a woman. Along with this we should make sure that the working environment for women is friendly.
A few minutes back in this auditorium, I heard an interesting discussion on the political parties, especially the left parties, who talk about equality. Wc observe more women members in those political parties who are moderate, democratic, and progressive. In the left political parties, due to the lack of qualified women, they are not in the decision making process, but are only seen at the front of the political processions. What seems to be the problem here? My experience on the basis of working in two different organizations tells me that there is only one problem. Wc don’t care about women.
Wc know that women are disadvantaged and if they can progress one step that can be considered as a victory.
So, 1 would like to add that those who respect women's independence should work together for a movement towards progress. Then women's rights will be ensured; poverty reduced, and a place created for evaluating women as true human beings.
Rashed Khan Menon
President
Bangladesh Workers Party
Let me start by thanking everyone here, specially the organizers of this workshop. I can't say much about the PRSP however; I attended a few discussion meetings on it. This PRSP doesn't belong to us as it was not prepared by our policy makers. Therefore, I never had any interest in it and still I don't have any interest. The PRSP should be owned by our political parties. If wc are to own this PRSP, then wc will discuss it. Wc also need to under-
stand what is the status of the PRSP guide that is being prepared. The West is spending billions of dollars to get out of the financial mess they are in and we are preparing PRSP. 1 he idea that PRSP will reduce our poverty is a fallacy.
As Ayesha Khanam mentioned regarding social management and crisis in capitalism, let us go back to the past and see if this issue is relevant to the present situation.
On the issue of political empowerment of women, the question of treating women as only voters is wrong. An issue that is frequently asked is: What is the percentage of women voters? I would like to add that women do not vote because they are women, but they vote for local politics. Here women should not be viewed as women only, but as a part of society in their own right. It is unfortunate that our Constitution did not mature as a legal entity. So wc sec that the question of political empowerment is being discussed frequently. It is not prevalent in our county alone, it is also being questioned in India and they are struggling with this issue as well.
However, there has been some progress in this area. The Election Commission in our country has ensured 33 percent women's participation in the political process. It is true (hat wc arc trying to insure women's participation and 1 believe this is indeed an important issue. In this regard we can look at the recent parliamentary elections in Nepal. There we see that women have advanced a lot through their participation. They also participated actively during the communist movement at the grassroots level. In Bangladesh, we also had this type of women participation in the past.
I have a point to make here. In Bangladesh, women's progress has been reversed. This reverse journey of the women is due to the political influence where the women have created an exclusion zone for themselves, or they are forced to, or are under social pressure. The issue of wearing of hijab by women in our country is going towards an alarming level, yet the politicians or the women activists do not discuss it. Therefore, what Begum Rokeya did for women 100 years back is on a reverse course.
Selina Hosssain
EminentWriter and Activist
Politics and politicians both are important. Despite whatever was discussed at this Round Table, only politicians can make change happen. If they decide that they will educate or empower the people they can make it happen. I have a question and a request to the politicians: will they add any new point to their election manifestoes? Whoever they select to represent in their constituency, will they select on (he basis of the opinion of both males and females? Or will they select candidates on the basis of money? I would request the politicians to think
■ about it. <
For example, I would like to ask if a political party would select a woman candidate for their constituency on the basis of her acceptability than the other candidates, even if she doesn't have the financial ability. I guess this won't happen! Secondly, would they hold accountability of the promises they make to the constituency? This should be clearly mentioned in their manifesto. If any repression or abuse happens against any women in their constituency, would they take any legal measures? And if that elected member fails to take any initiative against that crime, what action would that political party take against that elected member? Ifanywoman is raped, would they take any open action against it? Only then it is possible to have a qualitative change. If the political parties want to ensure people's participation in the democratic process, then they have to think seriously about it and these have to be reflected in the manifesto.
The Parliament members should always be in the Parliament; be they in power, or in opposition. If any lawmaker is absent from Parliament, there should be a referendum in the constituency. We are looking for these sorts of changes at the national level. The political parties should decide how many committed such candidates they would like to nominate.
In the issue of the distribution of khas lands, we should have a discussion on it.
Meher AfrozChumky
Former MP
Bangladesh Aivam i League
I am really grateful to PRIP Trust, Oxfam and the Daily Star for inviting me to this seminar and special thanks to Dr. Kaniz Siddiqui for her keynote paper.
I think PRSP must have specific goals but I do not know what kind of monitoring system is there to follow up on its advancement. If we could get the clear picture of its outcomes, we could easily design our next planning to get more positives outcomes.
Now I would like to briefly discuss women's condition not only in . Bangladesh but also in South Asia. I suppose that the conditions of women can be seen on three platforms. The three are
1. Less status
2. Less pay
3. Less skill
My point is participation ratio of women as voters. Surprisingly women voters are more (han men voters but women are not conscious about their democratic rights and they arc not aware how to select the nominated candidate and who is the proper person for election. Most of the time women are influenced by their husbands, fathers, brothers and other male members of the family. In spite of these obstacles women and their contributions are key in electing a people's representative and forming a democratic government I would like to mention here that when Bangladesh Awami League was elected and formed the government, it took an initiative to increase women's participation at the local government level, which can contribute largely to raise women’s voice in politics.
Mujahidul Islam Selim General Secretary, Bangladesher Communist Party
At first I thank the organizers. I agree with Ayesha Khanum on those issues focused here. We are talking with these for many years. The issues which Tania Amir has discussed are focused here. In her speech there is a clear hint of complaint against political parties. In Bangladesh only leftist groups can demand the credit for introducing the movement for woman's rights, and they did not yet leave off after introducing it, but to advance it till today. Unfortunately, in recent years leftist parties, those that arc marginalized, have taken a grand project that, here we shall bring these parties to the front.
I want to add a little more. It is said that political parties are not doing anything, NGO and civil society are doing everything. When this type of comment arises is made, that not only hurts me, but also gives me a clear impression about many issues. In maximum cases, none of us will agree practically with this, but these may be said about some political parties. But in our society where there are good, bad and different things, similarly there are two kinds of political parties. The second point is that 1 am agree with Rashed Khan Menon on PRSP. Has the entire plan come from PRSP? We never evaluate this positively. After liberation, we moved forward on the basis of the main principles of the state. We were moving forward after preparing five year plans. We were diverged from the planned economy to so called open market economy, and placed a theory of trickle down economy, which makes the rich richer. We are told that one day all the sorrows of the poor people will be reduced by the trickle down process, and it is advised that in the interregnum there may be disturbances.
From this point of view we will see women's empowerment. At present where does the subject of poverty alleviation stand? According to CPD report during the last two years poverty decreased by almost 8 per cent. So we are not even able to gain success in poverty alleviation. So, I agree with the advice or recommendations that are placed here. But the problem is with the roots. Without analyzing the root cause, we will not be able to move forward. The paper which has been placed by Dr. Kaniz Siddiqui, there are accusation against society. Why is society unconcerned? Why are the political parties not concerned with women's issues? But if you observe properly, you will see that society is not indifferent. The truth is that women are not empowered. An exploitative group has seized power. Ordinary people are deprived of power.
Hasanul Haque Inu
President
Jatio Somajtantrik Dal
I would like to concentrate on today's roundtable issue where poverty is the main concern. If we define the exact definition of poverty then we will be able to formulate policy, planning, program and activities, Poverty has a multidimensional perspective. The challenge remains to include the marginalized people in mainstream economic policy, planning and program implementation. The point on women issue, which Kaniz Siddiqui has already mentioned, that 'women are poorest of poor and they are more vulnerable and marginalized.' I agree with this point and also mention here that discrimination; injustice, deprivation and devaluation against women are in existing society.
So in principle PRSP is not a proper tool for women's development. Actions to reduce poverty in Bangladesh are scattered and dispersed very much. For example, age allowance, poverty allowance, mother allowance, and food for work, etc., programs are scattered steps to reduce poverty. Practically these steps cannot reduce any poverty. Moreover, the discriminations of taxation of budget and development sector are being hidden. So economic development is impossible if we are unable to remove the discriminations among development sectors. Again, the strategy paper says, private sector is the principal driver of development and corporate and FDI can play a key role in poverty alleviation. But the paper has not revealed the investment in informal sector, SME and agriculture. So, our people have no participation and ownership of the strategy paper that has been formulated in the name of poverty alleviation where. So it never carries any fruitful result to our people.
1 think the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper is a huge industry of poverty reproduction. The strategy paper cannot do anything for reducing poverty, because this paper itself reproduces problems and poverty daily. I have taken 8 challenges from today's keynote paper in the light of PRSP
1 . 6 crore 20 lac people are poor in Bangladesh and among them 85% are women remaining under poverty such as the women working in the shrimp gher, rice mill or in agriculture. Our one of the challenges is keep them to the mainstream development.
Six crore andTVventy lakh women, 85% of the total women population of Bangladesh, are living much under the poverty line, who are consciously deprived from having control over resources and assets, which has made them further marginalized. In reality, women are made second category CITIZEN of the State, due to systematic exclusion process from the mainstream economic development, policy, planning, program and activities. Out of six crore and twenty lakh women, fifty-six lakh women, 7.7% of the total women population, have access to higher education. and are professionally placed in high ranking position, which is largely used as a symbol of "Economic Empowerment” by most of the policy makers, which is relatively a positive sign, in reality, it is a drop in the ocean. The
challenge remains, inclusion of 85% women in mainstream economic development, policy-planning and program matic implementation, for reduc ing their vulnerable condition towards creating a gender balanced and effective society.
2 .Application of Fundamental and Constitutional Rights has become absolutely mandatory for minimizing discrimination in all spheres of lives of women, by recognizing the Fundamental Rights under clause, 28 (1) & (2).
3 .In Bangladesh 45.6% women out of 77.7% are actively and directly involved in agricultural production with their routine household activities. In addition, women in rural Bangladesh are in general responsible, and directly engaged in most of the agricultural production in the pre and post harvest phases. Traditionally home gardening, farm activities, ranging from selection of seed to harvesting, and storing of crops are predominately managed by Women Despite Women's important role in Agriculture, the traditional social norms and customary laws have confined women with the conventional traditional customs and patriarchal attitude, which deprived women from equitable economic opportunities, access and control of resources in agriculture. Recognition of "Women as Farmer”, and their role in the sector of agriculture urgently required in the policy planning and programmatic implementation for reducing vulnerable and marginalized condition of women towards creating and equitable and a gender balanced society.
4 .In the Garments sector, out of eighteen lakh, fifteen lakh and thirty thousand Women are working as major "Work Force". Unfortunately, Women are regular victims of Discriminatory Wage Rate, Unhealthy and Risky Working Environment, Job Insecurity, Sexual Harassment, and Overall Malpractices of Labor Law by most of the Garments Owners, which has made them extremely vulnerable. In order to reduce Wage discrimination, and to ensure Worker's protection and benefits, basic Labor Laws should be introduced for improving their over all status as a major "Work-Force”.
5 .Planned Policy and programmatic effort required for reducing, and minimizing high rate of “Feminization of Poverty".
6 .For receiving justice, eliminate all types of Discriminatory Laws, against Women by enforcing Women friendly and Gender balanced Laws to ensure equity.
7 .Judicial System, Law Enforcement Agencies, Bureaucracy and Administration requires to be more Gender Sensitive and Women Friendly, to protect Women and to receive justice. Social awareness at various strategic levels requires to be raised against Dowry, Rape, Acid throwing. Trafficking, Fatwa. Early marriage, Polygamy. Eve-teasing, and other types of Domestic Violence AgainstWomen.
8 .To receive political commitment of the leading Political Parties for promoting direct election in the “30 Reserve Seats” for women, in the Specific Constituencies. Incorporate women in the Food Policies for ensuring Food Security. #
Zia Uddin Ahmed Bablu
Presidium Member
Jatio Party
Women freedom, emancipation and empowerment are the focal point of today's round table discussion. But one thing is similar to all discussants’ speeches and that is politics and politicians are responsible and influential characters. But if we consider properly it is true that al) advancement and progress has been achieved by politicians and always they are in leadership position. 1 think my statement may be justified by historical evidence. I request all of you to remember our national movement during 1952 to 1971. For every historical or national movement the nation is eagerly waited for a sense of direction from the politicians. In 1971 Bangabandhu played a key role to free the nation from injustice and subservience. And at last the nation earned the glorious victor)’ of independence under his leadership.
That is why we are discussing certain issues regarding women's empowerment in a free and independent country’. With all my consideration I want to give all credit to the politicians for all glorious achievements. But unfortunately in the present context we cannot freely utter the statement. You know there is a trend that politics and politicians are the guilty.
As a politician I feel people's emotions and expectations. As people's representatives politicians are able take any decisions, policy, and planning to fulfill their expectations. But if they are not exercising their power properly they will be treated as national hypocrites.
We still live in a discriminatory and class stratified social structure. Women's sense of injustice and discrimination in economic, political, legal and other areas within this structure are common phenomena.
Education is the principal factor to reduce women's vulnerable position in society and to establish their equal rights. Many of here have criticised our government that we have done nothing positive In spite of al) criticism our government took the initiative to introduce free women's education from class 1 to class VIII. J think this was a mile stone initiative for expanding women's education. I think now the situation is more positive to take such an initiative for expanding women's education from class 1 to higher education.
So necessary steps should be taken by the policy makers and politicians to establish women's economic, political and legal rights to reduce their vulnerability and marginalized position in society and to bring about positive changes in their lives.