THE women vice-chairmen of the upazila parishads, elected three months ago, are yet to take office, as no government circular has so far been issued on their job description. The 475 vice-chairmen are completely left out of the parishads' functioning at the moment, as they have not been given any space in the parishad offices.

Now the scheme of creating tire post of vice-chairman exclusively for women will surely be a self-defeating one, unless they are allowed to play their due role. Three months have already been lost, and nobody knows how many more months it will take to create the conditions where the vice-chairmen can have their share of the parishads' work. The idea behind creating the new position was to ensure direct participation of women in decision-making at a very important tier of the local government, but it is not being followed in the right spirit.

Women are contributing significantly to the development process and credit is due to them for the success of many income-generating projects all over the country. The success of the micro-credit programmes should also be attributed to the integrity and commitment of women.

So, it was in the fitness of things that the decision to create the position of the vice-chairman was taken to empower them. But the latest developments indicate that good decisions alone do not produce good results. If the women vice-chairmen are not allowed to work, they might soon become redundant. And their position will turn out to be purely ornamental.

It is really not clear why the government could not issue the circular or guidelines in the matter in three months. Is empowerment of women such a negligible matter that the decision makers could ignore it for such a long time?

The upazila parishads are already facing some problems arising out of the tussle between the parishad chairman and local MP who has been made adviser to the parishad. The fight for supremacy has already degenerated into crude brawls in some instances. Now, the situation will worsen further if the vice-chairmen are not allowed to play their due role as representatives of local women. The issue has to be resolved on a prioritybasis to enable the vice-chairmen to take office and initiate various development programmes in the interest of local people. Given our womenfolk's track-record of honesty and dedication, they will, we believe, succeed in their mission if they get the opportunity.