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Male dominance crippling women UP representatives

Victims tell seminar; N'ganj Mayor Ivy observes women MPs lack courage to speak for the female grassroots politicians

Staff Correspondent
Women parliamentarians fail to present the problems of grassroots female politicians as they remain busy in adulation of the party chief to ensure their nomination for the reserved seats, Narayanganj city Mayor Selina Hayat Ivy said yesterday.
"I personally think that there should be no reserved seats. Women should get elected directly. The word 'reserved' is disrespectful for us," she said, adding that women who were elected to the reserved seats of parliament mostly did not have the courage to speak up their minds.
Ivy, who won the mayoral poll in
2011 with huge local support, was addressing a seminar, "Empowerment of Elected Women Representatives: Capability Issues" in the capital's Cirdap auditorium, organised by Dhaka-based Democracywatch.
Female union parishad (UP) members, who are elected to reserved seats, expressed the barriers they face in carrying out their duties as people's representatives.
"There are nine male members and three female members in a union parishad. As a result, the male members exercise greater influence in the decision-making process," said UP member Shirin Akhter from
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Chapainawabganj sadar upazila.
Farida Yasmin, member of Purnimagati union parishad, Sirajganj, said decisions taken in ward and monthly meetings were often bypassed and replaced by the chairman's own decisions.
In fact, very few meetings are held at union parishads and municipalities compared to what are supposed to be held. A survey by Democracywatch showed that only 403 out of 11,622 meetings of the standing committees of unions actually took place in the last one year.
Both male and female I IP members pointed out how husbands or male family members of female politicians and male LIP members meddle in the public representatives' works and try to
exercise their influence about distribution of social security programme cards.
Besides emphasising joint training of male and female UP members, local government experts and researchers said the rules of local government laws should be formed and implemented to solve these problems.
Human rights activist Sultana Kamal called for inclusion of non-communal and equality-based spirit of the liberation war in the training.
Besides Democracy watch, Khan Foundation, PRIP Trust, and Steps Towards Development with support from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation are carrying out a project called Aparajita since 2011 to train and empower women representatives at grassroots level.