Despite the policy framework of the past government in the "Bangladesh Action Plan for SAARC Decade of the Girl Child" towards improving the conditions of girls and raising the status of women, hardly anything tangible has been achieved. Shockingly true, the action plan that sought to establish pragmatic efforts focused on the girl child and ensure integration of the women folk within the development activities of various social development agencies has fallen through.

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 government level. 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 explicable attitude of social apathy inherent in the male population. Though the constitution provides for gender equality, people in the country have been governed by personal family custom and rules that fail to give women their due.

Unfortunately, people have watched during the last few years, unending political feuds and a mad race for power again by the party that was in power through politicisation of the administration and different vital agencies of the government through corrupt practices never conceived in the earlier days. These damaging policies stifled all nation building activities and pragmatic planning. Because of the politicians' failure to lead the nation and give proper policy directions to people, the country has, of late, been a hot bed of chaos. In large part, this desperate situation was brought about by venal politicians. In their quest for public office and payoffs of power, they inflamed passions and used every cynical trick to promote personal gain. Without hesitation, they divided this country along class and extremist lines. They exploited and manipulated all the societal and structural weaknesses inherent in a developing society.

Social fissures which statesmen would normally attempt to bridge have been deepened by politicians seeking short term advantage. Precisely speaking, politics in this country has become a profitable playground of the worst and the dimmest men whose vision doesn't extend beyond their pockets. Bangabondhu or Zia for the two mainstream political parties have become merely political mascots; their idealism and work ethos are today slogans for vote-mongers.

With terrorism, killings, hijacking, drug addiction, trafficking in women and children on the rise, people were sick of the government and politicians. Shockingly true, till now the energy, imagination, genius and full potential of our young men and women could not be fruitfully channelised to take the country forward. True, with firm commitment and policies in halting the trafficking of women for forced labour, domestic servitude and sex exploitation, the edifice of a prosperous society could be built. Because when women are guaranteed basic human and labour rights, whole families and communities 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. Most women in the country are unwanted and struggling to stay alive suffering all kinds of humiliation and torture. A recent World Bank report on women's health in the country concludes that poverty and deeply etched social attitudes have produced a kind of hidden holocaust for the country's female population.

Shockingly true, despite a growing consensus on the importance of women's work, gender disparities and inequality of opportunity and treatment persist. Too many girls in the country are denied the right to go to school and too many women to take a job for which they receive equal pay. Too many are concentrated in the informal work sector, underemployed or unemployed. Scores are barred from accessing loans or credit or exercising the most basic of legal rights. That means when the male member either husband or father in a family dies or becomes disabled due to disease or accident, the whole family lands in a sea of calamity and distress.

The country now bears the brunt of depriving women their right to education. The neglect of educating girls is doubly alarming because education almost always leads to a drop in infant mortality and to a reduced birthrate. This is evident from the fact that rapid improvements in women's literacy in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in India in the past several years has quickly brought about this virtuous circle. That only justifies the assertion that no society liberates itself that treats its women badly.

Without a shadow of doubt, this sub-continent, especially our country suffers inexorably because of its flawed and discriminatory education system. Emancipation of the women folk from the shackles of poverty, discrimination and humiliation within the four walls of the house or outside underscores the need for education that ultimately leads to development. While speaking in a seminar on population control arranged by the Ministry of Health and Family Planning last week, Hon'ble Chief Adviser of the CTG stressed the need for limiting population to ensure uniform distribution of the fruits of development in all sections of the society. That "development is the best contraceptive" thesis faces an uphill test in poor rural Bangladesh where birth rate is the highest and children are viewed as a source of family wealth.

The country has always had problems -- in multitudes. To-day, the emphasis is on its potential: a 140 million people need education, more electricity, roads, health care, sanitation and other gadgets towards lessening their plight. Hundreds of thousands of potential youths mostly disillusioned are wandering the streets of cities and villages in search of work. And if only the political climate improves, it might usher in a boom that will lift the entire country.

But no boom can be sustained if problems like educating the masses especially women, providing such basic necessities as food, inoculations for the young and water that does not make people sick are not solved.

Two essential ingredients, health and education that can only help create and sustain a stable economy continue to be neglected in the country. The literacy rate signifying the level of education is an indicator of the progress the country would achieve.

The literate politically demanding masses of Kerala in India have proven that solutions are not only in the books but feasible on the ground. Sri Lanka boasts high life expectancy and 90 percent literacy rates.

A somewhat happy glimmer is that the poorest in the villages are getting the message about the importance of education. But the increasing motivation of parents to educate children hasn't been matched by a corresponding improvement in schooling facilities. Parents in the rural areas are rather more inclined to put the male child onto school. Moreover societal, cultural and religious values in the country appear to be loaded against female education. Statistics reveal that forty percent of all girls are engaged in household work compared to a negligible number of boys. In spite of several laws restricting child labour, labour participation of girls (10-14 years) has increased, while the participation of boys has declined.

Moreover, disadvantages facing the girl child are compounded by an apparently increasing incidence of violence against girls and women such as abduction, rape, acid throwing, assault, kidnapping and immoral trafficking. Despite existence of laws and stringent penalties, social attitudes towards women's status seem to permit these behavioural aberrations. The contemporary situation of inadequate social opportunities for both adolescent boys and girls to develop normal patterns of work and behaviour leads to large scale migration of adolescent girls to cities and towns in search of a living, aggravating the problems.

The country is replete with instances of torture, violence and humiliation perpetrated on women even on just reported and unproven cases of moral transgression or adultery. Some years back, Noorjahan, a married women in the district of Sylhet, accused by a local Imam of adultery, was half buried and then stoned. The intention was to humiliate her, but out of total shock, Noorjahan later committed suicide by swallowing poison. Kadabanu of Rangpur district was buried to her waist outside her home and pelted with old shoes for a similar transgression. As already mentioned, women traditionally are placed in the distant second position after men.

Lives of women are still mired in distress and unending social barriers. Now self-styled religious leaders in the villages have been issuing "fatwas" that it is degrading for Muslim women to be engaged in work outside her house without observing "Purdah". On the strength of that "fatwa", thousands of schools were vandalised and at least 60 of them set afire since 1995 and the trend still continues. Several women in different villages of Bogra, Rangpur and Sylhet and Khulna were divorced by their husbands for working and taking loans from different NGOs or accepting health services.

Girls any way, would be discouraged from school so that they could be married off at the earliest for there to be one mouth less to feed. And for one more woman to be available for breeding purposes these unfortunate families may have some extra hands to make their living easier.

Hopefully, democracy too is playing a key role by giving women the vote and making national interest, not gender, the main determinant of who gets to run governments. Similarly free enterprise is helping the female cause by making quality, productivity and profits paramount in business decisions. This important message must get to our leaders. They must realise that without educating men about women, the social barriers would be harder to remove.

Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.