Change attitude towards women

Speakers at a seminar called for a change in the attitude of the society, particularly the men, towards women.

Media should carry more positive stories on women and their success to show that women are also capable of doing everything, they said at a two-day seminar on 'The United Nations and women' that ended yesterday.

Today women get a lot of attention; they even hit the front-page headlines frequently but only in negative contexts, related to violence and abuse, they said.

"But we want to read about women in different contexts daily and not only once a week on the women's page, also on the front and business pages," said Selima Ahmad of Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Organised by the United Nations Foundation and Quest Ltd., the seminar covered all possible issues with respect to women and their situation like health, water, education, shelter, economic empowerment, governance and violence.

According to the World Food Programme, women in households eat the smallest portion and the least nutritious food. Out of ten of the world's hungry, seven are women and girls.

Of the world's one billion poorest people, an estimated three-fifths are women and girls. Two-thirds of the one billion who cannot read nor write are females, says a study of the United Nations Development Programme.

Nowhere in the world, women have equal access if it comes to legal, social and economic rights. In Bangladesh, three women die from pregnancy-related causes every hour.

At the seminar, representatives from different organisations like DemocracyWatch, Unicef, WaterAid Bangladesh, World Bank and UN Habitat shared their knowledge.

The seminar was aimed at improving the collaboration between the media and different organisations working on gender issues.

The speakers said media can play a key role in making gender a mainstream issue.

"Women are contributing at least half of the work accomplished in this country. But as most of this work is unpaid, it does not appear in any statistics," Suvira Chaturvedi of the ILO pointed out.

"So, women's labour remains undervalued and is not taken into account of policy-makers."

Women still suffer from discrimination and inequality at home and at work, remain vulnerable to violence and trafficking, and are subjected to deprivation of wages, said Women and Children Affairs Minister Kurshid Jahan Haque in her opening speech.

"Women still continue to be the poorest of the poor. Their job opportunities are limited and they work at low-paid jobs," she admitted.

Women face not only unequal access to health, food, proper hygiene conditions, training and education, but also other hidden barriers.

"If women entrepreneurs need to get a loan from a bank, often the financial institutes make more claims from them than it does for a male entrepreneur," said Denet Zeenat Latif of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

"We have to raise awareness about the gender disparity existing at all levels," Latif added.

Some speakers were also critical of micro-credit system. As the interest rates in some cases are too high, it does not facilitate the poor to move forward, they said.

"Economic empowerment of women means to let women acquire skills which allow them to run a business professionally," said Suvira Chaturvedi.

Only when women make independent decisions, they are economically empowered. Most importantly, women have to be trained on non-traditional trades. Poultry, sewing and cows will not bring economic prosperity in the long term, many participants of the seminar agreed.

Women often lack necessary assets to start their own business. Especially land and loans are always entitled to men. "As a woman, it is still very hard to find an office for rent in Motijheel in Dhaka," Selima Ahmad said.

Masuda Khatun Shefali, executive director of Nari Uddug Kendra, said proper housing is the fundamental base for any female activity.

Female students still have to give up their studies because they can't find proper housing to live in Dhaka, she said, adding that they are forced to go back to their villages and have no other choice than to get married.

She also emphasised the need for ensuring rights of women to housing.