Gender-based discrimination in Bangladesh
THE latest UNFPA report on the state of the world population, especially where it concerns gender-based violence, should be an eye-opener for us in Bangladesh. That is because the report is quite blunt about the poor position of women in this country, despite everything that has been said and done in relation to women's development. Particularly disturbing is the revelation that gender-related violence in Bangladesh is not readily identified even by the victims of such violence. In other words, violence in the household, et cetera, is a reality that, surprisingly, yet does not resonate within society here.
Such a finding, coinciding with the publication of a book, 'Breaking the Silence on Violence against Women in Bangladesh', is surely a pointer to what may have gone wrong in our vaunted efforts to promote the welfare of women. In another way, it can also be taken as a sign of what we in this country must do in order for women to understand their rights and the best means of having them enforced and accepted by society at large. The UNFPA report is clear about some laws in Bangladesh being women-unfriendly. Predictably, it cites such glaring realities as the rights that women do not enjoy where marriage, divorce, custody, guardianship and inheritance are concerned. And there is more. More girls than boys drop out of schools. Where workplaces are concerned, women are generally at an unfavourable end. Conditions are patently worrying. And it does not help that for a long time now we have been falling back on the anodyne slogan of women making strides on the Bangladesh social scene.
But, of course, despite all the harsh realities we encounter through the UNFPA report, there is the fact that in recent years Bangladesh's women have indeed made significant progress in a number of areas such as government, industry, NGOs, the armed forces and the police. But such achievements must now expand and percolate down to the grassroots, for that is where the matter of women's rights is still to be promoted and enforced. Reports have continued coming in from the rural interior (as also from urban areas) of women being subjected to myriad forms of violence. From that perspective, the UNFPA report should be taken up as the starting point in a reappraisal of women's position vis-à-vis an exercise of their rights in Bangladesh.
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