Society | The Daily Star

  • How do we improve maternal health of garment workers?

    The influx of millions of female workers to work at the garment factories has created unique health challenges, issues and needs that have mostly remained unstudied and unaddressed.

  • Girls in Math Olympiad: What's holding them back?

    A few years ago when I was in the United States and contemplating a return to Bangladesh, I was worried about the challenges of

  • Will yaba smuggling end with the surrender of some godfathers?

    Some of our news outlets have termed the yaba smugglers as “yaba dealers” or “yaba traders.” I am not a grammarian. So I am not judging whether it is grammatically right or wrong to use the words “dealers” or “traders” to mention the yaba godfathers. I am talking from a general perspective.

  • How successful will the anti-drug campaign be?

    The geographical location of Bangladesh puts the country in an odd position when it comes to the drug and narcotics epidemic.

  • Women's safety in public transport: A case for the would-be city father

    In Dhaka, a woman travelling—whether walking on the street or using public transportation—faces a near-constant threat of sexual harassment.

  • Why I do not support the killing of 'rapists' by 'Hercules'

    Recently, the bodies of three "rapists" have been found shot to death with culpatory notes hanging around their necks. On January 17, the first body was found by the police in Savar,

  • The power of the youth

    The year 1991 is a significant one in our history. By the beginning of that year, General Ershad had been forced out of office and it is in 1991 that parliamentary democracy was formally restored.

  • Building a society where girls feel safe

    In the film Taken (released in 2008), Kim, an American 17-year-old girl, was abducted in Paris during her European tour. Her father Bryan Mills was a retired CIA field agent.

  • The formula of victim-shaming must be ripped to shreds

    In my impressionable childhood, my working parents often used to leave me in the care of our adolescent house-help. My day, for the most part, would be spent in her company.

  • Tara Mia and the story of a warped conscience

    We live in a world where things are constantly happening. Every day seems like an assault on our mental stability because of the nature of the events that take place, more so for a writer who has to go through the unpleasantness of trying to connect the dots and produce an analysis of them.

  • Protecting the constitutional rights of senior citizens

    According to “World Population Prospects: the 2017 Revision,” the number of older persons (those aged 60 years or over) is expected to more than double by 2050 and more than triple by 2100, rising from 962 million globally in 2017 to 2.1 billion in 2050. Globally, the population aged 60 or over is growing faster than all younger age groups.

  • Is DMP's action plan enough to fix our roads?

    Apparently “inspired” by last year's safe road movement, the DMP has come up with yet another action plan to deal with Dhaka's anarchic—to put it mildly— traffic situation.

  • Corporal punishment was outlawed in 2011, but it still prevails

    It's amazing how unhinged society can become if you don't pay attention to the smaller details and address them appropriately. Take for example violence in society. The majority of inhabitants of society detest and abhor violence.

  • Rise of the triple burden

    At the end of the 20th century, the issue of women's empowerment and development was finally thrust into the limelight. Scholars identified lack of “economic power” as the primary cause of women's suffering and including women in the outside world by educating them and opening up the job market for them was thought to be a universal panacea. The accepted doctrine was that when women have economic power like men do, they can be independent and raise their voice in every sphere of society.

  • 'Slaves of the sea'

    Employment in fisheries and aquaculture around the globe has grown faster than the world's population. The sector provides jobs to tens of millions and supports the livelihoods of hundreds of millions.

  • Achieving SDGs and reducing urban poverty together

    Bangladesh has performed significantly well in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) compared to many other countries in the world. But over the last couple of decades, the country has undergone rapid and massive urbanisation—where currently 37 percent of the total population live in urban areas of which one third (around 2.4 crore) of people live in the squalor of slums, and this figure is expected to increase to around 4.5 crore by 2030.

  • The importance of learning English in Bangladesh

    Right from the moment you step out of the Hazrat Shahjalal International airport in Dhaka, you notice that knowing Bangla is essential to your survival.

  • Let's not forget our social values

    Social values form the basic foundation of a nation. The values define what is acceptable in a society and determine the behaviour of the people. Social values are however not static and can change over time based on what beliefs and attitudes people embrace as they move on.

  • Violence against women: A zero-tolerance issue

    The lack of women's empowerment is a critical form of inequality. And while there are many barriers to empowerment, violence against women and girls (VAW) is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality.

  • Aritry's deafening cry for help

    Aritry Adhikary—a young life cut tragically short. Her parents probably had never imagined that their daughter would make headlines for the reasons that she did.

  • Domestic violence: When society is an abettor

    Things are not changing for women in this country when it comes to gender-based violence. Some recent studies and research findings have brought to light the fact that despite

  • An effective game-changer

    Early in 2015, when political uncertainty and violence were plaguing Bangladesh, I flew to Bangladesh from Australia with a mission

  • Reinventing education

    If you are still not alarmed by the grim predictions of our education system, let me apprise you of the current scenario.

  • Who will protect the rights of the patients?

    Eleven-year-old Afreen Hoque Shristy, a student of Viqarunnisa Noon School & College, was admitted to one of the reputed hospitals in the city with Dengue fever on October 25, 2018.

  • When outrage becomes selective

    It is with both despair and indifference that I have witnessed the episodes that have unfolded following the TV talk show in which barrister Mainul Hosein insulted journalist Masuda Bhatti by saying she was "choritroheen" (immoral), when asked tough questions.

  • Drug abuse must be treated as a public health issue, not a war

    In June 1971, in a press conference, US President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse as the “public enemy number one.” This was a day after the publication of a ...

  • When values are dispensable

    When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts,” said the world-renowned Tibetan leader Dalai Lama. Bangladesh today has a huge youth population, and they are our future.

  • The double standard of outrage

    It started with a few women calling out their harassers in a world that refused to believe them. Now there's a wave of sexual violence and harassment allegations against powerful men all over the world. It is as if the floodgates have been opened and women have let out years of suppressed rage and trauma.

  • Changing how we see vocational education

    Bangladesh has gone through both social and cultural changes during the past two decades. Things were very different for the youth in the 1990s compared to now.

  • The lingering problem of Dhaka's illegal parking

    Amid the nationwide movement for road safety, many people in Facebook had been complaining about the problem of illegal parking in Dhaka. Many people shared photos of illegally parked cars and motorcycles on the footpath and on the road in different parts of Dhaka city.

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