Making rural women self-reliant

Women constitute half of the total population of Bangladesh. And no progress in the country is possible keeping our women out of productive work. However, it is unfortunate that many of our women are engaged only in domestic chores. They are not involved with earning money. Women still face widespread socio-economic and cultural barriers in Bangladesh to reach their full potential. Many families educate their girls so that they can be married to well-educated grooms. Such mindset of parents does not allow our girls to do well financially.

If we cannot make our girls and women financially independent, they will always be a vulnerable section in our society. They can be engaged in an array of entrepreneurial tasks through which they can become self-reliant. For an instance, rural girls and women can be trained and given easy loans so that they can start their own poultry farms, raise cattle or make a profitable business. With their financial freedom, they can help themselves and their families, too. They can also undertake weaving or craftwork ventures. If women can be made self-reliant, we all will achieve economic prosperity. There will be proper utilisation of human resources. We must remember that a country cannot thrive if all of its people are not turned into human resources.

Mehedi Shatabdi,

Student of Marketing Department,

Jagannath University, Dhaka,

[email protected]