Speakers Sunday called on the government to abolish discriminatory provisions against women in the khas land law to ensure their equal entitlement to productive resources of the state.
They called on the land minister and all other policymakers concerned to eliminate all sorts of discriminatory provisions against women in owning and accessing khas land, as equal entitlement of women to land in general is also a precondition of democracy.
These were urged at a press conference, titled 'Women's rights on khas land: Call to end deprivation, marginalization and discrimination of women in Khas land distribution', organised by INCIDIN Bangladesh at Dhaka Reporters' Unity.
INCIDIN Bangladesh executive director A K M Masud Ali presented the keynote paper.
They called on the government to move away from patriarchal practice of excluding women's economic contribution, at home and as unpaid workers, in estimating Gross National Income, as this inclusion will increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by Tk 2.50 trillion.
It will increase women's contribution to GDP to 48 per cent instead of the present 20 per cent.
Mr Ali said: "The country's rural women spend around 53 per cent of their working hours in agriculture and industry sector. But they are facing discrimination in terms of access to recognition, entitlement to resources and access to supports."
"In 1993 women in Bangladesh owned 3.5 per cent of the total agricultural land. Twenty years later it has come down to 2.0 per cent only, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)."
He stressed that landlessness is 12.84 per cent now, which was 10.18 percent in 1996 and 8.67 per cent during 1983-84, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
The khas land in Bangladesh can play an effective role in reducing poverty, if it is distributed among all landless families at 50 decimal per family.
Mr Ali said the eleventh point of the Women Development Policy reads that 40 per cent of the country's population lives under the poverty-line, of which women constitute two-third and most of these women represent the women-headed households.
"The khas land distribution act says that only widowed and abandoned women with able son are eligible for such land. It means that women who have daughters and are without able sons are excluded from the list. But the policy identifies them to be equally eligible for any such provision on the ground of being extremely vulnerable to poverty."
'This sort of discriminatory provision in access of women to the state-owned productive resources constitutes a grave violation of women's rights and reflects a crude patriarchal culture of son-preference," he also said.
He stressed on acting promptly to amend the laws in this regard, as every passing day expands the already-lengthy list of landless or marginalized deprived women.
Recent research findings indicate that although the nation thrives on the labour of its female citizens, they do not receive equal and respectful recognition from the state and society.
Moreover, 43 per cent of the country's labour force is comprised of women and 78 per cent of female workforce works in agriculture. In addition to that women in 45 to 85 per cent of cases contribute to homestead-based vegetable production and livestock rearing.
The state policies and laws need to ensure respectful equity and equal rights of women in the country's multicultural context, Mr Ali added.
Govt urged to drop biased provisions in law
FE Report | Published: March 17, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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