Investment in girls' rights still limited

Investments in girls' rights remain limited and girls continue to confront a myriad of challenges which got worse by concurrent crises of climate change, Covid-19 and humanitarian conflicts.
With this phenomenon in view, stakeholders at a national dialogue on Tuesday called for investing in girls' agency, leadership and potential to end their persistent hurdles and barriers.
They suggested that everybody come together with renewed vigour to drastically address systemic and underlying barriers that hold girls back.
Such action will not only redress current disparities arising from Covid-19, but also close pre-pandemic gender gaps for girls' empowerment, they cited.
The speakers said this at an event to mark International Day of the Girls-2022 with the theme 'Our time is now-our rights, our future' at a city hotel.
UNICEF Bangladesh, Save the Children and Plan International Bangladesh co-hosted the dialogue.
In the last 10 years, there has been increased attention to girls' issues among governments, policymakers and the public, and more opportunities for girls to have their voices heard on the global stage.
Education minister Dipu Moni, state minister for ICT division Zunaid Ahmed Palak, women and children affairs additional secretary Dr Mohiuddin Ahmed, Swiss envoy Nathalie Chuard and Australian high commissioner Jeremy Bruer, among others, joined the programme.
Addressing the dialogue as the chief guest, Ms Dipu said the curriculum of the country's education system is getting changed to include 'coding' for students in class three to five.
Alongside girls, boys should be made aware to prevent child marriage, she said, adding that the government is going to pilot a new curriculum to create opportunities for overall development for all, regardless of gender.
Mr Palak said his ICT division has developed software for marriage and divorce registrations, and will make arrangements to launch it after getting approval from the government, including law ministry.
Meanwhile, Mr Mohiuddin said there are 7,000-plus adolescent-based clubs across the country under his ministry under his ministry.
There is also an accelerating protection of children (APC) programme for children, he added.
Bangladesh has ranked first among South Asian countries for closing gender gap in primary and secondary education with a net attendance ratio of 1:11 for primary schoolers.

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