Rights activists for raising gender budget allocation

Women rights activists stressed on Tuesday the need for increasing allocation for gender responsive budget as well as strengthening the monitoring system for its proper implementation.
Some 44 ministries in the country have gender sensitive budgets to help ensure empowerment of women, but the allocation for gender budget is not adequate, they said.
As a result, women are not getting desired benefits from the funds, they added.
The rights activists came up with the observations at a seminar on analysis of gender budget, particularly of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment.
They also said that though relevant ministries have specific desks to oversee the implementation of gender budget, it is difficult to find out officials responsible for providing necessary services.
The Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) organised the seminar at its office in the city, attended by representatives of non-governmental organisations and the media, and government officials.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of MJF, said the monitoring system is not effective enough to ensure better utilisation of the gender budget.
So, the budget is not reflected in the efforts towards empowering women, she added.
She also suggested that at least two officials should be posted in each Bangladesh mission in job destination countries to provide necessary services for women migrant workers.
Syed Saiful Haque, chairman of WARBE Development Foundation, said the budget allocation for the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment is inadequate. The government should allocate more in the next budget.
Until now, the ministry has taken up no welfare project for the women migrant workers, he said.
Banasree Mitra Neogi, gender advisor at the MJF, said they have selected five relevant ministries to assess the improvement of gender budgeting for women's empowerment.
The ministries are women and children affairs, labour and employment, land, youth and the expatriates' welfare and overseas employment.
Dr Sayema Haque Bidisha, associate professor at the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, presented a paper on qualitative analysis of gender budget of the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment.
She recommended strengthening monitoring and evaluation of projects under the gender budget through arranging post-training internship.
Her other suggestions include making information available to women entrepreneurs, supporting women by providing care services and acknowledging their undocumented work.

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