Holistic development: The issue of gender inequality

Development not only connotes an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate or per capita income or the growing number of dazzling skyscrapers, but it also is related to social development, reduction in inequalities and ensuring of social justice. Development leads to social dignity and empowerment of people of all strata of the society.

Bangladesh is now in the mainstream of the global economy. Since its blood-stained birth in 1971, it has been struggling to cut poverty, mitigate environmental disasters and problems relating to political instability. Yet it is now on its way to become a trade-dependent country rather than an aid-dependent one. Food production has increased substantially. New sectors of export, for instance, ready-made garments and shrimps have developed. Some social indicators of healthcare and education have been remarkable and recognised worldwide. The most challenging issue that needs to be addressed is the growing inequality of income. The issues of climate change and terrorism in a changing global perspective is also posing a threat to moving forward. Our aim is to see development achieved through a gender lens. This means asking ourselves about social inequalities.  

Historically, participation of women in economic activities in our country was limited within the households which were not and still are not evaluated in terms of money. Women in our country traditionally remained largely excluded from formal labour markets. The poor women used to undertake domestic work in better-off households for food and clothes. A large number of women are still working as domestic aids in urban areas. There is no standard wage structure for them.

The contribution of women labour in our economy, however, is enormous. In agriculture, particularly in the post-harvest activities, women's participation is huge. Woman labour is the life- blood in the readymade garment (RMG) sector, the highest foreign exchange-earner of the country. Female migration from villages to urban areas has been growing since 1980s as the labour-intensive garments industries grew in number. This migration has brought major shift in economic and social position of women. A large number of educated women are also working in different service sectors like banks, telecommunication, cell phone call centres, shopping malls, hospitals, schools, colleges and universities. Other women are engaged in maintaining their houses and taking care of their children.

Have the women, constituting half of our total population and making a great contribution to the economy, their rights in decision-making in economic and social affairs? What's about their rights to parents' property? What's about their rights to education? Why are they becoming victims of social violence? Are they getting proper medical care? Are the women getting enough access to credit for doing business?

Without answering these questions and resolving these issues, we will not be able to reduce inequalities in social, economic and political spheres. To accelerate the march towards inclusive and sustainable development, the women workforce in the country should be properly empowered and utilised.  

As an inseparable part of the present world system, Bangladesh is to ensure compliance with recommendations of different international organisations and donor agencies. We have limitations to set our own development goals and paths. Yet, with continuous thrust from the government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), we are trying to find out innovative solutions to poverty and other social problems.

The country has already attained most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015 and achieved gender parity in primary education as the first country in South Asia. A number of initiatives have been taken to achieve milestones in women empowerment and gender equality, provide compulsory primary education for all children aged between 6 and 10, distribute free textbooks for all children attending primary and secondary schools, introduce free education for girls up to Grade XII in public institutions, encourage girl students to continue their studies and award stipends to reduce drop-out rates. This proactive strategy for girls' education has resulted in gender parity. For example, in primary schools, the enrolment proportion of male and female students is 49 per cent and 51 per cent and 47 per cent and 53 per cent respectively in secondary schools, a sharp rise in just a few years when male students constituted 65 per cent and 35 per cent respectively. The next challenge in education is reducing drop-out rates, increasing standard of education, offering job-demanded technical education, moral, behavioural and creative education and creating suitable jobs for the educated new generation.

Keeping in mind the contribution of women as a significant part of development, the government extended maternity leave for expecting mothers from four months to six months. Maternal mortality rate (MMR) has been drastically reduced. MMR has declined by more than 66 per cent over the last two decades and is dropping by around 5.5 per cent each year which makes Bangladesh highly likely to achieve the target of 143 deaths per 100,000 live births under the MDGs by 2015. According to a 2013 survey by different UN organisations, the estimated MMR in Bangladesh stood at 170 per 100,000 live births. The government plans to reduce MMR to 63 per 100,000 live births by 2030. Steps have been taken for delivery of primary healthcare services through community clinics to rural, marginal and vulnerable women. Challenges in health sector are to reduce the deceptive health/medical business by fraudulent people, ensure quality health education, build more medical infrastructures and ensure access of all women to the health services.  

Comprehensive initiatives have been taken to speed up women's economic empowerment by providing extensive training, creating job opportunities, ensuring participation in labour market and providing support to small and medium women entrepreneurs. Extensive social safety net programmes have been undertaken to provide various kinds of allowances, such as destitute women allowance, maternity and lactating mother allowance, disabled women allowance, divorced women allowance etc. Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) has been introduced to ensure food security for the vulnerable extreme poor women. A special allocation of Tk.1.0 billion was provided for development of women in the 2014-15 national budget. Marginal and landless farmers, of whom 50 per cent are women, are being given support. Enhanced participation and livelihood of rural poor women is a priority programme of the government implemented through the "One House, One Farm Project", which gives priority to female-headed households in every village. JOYEETA, an initiative of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has been established to empower the rural women of Bangladesh.

In conformity with the government policy, the Bangladesh Bank has taken some initiatives for gender development in the country. Between 2010 and 2013, banks and non-bank financial institutions have disbursed Tk.67 billion to 57,722 women entrepreneurs from their own sources. In 2012, about 17,350 women entrepreneurs received Tk.22 billion as SME credit and in 2014 about 43,000 women entrepreneurs received nearly Tk.40 billion, which is 186 per cent more than that of 2010. This indicates that disbursement towards women entrepreneurs has been increasing in volume as well as on head count. Women entrepreneurs can get advantage of re-financing from the ADB fund and the Bangladesh Bank fund. Women are getting credit at concessional 10 per cent rate of interest.  Fifteen per cent of refinance fund called 'Bangladesh Bank Women Entrepreneurs Fund' is reserved for women entrepreneurs. Women can get loan up to Tk. 2.5 million without collateral against a soft interest (bank rate+ 5 per cent) from the fund. Moreover, all banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) have opened women entrepreneur-dedicated desks through which the bank officials are providing information and service to women entrepreneurs. The Bangladesh Bank has already started a new dimension of women development named 'IamSME Bangladesh'. Women have joined the economic mobilisation process by initiated by mobile financial services in greater number than earlier.

The notable challenges of economic empowerment of women are transparent implementation of the government initiatives, knowledge about various strategies or facilities they may get from the government and non-government agencies, preventing misallocation of resources and creating investment-friendly environment.

In order to enhance women's political empowerment, the number of seats reserved for women in the national parliament has been increased by 5 and made 50. To create opportunities for women's increased participation in politics, reserved seats for women in union council, upazila parishad and municipalities have been raised to one-third of the total and women are to be directly elected to those seats. More than 12,000 women were elected as public representatives in the last round of local government elections. Women's participation in local-level elections was perhaps one of the greatest milestones for Bangladesh. At present in Bangladesh, the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, Speaker and Deputy Leader of the House are all women. Effective local government institutions and increased power and responsibilities may remove frustrations of women representatives and thus will enhance women's development.

The parliament passed the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010, which was the first expressed recognition of the problem of domestic violence in Bangladesh. This Act signified Bangladesh's fulfilment of state obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as well as Article 28(1) and 28(3) of our Constitution, guaranteeing special measures for the advancement of women and children. Again in 2013, the government formulated the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Rules to implement this law effectively.

Bangladesh is a country where major milestones have been achieved in women's empowerment and gender equality. The UN General Assembly and the government of Bangladesh have identified the critical importance of addressing both poverty and inequality and putting gender equality and women's empowerment at the centre of the new post-2015 development agenda. The goals set out in the report include a standalone goal on gender equality and women's empowerment with four main priorities: (a) eliminating violence against women and girls, (b) women's economic empowerment, (c) participation by women in decision-making including in the home, and (d) eliminating child marriage. If performance in the recent past is any indicator, then it is safe to be optimistic that Bangladesh would also be able to achieve the post-2015 goals for women's empowerment. The tenure of MDGs is about to end. With the deadline fast approaching, countries are taking stock of their achievements to-date and working hard to ensure the next set of goals reflecting core requirements of sustainability and equity. It is crucial that the post-Millennium Development Goals, beyond 2015 (the Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs) include, as a core component, women's empowerment and gender equality. Without women's engagement in peaceful development initiatives, they will fail. Without the implementation of sustainable development of women, sustainable development in many other sectors will also fail.  

To become a middle-income country, Bangladesh has to develop gender equality by addressing numerous challenges. The recent industrial disasters in the RMG sector, where a huge majority of workers are women, highlight the serious concerns about occupational safety and health. The government, employers and workers' organisations are making important strides in the right direction, with the support of the ILO and many development partners, but still a lot needs to be done in wages, housing and transportation. Women also have been getting the short end of the stick in the labour market. They are also disproportionately affected by unemployment, underemployment and vulnerable employment. It is important to put in place gender-responsive labour market policies that would pave the way for more equitable employment outcomes and decent work for all. This is essential not only in order to improve the implementation of development policy and to facilitate grounded and informed analyses, but also in order to facilitate the political mobilisation necessary to move forward towards the goals of gender equity. We need not to be satisfied, we need to be inspired and be enthusiastic. We have a long way to go.  

The writers are Bangladesh

Bank officials and

students of DU.

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