Gender equality and Bangladesh

Generally speaking women constitute more than fifty percent of population of any country and where they are more engaged will result to more meaningful progress

Part-I

The mountain ranges  are always fascinating and a wonder to the adventurous mindset of human race since time immemorial. There is a deep influence of mountains with a number of great religion or civilisation be it Islam (Hera), Hinduism (Kailash), Judaism ( Toor), Inca civilisation (Andes), Greek civilisation (Balkan ranges), amongst a few to mention. The mighty Himalayan range hosting the top of the World, The Mount Everest, which due to its awesomeness always had been the point to conquer! There were so many expeditions to scale this top of the world with so much of casualties and failures till NewZealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. We people of this country from flat land are generally not in to this type of mountaineering.  Let alone scaling the mountains, how many of us in this country have really seen a mountain? Wasfia Nazreen  a mountaineer, activist, social worker and writer from Bangladesh conquered Everest, not only that, but the first Bangladeshi to scale seven highest peaks in seven continents She is known for her campaigns to raise awareness of sex workers and minority groups. National Geographic recognised Nazreen as one of their Adventurers of the Year 2014/2015.  
Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina is among the exclusive club of 100 leading global thinkers of the world as determined by the influential Washington based journal Foreign Policy magazine. Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has been announced as one of the winners of the United Nations' highest environmental accolade, in recognition of Bangladesh's far-reaching initiatives to address climate change. With a population of more than 159 million, Bangladesh is one of the world's most populated countries. It is also one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Cyclones, floods and droughts have long been part of the country's history, but they have intensified in recent years. Serving as Prime Minister of Bangladesh – one of the world's least-developed countries – Sheikh Hasina has proven that investing in climate change is conducive to achievement of both social and economic goals in long sustainable manner. Bangladesh  has been the role model for achievement of MDG goals .  Barrister Sarah Hussain, Legal Professional and activist; Sumayia Kazi, CEO Sumazi.com; Nishat Mazumdar, first Bangladeshi female to conquer The Everest are  among the top 10 inspirational Bangladeshis around the world has been published at the British Parliament Commonwealth Room. Indeed from Begum Rokeya Shakhawat, our women have glorified the history. But, in general, how far the women of this country has emancipated? Where do we really stand in terms of Gender Equality in global perspective?
Let me narrate three different real life stories (names changed) to illustrate the picture of how women are treated in this country. Safina Begum got married at the tender age of 14 and came to Dhaka with her street hawker husband Nuru Miah. After few days, Safina came to know about her dearest life partner's all the vices and start getting molested and beaten. Few months later, Nuru Miah brought in other girl and introduced her as his newly wed wife. The torture on Safina Begum crossed all the limits and one fateful evening after being seriously wounded and completely fainted, Safina Begum opened her eyes in the veranda of Dhaka Medical. This is indeed not a case in isolation but thousands of Safina go through this ordeal. Shumi, a college going girl of a businessman got married to a wealthy NRB named Kajol, who introduced himself as a software engineer. After a few days it was found that this Kajol is still married to another woman where he has two lovely kids! He works in the service station and lives there. The fairytale marriage of Shumi got a permanent block and got her a divorce. Wahida Akhtar, the eldest daughter of a school teacher parent got married to Hossain Ali a clerk in a bank. Hossain Ali was promised a two wheeler and ten bhori of gold. But the school teacher parents of Wahida was not able to fulfil the promise to pay the dowries and she was frequently being tortured and harassed brutally by her in laws. These are regular stories and not in isolation. All of us have experienced one or all of these stories in our lives.  So, we talk a lot about women empowerment and it is indeed a fact that we have come a long way since in terms of this indicator but are our women truly empowered?
Women Empowerment is measured in terms of Gender Empowerment Measurement (GEM). The engagement or involvement of women in society by way of political and economic contribution of women is measured through GEM. There is a direct correlation between GEM and socio economic development of a country. Generally speaking women constitute more than fifty percent of population of any country and where they are more engaged will result to more meaningful progress.
"Give me an educated mother, I shall promise you to give the birth of a civilised and educated nation" as Napoleon Bonaparte once said. It's indeed a statement so philosophical with in depth centuries back. It's the access to proper education which is the birth right irrespective of gender and builds up the launching pad for overall growth of a country. A baby when born till adolescence, the formative period, is mainly being nurtured by the mother. The more solid is the base for the formative period, the more developed the person is.
The basic human nature clearly differentiates between a male and female. If we generally draw a comparison, a female is more poised, honest, balanced, disciplined and open to multi tasking. These qualities are basically complimentary to the general characteristics of a male. Hence, each compliment to other and make a complete unison. There is a very popular word in English called Better Half and both literally and spiritually the term stands correct in entirety.
In terms of Gender Equality, the Scandinavian countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark; New Zealand; Australia; Netherlands; Singapore; Hong Kong; Japan; Israel; France; UK rank among the top 20 countries in terms of equality. It is clearly evident that the country ranking also match the country economic indicators including human development index, GDP etc.
In comparison, where do we stand in terms of global standard or even the South Asian standard? Bangladesh ranked 115 out of 149 countries in terms of Human Development Index and 142 out of 187 countries in terms of Gender Equality in 2013. The patriarchal society or patrilineal system with one of the seven countries in the world where male population exceeds female population plays the base characteristic. It is true that the movement against and fall of the last military dictatorship was led by two stalwarts who are woman themselves and they remained as head of state for last more than two and half decades in between them. Speaker of our Parliament or the leader of the present opposition party in the Parliament are women. Two and half decade is quarter of a century! But how much have we accomplished in terms of empowerment?
In terms of Gross Domestic Products on the basis of Purchasing Power Parity, Bangladesh ranks as 32nd while in terms of GEM ranks as 111th country. There indeed remains a big gap between these two indicators. Which means, the country can easily bolster the growth and reach the top 20 countries if we can improve our position in terms of gender equality.
The continuity of the previous three real life episode. Safina Begum left her husband and is working for an RMG factory for last ten years. She earns around BDT fifteen thousand per month and lives with her co workers in Beraid, Dhaka. She is not only independent, self reliant but also helps her ailing mother who lives in the village. Shumi has done her post graduate and now works for an NGO and is happily married with a lovely kid. Her husband practices law in the Chittagong Bar and they are living happily in Chittagong. Their direct contribution to the economy of Bangladesh on their very small way is very critical and jointly the women of Bangladesh have made both RMG and NGO sectors a major role model in the group. These footmarks are indeed creating path for women empowerment. On the other hand, Wahida died of severe burnt injuries. That's another part of the journey of women empowerment. What really are the road blocks and how do we meet the challenges ahead for a meaningful gender equality?
As per UNESCO report published in 2015, the composite global literacy rate is 86.3 percent of which male is 90 and female is 82.7 percent respectively. In South Asian region country wise total, male and female literacy rate stand as follows, Sri Lanka 92.6, 93.7, 91.6 percent; India 72.1, 80.9, 62.7percent; Pakistan 58.7, 71.5, 45.5 percent; Nepal 56.7, 64.5, 45.5 percent; Maldives 99.3, 99.8, 98.8 percent; Bhutan 64.9,73.1 and 55 percent respectively. While in Bangladesh the numbers stand 61.5, 64.6 and 58.5 percent respectively. Based on the report we could understand and take stock on the literacy rate and specially for female. The overall literacy rate increased from 29.3 percent in 1981 to 61.5 percent in 2015, more than double the increase. The rate was 45 percent in 1991. So there is still lot of space to work on the female education for us.
Life expectancy at birth 70.65 years in 2014 of which male 68.75 years and female 72.63 years respectively. Life expectancy at birth in Pakistan 67.05 with Male 65.16 and   Female 69.03 years in 2014. Access to better sanitation, family planning, health services enable the improvement in overall health including mortality during delivery has helped the life expectancy to improve significantly compared to the other countries in the region.
The famine stricken Bangladesh was once written off as a bottomless basket case. The gradual shift to automation in irrigation, usage of equipments replacing bull cart plough, usage of high yield variety of crops have enabled the country not only to be self reliant on food but also exports.
Comilla model (BARD) and then the subsequent Shomobay evolving to  NGO model has made the  women participation in agriculture, poultry to gain this status through micro credit and cooperatives.  However, women engagement as direct workforce in agriculture is still very low compared to India, Nepal, Bhutan.

To be continued

The writer, a banker by profession, has worked both in local and overseas market with various foreign and local banks in different positions

Gender equality and Bangladesh

Generally speaking women constitute more than fifty percent of population of any country and where they are more engaged will result to more meaningful progress

Part-I The mountain ranges are always fascinating and a wonder to the adventurous mindset of human race since time immemorial. There is a deep influence of mountains with a number of great religion or civilisation be it Islam (Hera), Hinduism (Kailash), Judaism ( Toor), Inca civilisation (Andes), Greek civilisation (Balkan ranges), amongst a few to mention. The mighty Himalayan range hosting the top of the World, The Mount Everest, which due to its awesomeness always had been the point to conquer! There were so many expeditions to scale this top of the world with so much of casualties and failures till NewZealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers to reach the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt. We people of this country from flat land are generally not in to this type of mountaineering. Let alone scaling the mountains, how many of us in this country have really seen a mountain? Wasfia Nazreen a mountaineer, activist, social worker and writer from Bangladesh conquered Everest, not only that, but the first Bangladeshi to scale seven highest peaks in seven continents She is known for her campaigns to raise awareness of sex workers and minority groups. National Geographic recognised Nazreen as one of their Adventurers of the Year 2014/2015. Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina is among the exclusive club of 100 leading global thinkers of the world as determined by the influential Washington based journal Foreign Policy magazine. Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has been announced as one of the winners of the United Nations highest environmental accolade, in recognition of Bangladeshs far-reaching initiatives to address climate change. With a population of more than 159 million, Bangladesh is one of the worlds most populated countries. It is also one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Cyclones, floods and droughts have long been part of the countrys history, but they have intensified in recent years. Serving as Prime Minister of Bangladesh one of the worlds least-developed countries Sheikh Hasina has proven that investing in climate change is conducive to achievement of both social and economic goals in long sustainable manner. Bangladesh has been the role model for achievement of MDG goals . Barrister Sarah Hussain, Legal Professional and activist; Sumayia Kazi, CEO Sumazi.com; Nishat Mazumdar, first Bangladeshi female to conquer The Everest are among the top 10 inspirational Bangladeshis around the world has been published at the British Parliament Commonwealth Room. Indeed from Begum Rokeya Shakhawat, our women have glorified the history. But, in general, how far the women of this country has emancipated? Where do we really stand in terms of Gender Equality in global perspective? Let me narrate three different real life stories (names changed) to illustrate the picture of how women are treated in this country. Safina Begum got married at the tender age of 14 and came to Dhaka with her street hawker husband Nuru Miah. After few days, Safina came to know about her dearest life partners all the vices and start getting molested and beaten. Few months later, Nuru Miah brought in other girl and introduced her as his newly wed wife. The torture on Safina Begum crossed all the limits and one fateful evening after being seriously wounded and completely fainted, Safina Begum opened her eyes in the veranda of Dhaka Medical. This is indeed not a case in isolation but thousands of Safina go through this ordeal. Shumi, a college going girl of a businessman got married to a wealthy NRB named Kajol, who introduced himself as a software engineer. After a few days it was found that this Kajol is still married to another woman where he has two lovely kids! He works in the service station and lives there. The fairytale marriage of Shumi got a permanent block and got her a divorce. Wahida Akhtar, the eldest daughter of a school teacher parent got married to Hossain Ali a clerk in a bank. Hossain Ali was promised a two wheeler and ten bhori of gold. But the school teacher parents of Wahida was not able to fulfil the promise to pay the dowries and she was frequently being tortured and harassed brutally by her in laws. These are regular stories and not in isolation. All of us have experienced one or all of these stories in our lives. So, we talk a lot about women empowerment and it is indeed a fact that we have come a long way since in terms of this indicator but are our women truly empowered? Women Empowerment is measured in terms of Gender Empowerment Measurement (GEM). The engagement or involvement of women in society by way of political and economic contribution of women is measured through GEM. There is a direct correlation between GEM and socio economic development of a country. Generally speaking women constitute more than fifty percent of population of any country and where they are more engaged will result to more meaningful progress. Give me an educated mother, I shall promise you to give the birth of a civilised and educated nation as Napoleon Bonaparte once said. Its indeed a statement so philosophical with in depth centuries back. Its the access to proper education which is the birth right irrespective of gender and builds up the launching pad for overall growth of a country. A baby when born till adolescence, the formative period, is mainly being nurtured by the mother. The more solid is the base for the formative period, the more developed the person is. The basic human nature clearly differentiates between a male and female. If we generally draw a comparison, a female is more poised, honest, balanced, disciplined and open to multi tasking. These qualities are basically complimentary to the general characteristics of a male. Hence, each compliment to other and make a complete unison. There is a very popular word in English called Better Half and both literally and spiritually the term stands correct in entirety. In terms of Gender Equality, the Scandinavian countries including Norway, Sweden, Denmark; New Zealand; Australia; Netherlands; Singapore; Hong Kong; Japan; Israel; France; UK rank among the top 20 countries in terms of equality. It is clearly evident that the country ranking also match the country economic indicators including human development index, GDP etc. In comparison, where do we stand in terms of global standard or even the South Asian standard? Bangladesh ranked 115 out of 149 countries in terms of Human Development Index and 142 out of 187 countries in terms of Gender Equality in 2013. The patriarchal society or patrilineal system with one of the seven countries in the world where male population exceeds female population plays the base characteristic. It is true that the movement against and fall of the last military dictatorship was led by two stalwarts who are woman themselves and they remained as head of state for last more than two and half decades in between them. Speaker of our Parliament or the leader of the present opposition party in the Parliament are women. Two and half decade is quarter of a century! But how much have we accomplished in terms of empowerment? In terms of Gross Domestic Products on the basis of Purchasing Power Parity, Bangladesh ranks as 32nd while in terms of GEM ranks as 111th country. There indeed remains a big gap between these two indicators. Which means, the country can easily bolster the growth and reach the top 20 countries if we can improve our position in terms of gender equality. The continuity of the previous three real life episode. Safina Begum left her husband and is working for an RMG factory for last ten years. She earns around BDT fifteen thousand per month and lives with her co workers in Beraid, Dhaka. She is not only independent, self reliant but also helps her ailing mother who lives in the village. Shumi has done her post graduate and now works for an NGO and is happily married with a lovely kid. Her husband practices law in the Chittagong Bar and they are living happily in Chittagong. Their direct contribution to the economy of Bangladesh on their very small way is very critical and jointly the women of Bangladesh have made both RMG and NGO sectors a major role model in the group. These footmarks are indeed creating path for women empowerment. On the other hand, Wahida died of severe burnt injuries. Thats another part of the journey of women empowerment. What really are the road blocks and how do we meet the challenges ahead for a meaningful gender equality? As per UNESCO report published in 2015, the composite global literacy rate is 86.3 percent of which male is 90 and female is 82.7 percent respectively. In South Asian region country wise total, male and female literacy rate stand as follows, Sri Lanka 92.6, 93.7, 91.6 percent; India 72.1, 80.9, 62.7percent; Pakistan 58.7, 71.5, 45.5 percent; Nepal 56.7, 64.5, 45.5 percent; Maldives 99.3, 99.8, 98.8 percent; Bhutan 64.9,73.1 and 55 percent respectively. While in Bangladesh the numbers stand 61.5, 64.6 and 58.5 percent respectively. Based on the report we could understand and take stock on the literacy rate and specially for female. The overall literacy rate increased from 29.3 percent in 1981 to 61.5 percent in 2015, more than double the increase. The rate was 45 percent in 1991. So there is still lot of space to work on the female education for us. Life expectancy at birth 70.65 years in 2014 of which male 68.75 years and female 72.63 years respectively. Life expectancy at birth in Pakistan 67.05 with Male 65.16 and Female 69.03 years in 2014. Access to better sanitation, family planning, health services enable the improvement in overall health including mortality during delivery has helped the life expectancy to improve significantly compared to the other countries in the region. The famine stricken Bangladesh was once written off as a bottomless basket case. The gradual shift to automation in irrigation, usage of equipments replacing bull cart plough, usage of high yield variety of crops have enabled the country not only to be self reliant on food but also exports. Comilla model (BARD) and then the subsequent Shomobay evolving to NGO model has made the women participation in agriculture, poultry to gain this status through micro credit and cooperatives. However, women engagement as direct workforce in agriculture is still very low compared to India, Nepal, Bhutan. To be continued The writer, a banker by profession, has worked both in local and overseas market with various foreign and local banks in different positions