International Women's Day 2005
 

Since 1975, March 8 has been celebrated as International Women’s Day, "Gender Equality Beyond 2005: Building a More Secure Future” the theme of International Women's Day this year."


 
Gender Equality in Bangladesh According to MDGs Progress Report

Gender Equality The third goal is to Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women. (Goal 3 in Bangla)

Target & Indicators
Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015.

Indicators:

  • Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education

  • Ratio of literate females to males of 15-24 year olds

  • Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector

  • Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

 

To ensure gender parity in education levels under MDG 3, Bangladesh will have to increase the female:male participation ratio at tertiary levels from 36:64 to 50:50.

Situation Analysis
Gender disparity is a reflection of complex social, cultural, and economic issues. While some improvement in gender equality has been achieved in sectors such as education, health and family welfare, labour and employment, and democratic participation, in Bangladesh true empowerment is still a distant goal.

Education
Female share in primary school shows an increasing trend since 1992 reaching a ratio of 48:52 in 2002 for female to male primary school enrolment rate. Under present demographic trends arising from the existing sex ratio in the population, this is the optimum possible ratio, and the challenge now is to maintain the momentum until 2015 and beyond. The largest disparity exists at the tertiary level of education. Although female:male ratio has improved from 25:75 in the 1990s to 36:64 in 2002, much remains to be done to achieve 50:50 distribution by 2015.

  • Status at a Glance

  • Disparity in Education

 

Health
In the health sector, women’s status compares unfavourably with that of men. Although the life expectancy gap between men and women has narrowed over the last decade, Bangladesh continues to be amongst the very few countries in the world where women’s life expectancy is lower1 than that of men: in 1990, life expectancy at birth was 56.4 years for males; 55.4 years for females. The maternal mortality rate, estimated to be in the range 320 to 400 per 100,000 live births in 2001, is among the highest in Asia. Pregnancy-related problems, including early and frequent pregnancies, are among the major causes of these phenomena.

Violence Against Women
Violence often arises from the subordinate position of women in relevant socioeconomic, legal and cultural contexts. Although the Bangladesh Constitution guarantees equality and equal protection for all citizens, the principle is often severely curtailed with respect to women’s rights. Thus, women continue to face various forms of violence, harassment and humiliation, one particularly vicious and damaging form of violence being acid attacks which have traumatic consequences, scarring the victims physically, psychologically, and socially for life. The overwhelming majority of the victims are women, and nearly half are below eighteen years of age. Like other forms of violence and discrimination, acid violence arises from the broader problem of the low social and economic status of women.

Economic Disparity
There is substantial gender disparity in the economic area. Although employment opportunities for women have increased in the last decade or so, especially in industries such as the urban-based, export-oriented, readymade garment factories, construction, ceramics, and the informal sector, a social perception persists that women should remain in the household looking after children, cooking food, cleaning and fetching water and fuel.

  • Gender Inequity in Employment by Economic Sector, 2000

Steps taken by the Government to promote women’s economic equality include the withdrawal of a ban on women’s employment abroad3, building capacity in the newly established Ministry of Manpower Development and Export for providing security to women workers, and introducing a 60 percent quota in the recruitment of primary school teachers.

Disparity in the Political Field
There are currently only six women parliamentarians in the 300-seat National Parliament of Bangladesh. The provision in the Constitution for 30 reserved seats for women lapsed in 2001. It was replaced by the introduction of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution which reserves 45 seats for women in proportion to parliamentary representation. This Amendment, which will increase the total parliamentary seats to 345. The situation is slightly better in the case of local government. Twenty five percent of the members in the Union Parishads (Councils)4, the City Corporation and Pourashava (municipality) are women who have been directly elected to the local bodies.

 

Challenges
In spite of the many initiatives undertaken in Bangladesh, progress in the area of gender equality and women’s advancement remains limited. Expanded policy interventions with effective implementation; awareness building at family, institution and community levels; and better follow-up and intensified efforts for integrating gender dimensions in different programme areas are needed. Complementary efforts by civil society are crucial to the improvement of women’s status at the grassroots level.
                                                       ..... More

 

 

Articles / Reports on Gender Equality & MDGs

  • Bangladesh MDG Progress Report 2005 Goal-3

  • Millennium Development Goals national reports a look through a gender lens

  • Gender millennium development goals the & Millennium Development Goals

 

 

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