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INTERNATIONAL Women's Day was observed in Bangladesh on Tuesday with colourful programmes. Indeed, Bangladesh presents itself as an example of female empowerment among the developing countries. Almost half of the country's over 130 million population are females and the conditions of them are not uniform. The highest position in the government has been occupied by females for over a decade that signifies that there is no serious in-built resistance to women playing a fuller part in Bangladesh society. This contrasts with millions and millions of cases of repression and underempowerment of women, to be noted in different forms, who have an existence beneath the upper classes. At the same time, one can also find millions of instances where women are gradually breaking out of their fetters in traditional society here finding formal employment or engaging in self-employment, acquiring education, becoming conscious of the ways to be better mothers or homemakers caring to elevate the standards of hygiene and nutrition in their homes, etc.
Thus, the story of women's progression in Bangladesh is far from being a hopeless one although much more needs to be done before satisfaction can be taken that the rather relatively weaker half of the population have been adequately uplifted in all respects. There is also the powerful economic case for women's upward climb, apart from the obvious social and ethical reasons. A country's productivity or creativity cannot be optimally harnessed when half of its otherwise able population have to suffer seclusion and discrimination due to cultural and political reasons.
There are starkly manifest cases of exploitation of women awaiting to be redressed in different areas. The readymade garments (RMG) sector is the mainstay of the country's export trade and the preponderant number of workers in it are females and most of them are in their teens. They work very long and strenuous hours every day and the prosperity of RMG entrepreneurs and the greater size of the country's foreign currency reserve are the outcome of their very hard toil. But these girls receive in most cases monthly wages below even a thousand taka which is a pittance compared to their contribution to the RMG industry and the national economy. Besides, they suffer regular indignities at their positions of employment and also from physically hazardous working conditions that even pose risks to their lives. The female RMG workers do not enjoy weekly holiday, limited hours of work, leave and other benefits that are taken for granted in other organised sectors of the economy. Thus, improvement in the emoluments and working conditions of RMG sector female workers represent a glaring case of oppression waiting to be redressed. The RMG sector entrepreneurs are not likely to lose their competitiveness or experience a major loss of profits if they attempt to provide the minimum of facilities that their workers deserve as their basic needs and rights.
The state of women in the countryside where the majority in the female population are to be found presents different and varied challenges. Rural women, in general, are handicapped by restrictive social and religious customs and are forced by taboos and social practices to limiting their roles at homes. These barriers have been breaking but still remain formidable that need to be addressed and removed through changes in attitude and peaceful persuasion.
The cruelties against women -- manifest in acid throwing, immoral trafficking, maltreatment of female domestics and discriminations at work places -- all need to be well addressed also with significantly improved law enforcement as well the making of new laws. Institutionally, women should be allowed to become the beneficiaries of credits and other facilities under 'special' concessions to promote their productivity, creativity and employment opportunities.
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