New York Times report lauds women dev in Bangladesh
Dhaka, Apr 12 (UNB) – To many outsiders, Bangladesh is best known for its poverty and the natural disasters that hit it with depressing regularity. When it comes to the position of women, however, this country has made progress that would be unthinkable in many other Muslim societies, according to a New York Times report.
It says Bangladeshi women have served in United Nations peacekeeping missions. There are women ambassadors, doctors, engineers and pilots, the report titled ‘Success in a Land Known for Disasters’ said.
Two powerful women — the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her rival, Khaleda Zia — have taken turns at the country’s helm for years. The proportion of parliamentary seats held by women is 19.7 percent, not much lower than the 22.3 percent in the British House of Commons.
“This is a country where women are active in every field,” Dipu Moni, the minister of foreign affairs, said at her office in Dhaka, the capital. Moni, the daughter of a prominent politician and a Western-educated lawyer and physician, has campaigned for years for women’s rights and improved health provisions in the country.
Such efforts by successive governments and development groups have led to major improvements in the lives of women across the country, with expanded access to health care and basic education in rural and urban areas. Decades of microlending and, more recently, the growing garment industry have underpinned the progress by turning millions of women into breadwinners for their families.
Nur Jahan, who lives in Someshpur, a ramshackle village of about 1,000 people four hours from Dhaka, illustrates how tough life remains for many Bangladeshi women, but also how many women’s lives are being transformed.
Ms. Jahan’s husband abandoned her, penniless and in rags, on the main square of Someshpur when she was pregnant with her second child about 10 years ago. A compact and vivacious woman who is about 26 years old — she does not have an exact record — Ms. Jahan spent years doing odd jobs for other households to support herself and her children. In a country that ranks as one of the poorest in the world, she was about as low as it was possible to get.
Then, two years ago, luck finally arrived in the form of a development project that arranged for women who had been widowed or abandoned by their husbands to get jobs maintaining roads.
The project, financed by the European Union and the United Nations Development Program and carried out with the assistance of local governments helped about 24,400 women like Ms. Jahan across Bangladesh.
For two years, they cleared shrubs and smoothed surfaces. They were paid about $1.20 a day. But the savings they accumulated allowed many of them to buy a plot of land or small dwelling. In addition, they were taught to start tiny businesses that should allow them to make a living.
Ms. Jahan now makes and sells compost and trades dried fish. Others in the village sell wood, cookies or stationery for a slim profit. One became the proud owner of a hand loom. Instead of being destitute, these women are now merely poor. They can afford to eat and to send their children to school.
Ms. Jahan hopes to run for a local government office in a few years. Already, people come to her for help, she explained proudly. Recently, the relatives of a sick neighbor asked her to accompany them to the local clinic. Before, they would have hardly looked at her.
“When I think about my past, I want to cry,” she said. “When I think about life now, it is nothing but smiles.”
The groundwork for many of the development jobs was laid in the aftermath of the Bangladeshi war for independence from Pakistan in 1971. What started off as an effort to support the tens of thousands of women who were widowed during the fighting was expanded to alleviate poverty and empower women, said Ferdousi Sultana Begum, senior social development officer at the Asian Development Bank in Dhaka.
“There is still a long way to go, but there has been a lot of gradual progress, especially over the past two decades,” she said. Girls’ education in particular has been widely embraced, she added.
Statistics underline the improvement in women’s lives. The number of births by teenage mothers, for example, plummeted to 78.9 per 1,000 in 2010 from 130.5 in 2000. That is still high by Western standards (the figure for the United States is 41.2), but it is below the 86.3 per thousand in India.
In addition, fewer babies die: 52 out of 1,000 in Bangladesh, compared with 66 per 1,000 in India and 87 in Pakistan. And population growth has been stemmed. In the late 1980s, women in Bangladesh had 5.1 children on average. By 2009, the rate had been more than halved, to 2.3 children. India women have an average of 2.7 children, according to the World Bank.
It says Bangladeshi women have served in United Nations peacekeeping missions. There are women ambassadors, doctors, engineers and pilots, the report titled ‘Success in a Land Known for Disasters’ said.
Two powerful women — the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and her rival, Khaleda Zia — have taken turns at the country’s helm for years. The proportion of parliamentary seats held by women is 19.7 percent, not much lower than the 22.3 percent in the British House of Commons.
“This is a country where women are active in every field,” Dipu Moni, the minister of foreign affairs, said at her office in Dhaka, the capital. Moni, the daughter of a prominent politician and a Western-educated lawyer and physician, has campaigned for years for women’s rights and improved health provisions in the country.
Such efforts by successive governments and development groups have led to major improvements in the lives of women across the country, with expanded access to health care and basic education in rural and urban areas. Decades of microlending and, more recently, the growing garment industry have underpinned the progress by turning millions of women into breadwinners for their families.
Nur Jahan, who lives in Someshpur, a ramshackle village of about 1,000 people four hours from Dhaka, illustrates how tough life remains for many Bangladeshi women, but also how many women’s lives are being transformed.
Ms. Jahan’s husband abandoned her, penniless and in rags, on the main square of Someshpur when she was pregnant with her second child about 10 years ago. A compact and vivacious woman who is about 26 years old — she does not have an exact record — Ms. Jahan spent years doing odd jobs for other households to support herself and her children. In a country that ranks as one of the poorest in the world, she was about as low as it was possible to get.
Then, two years ago, luck finally arrived in the form of a development project that arranged for women who had been widowed or abandoned by their husbands to get jobs maintaining roads.
The project, financed by the European Union and the United Nations Development Program and carried out with the assistance of local governments helped about 24,400 women like Ms. Jahan across Bangladesh.
For two years, they cleared shrubs and smoothed surfaces. They were paid about $1.20 a day. But the savings they accumulated allowed many of them to buy a plot of land or small dwelling. In addition, they were taught to start tiny businesses that should allow them to make a living.
Ms. Jahan now makes and sells compost and trades dried fish. Others in the village sell wood, cookies or stationery for a slim profit. One became the proud owner of a hand loom. Instead of being destitute, these women are now merely poor. They can afford to eat and to send their children to school.
Ms. Jahan hopes to run for a local government office in a few years. Already, people come to her for help, she explained proudly. Recently, the relatives of a sick neighbor asked her to accompany them to the local clinic. Before, they would have hardly looked at her.
“When I think about my past, I want to cry,” she said. “When I think about life now, it is nothing but smiles.”
The groundwork for many of the development jobs was laid in the aftermath of the Bangladeshi war for independence from Pakistan in 1971. What started off as an effort to support the tens of thousands of women who were widowed during the fighting was expanded to alleviate poverty and empower women, said Ferdousi Sultana Begum, senior social development officer at the Asian Development Bank in Dhaka.
“There is still a long way to go, but there has been a lot of gradual progress, especially over the past two decades,” she said. Girls’ education in particular has been widely embraced, she added.
Statistics underline the improvement in women’s lives. The number of births by teenage mothers, for example, plummeted to 78.9 per 1,000 in 2010 from 130.5 in 2000. That is still high by Western standards (the figure for the United States is 41.2), but it is below the 86.3 per thousand in India.
In addition, fewer babies die: 52 out of 1,000 in Bangladesh, compared with 66 per 1,000 in India and 87 in Pakistan. And population growth has been stemmed. In the late 1980s, women in Bangladesh had 5.1 children on average. By 2009, the rate had been more than halved, to 2.3 children. India women have an average of 2.7 children, according to the World Bank.
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