WOMEN EMPOWERMENT AND GOVERNMENT’S STEPS

ABSTRACT
‘Until Women and girls are liberated from poverty and injustice, all our goals-peace,
security, sustainable development stand in jeopardy, (US Secretary general Ban Ki
Moon; 8 March 2010) This statement portrays the worldwide recognition of the
absolute truth that we cannot think of proper development of a nation without the
involvement of women in development process or stopping violence and injustice to
women/etc., It is true that women are considered to be subservient to men in many
societies and countries of the world including Bangladesh. In the male dominated
society, we consider women inferior to men and think them fit only for household
work. There has always been a gender disparity in every field of social and national
life. As women constitute the great majority of the total population, the present
government has undertaken various activities of establishing overall rights of women
and children, their empowerment and integrating them into the mainstream of the
overall development. Women empowerment is about, “encourage the women to take
stand for their own interest” raising voice and action towards their right and choice
for respectful livelihood. The word empowerment entails change. This include all
development practices such as economic social and political participation of women
from the late years. Emerging studies on women’s development areas like; exploring
and calculating women’s contribution in nation building and or economic
development, women’s role and status in society as an equal citizen of the nation.
Women’s empowerment includes dimensions; cognitive, psychological, economic,
political, and physical to understand the process of women empowerment. So, an
empowered woman defines their attitude, values and behavior in relation to their own
interest. The need and evolution of women empowerment get initiated when, in mid
of 19th century several types of economic collapses and political destabilization and
declining of nations status caused for emergence of social change in society, this led
the situation of women to work for earn whether outside or inside, this situation
commanding the other aspect of social discrimination and inequality among the male
and female. Here a power relation came in to existence; women are inferior then man
and men have more good opportunity than women in terms of household expertise,
and equal wage and employment opportunity. But in all of these. women’ s become a
tool of helping hand with men, in spite of equal contribution at home and workplace,
women treated as a second ‘citizen’ status in society. Women empowerment is a
“bottom up” process of transforming marginalized women through developing
awareness of women’s subordination and building their capacity to challenge it.

Keywords: Education, Independence, Participation, Obstacles, Footstep of

Government’s, and Opportunity.
Introduction:

Bangladesh is a developing country half of the total population is women whose

socio-economic condition is very low. Struggle for modernity, tradition, men-women
equality, social dignity, security and for multilateral pressure the position of women
in the family is very complex. Here men and women do not participate in social
development is not equal. Many indoor and outdoor activities of women are not
treated as work. The devaluation of women labor in labor market also hinders women
right. But in market economy women of Bangladesh are always facing new
challenges. Though women work in educational institution, medical, factories, police,
even in the uneven areas, women are neglected, tortured and persecuted. In the
society of gender disparity, it is difficult for women to stay parallel and enjoy the
right of equal participant. All these should be discussed here.

Empowerment of women: Empowerment of women is such a process which

controlling women rights, challenges gender disparity in parental and social
institutions.

Socio economic Condition: The socio-economic condition refers to the social dignity,
educational qualifications, family marriage system, mother, social value, occupation
salary, wealth etc.

The socio-economic Condition of Women

Social Dignity

Most of the women in Bangladesh believe in erotic social value and superstition. In
this condition women are always dependent on men. From the early childhood female
child is neglected. The birth of male child is welcome on the other hand that of female
child is considered as a curse. When the female child is growing up, she realizes that
she is born to serve the female, she is a curse for the society or family and the social
environment enhances her idea and for this man use social superstition, religious
sentiment, ignorance’s and weakness and helplessness of women.

Women have to lead lower life in the male dominated society. Another because of it
is that mantis the wage earners, so in social attitude the role of women is not
considered important as men’s. In the case of lower social dignity of women. Borhan
Uddin Zahangir and Zarina Rahman have mentioned two features. One is parental and
another is social inequality. The first origin the familial sector and the 2nd one is the
sub ordinate rich sector. And mutuality between these two sectors have made the
women homesick.

There is another cause behind the less dignity of women in Bangladesh age. marriage
system, relationship and mother. The right of women in the case of marriage is
negative. The father becomes the decision maker and mother’s decision is always
neglected. The registry, demand of bride, witness etc. are compulsory. If the marriage
is not registered, it is illegal. Since there are double rules in the society, the women
can’t act when they are divorced. The agreement in marriage in Islam is equal but in
practical, It is not equal. The men have the right to divorce, keep four wives at a time.
Here women are not safe they are inferior to men.

The Economic condition of women

The main aspect of women empowerment is the equal rights of women in the working
field. From the ancient period women were engaged in household chores preparing
field sowing seeds, weddings harvesting and many other activities. The picture of
invisible contribution of women was shown in the moderate National income in 1993.
According to this statistic, the production which is produced and used in house is it
worth of 16 trillion dollars. Of them 10% – 35% production is produced in houses by
women which does not need to pay. In 1990 it is stated in a statistic if the activities of
women in the family are counted and added to the national income, the total income
of the world increases from 20% to 30%. But these activities of women are not
granted. Here the annual and daily activities of rural women granted by UNICEF in
1991 and Department Female affair in 1994 are shown below.

Women empowerment involves the building up of a society, a political environment,

wherein women can breathe without the fear of oppression, exploitation,
apprehension, discrimination and the general feeling of persecution which goes with
being a woman in a traditionally male dominated structure. Women empowerment
does not include only the part of society development by improving the condition of
women in various socially structured behavior and discrimination on the interest of
raising issues and weaknesses of women for political concentration of awakening as a
topic about women development on local or national level , but it should be deal as
interest of social need as an equal consideration and satisfaction of women’s internal
thoughts, opinion and choice to be like and should emphasis as equal right of action,
without any fear that it can be neglected or disrespect by patriarchy section or rejected
by society. The main asset of society which rewarded to women as a responsibility
and caretaker personality of home when it comes to distinguish between rural and
urban women situation then there’s a difference one can see by differentiating in
manner of livelihood and status of women as labor and household worker at home.
The process of women empowerment upholds the need of transformation in society
by action at various level of sociological and demographical and as well physical
concerns. This all aspects also included a large variety of participation in sphere of
social economic cultural and in cognitive activities where the decision making and
action should mainly significant in area of empowerment of women. Promotion in
stage of equality and action against discrimination at every level is significant for
nurturing the seed of women empowerment and development. In area of development
a necessary step firstly taken by imposes of law and regulation by the government at
state level and local level and policies should concentrated on initiating of activities
and work with participation and equal importance of women contribution in various
streams, whether that’s on the household or outside work. The main key point of the
subject is to give respect to choices and action of women in interested area, which
make them capable, self-sustained, autonomous (related to decision, reproduction,
choice, action, education, employability and exploration). A no. of quality of research
focuses that the problem which rooted in the mainstream of the way to empower the
women is exist at very basic level of socialization process which linked towards the
mentality of subordination of women in society, as concentrated a week human being
who always need to dependent on patriarchy section and who give up right of
decision and liberty. Emotions division are root cause of gender bias, in identification
aspects of sex and converting into the bases of gender differentiation are a major
process of women’s disempowerment since the starting of division of labor and
various economic revolution and integration of countries. I personally observed that
in my nearby society there is lots of hurdles are created when a women or girl think to
do beyond the set of norms of family and ignored by their family members by their
peer group in society with feeling of insulted she deals with complexity in her
livelihood by every day. even if women want still try then various imposes of
marriage proposal and in result people tries to broke her mentally, make them
disappointed to the process of grow up and development of her ideology. But as I
strongly believe that a women can only get empower if she has a feeling of develop
herself and to tackle with problems and a strong inner voice to cope with adverse
situation and holding a willpower of change and understood the process of
transformation… that the moment of stability of continuous action in direction of
development, and feeling powered to reach on the objective, to achieve the goal in
such that case a women or girl can empower. Some of researchers and authors noticed
and explained the social condition and the place of women in that atmosphere, which
denote that development and under development depend upon the geographical as
well on cultural process of society of area. So, Process of development and
empowerment of women also varied from location to location according to resources
and mobilization. Women have to swim against the stream that requires mere
strength. Such strength comes from the process of empowerment. The women
empowerment can be done through providing proper education, health and nutrition
facilities. Empowerment closely related to economic development and political
participation by which a person ensures contribution and freedom raise her/his voice,
thus women are weak in starting of achieving these significant things in society,
society role is become very narrow when such matters came to about women to grow.
In Bangladesh, there are wide regional variations in the sex ratio of each state. A wide
range of social factors contribute to this situation and this sex ratio is an outcome of
the prevailing socio-economic condition of women and their position in society.
Female infant mortality, age specific female morbidity and mortality, educational
access and achievement, work participation, access to health services, poor nutrition
and other development indicators point to women's low status in society. The security
of traditional and social systems provided to women moving out of their homes for
education and employment is being regarded as insufficient which needs to be
strengthened. These backward thinking in Bangladeshi society lead to be stay behind
to women, which deals women like a commodity of social exchange, in a large
number of women are highly poor, there is very registered property on the name of
women in Bangladesh. Women’s organizations, and various United Nations
international women’s conferences in Mexico City, Copenhagen, Nairobi and Beijing
over the last three decades, have put gender issues firmly on the development agenda.
The experiences of different states and regions show that economic prosperity helps
gender equality but some gender gaps are resistant to change. Rapid growth, as in the
East Asian countries, has led to a narrowing of the gender differences in wages and
education but inequality in political representation remains. Sudden, economic
change, such as structural adjustment program or the post-cold war transition in
Eastern Europe, creates new gender differences in which women are generally the
loser. The fourth world conference on women (Beijing 4-15 September 1995) The
platform for action sets out strategic objectives and explain the measures that involves
important criteria for development of women empowerment to focus the weak and
needy area in women concerns. The Structural Adjustment Policy generally involves
an increase in production for export combined with demand-reducing policies, such
as removal of subsidies on basic food stuffs, price rises, wage cuts and job losses. It
may be argued that the social costs of structural adjustment would have been worse
without the IMF intervention, but for a long time there was little appreciation by
international agencies of the gender bias in their Impact. New communication
technologies have been emerging as a significant tool for women development as well
as rapidity in the state-of- art is a part of globalization, which also help to aware and
maximize core area of development of women through easy flow of information and
compression of time and distance are also playing significant role in woman
development and empowerment in area of education, information, employment and
participation.

Women of Bangladesh

Women of our country could not advance as a result of superstition and blindness to
religion deeply rooted in the society. Women were kept at home building the
shadowy wall in every sphere of life. Having same quality women are still lagging
behind. Although the Queen rules over the king in reality, women have been made
completely dependent on men. They have been only taught how to cook, wash dishes
and do all the household chores. Religion has been used as a weapon to wash their
brain. It is said that a will can deserve heaven under the feet of men. They will have
to digest everything in spite of all the illegal works done by husbands.

Some people have deviated from religion and explain religion from then own point of
view. They push the women into inhuman suffering. Women are to bear the inhuman
torture because of their narrow out took. In spite of being 50% of the total population,
only 7% – 8% can enjoy liberty, equity and justice in the male dominated society.
There is no disparity between east and west in respect of women torture. In this
respect all men are equal to torture the women.

Rights of women

In the constitution of the people’s republic of Bangladesh some fundamental rights

for women are:

Article 10.: Steps shall be taken to ensure participation of women in all spheres of
national life.
Article 28(2): women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the state & of
public life.

Article 28(4): Nothing in this article shall prevent the state from making special
provision in favor of women children or for the advancement of any backward section
of citizens.

In a recent study it is found that 12% enjoy human rights fully, 8% enjoy minimum
human rights, 7.8% can enjoy equal rights in human activities and 7.6% can enjoy
open freedom.

The women in our society are highly neglected from various points of view though
they represent almost half of country's human resources and thus half of its potential.
The vast Majority of women of our country are directly and indirectly dependent on
male dominated society. In our male dominated society, they have usually no say
even in family matters. In many family’s wives are brutally beaten by their husbands
or maltreated by them in laws. In some societies brides' families have to pay dowry to
bridegrooms' families. If they fail to pay it, the brides become the victim of miserable
mental and physical punishment. In some cases, this situation may lead to divorce,
41-throwing, even murder. All these things prove the miserable and humiliating
conditions of women in male dominated societies. Women are even not given the
opportunity of taking proper education and becoming educated and self-reliant.

Various forms of discrimination against women are prevalent in our society. In many
families, boys and girls do not enjoy equal opportunities and privileges because they
are treated differently even by their parents. Boys, are given better food than girls and
many parents think that educating a daughter is a waste of time and money. They
often marry their daughters off at an early age and use their resources for their son's
education. Iii most cases, girls cannot raise any objections of their parents' decision.
Many girls become bound to believe that their only responsibility in life is to get
married and bear children.
There are many factors which are responsible for such degradation of women.
Women's lack of education is one of the major causes of their lower position in
society. A vast portion of women spends their life e without having education or
remaining under the darkness of ignorance. If women remain illiterate or uneducated,
they remain unaware of their rights and duties. As a result, they can hardly assert their
authority. Men in the male-dominated societies use it as a strategy to keep women
away from education. As they do not want women's empowerment and know that
education will empower and strengthen women, they always deprive their women of
the light of education. Sometimes, religious teaching and beliefs also prevent women
from being educated and employed. Some religious leaders are of the opinion that
participation of women in the mainstream development by bringing them outside
from inside the house is to destroy Islamic rites and rituals. These types of
conceptions are great shakes for women empowerment in our society.

'We should realize that women constitute a large part of the total population in every
country: and it is quite impossible to bring overall social and national development
keeping half of its population out of the work. If they work hand in hand with their
male counterparts, the development process of acotintry will certainly be quickened.
If only a handful of women are educated and hold high position the total development
of a country will not be ensured. Only mass female literacy can change the situation
and bring about empowerment of women. women should be empowered to take part
not only in making family decisions but also to participate in all nation building
activities. The aim of the empowerment of women is not to make women so powerful
and authoritative that they should enslave men and dominate them. Its purpose is
rather to create a healthy and congenial atmosphere in which men and women will
enjoy equal rights and work together according to their respective abilities.

Our Constitution has clearly denied any discrimination between men and women.
The government has enacted a number of laws to stop violence and repression
against women and to ensure their safe living. Legislative framework is in place to
combat violence against women. Bangladesh has a number of special laws, specially
prohibiting certain forms of violence against women, i.e., The Penal code, 1860; Anti
Dowry Act, 1980; Child Marriage Restraint Act, etc. Few years back, Government
adopted National Women Development Policy, 2011. This policy covers all the
aspects of women empowerment, women access to skill development and policy
planning. Education Policy, 2011 ensures gender-sensitive school facilities, creates
awareness and confidence among women and makes them aware of their rights.

Some important realistic measures should be taken to expedite the process of women
empowerment. Firstly, the government of our country should take all necessary steps
to protect the rights of women in matters like marriage; divorce, child-bearing,
guardianship of children and so on. Secondly, women should have freedom to
educate themselves and they should be allowed freedom to express views and
opinions on every social and national issue: Thirdly, women themselves should be
aware of their dignity and rights. Finally, men should come forward to pave the way
of women empowerment and encourage women to come out of their homes and to
take part in all kinds of work. Though some obstacles exist in our society to involve
women in development process, we cannot deny that a radical change has already
taken place during the last few years. If we can utilize women's skill and ability in
our development process, our country will undoubtedly go ahead in keeping with the
other developed countries of the world. So, all barriers to the empowerment of
women should be removed to establish a modern democratic society.

Conclusion:
Today as per the changing scenario we can definitely see that the involvement of
women's and more interestingly the female children had started on a large scale. with
the Government of Bangladesh being concerned about the Sex Ratio and Literacy
rate, both very low in our country during 90's. we have found that the positive steps
and initiatives are proving much effective and result oriented. since 1991 and so on
the programs that are being implemented both at the Centre and the state level in
Bangladesh domestically are providing satisfactorily statistics. All over about
empowerment the most first thing is SAFETY whether inside of home or outside,
women should feel free from every fear, any exploitation and oppression strictly
should prohibit by law and that should in strong implementation. After achieving by
these basic things next process will be alternatively happen in direction of
development and participation, then an equal status can achieve in society for women.
Various policies and approaches are become significant stage to introduce and point
out the basic and advance aspect in concern of women empowerment. But
implementation was not such effective to make change in society generally. It was
1993 when CEDAW came into implementation, this was effectively approached to
elimination of discrimination to empower the women in every aspect. There is one
important path to empower women is just only increasing awareness and promote
their rights to befree in all manner regarding to self-development.

In a broader picture of Bangladesh 2021, we would definitely find our dream come
true wherein the contribution of women's in Bangladesh's growth would be
remarkably high. All the programs that are launched and initiated by the government
are showing positive response from all sections of society.

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