40pc JS seats, specific budget for women reps demanded

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The government should introduce 40 percent reserved seats and make specific budgetary allocation for female representatives in local government to establish equal rights of women and empower them, speakers said at a workshop yesterday.

Female representatives are being treated as “additional” or “marginal” members in the local government bodies since they have no specific power, the speakers said.

They called for a united movement and social awareness to create pressure upon the government and political parties to realise their demand.

They were speaking at a workshop on effective participation of female representatives in local government and specific budgetary allocation for women’s political empowerment organised by Bangladesh Mahila Parishad at the Biam auditorium in the city.

Presided over by Mahila Parishad President Ayesha Khanam, the meeting was addressed by Dr Badiul Alam Majumder, country director of Hunger Project Bangladesh, Dr Tofail Ahmed, former professor of Chittagong University, and Maleka Banu and Rekha Chowdhury of Mahila Parishad.

Around 200 female representatives from 43 districts also attended the daylong workshop.

Badiul Alam said women’s empowerment and equal rights would have to be ensured in order to build up a hunger- and poverty-free Bangladesh.

“Female representatives in the local government bodies are being treated as additional or marginal members because they do not have specific power,” he said.

“There is less than one-third female representation in the union parishad system where every female candidate had to contest three male counterparts in the union parishad elections,” he added.

He said, “Parliament members have turned into landlords and got opportunities to commit corruption since there was no strong local government system in the country.”

Badiul said a system should be introduced for elections to the local government bodies with 40 percent seats reserved for female candidates while both male and female candidates will contest for the rest of the seats.

He said although the present caretaker government and the Election Commission are sincere about launching such a system through promulgation of an ordinance, they could not do it in the face of the emergence of extremist powers and evil politics.

Dr Tofail Ahmed said there are allocations in the proposed budget for women in some sectors including education, health, maternity and pregnancy, which would have to be used properly.

He said although the caretaker government is interested about the local government system, the political governments in Bangladesh do not want to hear about it.

He alleged that a section of people have been using the local government issue as a means to earn money from donor organisations.

Ayesha Khanam said a non-communal and humanitarian Bangladesh would have to be built by establishing a strong local government system in the country.

“The women folk have been fighting for a long time to establish their rights enshrined in the constitution. We want positive changes in the democratic culture, mainstream politics and specific budgetary allocations so that women can play an effective role,” she said.

The nation is going through a transition, Ayesha said, adding, “If a transparent, free and fair election is not held in the country, the rights of women will not be established.”

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