Women Empowerment in the Local Government System in Bangladesh: A Study of Elected Women Members of Some Selected Union Parishads

Abstract

"The things, which are good for the world, Half of them have been done by women and half by men." Kazi Nazrul Islam. The National Poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul might have been impelled by conscience while observing injustice towards women.2 And we see, "too often women and men live in different in access to education and work opportunities, and in health, personal security and leisure time".3 Due to low status of women approximately half of Bangladesh population is left behind in darkness. In fact there is positive relationship between disempowerment of women and backwardness of any society. Clearly, there can be no sustainable human development, nor any successful population Programmed without the full and equal participation of women. The ICPD Cairo 1994 acknowledged that the empowerment of women is a cornerstone of population and development policies4. The Fourth World Conference on Women 1995, Beijing, declared a Platform for Action that describes itself as an agenda for women's empowennent"5. In Bangladesh, like many other developing countries, women access to positions of influence and power is limited; their occupational choices are narrower and their earnings lower than those of men; and they must struggle to reconcile activities outside the home with their traditional roles6 While many .men, particularly among the poor, also find themselves disenfranchised, it is a far more common experience among women 7. This experience is rooted in the failure of our society to value women for anything but their reproductive role. illiteracy, low life expectancy, low rate of labour force participation, no ownership of land, higher rate of unemployment, high fertility, mortality and morbidity, form a vicious circle adversely affecting women in Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh "had been a pioneer in women emancipation and education, women are politically exploited, socially oppressed, legally ignored and technologically deprived"8. The need for empowerment of women in Bangladesh arises from this harsh social scenario. Participation of women in local level institutions has been considered as the most effective instrument to remove the inequality, instability and powerlessness of women 9. Women need preparation, need training both mentally and physically: such preparation can only be happen if the supportive environment is provided to women, at all stages, by all section of society, the home, school, religion, government and society10 Considering Union Parishad as institution of such supportive environment, in this study an attempt has been made to evaluate how the one-third reservation of seats in local bodies provides a supportive environment to the process of women empowerment in Bangladesh.