Background of Women’s Rights CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Background of Women’s Rights

Millions of women throughout the world live in conditions in which they are deprived of their basic human rights no other reason than their gender.

Combatants in conflicts, like in Sierra Leone, Kenova, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, and Rwanda, have raped women as a weapon of war without Congo, Afghanistan, and Rwanda, have raped women as a weapon of war without consequence. Men in Pakistan, South Africa, Peru, Russia, and Uzbekistan beat women in the home at astounding rates. Women from Ukraine, Moldova, Nigeria, the Dominican Republic, Burma, and Thailand are bought and sold, trafficked to work in forced prostitution. In Guatemala, South Africa, and Mexico, women’s ability to enter and remain in he work force is obstructed. In the U.S., students discriminate against and attack girls in school who are lesbian, bi- sexual, or transgender, or do not conform to male standards of female behavior. Women in Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia face government-sponsored discrimination that renders them unequal before the law.

Women’s Rights

What is women's empowerment all about?

The empowerment of women occurs in reality, when women achieve increased control and participation in decision making that leads to their better access to resources, and therefore, improved socio-economic status The experts on gender issues hold that women's advancement involves the process of empowerment and define it as a process, by which women achieve increased control over public decision making. The male domination of society and government are often seen for the purpose of serving male interests and in the continued subordination of women The experts also inform that there are five levels of the women's empowerment framework, namely- welfare, access, conscientisation, mobilisation and control.

Welfare means an improvement in socio-economic status, such as improved nutritional status, shelter or income, which is the zero level of empowerment, where women are the passive recipients of benefits that are 'given' from on high. Access to resources and services stands for the first level of empowerment, since women improve their own status, relative to men, by their own work and organisation arising from increased access to resources and services. Conscientisation is defined as the process, by which women collectively urge to act to remove one or more of the discriminatory practices that impede their access to resources. Here, women form groups to understand the underlying causes of their problems and to identify strategies for action for gender equity.

Mobilisation is the action level of empowerment by forging links with the larger women's movement, to learn from the successes of women's similar strategic action elsewhere and to connect with the wider struggle. Control is the level of empowerment when women have taken action so that there is gender equality in decisions making over access to resources, so that women achieve direct control over their access to resources. But one needs to understand that these five levels of women’s empowerment are not really a linear progression but helical and circular along with being interconnected. The empowerment occurs when women achieve increased control and participation in decision making that leads to their better access to resources, and therefore, improved socio-economic status.

Women in Bangladesh

Women in Bangladesh are in many ways inferior to and dependent on men from early childhood. When the girl reaches puberty her marriage will soon be arranged and the family will pay the husband’s family a dowry to marry off their daughter to him. The girl will thereafter pursue the rules of Purdah and live under seclusion. Women that can obtain Purdah strictly show high social status. Only very poor women have to go outside to work (Hartman & Boyce, 1998). Violence against women is common in Bangladesh (SIDA, 2007, November, 5). Even if the constitution promotes equal rights to women, women still suffer from discrimination and violence that occurs in the home, at the workplace and on the society level as well (Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008). The women in rural Bangladesh are hard working. Foremost, they perform heavy household work throughout the days. Women’s contribution to the family income is not recognized to the same extent as men’s, but they are however involved in many activities, such as post harvest activities, farming, fuel gathering, rice husking, making and selling handicrafts, and rearing domestic animals (Islam, undated). “A woman’s work is never done”, a village woman says in the study of Hartman and Boyce (1998: 86). Although women’s work is hard and time-consuming, such work does not provide them equal status to men. A woman seldom earns money on her own, but is financially dependent on her father, then husband and thereafter her son for economic security (Hartman, Boyce, 1998). Only one third of the women in Bangladesh can read or write, but the school attendance have increased since the past decade. To improve the literacy and education level among girls and women the school fee is removed for girls the first ten years in school, twice as many years as for boys, because the families often are reluctant to pay for their daughter’s education (Landguiden, 2008, May, 7). Women, however, constitute only 22% of the university students in Bangladesh (Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008).

Empowerment

Empowerment is constructed on basis that there is an unequal distribution of power among people which results in peoples experiences of power or powerlessness. There are different sources of power. For example: personality, organizational, and property, wealth, and class. (Lord & Hutchison, 1993). The study is based on the following two definitions of empowerment.

Empowerment as a relational construct

The first consider power over someone: empowerment as a relational construct. This creates a dependency or interdependency relationship between people and is relationally constructed. When a person’s performance outcome is dependent on others actions or responses, he or she is subordinated to the others. People in power are able to make decisions or take actions that favor their own need and/or desire. Empowerment is when the diversity of power is redistributed and decreased. In this sense, to empower is to delegate sources of power to people. (Conger & Kanungo, 1988).

Empowerment as motivational construct

On the other hand, one must not take for granted that empowerment is the same as delegation, participation and resource sharing. Conger and Kanungo (1988) describe the second definition of empowerment: empowerment as motivational construct, which argues for an urge among people for power and the ability to influence and control other people. The need for power is met when the person perceives that she has power over, or can cope with, situations, events or people and experience a feeling of self-determination. Such feelings stems from the sense of self-worth or personal usefulness. Powerlessness is sensed, Lord and Hutchison (1993) write, when a person does not think that his/her actions will have any influence on their own or others decision. From this perspective, empowerment is to enable or motivate people.

Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives

It is a fact of nature that women are on the average physically weaker than men, Moreover, they pay the physical price for perpetuating the human species; during their child-bearing and child-nurturing years they are especially weak and vulnerable. It seems to me that an advanced civilization would compensate women for these physical differences and responsibilities. Not merely assigning women the same rights as men, it would grant them superior rights, including higher wages for equal work, “Civilization,” as I see it, is a measure of the distance we have come from behaving like animals.

Some animal species in cooperative behavior, but on the whole animals decide questions of like, death and privilege on the basis of physical power and brute force-Simone Weil said in an different context that this is the very definition of “injustice.” [FNI] This bullying behavior occurs across species (predators against prey) but also characterizes within-species behavior: if an animal is weak, lame or infirm, other animals of its own species may kill or abandon it. In looking at the animal kingdom from which we have descended, we might consider focusing our attention on brute physical force rather than on gender. For in some animal species, the female is stronger than the male. Bullying is characterized by picking on the weaker animal, irrespective of gender.

Consider the hypothetical “ advanced civilization” at one end a spectrum and the animal world at the other: where should we locate the human race of today? I think we are clearly closer to the animal end than to the advanced civilization end. Stronger people still act savagely toward their weaker fellows, enlisting the support of government and institution in their bullying. To be sure, we have come a noteworthy distance from the animal end of the spectrum. In highly industrialized countries in recent times, women have launched the most important social and Cultural Revolution in human history. 

Their goal legal, social and economic equality with men in these countries, while not achieved, is closer. Yet the degree of achieved progress in these countries is less a cause for rejoicing than a bitter reminder of how severe and widespread is the subordination of women in many others. In Asia and Latin America, we still find obviously patriarchal societies, where government officials look the other way when husbands abuse wives; where men rape young women with impunity; where child prostitutes abuse wives; were men rape young women with impunity; where child are manipulated and controlled by adults, including their parents; where girls are sold into marriage. Some African countries continue to tolerate the savage procedure of female genital mutilation. In much of the Islamic world, women are treated as “second-class citizens” –a term many observers in those countries regard as a euphemism for slavery.

If humankind is slouching fitfully toward advanced civilization, it is not because people have suddenly become more moral than they were in the past; we have only to recall that history’s worst genocides have occurred in this century. Rather, progress on the women’s rights front has come primarily from the spread of information—women’s education, books and television—with a boost, I will argue later, from law.

Substantive provisions of the convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Defining discrimination

Article 1

For the purposes of the present Convention, the term “discrimination against, women” shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

Intentionally or unintentionally disadvantages women;

Prevents society as a whole from recognizing women’s rights in both the domestic and public spheres;

or which: 

Prevents women form exercising the rights and fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled.

Obligations of states parties

Article2

States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake:

(a)   Embody the of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions other appropriate legislation if not incorporated therein and to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle;

(b)   To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination women’

(c)   To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent nationals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any of discrimination’

(d)   To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation’

(e)   To take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise;

(f)    To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women;

(g)   To repeal all national penal provision which constitute discrimination against women.

(h)  It is not enough merely to insert anti-discrimination clauses into legislation. The Convention also requires States parties to protect women’s rights effectively and provide women with opportunities for recourse and protection against discrimination. They should incorporate sanction into legislation that deter discrimination against women, and establish a system for filing complaints within national and courts.

Appropriate measures

Article 3

States Parties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men.

Temporary special measures to combat discrimination

Article 4

1.    Adoption by States parties of temporary special measures aimed at acceleration de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the present Convention, but shall in no way entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; these measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity have been achieved.

2.    Adoption by States Parties of special measures, including those measures contained in the present Convention, aimed at protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory.

Modifying social and cultural patterns

Article 5

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures:

(a)   To modify the social and patterns of conduct of men women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women;

(b)   To ensure that family education includes a proper understanding of maternity as a social function and the recognition of the common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children, it being understood that the interest of the children is the primordial consideration in all cases.

Suppressing exploitation of women

Article 6

States Parties shall all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.

Article 6 urges States to take all appropriate measures to combat traffic in women and exploitative prostitution. In addressing these problems, it is essential for States to consider and act upon the conditions, which are at the root of female prostitution: underdevelopment, poverty, drug abuse, illiteracy, and lack of training, education and employment opportunities. States parties should also provide women with alternatives to prostitution by creating opportunities through rehabilitation, job training and job-referral programmers.

Equality in political and public life at the national level

Article 7

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and life of the country and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right:

(a)  To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies;

(b)  To participate in the formulation of government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government;

(c)   To participate in non-government organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of the country.

Equality in political and public life at the international level

Article 8

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure to represent their Governments at the international level and to participate in the work of international organizations.

While many of the decisions that directly affect the lives of women are made within their own countries, important political, legal and social trends are both forged and reinforced at the international level. For this reason it is essential that women are adequately represented in international for a as members of government delegations and as employees of international organizations.

Equality in nationality laws

Article 9

1. States Parties shall grant equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or upon her the nationality of the husband.

Equality in education

Article 10

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis o equality of men and women:

(a)   The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, for access to studies and for the achievement of diplomas in educational of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas; this equality shall be ensured in preschool, technical, professional and higher technical education, as well as in all types of vocational training; 

(b)   Access to the same curricula, the same examination, teaching staff with qualifications of the same standard and premises and equipment of the same quality;

(c)   The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the of men and at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation and types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programmers and the adaptation of teaching methods;

(d)   The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and study grants;

(e)   The same opportunities for access to programmers of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy programmers, particularly those aimed at reducing at the earliest possible time, any gap in education existing men and women;

(f)    The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of programmers for girls and women have left school prematurely;

(g)    The same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education;

(h)   Access to specific educational information to ensure health and well being of families, including information and advice on family planning.

Equality in employment and labors highs

Article 11

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular:

(a)   The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings;

(b)   The right to the same employment opportunities, including the application of the same criteria for selection in matters employment;

(c)    The right to free choice of profession and employment, the right to promotion, job security and all benefits and conditions of service and the right to receive vocational training and retraining, including, including apprenticeship, advanced vocational training and recurrent training;

(d)   the right to equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well as equality of treatment in the evaluation of the quality of work;

(e)  The right to social security, particularly in cases of retirement, unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old other incapacity to work, as well as the right to paid leave;

(f)    The right to protection of health and to safety in working condition, including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction.

2. In order to prevent discrimination against women on the grounds of marriage or maternity and to ensure their effective right to work, States parties Parties shall take appropriate measures;

(a)  To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave and discrimination in dismissals on the basis of marital status;

(b)  To introduce maternity leave pay or with pay or with pry or with pay or with comparable social benefits without loss of former employment, seniority or social allowances;

(c)  To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting Social services to enable parents to combine family obligations with responsibilities and participation in public life, in particular through promoting the establishment and development of a network of child-care facilities;

(d)  To provide special protection to women during pregnancy if types of work proved to be harmful to them. 

3.    Protective legislation relating to matters covered in this article shall be reviewed periodically in the light of scientific and technological knowledge and shall be revised, repealed or extended as necessary.

Equality in access to health facilities

Article 12

1. Sates Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including these related to family planning.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph I of this article, States parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.

Finance and social security

Article 13

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular:

(a)  The right to family benefits:

(b)  The right to bank loans, mortgages and other of financial credit;

(c)   The right to participate in recreational activities, sports and all of cultural life.

Rural women

Article 14

1. States Parties shall take into account the particular problems faced by rural women and the significant roles which rural women play in the economic survival or their families, including their work in the non-magnetized sectors of the economy, and shall take all appropriate to ensure the application of the provisions of the present Convention to women in rural areas.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women that they participate in and benefit form rural development and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right:

(a)   To participate in the elaboration and implementation of development planning at all levels;

(b)   To have access to adequate health care facilities, including information, counseling and services in family planning;

(c)   To benefit directly form social security programmers;

(d)    To obtain all types of training and education, formal and non-formal, including that relating to functional literacy, as well as, inter alias, the benefit of all community and extension services in order to increase their technical proficiency;

(e)   To organize self-help groups and cooperatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self-employment;

(f)    To participate in all community activities;

(g)    To have access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing facilities, appropriate technology and equal treatment in and agrarian as well as in land resettlement schemes;

(h)  To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relating to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications.

Equality in legal and civil matters

Article 15

1. States parties shall accord to women equality with men before the law.

2. States Parties shall accord to women, in civil matters, a legal capacity identical to that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that capacity. In particular, they shall give women equal right to conclude contracts and to administer property and shall treat them equally in all stages of procedure in courts and tribunals.

3. States parties agree that all contracts and all other private instruments of any kind with a legal effect that is directed at restricting the legal capacity of women shall be deemed null and void.

4. Sates Parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile.

Equality in family law

Article 16

1. States parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in al matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:

(a)  The same right to enter into marriage;

(b)  The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent;

(c)   The same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution;

(d)  The same rights and responsibilities, irrespective of marital status, in matters relating to their children; in all cases the interests of the children shall be paramount;

(e)  The same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights;

(f)    The same rights and responsibilities with regard to guardianship, hardship, trusteeship and adoption, of children. or similar institutions where these concepts exist in national legislation, in all cases the interests of the children shall be paramount;

(g)  The same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to choose family name, a profession and an occupation;

(h)  The same rights for both spouses in respect of the ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of property, whether free of charge or for a valuable consideration.

2. The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.

                                 CHAPTER TWO

Women trafficking, what does it mean?

I though women trafficking is a common phenomenon in the contemporary world of free market economy, there is no universal definition of women trafficking. However, Article- I of the SAARC Convention on Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, 2000 (SAARC CPCTWCP) defines the following terms regarding women trafficking.

“Prostitution” means the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes,

“Trafficking” means the moving, selling or buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside a country for monetary or buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside a country for monetary or other consideration with or without the consent of the person subjected to trafficking;

“Traffickers” means persons, agencies or institutions engaged in any form of trafficking.

From the above definition we can conclude that women trafficking includes moving, selling or buying of women for the purpose of domestic forced labour, prostitution or exploitation or any other immoral and illicit purposes.

The US President’s Interagency council on Women, defines trafficking as; “All acts involved in the recruitment, trasporing of sale of persons within national or across international borders through deception of fraud, coercion or fraud, coercion or force, or debt bondage for purposes of placing persons in situations of forced labor or services, such as forced prostitution or sexual services, domestic servitude or other forms of slavery-like practices”.

Similarly, the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women considers that trafficking of women refers to “all acts involved in the recruitment and/ or transportation of a woman within and across national borders for work or services by means of violence or threat of violence, abuse of authority or dominant position debt-bondage, deception or other forms of coercion”. Friedman, USAID, referred the following “The recruitment of girls/women by means of violence or threat, debt bondage, deception or coercion to act as sex workers under menace of penalty and for which the individual has not offered themselves voluntarily” (interview with Friedman). Although prostitution is an important outcome of trafficking activities, there are many other exploitative outcomes and events relating to trafficking. Thus, definitions tend to be general and encompass not only the sex and age of the trafficked persons, but also the different purposes for which people are trafficked. The countries of SAARC have a definition in their Convention for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children. Nevertheless, a consultation workshop organized by the convention l. The workshop proposed the following definitions.

“Trafficking in women consists of all acts involved in the procurement transportation, forced movement and/ or selling and buying of women within and/ or across border by fraudulent means, deception, coercion, coercion, direct and/ or indirect threats, abuse of authority, for the purpose of placing a woman against her will without her consent in exploitative and abusive situations such as forced prostitution, forced marriage, bonded and forced Labour, begging, organ trade etc. “Trafficking in children consists of all acts involved in the procurement, transportation, forced movement, and/ or selling and buying of children within and /or indirect threats, abuse of authority, for the purpose of placing a woman against her will without her consent in exploitative and abusive situations, such as commercial sexual abuse, forced marriage, bonded and Labour, begging camel jockeying and other sports, organ trade, etc.”

In the context of Bangladesh, the BNWLA adapted the definition of the Global Alliance against Trafficking in Women, so that it could be applied to situations involving both Women, and children. Thus, the BNWLA defines trafficking as “ All acts involved in the recruitment and/ or transport of a woman ( or child ) within and across borders for work or services (or marriage ) by means of violence of threat of violence, abuse of dominant position, debt bondage, deception or other forms of coercion”. Arriving at an appropriate definition of the phenomenon of trafficking is essential for identifying the magnitude of the problem and ways to address it.

Though the term “Traffic” is frequently applied to mean the movement of vehicles or people along roads or streets, or ships in the seas, planes in the sky, etc., it is also used to imply trade, buying and selling or business in carrying goods or passengers.

Generally, ‘traffic’ means movement of vehicles or pedestrians along a road or route. This includes also rolling stock of passengers. The term is also used to mean illegal or immoral trade in some thing e.g. drug, arms, stolen goods etc. presently, it has acquired a new dimension to include immoral trade, “ traffic in women” or “trafficking in women” is thus used to mean buying and silling or transferring women for immoral purposes.

But there is no single or universally accepted definition of the concept of trafficking (in women). The 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic person and the Exploitaion of the Prostitution of Others is a good beginning in an attempt to understand what “trafficking in women” is The Convention defines it as “procures, entices or that person.” But it does not include other purposes of trafficking like forced Labour debt bondage, slavery, false marriages etc. Although there are several other international instruments and/ or applying to trafficking (in woman) but they do not define it. For instance, article 6 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), MANDATES all State Parties “to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of the prostitution of women.” The convention neither defines the concept of ‘traffic’ and ‘prostitution’ nor does it specify whether states are required to suppress exploitation of the prostitution women or suppress prostitution itself. The distinction between the two lies in who profits financially.

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of action Do not also define trafficking in women and

Article 34 of The Bangladesh Constitution

Prohibition of forced Labour:

(1)    All forms of forced  Labour are Prohibited and any  contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

(2)    Nothing in this article shall apply to compulsory Labour.

a.    by persons undergoing lawful punishment for a criminal offence; or

b.    required by any law for public purpose.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN REPRESSION PREVENTION ACT, 2000 (AS AMENDED UP TO 2003)

Section 5. : Punishment for women trafficking etc. : (1) If any person imports any purpose of prostitution illegal or for employing in immoral activities or transports or send to foreign countries or purchases or sells or transfers any women for hire or in other way transfers for torture or for the aforesaid purposes purposes keep in his own

Possession or surety or custody in that case he shall he shall be convicted to death sentence or rigorous life punishment or up to twenty years but not less than ten years rigorous imprisonment and in addition shall be fined.

(2) If any women is sold or hired or in any other way transferred to a prostitute or a brothel keeper or manager of the brothel then the person has transferred such women if otherwise it is not proved then it shall be person who has transferred such women if otherwise it is not proved the it shall be presumed that such women has been sold or transferred for the purpose of prostitution and he shall be punished as mentioned in sub section (1).

(3) If any person as brothel keeper or engaged in the management of the brothel purchases any women or keeps in custody, if it is not proved otherwise, then it shall be presumed that such women has been purchased or hired or kept in possession or custody for the purpose and of prostitution.

Section 6: Punishment for children trafficking etc.:

(1) If any person imports any child illegaly and immorally from country or exports or sends to foreign country or purchases or sells or for such purposes keeps any child in nhis own possession or custody or surety then such person shall be convicted for death sentence or shall be convicted for regorous imprisonment for life and in addition shall be fined.

(2) If any person steals a newborn body from hospital, maternity, nursing home, clinic etc. or from the possession of the guardian then such person shall be convicted as mentioned in sub section (1).

Section 7: Punishment for Kidnaping and abduction of women and children:

If any person kidnaps or abducts any child or women except for the purpose of the offences mentioned in section 5 the person shall be convicted for the life term imprisonment or up to fourteen years rigorous imprisonment and in addition shall be fined. Law enforcing agency which cannot protect life and dignity of a women to became a custodian for her security?” He suggests of consider will, opinion, intellectual ability, relatives and circumstances of the woman before keeping her jail in the name of the “safe custody”

So far, few positive sides of existing law have been explored. Unlike the previous Ordinance and Act, the new one not totally prohibits granting of bail. But it empowers the tribunal to exercise its discretion in this regard (Section 19). There are also provisions for recommending “departmental punishment” by the Tribunal if the concerned Investigation officer and doctor failed to perform their duties (Section 18 and 32)

In case of Bangladesh, it is proved that the stringent law is not the solution of the problem. What is more important is that proper implementation of the law, widely acknowledged by the jurist, lawyer and human rights activists.

However, the enactment of three legislation “ in favour of women and children” in last 17 years has made efficiency of the legislator questionable

Suggestions & recommendation to prevent women trafficking

In recent years, the trafficking of women and children has already acquired a global dimension. For South Asian countries, the issue is already considered a serious regional problem, which demands a concerted response. Accordingly, trafficking was high on the agenda of the Ninth Summit of heads of governments of the SARRC countries held in the Maldives in 1997. Trafficking is a human rights issue with important ramification in the area of health, law enforcing, and socioeconomic development in general. Poverty, attitude toward women and deeply-entrenched gender discrimination, unemployment, well-organized national and international networks of traffickers, and weak law enforcement are the critical factors relating to trafficking of women and women and children in Bangladesh. Tougher laws alone cannot address this criminal activity. Several acts, including the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, have provision for penalties for violence against women and children, including trafficking and kidnapping. Yet, their proper implementation remains a formidable challenge. We observed that many research reports are based on information gathered through anecdotes, and from secondary analysis and unreliable data. But we relied on a few good reports that collected field information describing the trafficking practices and that mapped out the trafficking routes. Although more studies need to be conducted to shed light on trafficking antecedents, there are already several reports documenting the trafficking issues in Bangladesh. There is, however, a need for studies which can generate first-hand information on social, economic, political and health implication of the problem. It is critical also to identify the current and potential roles of the government and NGOS in eliminating this immoral practice. Given the regional nature of trafficking and the international implications of this problem, reports on the nature, magnitude, trends, and forms of trafficking in the SAARC countries are needed. The advantage of establishing cross-regional teams and resource centers to help identify the dynamics of trafficking, both from local and regional perspectives, has also been highlighted in reports in clouded in this review of the literature. A uniform plan of action on the issue of trafficking of women and children involving the governments and NGOs of the region needs to be developed, so that a coordinated approach toward the conviction of traffickers is possible. This regional approach implies the development of a legal framework that ensures arrest, conviction, and extradition of traffickers, and that also enables prosecution of traffickers and abusers even when crimes are committed in foreign soil.

National policy for the empowerment of women (2001)

Introduction

The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women.

Within the framework of a democratic polity, our laws, development policies, Plans and programmes have aimed at women’s advancement in different spheres. From the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s issues from welfare to development. In recent years, the empowerment of women has been recognized as the central issue in determining the status of women. The National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making at the local levels.

1.3 India has also ratified various international conventions and human rights instruments committing to secure equal rights of women. Key among them is the ratification of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993.

1.4 The Mexico Plan of Action (1975), the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (1985), the Beijing Declaration as well as the Platform for Action (1995) and the Outcome Document adopted by the UNGA Session on Gender Equality and Development & Peace for the 21st century, titled "Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action" have been unreservedly endorsed by India for appropriate follow up.

1.5 The Policy also takes note of the commitments of the Ninth Five Year Plan and the other Sectoral Policies relating to empowerment of Women.

1.6 The women’s movement and a wide-spread network of non-Government Organisations which have strong grass-roots presence and deep insight into women’s concerns have contributed in inspiring initiatives for the empowerment of women.

1.7 However, there still exists a wide gap between the goals enunciated in the Constitution, legislation, policies, plans, programmes, and related mechanisms on the one hand and the situational reality of the status of women in India, on the other. This has been analyzed extensively in the Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, "Towards Equality", 1974 and highlighted in the National Perspective Plan for Women, 1988-2000, the Shramshakti Report, 1988 and the Platform for Action, Five Years After- An assessment"

1.8 Gender disparity manifests itself in various forms, the most obvious being the trend of continuously declining female ratio in the population in the last few decades. Social stereotyping and violence at the domestic and societal levels are some of the other manifestations. Discrimination against girl children, adolescent girls and women persists in parts of the country.

1.9 The underlying causes of gender inequality are related to social and economic structure, which is based on informal and formal norms, and practices.

1.10 Consequently, the access of women particularly those belonging to weaker sections including Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/ Other backward Classes and minorities, majority of whom are in the rural areas and in the informal, unorganized sector – to education, health and productive resources, among others, is inadequate. Therefore, they remain largely marginalized, poor and socially excluded.

Goal and Objectives

1.11 The goal of this Policy is to bring about the advancement, development and empowerment of women. The Policy will be widely disseminated so as to encourage active participation of all stakeholders for achieving its goals. Specifically, the objectives of this Policy include

(i) Creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development of women to enable them to realize their full potential

(ii) The de-jure and de-facto enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres – political, economic, social, cultural and civil

(iii) Equal access to participation and decision making of women in social, political and economic life of the nation

(iv) Equal access to women to health care, quality education at all levels, career and vocational guidance, employment, equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social security and public office etc.

(v) Strengthening legal systems aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women

(vi) Changing societal attitudes and community practices by active participation and involvement of both men and women.

(vii) Mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development process.

(viii) Elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence against women and the girl child; and

(ix) Building and strengthening partnerships with civil society, particularly women’s organizations.

Policy Prescriptions

Judicial Legal Systems

Legal-judicial system will be made more responsive and gender sensitive to women’s needs, especially in cases of domestic violence and personal assault. New laws will be enacted and existing laws reviewed to ensure that justice is quick and the punishment meted out to the culprits is commensurate with the severity of the offence.

2.2 At the initiative of and with the full participation of all stakeholders including community and religious leaders, the Policy would aim to encourage changes in personal laws such as those related to marriage, divorce, maintenance and guardianship so as to eliminate discrimination against women.

2.3 The evolution of property rights in a patriarchal system has contributed to the subordinate status of women. The Policy would aim to encourage changes in laws relating to ownership of property and inheritance by evolving consensus in order to make them gender just.

Decision Making

3.1 Women’s equality in power sharing and active participation in decision making, including decision making in political process at all levels will be ensured for the achievement of the goals of empowerment. All measures will be taken to guarantee women equal access to and full participation in decision making bodies at every level, including the legislative, executive, judicial, corporate, statutory bodies, as also the advisory Commissions, Committees, Boards, Trusts etc. Affirmative action such as reservations/quotas, including in higher legislative bodies, will be considered whenever necessary on a time bound basis. Women–friendly personnel policies will also be drawn up to encourage women to participate effectively in the developmental process.

Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in the Development Process

4.1 Policies, programmes and systems will be established to ensure mainstreaming of women’s perspectives in all developmental processes, as catalysts, participants and recipients. Wherever there are gaps in policies and programmes, women specific interventions would be undertaken to bridge these. Coordinating and monitoring mechanisms will also be devised to assess from time to time the progress of such mainstreaming mechanisms. Women’s issues and concerns as a result will specially be addressed and reflected in all concerned laws, sectoral policies, plans and programmes of action.

Economic Empowerment of women

Poverty Eradication

5.1 Since women comprise the majority of the population below the poverty line and are very often in situations of extreme poverty, given the harsh realities of intra-household and social discrimination, macro economic policies and poverty eradication programmes will specifically address the needs and problems of such women. There will be improved implementation of programmes which are already women oriented with special targets for women. Steps will be taken for mobilization of poor women and convergence of services, by offering them a range of economic and social options, along with necessary support measures to enhance their capabilities

Micro Credit

5.2 In order to enhance women’s access to credit for consumption and production, the establishment of new, and strengthening of existing micro-credit mechanisms and micro-finance institution will be undertaken so that the outreach of credit is enhanced. Other supportive measures would be taken to ensure adequate flow of credit through extant financial institutions and banks, so that all women below poverty line have easy access to credit.

Women and Economy

5.3 Women’s perspectives will be included in designing and implementing macro-economic and social policies by institutionalizing their participation in such processes. Their contribution to socio-economic development as producers and workers will be recognized in the formal and informal sectors (including home based workers) and appropriate policies relating to employment and to her working conditions will be drawn up. Such measures could include:

Reinterpretation and redefinition of conventional concepts of work wherever necessary e.g. in the Census records, to reflect women’s contribution as producers and workers.

Preparation of satellite and national accounts.

Development of appropriate methodologies for undertaking (i) and (ii) above.

Globalization

Globalization has presented new challenges for the realization of the goal of women’s equality, the gender impact of which has not been systematically evaluated fully. However, from the micro-level studies that were commissioned by the Department of Women & Child Development, it is evident that there is a need for re-framing policies for access to employment and quality of employment. Benefits of the growing global economy have been unevenly distributed leading to wider economic disparities, the feminization of poverty, increased gender inequality through often deteriorating working conditions and unsafe working environment especially in the informal economy and rural areas. Strategies will be designed to enhance the capacity of women and empower them to meet the negative social and economic impacts, which may flow from the globalization process.

Women and Agriculture

5.5 In view of the critical role of women in the agriculture and allied sectors, as producers, concentrated efforts will be made to ensure that benefits of training, extension and various programmes will reach them in proportion to their numbers. The programmes for training women in soil conservation, social forestry, dairy development and other occupations allied to agriculture like horticulture, livestock including small animal husbandry, poultry, fisheries etc. will be expanded to benefit women workers in the agriculture sector.

Women and Industry

5.6 The important role played by women in electronics, information technology and food processing and agro industry and textiles has been crucial to the development of these sectors. They would be given comprehensive support in terms of labour legislation, social security and other support services to participate in various industrial sectors.

5.7 Women at present cannot work in night shift in factories even if they wish to. Suitable measures will be taken to enable women to work on the night shift in factories. This will be accompanied with support services for security, transportation etc.

Support Services

5.8 The provision of support services for women, like child care facilities, including crèches at work places and educational institutions, homes for the aged and the disabled will be expanded and improved to create an enabling environment and to ensure their full cooperation in social, political and economic life. Women-friendly personnel policies will also be drawn up to encourage women to participate effectively in the developmental process.

Social Empowerment of Women

Education

6.1 Equal access to education for women and girls will be ensured. Special measures will be taken to eliminate discrimination, universalize education, eradicate illiteracy, create a gender-sensitive educational system, increase enrolment and retention rates of girls and improve the quality of education to facilitate life-long learning as well as development of occupation/vocation/technical skills by women. Reducing the gender gap in secondary and higher education would be a focus area. Sectoral time targets in existing policies will be achieved, with a special focus on girls and women, particularly those belonging to weaker sections including the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes/Minorities. Gender sensitive curricula would be developed at all levels of educational system in order to address sex stereotyping as one of the causes of gender discrimination.

Health

6.2 A holistic approach to women’s health which includes both nutrition and health services will be adopted and special attention will be given to the needs of women and the girl at all stages of the life cycle. The reduction of infant mortality and maternal mortality, which are sensitive indicators of human development, is a priority concern. This policy reiterates the national demographic goals for Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) set out in the National Population Policy 2000. Women should have access to comprehensive, affordable and quality health care. Measures will be adopted that take into account the reproductive rights of women to enable them to exercise informed choices, their vulnerability to sexual and health problems together with endemic, infectious and communicable diseases such as malaria, TB, and water borne diseases as well as hypertension and cardio-pulmonary diseases. The social, developmental and health consequences of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases will be tackled from a gender perspective.

6.3 To effectively meet problems of infant and maternal mortality, and early marriage the availability of good and accurate data at micro level on deaths, birth and marriages is required. Strict implementation of registration of births and deaths would be ensured and registration of marriages would be made compulsory.

6.4 In accordance with the commitment of the National Population Policy (2000) to population stabilization, this Policy recognizes the critical need of men and women to have access to safe, effective and affordable methods of family planning of their choice and the need to suitably address the issues of early marriages and spacing of children. Interventions such as spread of education, compulsory registration of marriage and special programmes like BSY should impact on delaying the age of marriage so that by 2010 child marriages are eliminated.

6.5 Women’s traditional knowledge about health care and nutrition will be recognized through proper documentation and its use will be encouraged. The use of Indian and alternative systems of medicine will be enhanced within the framework of overall health infrastructure available for women.

Nutrition

6.6 In view of the high risk of malnutrition and disease that women face at all the three critical stages viz., infancy and childhood, adolescent and reproductive phase, focussed attention would be paid to meeting the nutritional needs of women at all stages of the life cycle. This is also important in view of the critical link between the health of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women with the health of infant and young children. Special efforts will be made to tackle the problem of macro and micro nutrient deficiencies especially amongst pregnant and lactating women as it leads to various diseases and disabilities.

6.7 Intra-household discrimination in nutritional matters vis-à-vis girls and women will be sought to be ended through appropriate strategies. Widespread use of nutrition education would be made to address the issues of intra-household imbalances in nutrition and the special needs of pregnant and lactating women. Women’s participation will also be ensured in the planning, superintendence and delivery of the system.

Drinking Water and Sanitation

6.8 Special attention will be given to the needs of women in the provision of safe drinking water, sewage disposal, toilet facilities and sanitation within accessible reach of households, especially in rural areas and urban slums. Women’s participation will be ensured in the planning, delivery and maintenance of such services.

Housing and Shelter

6.9 Women’s perspectives will be included in housing policies, planning of housing colonies and provision of shelter both in rural and urban areas. Special attention will be given for providing adequate and safe housing and accommodation for women including single women, heads of households, working women, students, apprentices and trainees.

Environment

6.10 Women will be involved and their perspectives reflected in the policies and programmes for environment, conservation and restoration. Considering the impact of environmental factors on their livelihoods, women’s participation will be ensured in the conservation of the environment and control of environmental degradation. The vast majority of rural women still depend on the locally available non-commercial sources of energy such as animal dung, crop waste and fuel wood. In order to ensure the efficient use of these energy resources in an environmental friendly manner, the Policy will aim at promoting the programmes of non-conventional energy resources. Women will be involved in spreading the use of solar energy, biogas, smokeless chulahs and other rural application so as to have a visible impact of these measures in influencing eco system and in changing the life styles of rural women.

Science and Technology

6.11 Programmes will be strengthened to bring about a greater involvement of women in science and technology. These will include measures to motivate girls to take up science and technology for higher education and also ensure that development projects with scientific and technical inputs involve women fully. Efforts to develop a scientific temper and awareness will also be stepped up. Special measures would be taken for their training in areas where they have special skills like communication and information technology. Efforts to develop appropriate technologies suited to women’s needs as well as to reduce their drudgery will be given a special focus too.

Women in Difficult Circumstances

6.12 In recognition of the diversity of women’s situations and in acknowledgement of the needs of specially disadvantaged groups, measures and programmes will be undertaken to provide them with special assistance. These groups include women in extreme poverty, destitute women, women in conflict situations, women affected by natural calamities, women in less developed regions, the disabled widows, elderly women, single women in difficult circumstances, women heading households, those displaced from employment, migrants, women who are victims of marital violence, deserted women and prostitutes etc.

Violence against women

7.1 All forms of violence against women, physical and mental, whether at domestic or societal levels, including those arising from customs, traditions or accepted practices shall be dealt with effectively with a view to eliminate its incidence. Institutions and mechanisms/schemes for assistance will be created and strengthened for prevention of such violence , including sexual harassment at work place and customs like dowry; for the rehabilitation of the victims of violence and for taking effective action against the perpetrators of such violence. A special emphasis will also be laid on programmes and measures to deal with trafficking in women and girls.

Rights of the Girl Child

8.1 All forms of discrimination against the girl child and violation of her rights shall be eliminated by undertaking strong measures both preventive and punitive within and outside the family. These would relate specifically to strict enforcement of laws against prenatal sex selection and the practices of female foeticide, female infanticide, child marriage, child abuse and child prostitution etc. Removal of discrimination in the treatment of the girl child within the family and outside and projection of a positive image of the girl child will be actively fostered. There will be special emphasis on the needs of the girl child and earmarking of substantial investments in the areas relating to food and nutrition, health and education, and in vocational education. In implementing programmes for eliminating child labour, there will be a special focus on girl children.

Mass Media

9.1 Media will be used to portray images consistent with human dignity of girls and women. The Policy will specifically strive to remove demeaning, degrading and negative conventional stereotypical images of women and violence against women. Private sector partners and media networks will be involved at all levels to ensure equal access for women particularly in the area of information and communication technologies. The media would be encouraged to develop codes of conduct, professional guidelines and other self regulatory mechanisms to remove gender stereotypes and promote balanced portrayals of women and men.

Operational Strategies

Action Plans

10.1 All Central and State Ministries will draw up time bound Action Plans for translating the Policy into a set of concrete actions, through a participatory process of consultation with Centre/State Departments of Women and Child Development and National /State Commissions for Women. The Plans will specifically including the following: -

i) Measurable goals to be achieved by 2010.

ii) Identification and commitment of resources.

iii) Responsibilities for implementation of action points.

iv) Structures and mechanisms to ensure efficient monitoring, review and gender impact assessment of action points and policies.

v) Introduction of a gender perspective in the budgeting process.

10.2 In order to support better planning and programme formulation and adequate allocation of resources, Gender Development Indices (GDI) will be developed by networking with specialized agencies. These could be analyzed and studied in depth. Gender auditing and development of evaluation mechanisms will also be undertaken along side.

10.3 Collection of gender disaggregated data by all primary data collecting agencies of the Central and State Governments as well as Research and Academic Institutions in the Public and Private Sectors will be undertaken. Data and information gaps in vital areas reflecting the status of women will be sought to be filled in by these immediately. All Ministries/Corporations/Banks and financial institutions etc will be advised to collect, collate, disseminate and maintain/publish data related to programmes and benefits on a gender disaggregated basis. This will help in meaningful planning and evaluation of policies.

Institutional Mechanisms

11.1 Institutional mechanisms, to promote the advancement of women, which exist at the Central and State levels, will be strengthened. These will be through interventions as may be appropriate and will relate to, among others, provision of adequate resources, training and advocacy skills to effectively influence macro-policies, legislation, programmes etc. to achieve the empowerment of women.

11.2 National and State Councils will be formed to oversee the operationalisation of the Policy on a regular basis. The National Council will be headed by the Prime Minister and the State Councils by the Chief Ministers and be broad in composition having representatives from the concerned Departments/Ministries, National and State Commissions for Women, Social Welfare Boards, representatives of Non-Government Organizations, Women’s Organisations, Corporate Sector, Trade Unions, financing institutions, academics, experts and social activists etc. These bodies will review the progress made in implementing the Policy twice a year. The National Development Council will also be informed of the progress of the programme undertaken under the policy from time to time for advice and comments.

11.3 National and State Resource Centres on women will be established with mandates for collection and dissemination of information, undertaking research work, conducting surveys, implementing training and awareness generation programmes, etc. These Centers will link up with Women’s Studies Centres and other research and academic institutions through suitable information networking systems.

11.4 While institutions at the district level will be strengthened, at the grass-roots, women will be helped by Government through its programmes to organize and strengthen into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) at the Anganwadi/Village/Town level. The women’s groups will be helped to institutionalize themselves into registered societies and to federate at the Panchyat/Municipal level. These societies will bring about synergistic implementation of all the social and economic development programmes by drawing resources made available through Government and Non-Government channels, including banks and financial institutions and by establishing a close Interface with the Panchayats/ Municipalities.

Resource Management

12.1 Availability of adequate financial, human and market resources to implement the Policy will be managed by concerned Departments, financial credit institutions and banks,  private sector, civil society and other connected institutions. This process will include:

(a) Assessment of benefits flowing to women and resource allocation to the programmes relating to them through an exercise of gender budgeting. Appropriate changes in policies will be made to optimize benefits to women under these schemes;

(b) Adequate resource allocation to develop and promote the policy outlined earlier based on (a) above by concerned Departments.

(c) Developing synergy between personnel of Health, Rural Development, Education and Women & Child Development Department at field level and other village level functionaries’

(d) Meeting credit needs by banks and financial credit institutions through suitable policy initiatives and development of new institutions in coordination with the Department of Women & Child Development.

12.2 The strategy of Women’s Component Plan adopted in the Ninth Plan of ensuring that not less than 30% of benefits/funds flow to women from all Ministries and Departments will be implemented effectively so that the needs and interests of women and girls are addressed by all concerned sectors. The Department of Women and Child Development being the nodal Ministry will monitor and review the progress of the implementation of the Component Plan from time to time, in terms of both quality and quantity in collaboration with the Planning Commission.

12.3 Efforts will be made to channelize private sector investments too, to support programmes and projects for advancement of women

Legislation

13.1 The existing legislative structure will be reviewed and additional legislative measures taken by identified departments to implement the Policy. This will also involve a review of all existing laws including personal, customary and tribal laws, subordinate legislation, related rules as well as executive and administrative regulations to eliminate all gender discriminatory references. The process will be planned over a time period 2000-2003. The specific measures required would be evolved through a consultation process involving civil society, National Commission for Women and Department of Women and Child Development. In appropriate cases the consultation process would be widened to include other stakeholders too.

13.2 Effective implementation of legislation would be promoted by involving civil society and community. Appropriate changes in legislation will be undertaken, if necessary.

13.3 In addition, following other specific measures will be taken to implement the legislation effectively.

(a) Strict enforcement of all relevant legal provisions and speedy redressal of grievances will be ensured, with a special focus on violence and gender related atrocities.

(b) Measures to prevent and punish sexual harassment at the place of work, protection for women workers in the organized/ unorganized sector and strict enforcement of relevant laws such as Equal Remuneration Act and Minimum Wages Act will be undertaken,

(c) Crimes against women, their incidence, prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution will be regularly reviewed at all Crime Review fora and Conferences at the Central, State and District levels. Recognised, local, voluntary organizations will be authorized to lodge Complaints and facilitate registration, investigations and legal proceedings related to violence and atrocities against girls and women.

(d) Women’s Cells in Police Stations, Encourage Women Police Stations Family Courts, Mahila Courts, Counselling Centers, Legal Aid Centers and Nyaya Panchayats will be strengthened and expanded to eliminate violence and atrocities against women.

(e) Widespread dissemination of information on all aspects of legal rights, human rights and other entitlements of women, through specially designed legal literacy programmes and rights information programmes will be done.

Gender Sensitization

14.1 Training of personnel of executive, legislative and judicial wings of the State, with a special focus on policy and programme framers, implementation and development agencies, law enforcement machinery and the judiciary, as well as non-governmental organizations will be undertaken. Other measures will include:

(a) Promoting societal awareness to gender issues and women’s human rights.

(b) Review of curriculum and educational materials to include gender education and human rights issues

(c) Removal of all references derogatory to the dignity of women from all public documents and legal instruments.

(d) Use of different forms of mass media to communicate social messages relating to women’s equality and empowerment.

Panchayati Raj Institutions

15.1 The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Indian Constitution have served as a breakthrough towards ensuring equal access and increased participation in political power structure for women. The PRIs will play a central role in the process of enhancing women’s participation in public life. The PRIs and the local self Governments will be actively involved in the implementation and execution of the National Policy for Women at the grassroots level.

Partnership with the voluntary sector organizations

16.1 The involvement of voluntary organizations, associations, federations, trade unions, non-governmental organizations, women’s organizations, as well as institutions dealing with education, training and research will be ensured in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and review of all policies and programmes affecting women. Towards this end, they will be provided with appropriate support related to resources and capacity building and facilitated to participate actively in the process of the empowerment of women.

International Cooperation

17.1 The Policy will aim at implementation of international obligations/commitments in all sectors on empowerment of women such as the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5) and other such instruments. International, regional and sub-regional cooperation towards the empowerment of women will continue to be encouraged through sharing of experiences, exchange of ideas and technology, networking with institutions and organizations and through bilateral and multi-lateral partnerships.

Women’s Rights and Equality Briefing

Updated September 2008

Unfortunately, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the minimalist approach of saying that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex...with little further reference to women’s issues. This proved unhelpful in practical terms and it took campaigners over 30 years to cajole the international community into solid interpretation and commitment to address gender injustice.

This commitment came in the shape of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. CEDAW has been described as a bill of rights for women; it spells out the areas in which women experience discrimination and commits countries to amend their laws, construct national gender policies and create institutions to deliver them. The most solid subsequent endorsement of CEDAW cam eat the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995, at which governments committed themselves to the Beijing Platform for Action, a detailed template for eradication of discrimination and poverty.

This generally positive global commitment to women’s rights has not been reflected in the rate of progress. Ineffective enforcement of legislation is the most common constraint, possibly not helped by the plethora of UN organizations addressing different aspects of gender inequality. As part of the UN reform process, have been calls for a more streamlined architecture of agencies to bring greater coherence to women’s issues. Another important obstacle has been the failure of the US to ratify repeatedly blocked by right wing interests who perceive a threat to sovereignty.

One the most shameful failures of legislation relates to the practice of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide in India and China Originally believed to be a characteristic of impoverished rural communities, recent disclosures suggest that over 10% of female pregnancies in middle class New Delhi are aborted. In China, 118 boys were born in 2005 for every 10 girls. There can be no more explicit illustration of the strength of cultural norms to attribute low status to women.

It is such cultural traditions in developing countries that most stubborn obstacle to the essential steps towards women’s equality. The belief that girls should work in the home and in the fields rather than go to school, and the presumption that a woman acquires no right to property on marriage are deeply entrenched in many societies. Whilst development agencies are normally anxious to respect cultural traditions in their programmers, they are reluctant to on issues of gender equality.

The disempowerment of women is often reinforced in a country’s laws; for example, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are in various stages of amending laws, which prevent women from gaining access to land and property. The HIV/AIDS crisis has accelerated by women, few of who can claim ownership rights.

Legal issues are most problematic in Islamic countries where elements of Sharia law governing the behavior of women remain in place. The Pakistan government has encountered fierce resistance from Islamic political parties to its efforts to reform the Hudood ordinances, ancient laws that declaim that adultery is a crime when carried out by women, and which make it virtually impossible for a man to be convicted of rape. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan represented the most extreme and unacceptable implementation of laws which deny which deny a role for women. Shoring Beady, the Iranian Nobel laureate in Afghanistan represented the most extreme and unacceptable laureate, believes that the treatment of women in Islamic countries does not reflect the teachings of the Koran. She advocates a reinterpretation of Shari law to recognize women’s rights.

Liberation Calling

Rain or shine, 50- year old Afzalunnesa prepares her tea stall in front of Fatullah bazaar. Which is a few miles away from downtown  Dhaka.In front of her stop,which has a corruagated tin roof,a kerosene-stove and a lot of cups,lies a big billboard with the photo of a smiling female model declaring the superiority of a particular skincair product over the other.

Her hasband left her 15 years ago;her daughter was married off at an early age and she is a mother her salf now."When he laft us I was completely shattered,Afzaiun sayes"Iwas warking as a halp in two households.Iused to get only Tk 1000 a month,and Ihad to pay 800 as house rent."

About half a decad on Afzalun calls it a liberating experience.And there are reasons for it.Within a few days affter the husband disappeared(he trened up a year later with his new wife),Afzalun and two other woman started to cart vegetables." Our investment wes little ,butwe tried to compensate it with our hard work," she says, A year later, the woman started to grow vegetables in the goverment khas land. For Afzalun and her friends there is no turning back; their  investment  trebled within six months.Along with the shop, which she rented a few  months ago, Afzalun  now owns there pushcarts that vend vegetables in downtown Narayanganj.

Fatullah can clim some uniqueness in the country's political landscape. It is represented by a woman MP,who has been elected in direct vote. Not only that , the trouble that she has taken in the election eering is no less traumatic than  Afzalun's. Over the years, politice in  Narayanganj used to be controlled by the osman clan"says sarah kabori,Fatullah's MP.

Her husband, being the uncle of samim osman,controversial Awami league (AL) leader who was in salf-exile for eight years, told kabori to vie for the seat. kabori has received hate calls."Iwas told that I would be ousted from  narayangtanj,"she says, "but I thank our leder Sheikh Hasina who had alwaysencouraged me to contest the elections."

In fact, in the last  elections,the AL nomenated a brave new bunch of faces, of them a large number were woman. Most of these nominecs had won seats, making it the biggest presence of directly eleceted woman MPs in the history of  parliamentary democracy in bangladesh. In the cabinet that Sheik Hasina has formed immediately after winning the elections have been gavin to women, which included ministries such as hone, Foregn Affairs and Agriculture.

Badiul Alam Majumder of  Shujan thinks these developments have immenese political signifi cance ." Our prime minister is a woman,so  is our Leader of the Opposition. Some of the woman ministers are doing well. We have questions about some minsters as some of them do not have the requied background to run the ministries they are given charge of,"he says. Kabori thinks her electinon and the victories of several other woman candidates are a proof that the woman of the country are striding forword towards empowering themselves.Badiul agrees;he says,

"That day I was looking at research done by the world Economic forum, where 58 countries have been surveyed. There are 30 developed and 28 developing countries. And when it come to gender equality,Bangladesh has been ranked 39 in the list.We are leaduing all the seven Islamic countries and we are way ahead of our two big neighbours--India and Pakistan."

Kabori thinks woman have come a long way and the tine is not far way when woman in Bangladesh will be truly empowered."There have been massive progress in the fields of gender equality"she says. It is ten at night when Afzalunesa carfully takes our a teaspoonful of sugar and carefully spins it into the cup.For her is   wating a crowd of maie clientele,who after a hot day's work are eager to have a sip at her 'special' tea, which is scented with cassia leaves.she is all smiles when asked if she feels uncomfortable working so latr,she says,"They don't feel uncomfortable, why will?

What is women's empowerment all about?

The empowerment of women occurs in reality, when women achieve increased control and participation in decision making that leads to their better access to resources, and therefore, improved socio-economic status The experts on gender issues hold that women's advancement involves the process of empowerment and define it as a process, by which women achieve increased control over public decision making. The male domination of society and government are often seen for the purpose of serving male interests and in the continued subordination of women The experts also inform that there are five levels of the women's empowerment framework, namely- welfare, access, conscientisation, mobilisation and control.

Welfare means an improvement in socio-economic status, such as improved nutritional status, shelter or income, which is the zero level of empowerment, where women are the passive recipients of benefits that are 'given' from on high. Access to resources and services stands for the first level of empowerment, since women improve their own status, relative to men, by their own work and organisation arising from increased access to resources and services. Conscientisation is defined as the process, by which women collectively urge to act to remove one or more of the discriminatory practices that impede their access to resources. Here, women form groups to understand the underlying causes of their problems and to identify strategies for action for gender equity.

Mobilisation is the action level of empowerment by forging links with the larger women's movement, to learn from the successes of women's similar strategic action elsewhere and to connect with the wider struggle. Control is the level of empowerment when women have taken action so that there is gender equality in decisions making over access to resources, so that women achieve direct control over their access to resources. But one needs to understand that these five levels of women’s empowerment are not really a linear progression but helical and circular along with being interconnected. The empowerment occurs when women achieve increased control and participation in decision making that leads to their better access to resources, and therefore, improved socio-economic status.

Women in Bangladesh

Women in Bangladesh are in many ways inferior to and dependent on men from early childhood. When the girl reaches puberty her marriage will soon be arranged and the family will pay the husband’s family a dowry to marry off their daughter to him. The girl will thereafter pursue the rules of Purdah and live under seclusion. Women that can obtain Purdah strictly show high social status. Only very poor women have to go outside to work (Hartman & Boyce, 1998). Violence against women is common in Bangladesh (SIDA, 2007, November, 5). Even if the constitution promotes equal rights to women, women still suffer from discrimination and violence that occurs in the home, at the workplace and on the society level as well (Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008). The women in rural Bangladesh are hard working. Foremost, they perform heavy household work throughout the days. Women’s contribution to the family income is not recognized to the same extent as men’s, but they are however involved in many activities, such as post harvest activities, farming, fuel gathering, rice husking, making and selling handicrafts, and rearing domestic animals (Islam, undated). “A woman’s work is never done”, a village woman says in the study of Hartman and Boyce (1998: 86). Although women’s work is hard and time-consuming, such work does not provide them equal status to men. A woman seldom earns money on her own, but is financially dependent on her father, then husband and thereafter her son for economic security (Hartman, Boyce, 1998). Only one third of the women in Bangladesh can read or write, but the school attendance have increased since the past decade. To improve the literacy and education level among girls and women the school fee is removed for girls the first ten years in school, twice as many years as for boys, because the families often are reluctant to pay for their daughter’s education (Landguiden, 2008, May, 7). Women, however, constitute only 22% of the university students in Bangladesh (Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008).

Empowerment

Empowerment is constructed on basis that there is an unequal distribution of power among people which results in peoples experiences of power or powerlessness. There are different sources of power. For example: personality, organizational, and property, wealth, and class. (Lord & Hutchison, 1993). The study is based on the following two definitions of empowerment.

Empowerment as a relational construct

The first consider power over someone: empowerment as a relational construct. This creates a dependency or interdependency relationship between people and is relationally constructed. When a person’s performance outcome is dependent on others actions or responses, he or she is subordinated to the others. People in power are able to make decisions or take actions that favor their own need and/or desire. Empowerment is when the diversity of power is redistributed and decreased. In this sense, to empower is to delegate sources of power to people. (Conger & Kanungo, 1988).

Empowerment as motivational construct

On the other hand, one must not take for granted that empowerment is the same as delegation, participation and resource sharing. Conger and Kanungo (1988) describe the second definition of empowerment: empowerment as motivational construct, which argues for an urge among people for power and the ability to influence and control other people. The need for power is met when the person perceives that she has power over, or can cope with, situations, events or people and experience a feeling of self-determination. Such feelings stems from the sense of self-worth or personal usefulness. Powerlessness is sensed, Lord and Hutchison (1993) write, when a person does not think that his/her actions will have any influence on their own or others decision. From this perspective, empowerment is to enable or motivate people.

Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives

It is a fact of nature that women are on the average physically weaker than men, Moreover, they pay the physical price for perpetuating the human species; during their child-bearing and child-nurturing years they are especially weak and vulnerable. It seems to me that an advanced civilization would compensate women for these physical differences and responsibilities. Not merely assigning women the same rights as men, it would grant them superior rights, including higher wages for equal work, “Civilization,” as I see it, is a measure of the distance we have come from behaving like animals.

Some animal species in cooperative behavior, but on the whole animals decide questions of like, death and privilege on the basis of physical power and brute force-Simone Weil said in an different context that this is the very definition of “injustice.” [FNI] This bullying behavior occurs across species (predators against prey) but also characterizes within-species behavior: if an animal is weak, lame or infirm, other animals of its own species may kill or abandon it. In looking at the animal kingdom from which we have descended, we might consider focusing our attention on brute physical force rather than on gender. For in some animal species, the female is stronger than the male. Bullying is characterized by picking on the weaker animal, irrespective of gender.

Consider the hypothetical “ advanced civilization” at one end a spectrum and the animal world at the other: where should we locate the human race of today? I think we are clearly closer to the animal end than to the advanced civilization end. Stronger people still act savagely toward their weaker fellows, enlisting the support of government and institution in their bullying. To be sure, we have come a noteworthy distance from the animal end of the spectrum. In highly industrialized countries in recent times, women have launched the most important social and Cultural Revolution in human history. 

Their goal legal, social and economic equality with men in these countries, while not achieved, is closer. Yet the degree of achieved progress in these countries is less a cause for rejoicing than a bitter reminder of how severe and widespread is the subordination of women in many others. In Asia and Latin America, we still find obviously patriarchal societies, where government officials look the other way when husbands abuse wives; where men rape young women with impunity; where child prostitutes abuse wives; were men rape young women with impunity; where child are manipulated and controlled by adults, including their parents; where girls are sold into marriage. Some African countries continue to tolerate the savage procedure of female genital mutilation. In much of the Islamic world, women are treated as “second-class citizens” –a term many observers in those countries regard as a euphemism for slavery.

If humankind is slouching fitfully toward advanced civilization, it is not because people have suddenly become more moral than they were in the past; we have only to recall that history’s worst genocides have occurred in this century. Rather, progress on the women’s rights front has come primarily from the spread of information—women’s education, books and television—with a boost, I will argue later, from law.

Substantive provisions of the convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Defining discrimination

Article 1

For the purposes of the present Convention, the term “discrimination against, women” shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.

Intentionally or unintentionally disadvantages women;

Prevents society as a whole from recognizing women’s rights in both the domestic and public spheres;

or which: 

Prevents women form exercising the rights and fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled.

Obligations of states parties

Article2

States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy eliminating discrimination against women and, to this end, undertake:

(a)   Embody the of the equality of men and women in their national constitutions other appropriate legislation if not incorporated therein and to ensure, through law and other appropriate means, the practical realization of this principle;

(b)   To adopt appropriate legislative and other measures, including sanctions where appropriate, prohibiting all discrimination women’

(c)   To establish legal protection of the rights of women on an equal basis with men and to ensure through competent nationals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any of discrimination’

(d)   To refrain from engaging in any act or practice of discrimination against women and to ensure that public authorities and institutions shall act in conformity with this obligation’

(e)   To take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women by any person, organization or enterprise;

(f)    To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women;

(g)   To repeal all national penal provision which constitute discrimination against women.

(h)  It is not enough merely to insert anti-discrimination clauses into legislation. The Convention also requires States parties to protect women’s rights effectively and provide women with opportunities for recourse and protection against discrimination. They should incorporate sanction into legislation that deter discrimination against women, and establish a system for filing complaints within national and courts.

Appropriate measures

Article 3

States Parties shall take in all fields, in particular in the political, social, economic and cultural fields, all appropriate measures, including legislation, to ensure the full development and advancement of women, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on a basis of equality with men.

Temporary special measures to combat discrimination

Article 4

1.    Adoption by States parties of temporary special measures aimed at acceleration de facto equality between men and women shall not be considered discrimination as defined in the present Convention, but shall in no way entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate standards; these measures shall be discontinued when the objectives of equality of opportunity have been achieved.

2.    Adoption by States Parties of special measures, including those measures contained in the present Convention, aimed at protecting maternity shall not be considered discriminatory.

Modifying social and cultural patterns

Article 5

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures:

(a)   To modify the social and patterns of conduct of men women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women;

(b)   To ensure that family education includes a proper understanding of maternity as a social function and the recognition of the common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children, it being understood that the interest of the children is the primordial consideration in all cases.

Suppressing exploitation of women

Article 6

States Parties shall all appropriate measures, including legislation, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of prostitution of women.

Article 6 urges States to take all appropriate measures to combat traffic in women and exploitative prostitution. In addressing these problems, it is essential for States to consider and act upon the conditions, which are at the root of female prostitution: underdevelopment, poverty, drug abuse, illiteracy, and lack of training, education and employment opportunities. States parties should also provide women with alternatives to prostitution by creating opportunities through rehabilitation, job training and job-referral programmers.

Equality in political and public life at the national level

Article 7

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the political and life of the country and, in particular, shall ensure to women, on equal terms with men, the right:

(a)  To vote in all elections and public referenda and to be eligible for election to all publicly elected bodies;

(b)  To participate in the formulation of government policy and the implementation thereof and to hold public office and perform all public functions at all levels of government;

(c)   To participate in non-government organizations and associations concerned with the public and political life of the country.

Equality in political and public life at the international level

Article 8

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure to represent their Governments at the international level and to participate in the work of international organizations.

While many of the decisions that directly affect the lives of women are made within their own countries, important political, legal and social trends are both forged and reinforced at the international level. For this reason it is essential that women are adequately represented in international for a as members of government delegations and as employees of international organizations.

Equality in nationality laws

Article 9

1. States Parties shall grant equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality. They shall ensure in particular that neither marriage to an alien nor change of nationality by the husband during marriage shall automatically change the nationality of the wife, render her stateless or upon her the nationality of the husband.

Equality in education

Article 10

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education and in particular to ensure, on a basis o equality of men and women:

(a)   The same conditions for career and vocational guidance, for access to studies and for the achievement of diplomas in educational of all categories in rural as well as in urban areas; this equality shall be ensured in preschool, technical, professional and higher technical education, as well as in all types of vocational training; 

(b)   Access to the same curricula, the same examination, teaching staff with qualifications of the same standard and premises and equipment of the same quality;

(c)   The elimination of any stereotyped concept of the of men and at all levels and in all forms of education by encouraging coeducation and types of education which will help to achieve this aim and, in particular, by the revision of textbooks and school programmers and the adaptation of teaching methods;

(d)   The same opportunities to benefit from scholarships and study grants;

(e)   The same opportunities for access to programmers of continuing education, including adult and functional literacy programmers, particularly those aimed at reducing at the earliest possible time, any gap in education existing men and women;

(f)    The reduction of female student drop-out rates and the organization of programmers for girls and women have left school prematurely;

(g)    The same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education;

(h)   Access to specific educational information to ensure health and well being of families, including information and advice on family planning.

Equality in employment and labors highs

Article 11

1. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of employment in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular:

(a)   The right to work as an inalienable right of all human beings;

(b)   The right to the same employment opportunities, including the application of the same criteria for selection in matters employment;

(c)    The right to free choice of profession and employment, the right to promotion, job security and all benefits and conditions of service and the right to receive vocational training and retraining, including, including apprenticeship, advanced vocational training and recurrent training;

(d)   the right to equal remuneration, including benefits, and to equal treatment in respect of work of equal value, as well as equality of treatment in the evaluation of the quality of work;

(e)  The right to social security, particularly in cases of retirement, unemployment, sickness, invalidity and old other incapacity to work, as well as the right to paid leave;

(f)    The right to protection of health and to safety in working condition, including the safeguarding of the function of reproduction.

2. In order to prevent discrimination against women on the grounds of marriage or maternity and to ensure their effective right to work, States parties Parties shall take appropriate measures;

(a)  To prohibit, subject to the imposition of sanctions, dismissal on the grounds of pregnancy or of maternity leave and discrimination in dismissals on the basis of marital status;

(b)  To introduce maternity leave pay or with pay or with pry or with pay or with comparable social benefits without loss of former employment, seniority or social allowances;

(c)  To encourage the provision of the necessary supporting Social services to enable parents to combine family obligations with responsibilities and participation in public life, in particular through promoting the establishment and development of a network of child-care facilities;

(d)  To provide special protection to women during pregnancy if types of work proved to be harmful to them. 

3.    Protective legislation relating to matters covered in this article shall be reviewed periodically in the light of scientific and technological knowledge and shall be revised, repealed or extended as necessary.

Equality in access to health facilities

Article 12

1. Sates Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in the field of health care in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including these related to family planning.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph I of this article, States parties shall ensure to women appropriate services in connection with pregnancy, confinement and the post-natal period, granting free services where necessary, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and lactation.

Finance and social security

Article 13

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in other areas of economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, the same rights, in particular:

(a)  The right to family benefits:

(b)  The right to bank loans, mortgages and other of financial credit;

(c)   The right to participate in recreational activities, sports and all of cultural life.

Rural women

Article 14

1. States Parties shall take into account the particular problems faced by rural women and the significant roles which rural women play in the economic survival or their families, including their work in the non-magnetized sectors of the economy, and shall take all appropriate to ensure the application of the provisions of the present Convention to women in rural areas.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in rural areas in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women that they participate in and benefit form rural development and, in particular, shall ensure to such women the right:

(a)   To participate in the elaboration and implementation of development planning at all levels;

(b)   To have access to adequate health care facilities, including information, counseling and services in family planning;

(c)   To benefit directly form social security programmers;

(d)    To obtain all types of training and education, formal and non-formal, including that relating to functional literacy, as well as, inter alias, the benefit of all community and extension services in order to increase their technical proficiency;

(e)   To organize self-help groups and cooperatives in order to obtain equal access to economic opportunities through employment or self-employment;

(f)    To participate in all community activities;

(g)    To have access to agricultural credit and loans, marketing facilities, appropriate technology and equal treatment in and agrarian as well as in land resettlement schemes;

(h)  To enjoy adequate living conditions, particularly in relating to housing, sanitation, electricity and water supply, transport and communications.

Equality in legal and civil matters

Article 15

1. States parties shall accord to women equality with men before the law.

2. States Parties shall accord to women, in civil matters, a legal capacity identical to that of men and the same opportunities to exercise that capacity. In particular, they shall give women equal right to conclude contracts and to administer property and shall treat them equally in all stages of procedure in courts and tribunals.

3. States parties agree that all contracts and all other private instruments of any kind with a legal effect that is directed at restricting the legal capacity of women shall be deemed null and void.

4. Sates Parties shall accord to men and women the same rights with regard to the law relating to the movement of persons and the freedom to choose their residence and domicile.

Equality in family law

Article 16

1. States parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in al matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular shall ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women:

(a)  The same right to enter into marriage;

(b)  The same right freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent;

(c)   The same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution;

(d)  The same rights and responsibilities, irrespective of marital status, in matters relating to their children; in all cases the interests of the children shall be paramount;

(e)  The same rights to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and to have access to the information, education and means to enable them to exercise these rights;

(f)    The same rights and responsibilities with regard to guardianship, hardship, trusteeship and adoption, of children. or similar institutions where these concepts exist in national legislation, in all cases the interests of the children shall be paramount;

(g)  The same personal rights as husband and wife, including the right to choose family name, a profession and an occupation;

(h)  The same rights for both spouses in respect of the ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment and disposition of property, whether free of charge or for a valuable consideration.

2. The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.

CHAPTER TWO

Women trafficking, what does it mean?

I though women trafficking is a common phenomenon in the contemporary world of free market economy, there is no universal definition of women trafficking. However, Article- I of the SAARC Convention on Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution, 2000 (SAARC CPCTWCP) defines the following terms regarding women trafficking.

“Prostitution” means the sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes,

“Trafficking” means the moving, selling or buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside a country for monetary or buying of women and children for prostitution within and outside a country for monetary or other consideration with or without the consent of the person subjected to trafficking;

“Traffickers” means persons, agencies or institutions engaged in any form of trafficking.

From the above definition we can conclude that women trafficking includes moving, selling or buying of women for the purpose of domestic forced labour, prostitution or exploitation or any other immoral and illicit purposes.

The US President’s Interagency council on Women, defines trafficking as; “All acts involved in the recruitment, trasporing of sale of persons within national or across international borders through deception of fraud, coercion or fraud, coercion or force, or debt bondage for purposes of placing persons in situations of forced labor or services, such as forced prostitution or sexual services, domestic servitude or other forms of slavery-like practices”.

Similarly, the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women considers that trafficking of women refers to “all acts involved in the recruitment and/ or transportation of a woman within and across national borders for work or services by means of violence or threat of violence, abuse of authority or dominant position debt-bondage, deception or other forms of coercion”. Friedman, USAID, referred the following “The recruitment of girls/women by means of violence or threat, debt bondage, deception or coercion to act as sex workers under menace of penalty and for which the individual has not offered themselves voluntarily” (interview with Friedman). Although prostitution is an important outcome of trafficking activities, there are many other exploitative outcomes and events relating to trafficking. Thus, definitions tend to be general and encompass not only the sex and age of the trafficked persons, but also the different purposes for which people are trafficked. The countries of SAARC have a definition in their Convention for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children. Nevertheless, a consultation workshop organized by the convention l. The workshop proposed the following definitions.

“Trafficking in women consists of all acts involved in the procurement transportation, forced movement and/ or selling and buying of women within and/ or across border by fraudulent means, deception, coercion, coercion, direct and/ or indirect threats, abuse of authority, for the purpose of placing a woman against her will without her consent in exploitative and abusive situations such as forced prostitution, forced marriage, bonded and forced Labour, begging, organ trade etc. “Trafficking in children consists of all acts involved in the procurement, transportation, forced movement, and/ or selling and buying of children within and /or indirect threats, abuse of authority, for the purpose of placing a woman against her will without her consent in exploitative and abusive situations, such as commercial sexual abuse, forced marriage, bonded and Labour, begging camel jockeying and other sports, organ trade, etc.”

In the context of Bangladesh, the BNWLA adapted the definition of the Global Alliance against Trafficking in Women, so that it could be applied to situations involving both Women, and children. Thus, the BNWLA defines trafficking as “ All acts involved in the recruitment and/ or transport of a woman ( or child ) within and across borders for work or services (or marriage ) by means of violence of threat of violence, abuse of dominant position, debt bondage, deception or other forms of coercion”. Arriving at an appropriate definition of the phenomenon of trafficking is essential for identifying the magnitude of the problem and ways to address it.

Though the term “Traffic” is frequently applied to mean the movement of vehicles or people along roads or streets, or ships in the seas, planes in the sky, etc., it is also used to imply trade, buying and selling or business in carrying goods or passengers.

Generally, ‘traffic’ means movement of vehicles or pedestrians along a road or route. This includes also rolling stock of passengers. The term is also used to mean illegal or immoral trade in some thing e.g. drug, arms, stolen goods etc. presently, it has acquired a new dimension to include immoral trade, “ traffic in women” or “trafficking in women” is thus used to mean buying and silling or transferring women for immoral purposes.

But there is no single or universally accepted definition of the concept of trafficking (in women). The 1949 Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic person and the Exploitaion of the Prostitution of Others is a good beginning in an attempt to understand what “trafficking in women” is The Convention defines it as “procures, entices or that person.” But it does not include other purposes of trafficking like forced Labour debt bondage, slavery, false marriages etc. Although there are several other international instruments and/ or applying to trafficking (in woman) but they do not define it. For instance, article 6 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), MANDATES all State Parties “to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploitation of the prostitution of women.” The convention neither defines the concept of ‘traffic’ and ‘prostitution’ nor does it specify whether states are required to suppress exploitation of the prostitution women or suppress prostitution itself. The distinction between the two lies in who profits financially.

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of action Do not also define trafficking in women and

Article 34 of The Bangladesh Constitution

Prohibition of forced Labour:

(1)    All forms of forced  Labour are Prohibited and any  contravention of this provision shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

(2)    Nothing in this article shall apply to compulsory Labour.

a.    by persons undergoing lawful punishment for a criminal offence; or

b.    required by any law for public purpose.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN REPRESSION PREVENTION ACT, 2000 (AS AMENDED UP TO 2003)

Section 5. : Punishment for women trafficking etc. : (1) If any person imports any purpose of prostitution illegal or for employing in immoral activities or transports or send to foreign countries or purchases or sells or transfers any women for hire or in other way transfers for torture or for the aforesaid purposes purposes keep in his own

Possession or surety or custody in that case he shall he shall be convicted to death sentence or rigorous life punishment or up to twenty years but not less than ten years rigorous imprisonment and in addition shall be fined.

(2) If any women is sold or hired or in any other way transferred to a prostitute or a brothel keeper or manager of the brothel then the person has transferred such women if otherwise it is not proved then it shall be person who has transferred such women if otherwise it is not proved the it shall be presumed that such women has been sold or transferred for the purpose of prostitution and he shall be punished as mentioned in sub section (1).

(3) If any person as brothel keeper or engaged in the management of the brothel purchases any women or keeps in custody, if it is not proved otherwise, then it shall be presumed that such women has been purchased or hired or kept in possession or custody for the purpose and of prostitution.

Section 6: Punishment for children trafficking etc.:

(1) If any person imports any child illegaly and immorally from country or exports or sends to foreign country or purchases or sells or for such purposes keeps any child in nhis own possession or custody or surety then such person shall be convicted for death sentence or shall be convicted for regorous imprisonment for life and in addition shall be fined.

(2) If any person steals a newborn body from hospital, maternity, nursing home, clinic etc. or from the possession of the guardian then such person shall be convicted as mentioned in sub section (1).

Section 7: Punishment for Kidnaping and abduction of women and children:

If any person kidnaps or abducts any child or women except for the purpose of the offences mentioned in section 5 the person shall be convicted for the life term imprisonment or up to fourteen years rigorous imprisonment and in addition shall be fined. Law enforcing agency which cannot protect life and dignity of a women to became a custodian for her security?” He suggests of consider will, opinion, intellectual ability, relatives and circumstances of the woman before keeping her jail in the name of the “safe custody”

So far, few positive sides of existing law have been explored. Unlike the previous Ordinance and Act, the new one not totally prohibits granting of bail. But it empowers the tribunal to exercise its discretion in this regard (Section 19). There are also provisions for recommending “departmental punishment” by the Tribunal if the concerned Investigation officer and doctor failed to perform their duties (Section 18 and 32)

In case of Bangladesh, it is proved that the stringent law is not the solution of the problem. What is more important is that proper implementation of the law, widely acknowledged by the jurist, lawyer and human rights activists.

However, the enactment of three legislation “ in favour of women and children” in last 17 years has made efficiency of the legislator questionable

Suggestions & recommendation to prevent women trafficking

In recent years, the trafficking of women and children has already acquired a global dimension. For South Asian countries, the issue is already considered a serious regional problem, which demands a concerted response. Accordingly, trafficking was high on the agenda of the Ninth Summit of heads of governments of the SARRC countries held in the Maldives in 1997. Trafficking is a human rights issue with important ramification in the area of health, law enforcing, and socioeconomic development in general. Poverty, attitude toward women and deeply-entrenched gender discrimination, unemployment, well-organized national and international networks of traffickers, and weak law enforcement are the critical factors relating to trafficking of women and women and children in Bangladesh. Tougher laws alone cannot address this criminal activity. Several acts, including the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000, have provision for penalties for violence against women and children, including trafficking and kidnapping. Yet, their proper implementation remains a formidable challenge. We observed that many research reports are based on information gathered through anecdotes, and from secondary analysis and unreliable data. But we relied on a few good reports that collected field information describing the trafficking practices and that mapped out the trafficking routes. Although more studies need to be conducted to shed light on trafficking antecedents, there are already several reports documenting the trafficking issues in Bangladesh. There is, however, a need for studies which can generate first-hand information on social, economic, political and health implication of the problem. It is critical also to identify the current and potential roles of the government and NGOS in eliminating this immoral practice. Given the regional nature of trafficking and the international implications of this problem, reports on the nature, magnitude, trends, and forms of trafficking in the SAARC countries are needed. The advantage of establishing cross-regional teams and resource centers to help identify the dynamics of trafficking, both from local and regional perspectives, has also been highlighted in reports in clouded in this review of the literature. A uniform plan of action on the issue of trafficking of women and children involving the governments and NGOs of the region needs to be developed, so that a coordinated approach toward the conviction of traffickers is possible. This regional approach implies the development of a legal framework that ensures arrest, conviction, and extradition of traffickers, and that also enables prosecution of traffickers and abusers even when crimes are committed in foreign soil.

National policy for the empowerment of women (2001)

Introduction

The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the State to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women.

Within the framework of a democratic polity, our laws, development policies, Plans and programmes have aimed at women’s advancement in different spheres. From the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974-78) onwards has been a marked shift in the approach to women’s issues from welfare to development. In recent years, the empowerment of women has been recognized as the central issue in determining the status of women. The National Commission for Women was set up by an Act of Parliament in 1990 to safeguard the rights and legal entitlements of women. The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Constitution of India have provided for reservation of seats in the local bodies of Panchayats and Municipalities for women, laying a strong foundation for their participation in decision making at the local levels.

1.3 India has also ratified various international conventions and human rights instruments committing to secure equal rights of women. Key among them is the ratification of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1993.

1.4 The Mexico Plan of Action (1975), the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies (1985), the Beijing Declaration as well as the Platform for Action (1995) and the Outcome Document adopted by the UNGA Session on Gender Equality and Development & Peace for the 21st century, titled "Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action" have been unreservedly endorsed by India for appropriate follow up.

1.5 The Policy also takes note of the commitments of the Ninth Five Year Plan and the other Sectoral Policies relating to empowerment of Women.

1.6 The women’s movement and a wide-spread network of non-Government Organisations which have strong grass-roots presence and deep insight into women’s concerns have contributed in inspiring initiatives for the empowerment of women.

1.7 However, there still exists a wide gap between the goals enunciated in the Constitution, legislation, policies, plans, programmes, and related mechanisms on the one hand and the situational reality of the status of women in India, on the other. This has been analyzed extensively in the Report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India, "Towards Equality", 1974 and highlighted in the National Perspective Plan for Women, 1988-2000, the Shramshakti Report, 1988 and the Platform for Action, Five Years After- An assessment"

1.8 Gender disparity manifests itself in various forms, the most obvious being the trend of continuously declining female ratio in the population in the last few decades. Social stereotyping and violence at the domestic and societal levels are some of the other manifestations. Discrimination against girl children, adolescent girls and women persists in parts of the country.

1.9 The underlying causes of gender inequality are related to social and economic structure, which is based on informal and formal norms, and practices.

1.10 Consequently, the access of women particularly those belonging to weaker sections including Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/ Other backward Classes and minorities, majority of whom are in the rural areas and in the informal, unorganized sector – to education, health and productive resources, among others, is inadequate. Therefore, they remain largely marginalized, poor and socially excluded.

Goal and Objectives

1.11 The goal of this Policy is to bring about the advancement, development and empowerment of women. The Policy will be widely disseminated so as to encourage active participation of all stakeholders for achieving its goals. Specifically, the objectives of this Policy include

(i) Creating an environment through positive economic and social policies for full development of women to enable them to realize their full potential

(ii) The de-jure and de-facto enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedom by women on equal basis with men in all spheres – political, economic, social, cultural and civil

(iii) Equal access to participation and decision making of women in social, political and economic life of the nation

(iv) Equal access to women to health care, quality education at all levels, career and vocational guidance, employment, equal remuneration, occupational health and safety, social security and public office etc.

(v) Strengthening legal systems aimed at elimination of all forms of discrimination against women

(vi) Changing societal attitudes and community practices by active participation and involvement of both men and women.

(vii) Mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development process.

(viii) Elimination of discrimination and all forms of violence against women and the girl child; and

(ix) Building and strengthening partnerships with civil society, particularly women’s organizations.

Policy Prescriptions

Judicial Legal Systems

Legal-judicial system will be made more responsive and gender sensitive to women’s needs, especially in cases of domestic violence and personal assault. New laws will be enacted and existing laws reviewed to ensure that justice is quick and the punishment meted out to the culprits is commensurate with the severity of the offence.

2.2 At the initiative of and with the full participation of all stakeholders including community and religious leaders, the Policy would aim to encourage changes in personal laws such as those related to marriage, divorce, maintenance and guardianship so as to eliminate discrimination against women.

2.3 The evolution of property rights in a patriarchal system has contributed to the subordinate status of women. The Policy would aim to encourage changes in laws relating to ownership of property and inheritance by evolving consensus in order to make them gender just.

Decision Making

3.1 Women’s equality in power sharing and active participation in decision making, including decision making in political process at all levels will be ensured for the achievement of the goals of empowerment. All measures will be taken to guarantee women equal access to and full participation in decision making bodies at every level, including the legislative, executive, judicial, corporate, statutory bodies, as also the advisory Commissions, Committees, Boards, Trusts etc. Affirmative action such as reservations/quotas, including in higher legislative bodies, will be considered whenever necessary on a time bound basis. Women–friendly personnel policies will also be drawn up to encourage women to participate effectively in the developmental process.

Mainstreaming a Gender Perspective in the Development Process

4.1 Policies, programmes and systems will be established to ensure mainstreaming of women’s perspectives in all developmental processes, as catalysts, participants and recipients. Wherever there are gaps in policies and programmes, women specific interventions would be undertaken to bridge these. Coordinating and monitoring mechanisms will also be devised to assess from time to time the progress of such mainstreaming mechanisms. Women’s issues and concerns as a result will specially be addressed and reflected in all concerned laws, sectoral policies, plans and programmes of action.

Economic Empowerment of women

Poverty Eradication

5.1 Since women comprise the majority of the population below the poverty line and are very often in situations of extreme poverty, given the harsh realities of intra-household and social discrimination, macro economic policies and poverty eradication programmes will specifically address the needs and problems of such women. There will be improved implementation of programmes which are already women oriented with special targets for women. Steps will be taken for mobilization of poor women and convergence of services, by offering them a range of economic and social options, along with necessary support measures to enhance their capabilities

Micro Credit

5.2 In order to enhance women’s access to credit for consumption and production, the establishment of new, and strengthening of existing micro-credit mechanisms and micro-finance institution will be undertaken so that the outreach of credit is enhanced. Other supportive measures would be taken to ensure adequate flow of credit through extant financial institutions and banks, so that all women below poverty line have easy access to credit.

Women and Economy

5.3 Women’s perspectives will be included in designing and implementing macro-economic and social policies by institutionalizing their participation in such processes. Their contribution to socio-economic development as producers and workers will be recognized in the formal and informal sectors (including home based workers) and appropriate policies relating to employment and to her working conditions will be drawn up. Such measures could include:

Reinterpretation and redefinition of conventional concepts of work wherever necessary e.g. in the Census records, to reflect women’s contribution as producers and workers.

Preparation of satellite and national accounts.

Development of appropriate methodologies for undertaking (i) and (ii) above.

Globalization

Globalization has presented new challenges for the realization of the goal of women’s equality, the gender impact of which has not been systematically evaluated fully. However, from the micro-level studies that were commissioned by the Department of Women & Child Development, it is evident that there is a need for re-framing policies for access to employment and quality of employment. Benefits of the growing global economy have been unevenly distributed leading to wider economic disparities, the feminization of poverty, increased gender inequality through often deteriorating working conditions and unsafe working environment especially in the informal economy and rural areas. Strategies will be designed to enhance the capacity of women and empower them to meet the negative social and economic impacts, which may flow from the globalization process.

Women and Agriculture

5.5 In view of the critical role of women in the agriculture and allied sectors, as producers, concentrated efforts will be made to ensure that benefits of training, extension and various programmes will reach them in proportion to their numbers. The programmes for training women in soil conservation, social forestry, dairy development and other occupations allied to agriculture like horticulture, livestock including small animal husbandry, poultry, fisheries etc. will be expanded to benefit women workers in the agriculture sector.

Women and Industry

5.6 The important role played by women in electronics, information technology and food processing and agro industry and textiles has been crucial to the development of these sectors. They would be given comprehensive support in terms of labour legislation, social security and other support services to participate in various industrial sectors.

5.7 Women at present cannot work in night shift in factories even if they wish to. Suitable measures will be taken to enable women to work on the night shift in factories. This will be accompanied with support services for security, transportation etc.

Support Services

5.8 The provision of support services for women, like child care facilities, including crèches at work places and educational institutions, homes for the aged and the disabled will be expanded and improved to create an enabling environment and to ensure their full cooperation in social, political and economic life. Women-friendly personnel policies will also be drawn up to encourage women to participate effectively in the developmental process.

Social Empowerment of Women

Education

6.1 Equal access to education for women and girls will be ensured. Special measures will be taken to eliminate discrimination, universalize education, eradicate illiteracy, create a gender-sensitive educational system, increase enrolment and retention rates of girls and improve the quality of education to facilitate life-long learning as well as development of occupation/vocation/technical skills by women. Reducing the gender gap in secondary and higher education would be a focus area. Sectoral time targets in existing policies will be achieved, with a special focus on girls and women, particularly those belonging to weaker sections including the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Other Backward Classes/Minorities. Gender sensitive curricula would be developed at all levels of educational system in order to address sex stereotyping as one of the causes of gender discrimination.

Health

6.2 A holistic approach to women’s health which includes both nutrition and health services will be adopted and special attention will be given to the needs of women and the girl at all stages of the life cycle. The reduction of infant mortality and maternal mortality, which are sensitive indicators of human development, is a priority concern. This policy reiterates the national demographic goals for Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) set out in the National Population Policy 2000. Women should have access to comprehensive, affordable and quality health care. Measures will be adopted that take into account the reproductive rights of women to enable them to exercise informed choices, their vulnerability to sexual and health problems together with endemic, infectious and communicable diseases such as malaria, TB, and water borne diseases as well as hypertension and cardio-pulmonary diseases. The social, developmental and health consequences of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases will be tackled from a gender perspective.

6.3 To effectively meet problems of infant and maternal mortality, and early marriage the availability of good and accurate data at micro level on deaths, birth and marriages is required. Strict implementation of registration of births and deaths would be ensured and registration of marriages would be made compulsory.

6.4 In accordance with the commitment of the National Population Policy (2000) to population stabilization, this Policy recognizes the critical need of men and women to have access to safe, effective and affordable methods of family planning of their choice and the need to suitably address the issues of early marriages and spacing of children. Interventions such as spread of education, compulsory registration of marriage and special programmes like BSY should impact on delaying the age of marriage so that by 2010 child marriages are eliminated.

6.5 Women’s traditional knowledge about health care and nutrition will be recognized through proper documentation and its use will be encouraged. The use of Indian and alternative systems of medicine will be enhanced within the framework of overall health infrastructure available for women.

Nutrition

6.6 In view of the high risk of malnutrition and disease that women face at all the three critical stages viz., infancy and childhood, adolescent and reproductive phase, focussed attention would be paid to meeting the nutritional needs of women at all stages of the life cycle. This is also important in view of the critical link between the health of adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating women with the health of infant and young children. Special efforts will be made to tackle the problem of macro and micro nutrient deficiencies especially amongst pregnant and lactating women as it leads to various diseases and disabilities.

6.7 Intra-household discrimination in nutritional matters vis-à-vis girls and women will be sought to be ended through appropriate strategies. Widespread use of nutrition education would be made to address the issues of intra-household imbalances in nutrition and the special needs of pregnant and lactating women. Women’s participation will also be ensured in the planning, superintendence and delivery of the system.

Drinking Water and Sanitation

6.8 Special attention will be given to the needs of women in the provision of safe drinking water, sewage disposal, toilet facilities and sanitation within accessible reach of households, especially in rural areas and urban slums. Women’s participation will be ensured in the planning, delivery and maintenance of such services.

Housing and Shelter

6.9 Women’s perspectives will be included in housing policies, planning of housing colonies and provision of shelter both in rural and urban areas. Special attention will be given for providing adequate and safe housing and accommodation for women including single women, heads of households, working women, students, apprentices and trainees.

Environment

6.10 Women will be involved and their perspectives reflected in the policies and programmes for environment, conservation and restoration. Considering the impact of environmental factors on their livelihoods, women’s participation will be ensured in the conservation of the environment and control of environmental degradation. The vast majority of rural women still depend on the locally available non-commercial sources of energy such as animal dung, crop waste and fuel wood. In order to ensure the efficient use of these energy resources in an environmental friendly manner, the Policy will aim at promoting the programmes of non-conventional energy resources. Women will be involved in spreading the use of solar energy, biogas, smokeless chulahs and other rural application so as to have a visible impact of these measures in influencing eco system and in changing the life styles of rural women.

Science and Technology

6.11 Programmes will be strengthened to bring about a greater involvement of women in science and technology. These will include measures to motivate girls to take up science and technology for higher education and also ensure that development projects with scientific and technical inputs involve women fully. Efforts to develop a scientific temper and awareness will also be stepped up. Special measures would be taken for their training in areas where they have special skills like communication and information technology. Efforts to develop appropriate technologies suited to women’s needs as well as to reduce their drudgery will be given a special focus too.

Women in Difficult Circumstances

6.12 In recognition of the diversity of women’s situations and in acknowledgement of the needs of specially disadvantaged groups, measures and programmes will be undertaken to provide them with special assistance. These groups include women in extreme poverty, destitute women, women in conflict situations, women affected by natural calamities, women in less developed regions, the disabled widows, elderly women, single women in difficult circumstances, women heading households, those displaced from employment, migrants, women who are victims of marital violence, deserted women and prostitutes etc.

Violence against women

7.1 All forms of violence against women, physical and mental, whether at domestic or societal levels, including those arising from customs, traditions or accepted practices shall be dealt with effectively with a view to eliminate its incidence. Institutions and mechanisms/schemes for assistance will be created and strengthened for prevention of such violence , including sexual harassment at work place and customs like dowry; for the rehabilitation of the victims of violence and for taking effective action against the perpetrators of such violence. A special emphasis will also be laid on programmes and measures to deal with trafficking in women and girls.

Rights of the Girl Child

8.1 All forms of discrimination against the girl child and violation of her rights shall be eliminated by undertaking strong measures both preventive and punitive within and outside the family. These would relate specifically to strict enforcement of laws against prenatal sex selection and the practices of female foeticide, female infanticide, child marriage, child abuse and child prostitution etc. Removal of discrimination in the treatment of the girl child within the family and outside and projection of a positive image of the girl child will be actively fostered. There will be special emphasis on the needs of the girl child and earmarking of substantial investments in the areas relating to food and nutrition, health and education, and in vocational education. In implementing programmes for eliminating child labour, there will be a special focus on girl children.

Mass Media

9.1 Media will be used to portray images consistent with human dignity of girls and women. The Policy will specifically strive to remove demeaning, degrading and negative conventional stereotypical images of women and violence against women. Private sector partners and media networks will be involved at all levels to ensure equal access for women particularly in the area of information and communication technologies. The media would be encouraged to develop codes of conduct, professional guidelines and other self regulatory mechanisms to remove gender stereotypes and promote balanced portrayals of women and men.

Operational Strategies

Action Plans

10.1 All Central and State Ministries will draw up time bound Action Plans for translating the Policy into a set of concrete actions, through a participatory process of consultation with Centre/State Departments of Women and Child Development and National /State Commissions for Women. The Plans will specifically including the following: -

i) Measurable goals to be achieved by 2010.

ii) Identification and commitment of resources.

iii) Responsibilities for implementation of action points.

iv) Structures and mechanisms to ensure efficient monitoring, review and gender impact assessment of action points and policies.

v) Introduction of a gender perspective in the budgeting process.

10.2 In order to support better planning and programme formulation and adequate allocation of resources, Gender Development Indices (GDI) will be developed by networking with specialized agencies. These could be analyzed and studied in depth. Gender auditing and development of evaluation mechanisms will also be undertaken along side.

10.3 Collection of gender disaggregated data by all primary data collecting agencies of the Central and State Governments as well as Research and Academic Institutions in the Public and Private Sectors will be undertaken. Data and information gaps in vital areas reflecting the status of women will be sought to be filled in by these immediately. All Ministries/Corporations/Banks and financial institutions etc will be advised to collect, collate, disseminate and maintain/publish data related to programmes and benefits on a gender disaggregated basis. This will help in meaningful planning and evaluation of policies.

Institutional Mechanisms

11.1 Institutional mechanisms, to promote the advancement of women, which exist at the Central and State levels, will be strengthened. These will be through interventions as may be appropriate and will relate to, among others, provision of adequate resources, training and advocacy skills to effectively influence macro-policies, legislation, programmes etc. to achieve the empowerment of women.

11.2 National and State Councils will be formed to oversee the operationalisation of the Policy on a regular basis. The National Council will be headed by the Prime Minister and the State Councils by the Chief Ministers and be broad in composition having representatives from the concerned Departments/Ministries, National and State Commissions for Women, Social Welfare Boards, representatives of Non-Government Organizations, Women’s Organisations, Corporate Sector, Trade Unions, financing institutions, academics, experts and social activists etc. These bodies will review the progress made in implementing the Policy twice a year. The National Development Council will also be informed of the progress of the programme undertaken under the policy from time to time for advice and comments.

11.3 National and State Resource Centres on women will be established with mandates for collection and dissemination of information, undertaking research work, conducting surveys, implementing training and awareness generation programmes, etc. These Centers will link up with Women’s Studies Centres and other research and academic institutions through suitable information networking systems.

11.4 While institutions at the district level will be strengthened, at the grass-roots, women will be helped by Government through its programmes to organize and strengthen into Self-Help Groups (SHGs) at the Anganwadi/Village/Town level. The women’s groups will be helped to institutionalize themselves into registered societies and to federate at the Panchyat/Municipal level. These societies will bring about synergistic implementation of all the social and economic development programmes by drawing resources made available through Government and Non-Government channels, including banks and financial institutions and by establishing a close Interface with the Panchayats/ Municipalities.

Resource Management

12.1 Availability of adequate financial, human and market resources to implement the Policy will be managed by concerned Departments, financial credit institutions and banks,  private sector, civil society and other connected institutions. This process will include:

(a) Assessment of benefits flowing to women and resource allocation to the programmes relating to them through an exercise of gender budgeting. Appropriate changes in policies will be made to optimize benefits to women under these schemes;

(b) Adequate resource allocation to develop and promote the policy outlined earlier based on (a) above by concerned Departments.

(c) Developing synergy between personnel of Health, Rural Development, Education and Women & Child Development Department at field level and other village level functionaries’

(d) Meeting credit needs by banks and financial credit institutions through suitable policy initiatives and development of new institutions in coordination with the Department of Women & Child Development.

12.2 The strategy of Women’s Component Plan adopted in the Ninth Plan of ensuring that not less than 30% of benefits/funds flow to women from all Ministries and Departments will be implemented effectively so that the needs and interests of women and girls are addressed by all concerned sectors. The Department of Women and Child Development being the nodal Ministry will monitor and review the progress of the implementation of the Component Plan from time to time, in terms of both quality and quantity in collaboration with the Planning Commission.

12.3 Efforts will be made to channelize private sector investments too, to support programmes and projects for advancement of women

Legislation

13.1 The existing legislative structure will be reviewed and additional legislative measures taken by identified departments to implement the Policy. This will also involve a review of all existing laws including personal, customary and tribal laws, subordinate legislation, related rules as well as executive and administrative regulations to eliminate all gender discriminatory references. The process will be planned over a time period 2000-2003. The specific measures required would be evolved through a consultation process involving civil society, National Commission for Women and Department of Women and Child Development. In appropriate cases the consultation process would be widened to include other stakeholders too.

13.2 Effective implementation of legislation would be promoted by involving civil society and community. Appropriate changes in legislation will be undertaken, if necessary.

13.3 In addition, following other specific measures will be taken to implement the legislation effectively.

(a) Strict enforcement of all relevant legal provisions and speedy redressal of grievances will be ensured, with a special focus on violence and gender related atrocities.

(b) Measures to prevent and punish sexual harassment at the place of work, protection for women workers in the organized/ unorganized sector and strict enforcement of relevant laws such as Equal Remuneration Act and Minimum Wages Act will be undertaken,

(c) Crimes against women, their incidence, prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution will be regularly reviewed at all Crime Review fora and Conferences at the Central, State and District levels. Recognised, local, voluntary organizations will be authorized to lodge Complaints and facilitate registration, investigations and legal proceedings related to violence and atrocities against girls and women.

(d) Women’s Cells in Police Stations, Encourage Women Police Stations Family Courts, Mahila Courts, Counselling Centers, Legal Aid Centers and Nyaya Panchayats will be strengthened and expanded to eliminate violence and atrocities against women.

(e) Widespread dissemination of information on all aspects of legal rights, human rights and other entitlements of women, through specially designed legal literacy programmes and rights information programmes will be done.

Gender Sensitization

14.1 Training of personnel of executive, legislative and judicial wings of the State, with a special focus on policy and programme framers, implementation and development agencies, law enforcement machinery and the judiciary, as well as non-governmental organizations will be undertaken. Other measures will include:

(a) Promoting societal awareness to gender issues and women’s human rights.

(b) Review of curriculum and educational materials to include gender education and human rights issues

(c) Removal of all references derogatory to the dignity of women from all public documents and legal instruments.

(d) Use of different forms of mass media to communicate social messages relating to women’s equality and empowerment.

Panchayati Raj Institutions

15.1 The 73rd and 74th Amendments (1993) to the Indian Constitution have served as a breakthrough towards ensuring equal access and increased participation in political power structure for women. The PRIs will play a central role in the process of enhancing women’s participation in public life. The PRIs and the local self Governments will be actively involved in the implementation and execution of the National Policy for Women at the grassroots level.

Partnership with the voluntary sector organizations

16.1 The involvement of voluntary organizations, associations, federations, trade unions, non-governmental organizations, women’s organizations, as well as institutions dealing with education, training and research will be ensured in the formulation, implementation, monitoring and review of all policies and programmes affecting women. Towards this end, they will be provided with appropriate support related to resources and capacity building and facilitated to participate actively in the process of the empowerment of women.

International Cooperation

17.1 The Policy will aim at implementation of international obligations/commitments in all sectors on empowerment of women such as the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD+5) and other such instruments. International, regional and sub-regional cooperation towards the empowerment of women will continue to be encouraged through sharing of experiences, exchange of ideas and technology, networking with institutions and organizations and through bilateral and multi-lateral partnerships.

Women’s Rights and Equality Briefing

Updated September 2008

Unfortunately, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the minimalist approach of saying that “everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex...with little further reference to women’s issues. This proved unhelpful in practical terms and it took campaigners over 30 years to cajole the international community into solid interpretation and commitment to address gender injustice.

This commitment came in the shape of the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979. CEDAW has been described as a bill of rights for women; it spells out the areas in which women experience discrimination and commits countries to amend their laws, construct national gender policies and create institutions to deliver them. The most solid subsequent endorsement of CEDAW cam eat the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995, at which governments committed themselves to the Beijing Platform for Action, a detailed template for eradication of discrimination and poverty.

This generally positive global commitment to women’s rights has not been reflected in the rate of progress. Ineffective enforcement of legislation is the most common constraint, possibly not helped by the plethora of UN organizations addressing different aspects of gender inequality. As part of the UN reform process, have been calls for a more streamlined architecture of agencies to bring greater coherence to women’s issues. Another important obstacle has been the failure of the US to ratify repeatedly blocked by right wing interests who perceive a threat to sovereignty.

One the most shameful failures of legislation relates to the practice of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide in India and China Originally believed to be a characteristic of impoverished rural communities, recent disclosures suggest that over 10% of female pregnancies in middle class New Delhi are aborted. In China, 118 boys were born in 2005 for every 10 girls. There can be no more explicit illustration of the strength of cultural norms to attribute low status to women.

It is such cultural traditions in developing countries that most stubborn obstacle to the essential steps towards women’s equality. The belief that girls should work in the home and in the fields rather than go to school, and the presumption that a woman acquires no right to property on marriage are deeply entrenched in many societies. Whilst development agencies are normally anxious to respect cultural traditions in their programmers, they are reluctant to on issues of gender equality.

The disempowerment of women is often reinforced in a country’s laws; for example, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa are in various stages of amending laws, which prevent women from gaining access to land and property. The HIV/AIDS crisis has accelerated by women, few of who can claim ownership rights.

Legal issues are most problematic in Islamic countries where elements of Sharia law governing the behavior of women remain in place. The Pakistan government has encountered fierce resistance from Islamic political parties to its efforts to reform the Hudood ordinances, ancient laws that declaim that adultery is a crime when carried out by women, and which make it virtually impossible for a man to be convicted of rape. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan represented the most extreme and unacceptable implementation of laws which deny which deny a role for women. Shoring Beady, the Iranian Nobel laureate in Afghanistan represented the most extreme and unacceptable laureate, believes that the treatment of women in Islamic countries does not reflect the teachings of the Koran. She advocates a reinterpretation of Shari law to recognize women’s rights.

Liberation Calling

Rain or shine, 50- year old Afzalunnesa prepares her tea stall in front of Fatullah bazaar. Which is a few miles away from downtown  Dhaka.In front of her stop,which has a corruagated tin roof,a kerosene-stove and a lot of cups,lies a big billboard with the photo of a smiling female model declaring the superiority of a particular skincair product over the other.

Her hasband left her 15 years ago;her daughter was married off at an early age and she is a mother her salf now."When he laft us I was completely shattered,Afzaiun sayes"Iwas warking as a halp in two households.Iused to get only Tk 1000 a month,and Ihad to pay 800 as house rent."

About half a decad on Afzalun calls it a liberating experience.And there are reasons for it.Within a few days affter the husband disappeared(he trened up a year later with his new wife),Afzalun and two other woman started to cart vegetables." Our investment wes little ,butwe tried to compensate it with our hard work," she says, A year later, the woman started to grow vegetables in the goverment khas land. For Afzalun and her friends there is no turning back; their  investment  trebled within six months.Along with the shop, which she rented a few  months ago, Afzalun  now owns there pushcarts that vend vegetables in downtown Narayanganj.

Fatullah can clim some uniqueness in the country's political landscape. It is represented by a woman MP,who has been elected in direct vote. Not only that , the trouble that she has taken in the election eering is no less traumatic than  Afzalun's. Over the years, politice in  Narayanganj used to be controlled by the osman clan"says sarah kabori,Fatullah's MP.

Her husband, being the uncle of samim osman,controversial Awami league (AL) leader who was in salf-exile for eight years, told kabori to vie for the seat. kabori has received hate calls."Iwas told that I would be ousted from  narayangtanj,"she says, "but I thank our leder Sheikh Hasina who had alwaysencouraged me to contest the elections."

In fact, in the last  elections,the AL nomenated a brave new bunch of faces, of them a large number were woman. Most of these nominecs had won seats, making it the biggest presence of directly eleceted woman MPs in the history of  parliamentary democracy in bangladesh. In the cabinet that Sheik Hasina has formed immediately after winning the elections have been gavin to women, which included ministries such as hone, Foregn Affairs and Agriculture.

Badiul Alam Majumder of  Shujan thinks these developments have immenese political signifi cance ." Our prime minister is a woman,so  is our Leader of the Opposition. Some of the woman ministers are doing well. We have questions about some minsters as some of them do not have the requied background to run the ministries they are given charge of,"he says. Kabori thinks her electinon and the victories of several other woman candidates are a proof that the woman of the country are striding forword towards empowering themselves.Badiul agrees;he says,

"That day I was looking at research done by the world Economic forum, where 58 countries have been surveyed. There are 30 developed and 28 developing countries. And when it come to gender equality,Bangladesh has been ranked 39 in the list.We are leaduing all the seven Islamic countries and we are way ahead of our two big neighbours--India and Pakistan."

Kabori thinks woman have come a long way and the tine is not far way when woman in Bangladesh will be truly empowered."There have been massive progress in the fields of gender equality"she says. It is ten at night when Afzalunesa carfully takes our a teaspoonful of sugar and carefully spins it into the cup.For her is   wating a crowd of maie clientele,who after a hot day's work are eager to have a sip at her 'special' tea, which is scented with cassia leaves.she is all smiles when asked if she feels uncomfortable working so latr,she says,"They don't feel uncomfortable, why will?