'Women's empowerment a must for sustainable development'
Staff Correspondent
Women should be brought into the mainstream of society to ensure their empowerment, which is crucial to sustainable development of the country, speakers at a view exchange meeting said yesterday.Women's empowerment is a multi-dimensional process of achieving rights to participate in key social, economic, political and cultural domains, they said, adding that the budget of 12007-08 fiscal lacks specific indicators in this regard, although allocations for women have increased in some cases. Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) and Women for Women jointly organised the meet titled 'Women's empowerment: Economic and political context' at the National Press Club. "Although we are calling for a gender sensitive budget, it is not possible to formulate such a budget without adequate data," said Dr Akbar Ali Khan, former adviser to the caretaker government. Women and children affairs ministry should consult with women's rights organisations and adopt specific proposals to solve the problem using a multi-sectoral approach, as it is not possible for the ministry alone to address all the issues involving women, he said. Dr Akbar also called for bringing changes to the constitution and the election system in order to increase the representation of women in parliament to 50 percent. There should not be any women's wings of political parties, rather women should be brought into the mainstream of politics, he added. Barrister Rabeya Bhuiyan said that although political reforms are getting priority at present, no steps have been taken to address the issue of political empowerment of women, who account for 50 percent of the population. Criticising the 'Minus two formula' in the context of present situation, women leader Farida Akhter said such a patriarchal attitude would jeopardise the political empowerment of women. Prof Syed Anwar Hossain said women would achieve their empowerment when they would be able to establish their control over capital and technology. Prof Mohammd Farashuddin and former secretary Moshiur Rahman also spoke at the programme moderated by President of Women for Women Dr Mahmuda Islam. Assistant Programme Manager of BNWLA Kohinur Begum presented the keynote paper while Fawzia Karim Firoz presided.
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