ZCZC
BSS-05
WOMEN-POVERTY (UNICEF FEATURE)
Women take the lead in fighting poverty
DHAKA, July 20, 2018 (BSS) – Once Sofia Begum had no hope of getting relief
from her untold plight losing all her belongings and homestead to erosion of
the mighty Jamuna River.
“My husband was a day-labourer. He worked in agriculture fields others.
Losing our homestead to riverbank erosion, I came to Dhaka’s Kamrangirchar
with my husband five years ago,” she said.
Sofia (30), hailing from the northern district of Sirajganj, said her
husband started working as an assistant of a mason here, but his income was
not enough to bear the expenses of their five-member family.
That is why, she said, she took Tk 10,000 loan from a non-government
organisation and started a small-scale business setting up a roadside
makeshift shop aiming to earn some extra money to run her family.
After hard working, Sofia extended her business and hired a boy for the
shop. Now, she can save about Tk 10,000-15,000 per month after meeting her
family expenses.
“Now I am self-dependent. I have changed my lot with my hard working. I
have defeated poverty and brought happiness to my family,” Sofia said with a
smile.
Like Sofia, thousands of women have cut poverty and changed their lives in
the country taking credit or training from vocational or non-government
organisations.
According to a report of the Planning Commission, Bangladesh cut poverty by
50 percent in the last one decade.
About the role of women in reducing the country’s poverty, Planning
Commission (Economic Division) Member Dr Shamsul Alam said women are playing
an important role in this regard.
The women of Bangladesh are now more aware and they are becoming
financially solvent, he said adding that they are also contributing to the
country’s economy.
Shamsul said women’s involvement in economic activities was not acceptable
here in the past, but the mentality of people has changed due to awareness
activities carried out by different development organisations.
In recognition to Bangladesh’s progress in women empowerment, the United
Nations (UN) in 2016 decorated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina with the ‘Planet
50-50 Champion’ and ‘Agent of Change’ awards for her outstanding contribution
to the field.
Besides, the government is working to ease the participation of women in
political and economic activities as per the Seventh Five-year Plan from 2016
to 2020.
Bangladesh’s poverty rate has dropped by 7.2 percentage points to 24.3
percent in six years, says the 2016 Household Income and Expenditure Survey.
According to the latest survey results, the poverty rate in rural areas
was 26.4 percent, while urban poverty was 18.9 percent. The current rate of
extreme poverty is 12.9 percent, compared to 17.6 percent six years ago.
Oxfam Bangladesh Programme Director MB Akhter said Bangladesh has become a
role model of development in the international arena due to women empowerment
and poverty reduction.
He said women participation in non-agricultural sector was 19.1 percent in
1991-92, but it reached 36 percent in 2018.
Bangladesh has given priority to women’s economic engagement to attain SDG
on women empowerment in the 7th Five Year Plan. It is committed to ensuring
an ‘enabling environment’ to unleash the potentials of women in the labour
and entrepreneurial sector.
The government is bringing women in the forefront of all economic
activities as 10 percent of posts for women are reserved in judicial,
administrative, civil service, armed forces and law enforcement agencies
while 60 percent posts of primary school teachers are set aside for them.
About 15 percent funds of the refinancing scheme, 10 percent industrial
plots and 10 percent small entrepreneur funds are allocated to women.
The government’s micro-finance schemes and small & medium enterprises (SMEs)
have been contributing to poverty reduction and women empowerment.
BSS/UNICEF FEATURE/MRI/AKM 1105hrs