BSS, Dhaka :
Now it is the time for women in Bangladesh as in true sense women empowerment is going in the country. Working life style of village and city is changing with the touch of women rapidly. Women have progressed much in terms of empowerment.
For example, the Prime Minister is a woman, the Deputy Leader of Parliament and Leader of the Opposition is a woman and the Speaker is also a woman. There are 20 women who directly elected members of parliament in the current parliament, while the reserved women’s seats in Parliament have been increased from 45 to 50.
Women are being empowered in challenging jobs like the army, navy, air force, where they are facing the challenges with courage and fortitude. Besides, women are working as judges, secretaries, vice chancellors of universities, election commissioners, ambassadors, deputy commissioners, superintendents of police and officers-in-charge of police stations. They are contributing a lot to the national economic progress.
According to a survey of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, out of 5.41 crore workers in the country 1.82 crore are women. Over 16 thousand women are engaged in small and medium enterprises and 82,558 women are working as expatriate workers in various professions abroad. The garments industry, the main source of foreign exchange, employed 80% women workers. Above all, 90 percent of microcredit users in the country are women.
The women live in the hilly and coastal areas of the country are also not lagging behind urban women. With the passage of time, the women of 16 coastal districts have passed a long way. The women are changing their quality of life side by side with making remarkable contribution to the national economy.
Earlier, coastal women were obsessed with various superstitions. Now-a-days, the mindsets of those coastal women have been changed. They are contributing to the agricultural sector. They are participating in the progress of various schemes of Digital Bangladesh activities of the present government, using mobile phones and solar energy.
Farida Yasmin, panel chairperson of district council in the coastal district of Laxmipur, said: “We’ve come a long way towards empowering women in the coastal areas. We’re now making contribution to the socio-economic development in many ways. The educated women are getting involved in economic activities by taking various trainings and getting loans from the government and various agencies.”
She, however, said if the cottage industry can be expanded, the coastal women will get more opportunities for job.
