POLITICAL parties in Bangladesh are surely going to miss the 2020 deadline for ensuring 33 per cent women representation in their committees while women still lag behind men in terms of participation in politics and empowerments. Women’s participation in indirect elections to Parliament and local government bodies are also poor. The ruling Awami League has amended its Constitution extending the deadline to 2021 for filling at least 33 per cent of the committee positions with women. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has said that it will try to meet the target at its next national council session long overdue. The Representation of the People Order 1972 stipulates that all registered political parties have to increase the female representation in their committees to 33 per cent by 2020.
According to the Election Commission, 38 of the 41 political parties registered with the Commission are yet to ensure 20 per cent representation of women in their committees. Ten of the parties claimed that they made progress while 29 others stated that they were trying to meet the deadline. What’s significant is that — Islami Andolan Bangladesh spokesperson said they ensured 33 per cent representation of women in the committees. According to the progress reports submitted by the parties, BNP has 15 per cent, Jatiya Party 20 per cent, Ganatantry Party 15 per cent, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal 12 per cent, Jatiya Ganatantrik Party 12 per cent, Bangladesh Muslim League 6 per cent and Bangladesh Islami Front has 1 per cent representations of women in committees. In the December 30 general election, 22 women were elected in direct elections in 300 constituencies. Of the 22 lawmakers, 19 were elected from the Awami League, two from the Jatiya Party and the rest one was from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal. The scenario is similar in the local government bodies.
Where the government itself is in the grip of sycophants, it is no empowerment of women when positions are distributed among sycophantic women. Even men are disempowered as only the few has power to control and others have not right even to vote.
