As patriarchal mindset strongly exists in urban slums, women development initiatives face obstacles to lift them out of poverty hindering their dream to become economically self-reliant.
“Although they are trained on different income-generating activities, women in slum areas in Dhaka city could not overcome family related hurdles on their ways of becoming empowered economically because of male dominant-mindset,” Farheen Hassan, President of AIUB Women Forum, shared her experiences while talking to BSS.
She, also worked as a research fellow at the project titled “Exploring the pathways of economic empowerment of the women living in slum of Sutrapur and Gandaria funded and initiated by British Council and Action Aid”, said women living in urban slums are often denied their access to livelihood related activities as they are forced to engage in household works because of patriarchal structure of society.
Farheen Hassan said, “Under the project, we interviewed 200 slum women in Sutrapur area in Dhaka city.
Most of them are trapped in the cycle of poverty as they spend almost all times for household works including rearing their babies and cooking.”
Almost all the women have experienced different forms of repressions including beating and verbal misbehaviors from their husbands, she said.
