Staff Reporter, Rangpur :
Boishakhy, a candidate of SSC exam on Tuesday took over the position of Mayor of the Rangpur City Corporation for a day. This symbolic take over is part of the Girls Takeover campaign, a signature campaign of international development organisation Plan International Bangladesh ahead of the International Day of Girls 2021. This campaign is held every year globally including in Bangladesh with a demand for urgent social and political change to tear down the barriers of discrimination that hold girls back.
At the beginning of the day Md. Mostafizar Rahman (Mostofa), Mayor of Rangpur City Corporation welcomed Boishakhy with flowers and introduced the girl with the team members as a “Symbolic Mayor” of Rangpur city corporation.
After introduction session, Mayor briefed Boishakhy about the 18 departments and major activities of the city corporation and orientated day to day activities as well.
Later, Boishakhy took part in the daily activities with Mayor. She observed the routine activities and leadership style and roles carried out by the Mayor. She experienced how the Mayor accomplishes the tasks, how decisions are made, how he deals with different issues, how to talk with people. After performing different departmental activities, a reflection sharing session held where Boishakhy and Mayor shared their reflections.
“Performing the symbolic role of Mayor opened a new window in my life. I have learned about the different departments of City Corporation, how these are functioning to fulfil the public demand,” said Boishakhy “Girls should come forward to take the challenging position like Mayor of City Corporation. Ivy Rahman, a mayor of Narayanganj City Corporation is the Icon of girls leadership. Mayor is a challenging position in every aspect as we have to deals multi issues. Leadership, knowledge and patients are vital parts to reach anyone’s goal,” saidMayor.Championing girls’ rights is not new to Boishakhy. In her community, she takes actions to ensure girls’ rights. She also speaks out against child marriage and has stopped five child marriages in her community. She distributed masks among the community people during the pandemic of . She has been teaching 20 students free of cost so that they can continue study as school remained closed more than one and half a year. Among others Md. Mahmudur Rahman Titu, Panel Mayors and Ward Councilor, Dr.Hrishikesh Sarker- Interim Divisional Manager of Plan International Bangladesh and Mobarok Hossain, Town Manager of UNDP and journalists participated the event.
