7th South Asian Regional Ministerial Conference on Rights of Women

Speech by

Sheikh Hasina

Honorable Prime Minister

Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

Dhaka, Sunday, 18 Ashwin 1417, 03 October 2010

 

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim,

   

Honorable Ministers of South Asian Countries,

Distinguished guests, diplomats,

Ladies and gentlemen

Assalumu Alaikum and very Good Morning to you all.

 I convey my heartiest regards to you on 7th South Asian Regional Ministerial Conference 2010. I thank Ministry of Women & Children Affairs, UNIFEM and others, who has taken initiatives to organize this prestigious event in Bangladesh.

 Distinguished Guests,

 It is well known that most of the problems and challenges related to gender equality in this region are almost similar. I believe that, this conference will play an important role to identify the main problems and find out the right direction for the development of the region through women empowerment by utilizing our limited resource.

 I hope this conference will also play an active role in strategizing ways to fulfill the promises made in Beijing Platform for Action on some critical concerns related to gender equality in this region.    

           One of the key objectives of Bangladesh government's development plan is to eliminate gender discrimination and establish women's equal rights for over all progress of the country. The constitution of Bangladesh is the base of women rights and advancement. After impendence of Bangladesh in 1971, a significant number of initiatives and institutional measures have been taken by father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to eliminate gender discrimination in every sector of the country.

 In continuation to those initiatives we are working for eradicating poverty, reducing gender disparity in education, health, human resource development and incorporating women in the mainstream of economic activities.

 Ladies and Gentlemen,

 After the period of Beijing Platform for Action, a remarkable progress has been made in the field of women advancement regarding education, health, economy, politics and human resource development in Bangladesh, which helps upgrade the status of women in every sector of the country.

Government has taken initiatives of free education for girls till higher secondary school, stipends and financial supports for buying books and reading materials to promote female education. As a result, the enrollment of female students has been increased in primary and secondary level. The health status of women has been improved, the rate of child and maternal mortality reduced due to effective initiatives of government in the health sector.

You all know, recently Bangladesh has achieved MDG award for her outstanding performance in reducing child mortality rate.

The participation of Women in economic activities has increased, especially in industrial sector. 85% women are working in the RMG sector. The women of Bangladesh are also participating in International labour markets. The contribution of women in agricultural sector is also significant.

To create the work place more women friendly, government has set up a number of day care centers in different workplaces and taken initiatives for extension of maternity leave. Social safety net programs are one of the main components of government's development activities for ensuring economic and food security for poor women of the country.

Under safety net program different types of allowances and food grants have been distributed to 9, 20,000 destitute and poor women in all over the country in the financial year of 2009-2010.

Distinguished guests, 

The situation of women's political empowerment of Bangladesh is momentous. We have 64 female parliamentarians in the National Parliament, among them 19 women have elected through direct election and 45 women have nominated. Five women Ministers are responsible for five important portfolios like the Ministry of Agriculture, Foreign affairs, Home affairs, Women and Children affairs and labour and Manpower.

The government has passed the Local Government bill to ensure women participation in grass root level. As a result, 14,228 women have elected at Union Parishad level as UP member through direct election process and successfully running their responsibilities.

 Ladies and gentlemen,

The current Parliament has approved the rights of Bangladeshi women to marry foreign citizens and also created the provision for children to get the citizenship of their mother through revision of the Nationality Act 1951.

The government is being operating a central prevention cell for Violence against women in order to provide legal assistance at Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. Violence against Women Prevention Cell is also working through the Department of Women Affairs in six divisions.

Various types of legal aids are being provided for destitute women by these cells. Apart from these, there are Shelter Homes and Safe Custodies for women, children and adolescent girls.

Helpline for the victims of violence has been incorporated with the One Stop Crisis centre in each of the divisional medical college hospital. DNA lab has been established in Dhaka Medical College and DNA Screening Centres have been set up in five divisional medical colleges. Formulation of DNA Act is under process.

Ladies and gentlemen,

          The present government is very sincere to establish women rights and to prevent violence against women. The process of updating the present National Women's Development Policy is going on to protect women rights in every sector of nation life.

In order to prevention Violence against Women a number of Acts have been revised and formulated. Recently, the Cabinet has approved the ‘Domestic Violence Act, 2010 on 22th February 2010.

SAARC Gender Infobase has been developed as per the commitment of the 10th SAARC Summit, which was held in Colombo in 1998. Gender disaggregating data and information are being colleted and accumulated here.

Honorable Guests,                                

In every country we have laws and policies to prevent Violence against Women, but it requires proper initiatives to implement them.

Let us work together to establish women's rights and ensure sustainable development for this region. With these few words I declared the 7th South Asian Ministerial conference opened and I wish its success. 

Khoda Hafez,
Joi Bangla, Joi Bangabandhu
May Bangladesh Live Forever