Transgender volunteers winning hearts at DMCH
Holding a placard inscribed with “I am a volunteer. How can I help you?” Sagarika was waiting at the entrance of Dhaka Medical College Hospital’s Covid-19 unit. As soon as an ambulance arrived, she rushed towards it, helping the patient get off from the vehicle.
5 May 2021, 18:00 PM
Husband dies, wife still on life support
Ashikuzzaman Khan, a computer engineer, who was injured in the deadly fire in Old Dhaka’s Armanitola on April 23, died on Wednesday night while undergoing treatment at Sheikh Hasina National Burn and Plastic Institute.
29 April 2021, 18:00 PM
National Household Database : Project delayed, data obsolete
The government project undertaken to prepare the country’s first-ever poverty registry has not been completed in more than seven years, with the data collected for it already rendered useless.
27 April 2021, 18:00 PM
Deplorable Sanitation Conditions in Dhaka Slums: Women bear the brunt of it
Thirty-year-old Aklima Akter of Mirpur’s Duaripara slum shares her tiny and slippery “hanging latrine” with over 80 people in her neighbourhood.
17 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Transgender youth and the right to access public washrooms
Although the practice of open defecation was declared 0 percent in Bangladesh in 2017, 22-year-old *Nishita Nisha, a member of the third gender community in Dhaka, said that she is still sometimes forced to defecate in parks, footpaths or alleys.
11 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Law there, awareness little
The government has enacted the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act in 2010 that ensures the victims’ rights to law enforcement officers’ assistance, required medical facilities, and legal services.
7 March 2021, 18:00 PM
F-commerce boom amid the pandemic: How women are taking the lead
When her husband faced a huge pay cut a month after the outbreak of Covid-19, advocate Noorjahan Kabir was left with no choice but to step forward to help her seven-member family.
7 March 2021, 18:00 PM
Compensation for Rape Victims: Crippled law cares little
Compensation for rape victims and their family members remains elusive in the existing criminal justice system, with a clear mandate absent in the relevant law, say legal experts.
5 February 2021, 18:00 PM
Menstrual hygiene of young RMG workers: Still a long way to go
24-year-old Shirina Akter, who is employed at a ready-made garment factory in Savar’s Nishchintapur, works around 10 hours every day to manage her family of five. But during her periods, she cannot always work for such a long time, and is forced to skip work on the first or second day.
28 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Tricked, sold to a pimp for Tk 20,000
After her father died, around two years ago, Rimu came to the capital from Jamalpur and started working at a readymade garment factory.
22 January 2021, 18:00 PM
‘I will not spare the scoundrel’
Showing the handmade card she made for her elder sister on her 17th birthday on October 9 last year, eight-year-old Reana Asif (not her real name), the younger sister of an English-medium school student in Dhanmondi who died after rape, said, “I will not spare the scoundrel who killed my sister. I want justice.”
14 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Victim blaming must stop
Whenever there is an incident of rape, most people tend to say that it was the girl or woman’s fault, and question her character, social class, outfit, sexual experience, and lifestyle.
8 January 2021, 18:00 PM
The inequalities in online education
Most days of the week, Jagannath University student Ayesha Nijhum is seen sitting in an open field near her house in Gazipur’s Kapasia. The second-year student of management attends online classes on her cellphone for about two hours and prefers the field over her house due to the better signal reception in the open area.
8 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Family Life During Pandemic: Lost rhythm in new reality
It was not the family reunion that she had hoped for.
2 January 2021, 18:00 PM
Defrauded online
“Do you want to earn Tk 20,000 per month working from home for only two hours a day?”
18 December 2020, 18:00 PM
‘We’re beaten mercilessly’
Until Sunday night, the sidewalks in front of the Jatiya Press Club were teeming with protesters pressing their demands for various causes, but since yesterday morning the area has been deserted.
7 December 2020, 18:00 PM
Time to address women’s security, privacy at disaster shelters
The news on rape of a 14-year-old intellectually impaired girl at a disaster shelter, in Pachgachhi union of Kurigram Sadar upazila in 2018, did not make it to the headlines of major newspapers or outlets, but it offers a glimpse of the vulnerabilities women and girls face during natural disasters.
5 December 2020, 18:00 PM
International Day Of Persons With Disabilities: Pandemic paused their education
Mohammad Alif’s life has utterly changed.
2 December 2020, 18:00 PM
A grim tale of disease, distress
“Apa, are you sure you will not write my name in your report? If anyone could understand that I am [HIV] positive, I will not find clients anymore and will die of hunger,” said 38-Year-old Ruma (not her real name), an HIV positive sex-worker while speaking to this newspaper yesterday.
30 November 2020, 18:00 PM
Good initiative, yet ineffective
While the government has taken steps to ensure victims of gender-based violence such as rape can go to local-level bodies for remedy, these initiatives largely fall flat because of little action and follow-up.
24 November 2020, 18:00 PM