Budget allocation for women meagre

They said the government took a number of steps nationally and internationally to combat violence against women and introduced laws.

All these initiatives, including poverty reduction strategic paper (PRSP) and related laws, will not function if the national budget does not have a supportive allocation in the sector, they warned.

They were addressing the final phase of the five-phase dialogue on 'National Budget 2006-2007: Gender Analysis' organised by Steps Towards Development (STD) at Cirdap auditorium in the city. The topic of the day was gender-based violence.

Prof Khair Jahan Sogra of Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Dhaka University, read out a keynote paper on the issue.

She said allocation in the budget for Women and Children Affairs Ministry, Social Welfare Ministry and Youth and Cultural Affairs Ministry is only around one per cent of the total budget, which will not be able to contain the increasing violence against women and children.

This year the government has placed the budget considering the gender perspective to ensure women's participation in the mainstream development, decision making process and political empowerment, to increase social safety net and to prevent violence against women, Jahan said. 'But the targets contradicted the allotted budget', she added.

Addressing the dialogue, economist Prof Atiar Rahman said women pay indirect tax worth 40-50 per cent of total tax but the allocation for them is meagre.

He said changing people's perspective is crucial to prevent violence against women, so the budget should contribute to change perspective of the society towards women through creating awareness by training and media campaigning.

STD Director Ranjan Karmakar, women leader Maleka Begum, Bangladesh Mohila Parishad General Secretary Ayesha Khanam, Bangladesh Women Lawyers' Association Director Salma Ali and other gender experts attended the dialogue.