'Gender budgeting not reflected in nat'l budget'

Gender budgeting, which means planning the budget to establish women's rights, has not been possible due to the methodological flaws and ambiguity is also seen in the budgetary allocations, they said.

Steps Toward Development organised the discussion on 'National budget 2006-2007: Gender analysis in agriculture issue' as a part of its post-budget series discussion.

The speakers said the allocation for women and children affairs ministry has increased by 16 percent, compared to the budget of last fiscal, but it would not be helpful if women's issues were not addressed properly.

They also stressed the need for adopting a women-friendly agricultural mechanism strategy.

Presenting the keynote paper, Prof MA Sattar Mandal of Bangladesh Agricultural University said the National Budget 2006-07 did not have allocation for some high growth thrust sectors, particularly the poultry farm where 75 percent of success was achieved by rural women.

He suggested providing block allocation for training of women working in poultry farms as this sector is threatened by avian flu and other diseases.

Media personality Shykh Seraj stressed the need for changing social attitude towards women.

Women's contribution to agriculture is not recognised and the sectors where discrimination is prevailing should be identified clearly, he said.

Sixty-three percent of the total labour force in the country is still engaged in farming but they are not considered as labours and have not the right to pay bargaining, he added.

"Budget allocation for the agricultural sector has increased 42 percent and we have to identify how much of this budget is women-friendly," said Dr Abdur Razzak, a member of parliamentary standing committee on agriculture.

There is massive corruption in credit distribution for the marginal group and the agricultural subsidy is not much helpful for the farmers, he added.

Economist Dr Atiur Rahman said this budget would help spread corruption.

He called for forming a citizens' committee to monitor whether the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) is really benefiting women and whether the budget has taken into account their needs.

GM Kader, another member of parliamentary standing committee on agriculture, and Asgar Ali Sabri of ActionAid, Bangladesh, also spoke at the discussion moderated by Executive Director of Steps Towards Development Ranjan Karmakar.