Achieving MDGs and promoting gender equality

The 1990s was an outstanding decade for bringing issues of reproductive health and rights, violence against women, and male responsibility for gender power relations to the centre of global and national debates on human rights and human development. The UN conferences of the 1990s, particularly the World Conference on Human Rights (Vienna, 1993), the ICPD (Cairo, 1994) and the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) were central to a major paradigm shift in population policy.

The third goal of the Millennium Summit of 2000 is to promote gender equality and empower women. The target (target four of the MDGs) of this goal is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015. Whether the target is achieved or not is visualised by several indicators. These indicators are firstly, the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education; secondly, the ratio of literate females to males of 15-24 years old; thirdly, the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector and finally, the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament.

In first indicator, female share in primary school shows an increasing trend since 1992 reaching a ratio of 48:52 in 2004 for female to male primary school enrolment rate in Bangladesh. The largest disparity exists at the tertiary level of education in our country. The female to male ratio was 36:64 in 2002.

The second indicator (indicator 10 of the MDGs) shows a disappointing picture in youth (15-24 years) education sector in Bangladesh. There is a big gap between male and female literacy. The gap is significantly large for the older age of 20-24 years where male literacy rate was 77 percent, compared to 66 percent for females in 2004. Girls not completing the secondary cycle face a severe limitation to their participation in economic and social areas throughout life. To overcome this barrier, access to quality education for all girls, completion of basic education with acceptable competency levels and relevant life skills and equitable roles for women and girls in society need to be addressed.

The third indicator (indicator 10 of the MDGs) denotes share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector. In 1997, about 10 percent of all employees were women and of these, 11 percent held professional jobs. In 2000, about 22 percent of the paid non-agricultural workers and 19 percent of the paid agricultural labourers were female. Female wage in the agriculture sector is 70 percent and in the non-agricultural sector 42 percent of male wage. Insufficient education, training and skills, together with low productivity, often arising from poor health, contribute to women's weak bargaining power.

The final indicator to achieve the goal number 3 of MDGs is the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament. The provision in the Constitution for 30 reserved seats for women lapsed in 2001. It was replaced by the introduction of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Constitution which reserves 45 seats for women in proportion to parliamentary representation. The situation is slightly better in the case of local government. Twenty five percent of the members in the Union Parishads (Councils), the City Corporation and Pourashava (municipality) are women who have been directly elected to local bodies.

Gender disparity is a reflection of complex social, cultural and economic issues. True empowerment is still a distant goal in Bangladesh. Bangladesh could not fulfil the target of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005. Can Bangladesh achieve full elements of the third goal of the MDGs by the year 2015? If it wants to do so, several steps should be taken and implemented immediately. Huge challenges lie ahead for the programme planners and policy makers in ensuring gender equality for this country's women. To ensure women's legal rights, exiting laws on marriage, sexual harassment and sexual assault must be effectively implemented. To help ensure implementation of policies in local levels the roles and functions of women representatives need to be identified and clarified in the Union Parishads. More facilities and financial supports should be offered for girls' education. Raising gender awareness, especially among adolescent girls, is needed for breaking the silence about issues such as trafficking, sexual exploitation, HIV/AIDS, acid attacks, early marriage and domestic labour as well as to create a more open and empowering environment for the girls.

A H M Kishowar Hossain is Assistant Professor, Department of Population Sciences, University of Dhaka.