State's ferocious reach now aimed at women: Time to resist

Just as the party in power benefits from proximity to state resources, MPs from the main opposition parties, including independent candidates, also benefit from closeness and access to state resources. Therefore, whether or not they boycott parliament, they are in some measure equally responsible for laws passed and policies implemented in parliamentary committees and in parliament.

All members of the Jatiya Sangsad accept their salaries and other benefits associated with their position. Those in the Opposition will say that they have been elected, so this is their due. On this point, we citizens (men and women) who are voters would like to say that to protest against and oppose the passage of laws that undermine our interests, is the reason we have voted you into power. You take from the state the various financial benefits admissible to your position but deprive voters-citizens of their rights -- through a futile policy of boycotting the government and remaining 'neutral'.

Currently, the government has turned its oppressive policy on the hard-earned rights of the women's movement. If Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and the BNP still recall (and consider it important) that by signing the document of out come from the Fourth World Women's Conference at Beijing in 1995, she not only earned the praise of women in Bangladesh, but also of women everywhere, as well as of the UN. Under the PM's direction, and on the basis of this document, the formulation and implementation process of the National Policy for the Advancement of Women (NPAW) was initiated in MOWCA. Under the leadership of Dr. Najma Choudhury, it was initiated in women's groups and the NGO Forum, through the Women's Directorate.

I don't know how far members of the opposition would have proceeded on this count had they remained in Parliament and in Parliamentary Committees, but if they still recall (and consider it important), it was in 1997, under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that the NPAW was approved by Parliament, without any modifications to the original text.

It has come to light recently that in 2004 with the initiative of the ministry of women and children affairs, the Parliamentary Standing Committee meeting made changes to the basic ideals of equality -- among other things -- to the NPAW. (Detailed information is available at the Secretariat for the United Movement's Human Rights Platform for Resisting Changes to Bangladesh's NPAW, Shukrabad, Dhaka Phone: 8116376, 8120791).

The process of drawing up the accepted NPAW in 1997 took place under the leadership of the then caretaker government's Advisor for Women and Children Affairs Dr. Najma Choudhury, who assembled numerous experts on the subject. I was part of the team and was filled with pride at being involved in the formulation and implementation of such a significant process. How many days, nights and hours, without remuneration, through purely voluntary labour were we happily engrossed in the task of drawing up the policy, of gleaning advice from over a hundred women leaders and putting their experience into practice! Can we abandon all this? Never!

In the process of drawing up the NPAW, we absorbed the writings of that trail blazer of women's awakening, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, on Islam and women's rights; we accepted all the positive aspects of the Sharia; the secularism of constitution; gender equality; the equal rights of all communities and human rights, we took these as our basic principles. All laws in Bangladesh, the CEDAW Convention, the CRC, UDHR, ILO laws, we accepted them all. Most important, in order to address the obstacles to implementing women's equality at the grassroots level (gender inequality and patrileanial, patriarchal structures) in which both men and women are implicated, we evaluated gender equality policies with great seriousness.

Why was it that those of us who composed the NPAW, drawing on our own experiences and that of a hundred years of the women's movement, were not informed about changes introduced in 2004? Why was it that the discussion did not involve us all? In the same way that ballot boxes are stolen deep in the night, the ballot box of women's rights has been hijacked. Opposition parties are so involved in their desire to grasp political power that they do not consider it necessary to pay attention to the progressive plundering of the human rights of citizens, workers' rights and women's equal rights -- all earned through the sacrifices made in the liberation war. Yet at the end of every month, they pocket their entire salaries and keep their positions as MPs intact.

I will take up the issue directly: The 1997 NPAW was accepted by a consensus in the Cabinet. The changes introduced in 1994, to Articles 7, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, Section 8, Section 9 and Section 12, all strike at the very heart of gender equality. This is illustrated below: Notable changes and modifications to the NPAW are shown in detail.

Sections: 7. The active and equal participation of women in all national economic activities must be ensured; 7.2 Women's economic empowerment; 7.3 Women's employment; 7.4 Childcare/daycare services; 8. Women's political empowerment.

- In the section on the formulation and implementation of economic policy (trade, currency, taxation etc.), ensuring women's equal rights has been replaced by ensuring women's rights as guaranteed by the Constitution.

- In the section on ensuring equal access and partnership/share to property, employment, markets, business, and ownership, the word property has been deleted.

- With reference to workplaces that predominantly employ women, ensuring provision of transport, housing facilities, separate toilets and childcare services, etc. -- housing has been deleted.

- In the section on women's full and equal opportunity to and control over factors that are critical to women's economic empowerment such as health, education, training, lifelong learning, vocational training, information, income earning opportunities, inheritance, property, credit, technology, and earned property as well as rights over land, etc., (and if necessary the introduction of new policies) -- inheritance, property and right to land have been deleted.

- With reference to taking all out initiatives to ensure the employment of the female labour force, educated and illiterate, the 2004 law states that steps will be taken for 'appropriate' employment.

- The introduction, expansion and development of support services for elderly, helpless and disabled women, in order to ensure their participation in economic activities and the development process, no longer includes the elderly.

- The section on motivating NGOs, including women's organisations, to carry out campaign programmes that would inspire women's active participation in politics has been deleted.

- After the expiry in 2001 of the provision for reserved seats for women in parliament, taking initiatives to institute direct elections for women has been dropped, replaced by a call to ensure reserved seats.

- In matters of ensuring women's participation in decision-making at the highest levels, including the Cabinet, and if necessary with reference to relevant sections of the Constitution, highest levels has been replaced with 'at all levels'.

- In Article 8, the policy on direct entry to the highest levels of the administration has been changed to entry alongside.

- In other Articles, the full and equal participation of women as a policy has been deleted.

Notice how the equal rights of women, of almost 50 percent of the population, are being literally inked out and prohibited through state dictates.

Under the auspices of Beijing + 10, united women's human rights platform, a coalition that is representative of Bangladesh's women's movements, and which includes over 600 leading women's rights, human rights organisations and NGOs, calls on all individuals and organisations, to take a united stand against changes to the 1997 NPAW. All across the country, on our own initiative, in our own organisations, commemorate July 14 was observed as a day of protest. The time to be passive is over, it is urgent that we resist changes to the NPAW.

Maleka Begum, PhD is women's movement activist, researcher, part-time teacher, Women's Studies, Dhaka University.