Women in Politics in Bangladesh

From National to Local level

Tasmia HaqueDepartment of Women & Gender Studies

8th Batch University of Dhaka

Introduction The Un office of the special Adviser on Gender Issues and the advancement of women (UN OSAGI) has firmly stated that gender equality is central to development and poverty alleviation (UN OSAGI2001). International rights frameworks commit signatory states to protect an established “universal” set of rights to which poor and marginalized citizens can lay claim. Instruments such as the convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) have highlighted where mainstream tights frameworks have failed to act in favor of women-particularly in relations to social and economical rights, which will be of particular importance to poor women. In many cases women’s movements working within civil society have been key players in holding governments to account for commitments they have signed up to under international frameworks. However, despite significant progress, the ability of many women to ‘realize’ these rights may be limited. Poor women lack information, education and access to legal processes, resulting in a gap between ‘paper’ and ‘actual’ rights..

Women have become more politically visible in the last two decades. A quota has ensured women's presence in the local government and National Parliament.

Continued…..

The Platform for Action adopted at the Beijing Conference affirmed that women’s equal participation in decision making is not only a demand for justice and democracy but can also be seen as a necessary condition for women’s interest to be taken into account. Najma Chowdhury argues that political arena is the main source and space for women’s empowerment. (Chowdhury, 2003).

Bangladesh as a signatory to the Beijing Platform for Action, is committed to achieving equal participation of women in politics and decision making.

Women in Politics: Existing Statistics

With regard to public life, women remain under-represented in international and national decision and policy making bodies, including legislative and economic bodies, and those agencies responsible for law and justice.

women hold 10.5 % of the seats in the world’s Parliament.

Women occupy 2% of the parliamentary seats.

2.22% of positions in the judiciary are held by women, only 20% members of local government are women.

only 7.88% of civil servants are women, but only 7.88% at decision-making level.

Situation of Women in Politics at National level

The constitution of the people's Republic Bangladesh drafted in 1972 guarantees certain rights and privileges to women as fundamental rights. Such as: Article 27,28(1,2,3,4),29(1).

These article mainly focus on equality, special provision in favor of women and children.

The Government has withdrawn reservation about some provisions of CEDAW, relating to personal rights such as family benefits and guardianship of children. The withdrawn reservations of Bangladesh pertain to Article 13(a) and Article 16 (1) (b) of the convention.

The National Policy For The Advancement of Women

The National Policy for the Advancement of Women, which was declared by the prime Minister, Shiekh Hasina, on March 8,1997.The main goals of the policy are as follows:

Establish equality between men and women in all spheres, all forms of discrimination against women and girls, women human rights etc.

Women’s Right to Vote

In Bangladesh Women constitute about 50% of the eligible votes. During the Democratic movement of 1990 and the caretaker government of 1995-1996 and in the former election the participation of women has been radically changed.

Reserved seats in National Parliament

The number of Reserved Seats are increasing from 1973 to 2008.The number of reserved seats were 15 in 1973 and the number of reserved seats in parliament was 50.So the percentage of women has been increased from 4.8% to 18.55%

Political participation of women in Local level

Women were first elected to local bodies in 1973. The Union Parishad Election of 1997 is a milestone in the history of political empowerment of women in Bangladesh.

The Constitution of Bangladesh emphasizes the participation of women at local level stating that ‘ the state shall encourage local government institutions composed of representations of the areas concerned and in such institutions special representations shall be given as far as possible to peasants, workers and women’.

The Government of Bangladesh enacted a law for direct elections to reserve seats for women in local level elections. In 1997 through an Act, the Government reserved three seats for women in the Union Parishad where women members are elected from each of the three respective wards.

The majority of women representatives regularly attended Parishad meetings, but only a few of them participated in the deliberations and decisions. The female representatives usually involved themselves with mass education, family planning, immunization, handicrafts, relief activity, and shalish (mediation in the village court).

Throughout the decades, women members were selected and not elected.

There are at present two types of local government institutions in Bangladesh: one for rural areas and the other for urban areas.

Existing Structure of Local Government in Bangladesh

Rural-Regional Local Government Urban Local Government

Local Government Division (LGD) City Corporation

Zila (District) Parishad Pourashava

Upazila Parishad

Union Parishad

Women in Urban Local bodies: City corporations and Pourshava

In each Pouroshova there is a provision of a quota for at least 3 women members who would be elected by the commissioners of the Pouroshova. (Union Parisad, 1993).

Women have the right to vote as well as right to stand for election at these local bodies.

In 1992, 17 women contested for Ward Commissioner seats, but none was elected (UNDP,1994).

In June 2002, a total of 63 women Commissioners were elected in the country’s 4 City Corporations.

Continued……..

In 2011, Selina Haiyat Ivy was elected as the first Mayor in Narayangonj City Corporation.

Elected Women Commissioners of the Four City corporations (reserved seats for women) in 2002 are given below:

Source: Election Commission, 2002.

City Corporations

No of Ward Commissioners (Men)

No of Ward Commissioners (Women)

Dhaka 90 30

Chittagong 41 13

Rajshahi 30 10

Khulna 31 10

Women in Rural Local Governance For the first time in the history of Bangladesh direct election for women representatives was provided in the local government tier, the Union Parisad.

Union Parisad consists of one chairperson, nine members in general seats, and three women members in reserved seats, for a total of 13 persons. This means that the percentage of women will be at least 23 percent. The nine general members are directly elected from each of the Union’s nine wards. These positions are also open to both men and women.

The first election to the union Parisad took place in December 1997. about 45,000 female candidates contested in the election. A total of 13,000 women candidates were elected in the election to represent women’s reserved seats ( The Daily Janakanth, 1997).

These direct election to one-third reserved seats in all local bodies has promoted women in decision- making bodies.

There exists a gap that- women members have been given no responsibilities despite their inclusion and they are assigned to the job of looking after education and health care. They are not included in the committees that deal with development projects and policies.

Men have the access to all decision-making bodies and mostly controls the Parisad.

Women's participation in election of Union Parisad are given below:

Source: Election Commission, 1992 & UNDP, 1994

Election of Union Parisad

Women Candidat

e

No of Women Chairper

son

Women candidat

es as member

Women members elected

1973 - 1 - -

1977 19 2 19 7

1984 - 6 863 -

1988 79 1 - -

1992 115 19 1135 -

1997 110 20 43969 110

2003 232 22 43764 85

Factors affecting the participation of women in politics

The factors that promote women’s participation in politics reflect on the following aspects:

• Power bases of the elected women• Assessment of their development perceptions, in particular, those concerning poverty alleviation and women’s issues• Their participation in development activities; their empowerment process.• Husbands education and occupation• Public position of household members• Involvement with various organizations• Community support and Organizations• Constrains in the discharge of their duties, and effective involvement.

Why Women are lagging behind in Political participation?

The participation of women in politics is still not that satisfactory at all. There are several factors behind this:

Generally the persons – Who have strong networking and connection with the leaders in national level. Who can bear the huge cost of election campaigns and thus who can convince the public. Have much possibilities to get nomination from the political parties. (Chowdhury, 2003). Women lag behind in these criteria for some socio-cultural and political factors.

Financial Hindrance

Islam(2003) and Mahtab (2012) argues that poverty is the most pervasive among the most common and persistent barriers limiting women’s ability to participate in politics. Most of the women in Bangladesh do not own any property and those who own lack control over it and hence they do not have money to use for the campaigns. On the other hand, Islam(2003) asserts, that there prevails hugely the use of Black Money with which women can hardly compete.

Problem with women’s household chores

Islam (2003) argues that if women have her own earning still she do not get time to work for political parties because she has to do the household chores for which there is no fixed time. They have the burden of Double Working Day. Mahtab (2012) asserts that women carry primary responsibility for household and family maintenance. In both urban and rural communities in Bangladesh , women of poorer families augment the income and food supplies with agricultural labor or informal employment. These dual obligations of household and paid labor leave women with very little time and scope for politics

Hindrance of muscular strength

Islam(2003) confers that in today's politics there is a dominance of muscular strength. The political leaders hire terrorists to gain power. It threatens women’s security to join politics and to compete.

Apathy of the political leaders to give nomination to women

Islam (2003) also argues that political leaders, most of whom are men, believes that women do not possess the qualities such as ambition, deliverance, firmness etc needed to be a leader. So they do not want to give nomination to women.

Lack of knowledge about their functions

Social constraints from families and male Ward Commissioners. Lack of cooperation from families and male colleagues affects their participation.

Attitudinal constraints from society that politics are seen as unwomanly acts which prevent them from active role playing.

Position of Women in the Political Parties

All political parties have Women’s Branches. But they are marginalized within the party. They cannot participate in the party’s decision making significantly. Men politicians tend to humiliate this special branch of women. Thus the political parties are gendered where discrimination towards the women are very acute. ( Islam, 2003)

Problem with the Reservations As discussed before that there have been reservations for women to enhance their participation. In parliament women of reserve seats are elected by the members of the general seats. But Chowdhury and Islam(2003) argues that as most of the members of the general seats are men they dominate the reserved seats and elect women by their caprice and after being elected they are seen as secondary and their decisions are hardly valued. In the Union Parishad’s, women are elected directly. But still they are seen as secondary. They do not get the same respect as the general seats

Problem with Women’s Votes

Though a large number of women give votes, this phenomenon does not reflect the truth. Islam(2003) argues that many of the women give vote to a person chosen by their fathers or husbands. They are forced to do that. She also argues that though the custom of ‘purdah’ is falling, it is not totally gone. Women are forbidden to come out of their home and to know about the political sphere. So they do not even know about the significance of their votes

RecommendationsAccording to the UN Division for Advancement of Women, the number of women should be about to equal to that of the men in the parliament. Islam(2003) suggests that if there is no reserve seats in Bangladesh, in present circumstance, where patriarchy is dominant, women will not be able to fulfill the number. So she suggests that the number of the reserved seats should be increased and they should be elected directly and should be given important ministries.Hossain (2003) that the use of black money and terrorisms should strictly be regulated.

Mahtab (2012) appreciates the NGOs to come forth with awareness building programs for women to make them able to become politically aware.

Lastly, and most importantly, we can say that there must be overthrown of patriarchal norms. All women should be given the opportunities to come up with there potentials and to participate boldly in the politics. Male politicians must learn to respect the females.

Reference

• Mahtab, N., 2012. Women, Gender and Development: Contemporary Issues. AH Development Publishing House.• Mahtab, N., 2007. Women in Bangladesh. AH Development publishing House.•Chowdhury, N.(2003). Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O nari. In Hossain, S. and Masudujjaman (Eds.),Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O Andolon. Dhaka: Mowla Brothers.•Islam, M. (2003). Bangladeshe Narir Rajnoitic Khomotayon. In Hossain, S. and Masudujjaman (Eds.),Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O Andolon. Dhaka: Mowla Brothers.•Hossain, S. A. (2003). Nari: Rajnoitic Dal O Nirbachon. In Hossain, S. and Masudujjaman (Eds.),Narir Khomotayon: Rajniti O Andolon. Dhaka: Mowla Brothers.