A study on Empowerment of Women in Digital Bangladesh CHAPTER ONE Background of womens rights What is women s empowerment all about?

Women in Bangladesh Human rights of women: national and international perspectives Substantive provisions of the convention of the elimination of all forms of Disc rimination against women CHAPTER TWO Women trafficking, what does it mean? Women and children repression prevention act, 2000 (as amended up to 2003) Suggestions & recommendation to prevent women trafficking National policy for the empowerment of women (2001) Mainstreaming a gender perspective in the development process Womens rights and equality briefing Liberation calling Women lead the way to socio-economic development Govt. to make effective women development policy soon: Prime Minister Sheikh Has ina Women empowerment and digital Bangladesh CHAPTER THREE What I can do? Conclusion

CHAPTER ONE Background of Womens Rights Millions of women throughout the world live in conditions in which they are depr ived of their basic human rights no other reason than their gender. Combatants in conflicts, like in Sierra Leone, Kenova, the Democratic Republic o f Congo, Afghanistan, and Rwanda, have raped women as a weapon of war without Co ngo, Afghanistan, and Rwanda, have raped women as a weapon of war without conseq uence. Men in Pakistan, South Africa, Peru, Russia, and Uzbekistan beat women in the home at astounding rates. Women from Ukraine, Moldova, Nigeria, the Dominic an Republic, Burma, and Thailand are bought and sold, trafficked to work in forc ed prostitution. In Guatemala, South Africa, and Mexico, womens ability to enter and remain in he work force is obstructed. In the U.S., students discriminate ag ainst and attack girls in school who are lesbian, bi- sexual, or transgender, or do not conform to male standards of female behavior. Women in Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia face government-sponsored discrimination that renders them uneq ual before the law. What is women s empowerment all about? The empowerment of women occurs in reality, when women achieve increased control and participation in decision making that leads to their better access to resou rces, and therefore, improved socio-economic status The experts on gender issues hold that women s advancement involves the process of empowerment and define it as a process, by which women achieve increased control over public decision mak ing. The male domination of society and government are often seen for the purpos e of serving male interests and in the continued subordination of women The expe rts also inform that there are five levels of the women s empowerment framework,

namely- welfare, access, conscientisation, mobilisation and control. Welfare means an improvement in socio-economic status, such as improved nutritio nal status, shelter or income, which is the zero level of empowerment, where wom en are the passive recipients of benefits that are given from on high. Access to resources and services stands for the first level of empowerment, since women improve their own status, relative to men, by their own work and organisation a rising from increased access to resources and services. Conscientisation is defi ned as the process, by which women collectively urge to act to remove one or mor e of the discriminatory practices that impede their access to resources. Here, w omen form groups to understand the underlying causes of their problems and to id entify strategies for action for gender equity. Mobilisation is the action level of empowerment by forging links with the larger women s movement, to learn from the successes of women s similar strategic acti on elsewhere and to connect with the wider struggle. Control is the level of emp owerment when women have taken action so that there is gender equality in decisi ons making over access to resources, so that women achieve direct control over t heir access to resources. But one needs to understand that these five levels of womens empowerment are not really a linear progression but helical and circular a long with being interconnected. The empowerment occurs when women achieve increa sed control and participation in decision making that leads to their better acce ss to resources, and therefore, improved socio-economic status. Women in Bangladesh Women in Bangladesh are in many ways inferior to and dependent on men from early childhood. When the girl reaches puberty her marriage will soon be arranged and the family will pay the husbands family a dowry to marry off their daughter to h im. The girl will thereafter pursue the rules of Purdah and live under seclusion . Women that can obtain Purdah strictly show high social status. Only very poor women have to go outside to work (Hartman & Boyce, 1998). Violence against women is common in Bangladesh (SIDA, 2007, November, 5). Even if the constitution pro motes equal rights to women, women still suffer from discrimination and violence that occurs in the home, at the workplace and on the society level as well (Min istry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008). The women in rural Bangladesh are ha rd working. Foremost, they perform heavy household work throughout the days. Wom ens contribution to the family income is not recognized to the same extent as mens , but they are however involved in many activities, such as post harvest activit ies, farming, fuel gathering, rice husking, making and selling handicrafts, and rearing domestic animals (Islam, undated). A womans work is never done, a village w oman says in the study of Hartman and Boyce (1998: 86). Although womens work is h ard and time-consuming, such work does not provide them equal status to men. A w oman seldom earns money on her own, but is financially dependent on her father, then husband and thereafter her son for economic security (Hartman, Boyce, 1998) . Only one third of the women in Bangladesh can read or write, but the school at tendance have increased since the past decade. To improve the literacy and educa tion level among girls and women the school fee is removed for girls the first t en years in school, twice as many years as for boys, because the families often are reluctant to pay for their daughters education (Landguiden, 2008, May, 7). Wo men, however, constitute only 22% of the university students in Bangladesh (Mini stry of Women and Children Affairs, 2008). Empowerment Empowerment is constructed on basis that there is an unequal distribution of pow er among people which results in peoples experiences of power or powerlessness. There are different sources of power. For example: personality, organizational, and property, wealth, and class. (Lord & Hutchison, 1993). The study is based on the following two definitions of empowerment. Empowerment as a relational construct The first consider power over someone: empowerment as a relational construct. Th is creates a dependency or interdependency relationship between people and is re

lationally constructed. When a persons performance outcome is dependent on others actions or responses, he or she is subordinated to the others. People in power are able to make decisions or take actions that favor their own need and/or desi re. Empowerment is when the diversity of power is redistributed and decreased. I n this sense, to empower is to delegate sources of power to people. (Conger & Ka nungo, 1988). Empowerment as motivational construct On the other hand, one must not take for granted that empowerment is the same as delegation, participation and resource sharing. Conger and Kanungo (1988) descr ibe the second definition of empowerment: empowerment as motivational construct, which argues for an urge among people for power and the ability to influence an d control other people. The need for power is met when the person perceives that she has power over, or can cope with, situations, events or people and experien ce a feeling of self-determination. Such feelings stems from the sense of self-w orth or personal usefulness. Powerlessness is sensed, Lord and Hutchison (1993) write, when a person does not think that his/her actions will have any influence on their own or others decision. From this perspective, empowerment is to enabl e or motivate people. Human Rights of Women: National and International Perspectives It is a fact of nature that women are on the average physically weaker than men, Moreover, they pay the physical price for perpetuating the human species; durin g their child-bearing and child-nurturing years they are especially weak and vul nerable. It seems to me that an advanced civilization would compensate women for these physical differences and responsibilities. Not merely assigning women the same rights as men, it would grant them superior rights, including higher wages for equal work, Civilization, as I see it, is a measure of the distance we have c ome from behaving like animals. Some animal species in cooperative behavior, but on the whole animals decide que stions of like, death and privilege on the basis of physical power and brute for ce-Simone Weil said in an different context that this is the very definition of i njustice. [FNI] This bullying behavior occurs across species (predators against p rey) but also characterizes within-species behavior: if an animal is weak, lame or infirm, other animals of its own species may kill or abandon it. In looking a t the animal kingdom from which we have descended, we might consider focusing ou r attention on brute physical force rather than on gender. For in some animal sp ecies, the female is stronger than the male. Bullying is characterized by pickin g on the weaker animal, irrespective of gender. Consider the hypothetical advanced civilization at one end a spectrum and the ani mal world at the other: where should we locate the human race of today? I think we are clearly closer to the animal end than to the advanced civilization end. S tronger people still act savagely toward their weaker fellows, enlisting the sup port of government and institution in their bullying. To be sure, we have come a noteworthy distance from the animal end of the spectrum. In highly industrializ ed countries in recent times, women have launched the most important social and Cultural Revolution in human history. Their goal legal, social and economic equality with men in these countries, whil e not achieved, is closer. Yet the degree of achieved progress in these countrie s is less a cause for rejoicing than a bitter reminder of how severe and widespr ead is the subordination of women in many others. In Asia and Latin America, we still find obviously patriarchal societies, where government officials look the other way when husbands abuse wives; where men rape young women with impunity; w here child prostitutes abuse wives; were men rape young women with impunity; whe re child are manipulated and controlled by adults, including their parents; wher e girls are sold into marriage. Some African countries continue to tolerate the savage procedure of female genital mutilation. In much of the Islamic world, wom en are treated as second-class citizens a term many observers in those countries re gard as a euphemism for slavery. If humankind is slouching fitfully toward advanced civilization, it is not becau

se people have suddenly become more moral than they were in the past; we have on ly to recall that historys worst genocides have occurred in this century. Rather, progress on the womens rights front has come primarily from the spread of inform ationwomens education, books and televisionwith a boost, I will argue later, from l aw. Substantive provisions of the convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Disc rimination against Women Defining discrimination Article 1 For the purposes of the present Convention, the term discrimination against, wome n shall mean any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex w hich has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoy ment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of e quality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the politi cal, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. Intentionally or unintentionally disadvantages women; Prevents society as a whole from recognizing womens rights in both the domestic a nd public spheres; or which: Prevents women form exercising the rights and fundamental freedoms to which they are entitled. Obligations of states parties Article2 States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to p ursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy eliminating discrimina tion against women and, to this end, undertake: