Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh
Gender discrimination (বৈষম্য) means the practice of treating females less fairly than males. The position of women in Bangladesh is really lower than that of men. Gender discrimination in Bangladesh begins at birth. Most parents want to have children so that these children can help their parents when they are older. In the existing socio-economic (আর্থ-সামাজিক) set-up (প্রেক্ষাপট), male children are best suited to this purpose.
There are many reasons for the discrimination against women in Bangladesh. Some of these are as follows:
- Religious misinterpretation (ভুল ব্যাখ্যা) and social strictures (ধর্মীয় অপব্যাখ্যা ও সামাজিক বিধি নিষেধ) often prevent girls from going to co-education schools. Even in urban schools girls are not allowed many parents to live in hostels because they fear for their girls’ safety.
- Early marriage and childbirth make women tied at home, with no possibility of going back to school. Any expenditure (খরচ) for sending girls to school is considered wastage by many parents, while that for boys is regarded as an investment.
- Many parents believe that their main responsibility in life is to prepare their daughters for marriage and childbearing.
Girls are born into an unwelcome world. However, they are assigned (কাজে নিয়োজিত রাখা), instead confined to domestic chores. Some of these girls may be at school. But all their work domestic on academics stop as soon as they are married off. This discriminatory (বৈষম্যমূলক) treatment has some long-term negative effects on the body and the mind of the girls in a family. They are given to understand that they should keep the best food available for the male members of the family, that they should eat less, and that they should not raise their voices at the time of speaking. Our female workers are less paid than their male counterparts (পুরুষ প্রতিপক্ষ). They are always considered inferior (নিকৃষ্ট) to male members. The effects of gender discrimination are as follows:
- The women or girls suffer, more than their male counterparts (সঙ্গী বা প্রতিদ্বন্দী), from malnutrition (অপুষ্টি) and anemia (রক্তশূন্যতা) which make them vulnerable (অরক্ষিত) to various diseases resulting in a high mortality rate.
- They develop a sense of self-effacement (আত্ম-বিলুপ্তি), self-denial (আত্মত্যাগ) and inferiority that persists throughout their lifetime as an inevitable benchmark of the weaker sex.
- The girls cannot take any decisions in their marriages. In many cases, the girls are exploited (প্রতারিত) by their husbands. They have to bear inhuman tortures (নির্যাতন) by their husbands for male children, dowry, and so on.
To decrease this discrimination (gender discrimination), the government has taken some positive steps such as: giving stipends to girl students, recruiting more female teachers, etc. To protect their rights, the government introduced The Women and Children Repression Act 1995. The female members of society are not less important than the male members They have a great contribution to society. Our society cannot be developed without their full participation. We should ensure equal treatment for male and female children.
*** Gender Discrimination in Bangladesh is now a serious & public issue of all.
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