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Author: Dr. Pratima Paul-Majumder

Empowerment of women is one of the national goals of Bangladesh. To achieve this goal, Bangladesh adopted various strategies like elimination of the gap between male and female, creating gainful employment for women, mainstreaming of women in the development process etc., in her Five-Year Plans and other national documents. But the policy makers are not much aware of the fact that none of these strategies will be successful in empowering women until and unless they are educated, since without education women can neither be employed gainfully nor can be integrated in the national development process. Education has multi-dimensional impacts on women and these impacts are influential in empowering women. Researches show that education has highly positive impact on both women’s productivity and their social and political power in the society.

It was found that woman’s wage rate increases by 10% for each extra year’s education (Human Development in South Asia 1998). Researches also show that investment on women’s education has a direct correlation with eradication of gender discrimination in various spheres of life. Path-breaking findings of an on-going research of BIDS reveal that women’s education is one of the most influential factors for breaking the stereotyped gender roles, which are the biggest stumble on the way of women’s social and economic empowerment. This research further shows that education raises confidence and aspiration of girl children more than that of their counterpart boy children.

Author: Dr. Pratima Paul-Majumder

Author: Dr. Pratima Paul-Majumder

Women are a part of the nation’s manpower. This manpower of Bangladesh has already shown its immense potential in different socio-economic sectors. Whatever development Bangladesh has achieved during the last decade has been made possible by controlling population growth, raising education level and by increasing its labor force participation rate. Available national statistics reveal that women played a dominant role in all these sectors. It has been found in various studies that even with limited access to productive resources, women have participated in the labour market in large number. Due to the participation of women in the labor force, the overall participation in the labor force has also multiplied in the past few years.

Women also have great potential as entrepreneurs, and this potential has been revealed in their efficiency to undertake a huge number of micro enterprises through using micro credit. Although women have minuscule access to big capital, findings show that they proved their efficiency in undertaking big enterprise too. It has been found that about 4 per cent of the garment factories are owned by women entrepreneurs (Paul-Majumder 2003). Thus, women constitute a potential group to undertake business venture. This potential should be reaped to the fullest extent not only for the well-being of the women folk of Bangladesh, but also for the development of the country.

Author: Kavaljit Singh
Bangali Translatator: Monwer Mustafa
Bangali Edition Editor: M M. Akash

Globalization has become the cliche of our times. The neo-liberal virus has struck almost everybody including within the ranks of the left.. The proponents of neo-liberal globalization claim that it produces “accelerated, efficient” development along with a deepening of democracy and human rights. However, reality shows the opposite and any rigorous examination of such arguments reveals their shallowness and inconsistency.

Social progress and democracy can only take place in tandem and on condition that we move away from the dogmas of neo-liberalism. This book underscores the point that current economic disasters are not the “price” we have to pay for a transition towards the promised paradise, but on the contrary are bound to get worse as long as neo-liberal economic policies are pursued. .

This book makes a critical analysis of several contemporary debates around globalization. With the help of case studies, statistical data and cogent analysis, the book debunks several myths associated with globalization processes. Written for a non-technical .audience readership, the author fundamentally questions the viewpoints held by the “hyper-globalists”.

His book not only contributes to deepening the current debates on globalization but ought to “” become an indispensable tool of analysis for concerned citizens, students, social and political J~ activists, labor unions, NGOs, and policy makers.

Women in struggle - in different era, is a collection of the unsung stories of the women who took part in various struggles in Bengal at different periods of time - from the anti-British movement to the liberation war. A total of 200 women, many of them unknown to the common people but whose contribution is unforgettable, shared their brave stories, experience and work in this book. The write-ups of this book is based on their interviews taken by the BNPS staff who worked hard in remote areas of Bangladesh and India in search of these unrecognized women. This book elucidates on the role of women in the struggles and helps to look at our history from a different perspective.

This book is divided into 2 volumes - each contains stories of 100 women. The stories in the first volume ranges from anti-british movement to the mass upsurge of 1979. The second volume covers the liberation war. Sangrmi Nari Juge Juge is edited by Rokeya Kabir, the executive director of BNPS, Selina Hossein, an eminent Bengali author and Ajay Dasgupta, an renowned journalist.

This booklet consists of 20 case studies taken from the organization’s working area highlighting legal difficulties that the poor women in Bangladesh face; and some findings based on the experiences that BNPS has gathered and the obstacles it has encountered in more than a decade while providing legal aid support.

Author/Editor : Mozammel Haq

This booklet was published after the local government election of 1998 when, for the first time, women were elected by direct votes in % seats reserved for them.

It analyzes the condition of the women members of the Union Parishad, the only active tier of a 4-tier local government system of Bangladesh.

Author: Jyoti Prakash Chotyopadhaya

The women UP members in the working area of BNPS and fellow organizations have been mobilizing themselves through sharing meetings, discussion, debates, training, planning and other activities to ensure effective local governance and empowerment of women. This publication is an assortment of information collected from these events.

Author : Mohammed Hannan Ph.D.

An analysis of fatwa (a legal decision or ruling by an Islamic religious leader) against development in the historical perspective, this book explains fatwa in Islam along with the history of fatwa in the subcontinent and how in the post liberation war period in Bangladesh fatwa has been used to stifle the freedom of expression and progressive thoughts. This book also reveals how women are the worst victims of fatwa.