At first glance, one definitely has to appreciate the current key
political positions held by women in Bangladesh: head of the
government, leader of the opposition, Chief Speaker at the national
parliament. Three Ministries, namely, those of Home, Agriculture and
Women Affairs, formed under the 2014 Cabinet are led by women. In the
10th Parliament following the 2014 elections, there are 69 women
parliamentarians of whom 50 are on the reserved seats and 19 have been
elected directly, bringing the percentage of women MPs to 19.7 percent.
However, the reality belying these impressive figures is that while
women's number in political parties may have increased in quantitative
terms, women are largely excluded from real decision-making processes.
This is apparent from the fact that apart from a few important positions
held by women politicians, the number of women in top leadership
positions in the two major political parties remains small.
Although the third amendment to the Representation of the People
Order (RPO) 1972 requires political parties to set the goal of reserving
at least 33 percent of all committee positions for women including the
central committee, progressively achieving this goal by the year 2020,
in reality all major political parties have failed to incorporate gender
equality in their party structure. A review of political party
documents and election manifesto showed that women's representation
within the two major political parties, Awami League and Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP), is still very low. For example, the Central
Executive Committee of Bangladesh Awami League has 12 percent or 9 women
members while the BNP has 5 percent or 6 women members in its National
Executive Committee. Men typically dominate leadership positions of
these committees while women are given positions in committees on, for
example, education, health, women and children because these are
perceived as suitable for females as opposed to committees on economics,
budget, and foreign affairs.
Additionally, while the Awami League Election manifesto aims to have
33 percent representation of women within the party by 2021, other
political parties lack the aim of promoting women's participation in
politics. In this regard, the quota-based system is yet to set
indicators to measure progress towards this target. Furthermore, as the
RPO does not mention any disciplinary measures against failure to meet
this target, political parties perhaps feel they are under no obligation
to include women in democratic politics.
What is happening on the local government front? The introduction of
reserved seats in 1997 opened up doors for local women to engage in
politics and contest for these seats at all tiers of the local
government. Although this step proved to reach its objective initially,
over the years, there has been a decline in women's participation in
local government elections.
For instance, in the 2009 Upazila Elections, out of a total 2,900
female contestants, 481 women were elected to the reserved posts of
Upazila Vice Chairpersons in 480 Upazilas. By contrast, in the 2014
election, the number of female contestants dropped to a total of 1,507
in 458 Upazilas, thereby demonstrating a 48 percent decrease over five
years. In case of UPs, although the Election Commission figures of women
contesting and winning UP elections in 2011 are not available, field
experience of local government projects showed that the number of women
contesting both reserved and general seats had decreased and the most
common reason being cited was our country's political environment that
favours muscle power and money.
The Dhaka Tribune (Feb 26, 2016) captured this scenario from Khulna's
Dakope Upazila where the number of female candidates aspiring to
contest the upcoming Union Parishad (UP) elections is record high but
these candidates are reportedly under pressure to withdraw from
contesting elections from their male rivals.
A research under the Local Governance Programme Sharique, which is
promoting enhanced participation and representation of women in local
government elections, indicates that negligence towards reserved seats
exists even at the local chapters of major political parties. While
parties give a lot of priority to and make the election campaign for UP
Chairman's office highly structured to ensure victory, the same
intensive support is not provided for the women members contesting
reserved seats. In the words of a male UP member, the female wings of
most political parties are not active at the UP level and neither do
political parties raise awareness among women in this regard. As a
result, local political activities remain mainly male dominated which
further discourages women from engaging in active politics.
Aparajita – a project on women's political empowerment – conducted a
study on Upazila Parishad reserved seat elections held in June 2015,
before the party-based election system was introduced. The study carried
out in 72 Upazilas of 40 districts across the country showed that
following the declaration of the election schedule, the Upazila Parishad
Chairmen, MPs, and local leaders of ruling party performed the primary
selection of the candidates and final nomination. Many women candidates,
who were competent but not affiliated with the political parties, were
discouraged by local political leaders from submitting their nomination
papers. In addition, it was observed that affluent candidates used
money- as much as Tk. 5,000/ to 20,000/ per vote to influence the
voters. Consequently, again, a good number of potential and committed
female candidates may have failed to contest the elections due to lack
of finances.
In fact, money and political backing are not the only obstacles that
are hindering local women from joining politics. A stock-taking of
publications and research on women's inclusion in political processes by
Sharique (2014) identified that lack of capacity and inadequate
resources are also bottlenecks that prevent elected women
representatives from functioning effectively. Looking at the data on the
education and experience of local government representatives, both male
and female, it was evident that there are formal gaps in the desired
qualifications which range from low literacy and lack of procedural
knowledge to lack of experience of working within elected bodies. This
is all the more true in case of local women as they are usually not
well-acquainted with the complex administrative work required for filing
election nominations. In addition, the system of reserved seats has its
own limitations that come in the form of lack of unclear definition of
roles and responsibilities of elected women representatives in the local
government, vulnerable to discrimination, harassment and isolation by
their male counterparts. Furthermore, reserved seat members do not have
the same authority and resources as those elected through general seats.
As a result, although women representatives gain access to the local
government institutions through reserved seats, their influence in these
public offices remains trivial. For example, a survey carried out by
Khan and Mohsin (2008), among 641 UP women members in 13 districts
across the country, found that 90 percent of respondents confirmed that
they always attended Union Parishad meetings but only 24 percent
reported that their decision was always considered.
Against this backdrop, the legitimate question is when the very basic
institutional support and legal provisions remain missing, how much can
Bangladesh claim to have made progress in women's political
empowerment? More importantly, with a number of women's rights
organisations and development-aid projects operating in the area of
women's political empowerment over the years, it is difficult to tell
who really deserves the credit for the progress – whatsoever – made in
this sector.
With significant absence of women from the key decision-making bodies
of political parties, it is clear that Bangladesh's politics indeed has
women on the surface, but the decision-making process is still
dominated by men. This subsequently raises the question as to how we can
expect to promote the interests of women or further their causes in the
prevailing political context borne out of a patriarchal structure.
Against this backdrop, the gender-based quota system needs re
examination to measure its effectiveness in real and not just figurative
terms to make political parties responsible for promoting certain basic
principles such as gender equality inside the party leadership role and
adopting practices of inclusive democracy. This is because if political
parties fail to recognise the significance of women's political
engagement and how it contributes to the whole process of governance and
development, it would be unrealistic to expect Bangladesh to sustain
its development targets that it has achieved in other sectors.
The writer is a staff member of BRAC Institute of
Governance and Development (BIGD), BRAC University. The views expressed
in this article are those of the author alone and do not represent those
of the institution she represents.
