Bangladesh ranks third.

[Homo Sapiens]

12:00 AM, May 17, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:26 AM, May 17, 2017
Study on Gender Dev in Eight S Asian Nations
Bangladesh ranks third


Bangladesh ranks third in gender development among eight South Asian countries.

Ahead of India and Pakistan, Sri Lanka ranked first while Maldives ranked second according to a study -- based on Gender Development Index (GDI) -- conducted by Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre of Pakistan.

GDI measures gender disparities under Human Development Index (HDI) of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). The closer the GDI figure to 1, the smaller the disparity is between men and women in terms of life expectancy, education and income.

According to the research, Sri Lanka's GDI is 0.948 while it is 0.937 for Maldives and 0.917 for Bangladesh.

BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) of BRAC University unveiled the study report titled “Human Development in South Asia 2016: Empowering Women in South Asia” at a programme at BRAC Inn Centre in the capital yesterday.

GDI scored by the fourth country in the ranking, Nepal, is 0.908, fifth Bhutan 0.897 and sixth India 0.795.


Pakistan ranked seventh with 0.726 and Afghanistan is at the bottom of the list with 0.600 GDI.

In their analysis of data collected from year 2000, Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre found significant improvement in South Asia region in the fields of women's access to education, health and employment opportunities

"However, the progress has been slow -- especially for the most vulnerable women living in rural areas, urban slums and belonging to ethnic minorities," the report states.

Maheen Sultan, visiting fellow at the Centre for Gender and Social Transformation of BIGD, in her presentation said while mean schooling year for a female in South Asia is 3.7, it is 4.5 years in Bangladesh.

Women's political representation to the parliament in South Asia has increased from 10.4 percent in 2000 to 13.7 percent in 2014. It is 19.7 percent in Bangladesh.

Maheen Sultana said 46 percent of marriages, highest in the world, in South Asia are child marriages below the age of 18.

About half the married women in Bangladesh, one-third in India and one-quarter or more in Nepal and Pakistan face physical violence by their spouses, she added.

M Syeduzzaman, former member of Mahbub ul Haq Research Centre's board of advisors, said while there is progress in education, there are questions about its quality.

Low-income women seem to be left behind, and they need to be given special attention during planning, he said.

Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education, said sexual violence in recent times appears to have spread all over Bangladesh. Moreover, religious fundamentalism is becoming a growing challenge to women empowerment.

Prof Dr Mustafizur Rahman, distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue,urged the government to increase allocations for law enforcement to curb violence against women.

Dr Rushidan Islam Rahman, executive director of Centre for Development and Employment Research,BIGD Executive Director Dr Sultan Hafeez Rahman and Simeen Mahmud of BIGD also spoke during the programme.
http://www.thedailystar.net/city/bangladesh-ranks-third-1406392

 

[Randiana2012]

Congratulations

 

[ashok321]

Clear cut example of Indian PM doing nothing on this important issue.
But boasts of "women empowerment" when wants votes.

 

[Homo Sapiens]

This is an extremely important subject/ranking,although many people are unable to realize it's significance.

 

[Mage]

That's expected when you have women ruling this country for 27 years and male leaders like Ershad kaku who threatens to commit suicide

 

[SajjLad]

I've heard statistics like this for a while, although it's good, being third in South Asia which is generally not a good region for gender equality is no great accomplishment. We should aim for first and a more significant position in Asia as a whole.

 

[Bilal9]

Clear cut example of Indian PM doing nothing on this important issue.
But boasts of "women empowerment" when wants votes.

These rankings I suspect, are reflective of,

1. Gender relations in their respective countries i.e. societal norms in lower middle-income populations,
2. The effectiveness of gender equality efforts by NGOs.

It is well known in Bangladesh that while govt. Institutions simply sucked at this sort of effort for the last three decades, the NGOs were quite effective at it. It's been a long haul, we didn't get here overnight. Kudos to our NGOs and all the idealist educated kids who worked tirelessly to make this possible.

Women's education, health and gender equality in terms of equal pay is the first step in development of our country, on the way to becoming a middle income country, which hopefully we will be able to achieve by 2030.