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A
few months ago we commemorated the fifty years of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and now we
are at the dawn of 21st millennium. We ask
ourselves have we been able to achieve women's rights as
human rights in the economic, social and political area
in the 20th century? By judging the number of
international Conventions i.e. Convention on the
Political Rights of Women Economic Social and Cultural
Rights, CEDAW etc. four World Conferences, innumerable
seminars at national and international level, powerful
deliberations by Heads of Governments, agitation's by
women activists coupled with a number of laws protecting
women from violence and discrimination- one should
certainly think that women have achieved more than what
they deserve. But ironically women's economic social and
political rights are still a long way from concrete
realization and enforcement. We regret to note that
according to the surveys by the Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU report 1997) women still barely make up 11.7%
of the world's Parliamentarians, a proportion only
slightly higher than fifty years ago. Whereas UN
standard was to reach at least 33% by 1995, during the
last Parliamentary election only 36 women candidates
contested the election (including myself) and five were
elected and two women MPs won through by-election (% of
women is about 2.5%) excluding the 30 reserved seats.
While
women constitute half of the population the rate of
illiteracy and mortality of women is much higher than
the rate of man. About 20,000 women die every year in
Bangladesh due to delivery related complication, which
is one of the highest in the world (UNICEF report- Daily
Star, May 24th, 1999). The number of women in
constitutional posts such as Public Service Commission
is that in out of 12 posts (one vacant) one of them is
female only. In the office of the Comptroller &
Auditor General no woman was ever appointed. In the
Election Commission no women were appointed. In the
Supreme Court so far no woman was appointed as Justice.
Again no women were ever elected as Speaker or Deputy
Speaker of Parliament and out of 48 Ministers (Prime
Minister, Full Ministers- 18, State Ministers- 16,
Deputy Ministers- 3, Advisor- 4, Whip- 6) only five
women MPs are ministers including the Honourable Prime
Minister and the Whip, who also enjoys the status of
minister.
Our
Constitution under Articles 27,28,29 and 30 specifically
provides equality to women as well as right to equal
protection of law. Art 10 provides that state shall
ensure participation of women in all spheres of state
and national life and Art.11 guarantees the fundamental
human rights and democracy for all. Art 29(3) has made a
special provision that the state shall not be
"prevented from making special provision in favour
of any backward section of citizens for the purpose of
securing their adequate representation in the service of
the Republic". Women are still considered to be
backward section in spite of the fact that both the head
of the govt. and leader of the Parliament as well as the
leader of the opposition have emerged from the backward
section of citizens, albeit, with backgrounds uncommon
to other women. In order to bring backward section to
politics and to correct the imbalances in the
participation of man and women in political life, the
system of indirect election of 30 women was introduced,
initially limited to a period of 15 years and
subsequently extended. Art. 65 runs as follows.
Art.
65 (3) "Until the dissolution of Parliament
occurring next after the expiration of the period of ten
years beginning from the date of the first meeting of
the Parliament next after the Parliament in existence at
the time of commencement of the Constitution (Tenth
Amendment) Act, 1990, there shall be reserved thirty
seats exclusively for women members, who shall be
elected according to law by the members aforesaid."
So it is clear that this temporary provision will
continue only until this present parliament is
dissolved. So there is an urgent necessity to amend the
constitution. I placed a bill before the Private Members
Bill Committee in 1997, which is still pending there.
The bill is similar to that of the Bill submitted before
the Indian Parliament. The salient features of the
present Bill are as follows:
The
Constitution (Fourteenth Amendment) Act
2.
Amendment of article 55 (Cabinet) of the Constitution
In
the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh,
hereinafter referred to as the Constitution, in clause
(1) of the article 55 after the words "such other
Ministers" the words and comma" not less than
one-third from among the female and not more than
two-third from among the male," shall be inserted.
3.
Amendment of article 65 (Establishment of Parliament) of
the Constitution
In
the Constitution in article 65, for clause (2) and (3),
the following clauses shall be substituted, namely:
"(2)
Parliament shall consist of:
(a)
not more than two hundred male members; and
(b)
not less than one hundred female members.
to
be elected in accordance with law from single
territorial constituencies by direct election; and the
members shall be designated as members of Parliament.
(3)
The election commission shall, out of three hundred
constituencies, specify one hundred constituencies for
female before every election on rotation basis ensuring
the representation of women from all the districts of
the country.
(3A)
A political party shall nominate one-third of its
nominees from among the female candidates and if any
party fails to do so the candidates nominated by it
shall not be deemed as its candidates."
(4)
Amendment of article 74 (Speaker and Deputy Speaker) of
the Constitution
In
the Constitution, in clause (1) of the article 74, after
the words "first sitting after any general election
elect from among the members" the words "on
the basis of male and female" shall be inserted.
(5)
Amendment of article 76 (Standing Committees of
Parliament) of the Constitution
In
the Constitution, in clause (1) of article 76, after the
words "Parliament shall appoint" the words
"not less than one-third from among female members
and not more than two- third from among male
members" shall be inserted.
Similarly the Bill has also provided
for amendment of Art. 94 (Supreme Court), Art. 118
(Election Commission) and art. 137 (Public Service
Commission), by giving one-third posts for women.
There are 12 standing Committees in
the Parliament including the Committee on Public
Accounts and Committee on Privileges. Besides, every
ministry has its permanent Committee and in total there
are thirty-five Committees. The Committee on the
Ministry of Women's Affairs, deals with women related
issues particularly, whereas other Committees like
Private Members Bill Committee, and Standing Committee
on Law & Parliamentary Affairs also to some extent
deal with some related legislation and women issues. One
important development to be noticed is that women
members are generally placed in every committee. It may
be noted that in the present Parliament, the Committees
have grown stronger than before. The committees are
headed by the members of the parliament and not by
ministers. However no woman Parliamentarian is appointed
yet as chairperson of any Committee. They would have
been more if the Committees would be chaired by
opposition MPs and by women MPs (only one is chaired by
an opposition male MP).
It
has been seen that the women MPs participate in the
committee proceedings better and more actively than in
the Parliament. Most of the women MPs like many male MPs
are new in the Parliament. Those thirty indirectly
elected women MPs have no permanent constituencies.
There is no assurance that they will be elected again
from the same area or will be elected at all. The areas
they represent are too wide. The local and district
administrations are also reluctant to involve them the
way they involve male Parliamentarians. In India, the
women MPs such as Geeta Mukherjee, Margaret Alva and
others have been trying to bring constitutional
amendment by making one-third reservation for women in
the Parliament by direct elections. As regards
participation of women members in Indian Parliament in
Eleventh Lok Sabha Session, 1998, 25 women MPs
participated accounting for 62.50 out of their total
strength of 40. The issues involved among others women's
bill on reservation of seats, caste system and human
development issues. On the other hand participation of
women MPs in Rajya Sabha is less. It may be noted in its
181st session only 9 out of 21 women MPs participated.
Dr Nazma Heptullah Deputy Chairwomen of Rajya Sabha said
that it was a matter of great regret that very few
speakers had referred to the status of women in the
country and that many of the bills in the House were
adopted without any discussion, which was not a healthy
trend for the survival of democracy [The
Parliamentarians 1998].
The subject of debate in our Parliament concerns
more on typical and ordinary matters such as
constructions of roads, bridge, culvert, wheat and
relief distribution, welfare of schools, rather than
concentrating on debates on policy issues, gender and
human right issues. When there is any debate on passing
of laws or amendments the participation of women
Parliamentarians is less.
The
materials, facilities and services available to the
parliamentarians are very few. The women MPs do not have
individual rooms. They sit in a common room together.
They do not have assistants, nor material, computer or
Internet facility (except privately) so that they can go
equipped in the Parliament before debate. The honorarium
paid to the Parliament members is negligible so they are
to remain busy for livelihood in some trade/profession.
In order to strengthen parliamentary democracy, there is
an urgent need for permanent constituencies for women
politicians on the one hand, there is also a need for
training of the women Parliamentarians in different
Parliaments of the East and West which have for years
developed model democratic systems.
It
may be interesting to note that the Upazila Parishad Act
1998 has provided for one-third members to be elected
from women members from Paurashava and Union Parishad
which deserves appreciation but nevertheless section 25
(Advisors of Upazila Parishad) provided that only those
who are elected from single territorial constitutions by
direct election can become advisors excluding the women
MPs who are elected by the MPs. I specifically raised
the issue and suggested amendment. It did not attract
the attention of the House and none of the woman MPs
protested or debated. The discriminatory provision still
remains in the Act only to be remedied by court or by
amendment. Women MPs are often told by male MPs that
they are selected and not directly elected thus
indirectly reminding them of their vulnerable position.
In
conclusion, I want to mention that when women MPs will
be confident only if they feel that they are not
floating MPs but have permanent seats and having
training and other facilities, they will certainly
participate better in the Parliamentary decision making
process. They will contribute more to the development of
the country and strengthen democratic process. In the
pre-liberation period, women issues or participation of
women in politics did not get importance in the
Parliament. After liberation, the women issues came into
limelight - due to enormous struggle and sacrifice of
women. However, gender equity and gender issues till now
do not get importance in the Parliamentary democracy for
reasons some of which I mentioned. The Parliament should
fix up a specific date for debate on women, gender
equity and human right issues. The Committees should be
strengthened more and meet more frequently in Committee
sessions. The Parliament already passed Union Parishad
and Upazila Parishad Acts, Paurashava Ordinance and City
Corporation Acts, where 1/3 women candidates have been
given chance to come by direct votes. Why the Parliament
is reluctant to provide similar provision in the
parliamentary election by bringing amendment to the
Constitution is an unsolved mystery.
It is simple justice that women
should participate in political life alongside and on an
equal footing with men and share effectively in the
decision-making process and political responsibilities
with men as protagonists and not as mere shadows. The
philosophy of power and the language and rules of
politics are still defined and controlled by men. Women
have been obliged to adapt unilaterally to male values
patriarchal ideas and all too often their success in
politics is conditioned by their ability to assimilate
this language, rules and ideas. In the 99th IPU
conference held in Namibia, 1998 on the Women
Parliamentarians meeting the Speaker Hon. Dr. Tjitendero
acknowledging the gender discrimination which still
exists in many countries said "I hope that the
problem of gender discrimination will not escape the
attention of the Parliamentarians during their
deliberations". The Joint Colloquium held in
Buckinghamshire U.K. in June, 1998 by Commonwealth
Parliamentary Association (CPA) recognised that there is
gender imbalance in not only developing countries but
also in developed countries and resolved that efforts
should be made to remove all discrimination and bring
gender balance and gender issues in the Parliament and
Committee discussions. We should be liberated from the
narrow confines of outdated thoughts and promote a real
culture of democracy both among the political leaders
and the population as partnership between men and women
is one of the key elements of democracy and sustainable
development.
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