Women in Bangladesh Society

bangladesh team study

WOMEN IN BANGLADESH SOCIETY

It is very difficult to research on any topic on the Bangladesh women due to lack of available data. The last census taken was in 1961. Only preliminary statistics on the 1974 census are available.

Bangladesh is predominantly a Muslim country. The majority of the thirty-five million Bangladesh women live in a purdah-dominated society. They are not as free as the women of other countries. They are controlled by Muslim practices such as waiting upon their husbands, always ready to serve their “masters”. Women have no money of their own and are dependent upon their husbands or other generous members of their family.

Some other restrictions on women are followed up to this day. For example, they do not go out alone. They keep always to the customs of their parents and grandparents. Their complete subservience has given them very little opportunity, if at all, to form their own ideas.

Roughly 5 per cent of the population of the country is urban so the majority of Bangalese women are in the rural places. And since the development of the country is imbalanced- the city against the village, it is logical to expect that more than 90 per cent of Bangladese women, who are rural, have any opportunity to learn even how to read and write. In fact, even those in the urban areas have very little education.

Only 1.27% among educated women are eligible for modern occupation like nursing. There are very few

who can find work in factories, in big companies, in medical firms and banks. Generally, the most that they can do is to form labour force in light and handicraft industries such as toy making, ornaments manufacturing, weaving cloth, and making pictures.

WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

The movement for the emancipation of Muslim women in Bangladesh started in the 1920’s. It was closely associated with the modernist movement amongst the Muslims and found and received the sympathy and support of the modernist men.

The first phase was the questioning of rigid purdah observance and the demand for women’s education. The movement was started by a woman from a traditional landlord family who was married to a civil servant. She was Rokeya Sakhanvat Hussein (1880-1932), a true feminist and pioneer of the emancipation movement. She felt that the only way a woman could be emancipated was through education, which would enable her to achieve economic independence and renounce strict Purdah. Rokeya Sakhanvat Hussein was a writer of short stories and articles that depicted the stultifying life of women in Purdah society. In all her writings she made scathing attacks against the unequal relationship between men and women. She established the first girls’ school with eleven students in Calcutta.

After the partition of India and Bengal, there was a marked change on the role and status of women, at least among those who belonged to the upper social level. The women’s movement saw the growth of women’s organisations in the urban areas. An important one was the All Pakistan’s Women’s Association with local branches in all districts. But the All Pakistan’s Women’s Association was much like a social club for elite women. The leadership belonging to the wives of the powerful political and administrative figures so the organisation failed to develop leadership among the larger section of women in the country. However, the absence of a strong movement and the lack of leadership did not prevent a growing number of Bengalese women from seeking their emancipation. This drive for emancipation is going on as a part of the processes of social change and not as a revolutionary movement.

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF WOMEN’S ORGANISATIONS

Since the campaign of women’s emancipation a number of institutions and organisations had been set up to deal with the problems of women. Most of these are government initiated and supported.

The Bangladesh National Women’s Organisation was started by the government with the intention of helping women in distress, making them literate, and showing them how to care for their babies. There is a branch in every union of Bangladesh.

Then there is the Bangladesh Social Welfare Organisation where men are working to win more freedom for women so that they, the women, can learn new techniques and find new power in their economic freedom. In the production centre, the women do sewing and clay modelling and learn to make radio sets. Their products are sold and so they earn money for themselves.

We also have the Women’s Rehabilitation Welfare Foundation. This organisation is trying to help women whose husbands were killed during the Liberation movement. It is run partly by the government and partly by private funds. Each year fifty students are trained in the institution. There is a production centre and a day-care centre for children. In the training and production centre, a person can earn as much as fifteen to twenty taka a day. The Centre makes around 60,000 taka a year. It hopes, too, to provide accommodations for the homeless and find a market for the goods produced by its trainees.

THE NURSING PROFESSION: AN EXAMPLE OF LOW STATUS OF WOMEN EVEN IN EDUCATION

The number of trained nurses in Bangladesh is unbelievably low for a population of 75 million. There are only 700 nurses compared to 7000 doctors, mostly male. While there are eight medical colleges with an annual intake of 1400 students, there are only six regular schools of nursing with an annual intake of 350 students. To increase the number of nurses, twelve more schools of nursing attached to the district hospitals have been opened under a crash programme, seating 1100 students. However, hardly fifty per cent (50#) of the seats are occupied by students seeking admission.

The nurse’s role is a complex one. She performs the on-going activities in the patient care unit and

interprets the orders of the doctor into a pattern of nursing care. While most of the staff members including the physicians remain in the patient care unit at certain periods, the nurse has to stay there continuously. She is coordinator, mediator, observer for all the patient services. Instead of being treated as a profession, nursing has been considered as an undignified job. Probably, this attitude has been one of the prime factors which has prevented women from joining this profession in large numbers.

The nursing council, set up under an act in 1947, determines the standard of nursing education, inspects nursing examinations and awards certificates to the graduating nurses.

After the partition of India in 1947, nursing schools were more relaxed. Girls with seven to eight years schooling were admitted but they were called junior nurses and those who had matriculation degrees were called senior nurses. This Nursing School was attached to the Dacca Medical Hospital. The school offers a three-year programme in general nursing and a one-year training course in Mid-wifery. Mid-wifery training though not compulsory is taken by 99# of the girls who complete general nursing courses.

Working conditions of the nurses in the Dacca Medical Hospital are not so good. There are thirty-three wards. According to hospital rules, each ward should contain not more than thirty beds but on the average, each ward crowds as many as fifty beds and sometimes sixty. Each ward is placed under the charge of one staff nurse assisted by two or three student nurses. But often, the students have to leave to attend classes, thus decreasing the nurses in the wards, and increasing the load of work of each nurse.

A Sister (religious) has supervision over three or four wards. A matron and an assistant matron are in charge of the over-all supervision of the nursing care in the hospital. The nurses are on duty for eight hours. With the big number of patients assigned to each nurse, the result is that the nurse becomes overworked and often gets sick.

In a survey conducted when nurses where asked why they chose this profession, fifty percent of interviewees gave service to humanity as their reason. Others mentioned financial difficulties and

the chance to go abroad.