The New Nation - Internet Edition

Arifa As Alam

Almost all political parties are ignored real issues of the womenfolk including their development and empowerment in society, and all the attempts over the women rights as very much traditional and inadequate to address problems faced by the Bangladeshi women.

Women rights leaders have criticised the major political parties for ignoring the issues of the womenfolk. They said the women as political leaders were poorly represented in the nomination process and due preferences to the women issues for bringing them to the forefront of the society, economy and politics had not been given in any of the elections manifestoes presented by major parties in the past two weeks.

A total of 55 women candidates will contest the national elections, slated for December 29, from 60 constituencies.

Earlier, 38 women candidates contested the 2001 national elections from 46 constituencies while 36 women candidates contested the 1996 general polls from 48 constituencies, but thanks to disqualifications of their husbands in many cases. Women leaders said the women candidates in all parties were disproportionate to the number of female voters.

The number of female candidates increased from 38 in 2001 to 55 this year, thanks to disqualifications of their husbands in many cases. Women leaders said the female candidates of all the parties were disproportionate to the number of female voters.

'We have no reason to be satisfied with the election manifestoes of different political parties about empowerment of women. They appeared to be lip services only for stopping criticism instead of women's emancipation,' said Farida Akhter, leader of Sammilita Nari Samaj.

She appreciated the Awami League for making pledge to reservation of 100 seats in the parliament for women through direct voting. 'But the issues relating to gender discrimination should have been included in the election manifesto more specifically,' she said.

Ayesha Khanam, general secretary of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, told New Age, 'AL in its election manifesto was very much specific about women empowerment but other partiest.!'.

Most political parties in their polls manifestoes didn't detail on women development policy and direct election issue that means they still stand on their traditional role, said Ayesha Khanam, who has been working with women rights for more than 30 years.

As per the election manifesto of Jatiya Party, participation of women in the government and party's different committees would be increased by 30 per cent within next 10 years.

'We are astonished to see that one of leading political parties, BNP, didn't make any statement on women development policy,' Ayesha added.

Dipu Moni, women affairs secretary of the AL central committee, told New Age on Monday that they had taken into account all the recommendations, put forward by different women rights organisations as well as activists, while making the election manifesto.

AL in its manifesto states, 'To ensure women empowerment and equality, women development policy, formulated by Awami League in 1997, will be revived. The number of reserved seats for women in the parliament will be increased to 100. Necessary measures will be taken for appointment of women in senior posts. Strictest legal measures will be taken to stop oppression on women. Discriminatory laws against interests of women will be amended.'

BNP's joint secretary general Selima Rahman told New Age on Monday, 'We have prepared the manifesto taking into account its timely implementation. We didn't make any commitment that couldn't be implemented.'

BNP manifesto includes issues such as providing credit to women entrepreneurs, training on mother and child health, family planning, environment and agriculture, strengthen the rules and laws regarding to anti-dowry, acid throwing, women and children trafficking, separate public toilet for women in Dhaka and other major cities and create environment for participation of more women in the parliament and politics.

However, the female voters for the first time in the country's history outnumber their male counterparts according to the new voters' roll with photographs prepared for the ninth parliamentary elections.

The number of voters this time stands at 8,10,58,698. Of them 4,12,36,149 are women and 3,98,22,549 men - the former outnumbering the latter by 14,13,600.

In the last general elections held on October 1, 2001, male voters outnumbered female voters by 23,69,288. The total number of voters at that time was 7,50,00,656. Of them 3,86,84,972 were men and 3,63,15,684 women.

This time a total of 60,58,042 voters have been added to the roll of 7,50,00,656 as it stood during the last ballot on October 1, 2001. The number of voters dropped from the list prepared by the MA Aziz-led commission in 2006 is 1.18 crore. The 2006 voters' roll was nullified by the court amidst widespread allegation of fake registrations.

The number of voters was 7,50,00,656 in 2001, up by 24.38 per cent from 5,67,16,935 in 1996. The first voters' roll prepared in 1973 after independence had 3.52 crore voters, the number in the second roll prepared in 1979 topped 3.83 crore, the third in 1983 had over 4.73 crore and the fourth in 1990 had more than 6.19 crore voters, according to the Election Commission statistics.

In previous seven general elections, except the 1973 polls, numbers of female voters were less than their male counterparts, according to the EC records. The voters' roll prepared in 1973 after the independence did not specify the male and female voters.

In the second general elections held on February 28, 1979, the total number of voters was 3,83,63,858. Of them 2,00,34,717 were men and 1,83,29,141 women.

Male voters outnumbered their female counterparts in the third general elections held on May 7, 1986. The total number of voters at that time was 4,78,76,979.

In the fourth parliamentary elections held on March 3, 1988, the number of voters reached 4,98,63,829. Of them 2,63,79,944 were men and 2,34,83,885 women.

In the fifth general elections held On February 27, 1991, male voters outnumbered female voters by 38,99,771. The total number of voters at that time was 6,21,81,743.

In the controversial sixth general elections held on February 15, 1996, out of a total of 5,61,49,182 voters, 2,37,65,752 were male and 2,32,38,204 female.

The total number of voters were 5,67,16,935 during the sixth parliamentary elections held on June 12, 1996 with male voters outnumbering their female counterparts by 8,03,053.

Eighty-two women candidates submitted nomination papers to contest the December 29 national elections from 88 constituencies but the nomination of only 55 was validated by the Election Commission.