Govt working for 'inclusive development' for women: Chumki

State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki has said the present government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working for the "inclusive development" of women and ensuring their equal rights.

"The present government under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been working for the inclusive development of women and creating 'Sonar Bangla' where the women will get equal opportunity for rights and entitlements in the family, community and in the society" she said.

The state minister was delivering her keynote statement at a side event on 'Enhance Social Protection for Poverty reduction and women's empowerment' under the ongoing 61st session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday.

The event was co-hosted by the governments of Bangladesh and Canada and supported by the FAO and WFP, according to a message received here yesterday.

The state minister is leading the Bangladesh delegation to the 61st CSW session.

In her statement, Chumki also elaborated various measures and best practices taken place in Bangladesh with regard to social protection programme for women empowerment and eradication of poverty as a whole.

"Our government has adopted 142 special programmes for social protection of the poor community of where a significant number are women," she said.

The state minister said the government has enacted National Women Development Policy 2011, ensured Gender Responsive Budget and reserved the women's right in Seventh Five Year Plan (2016-2020).

"To develop women's business skills, our government has established a foundation to promote the SME sector and launched many programmes for the women," she said.

Moreover, Chumki said, the government has taken a number of projects and training programmes, constructed hostels for working women and established daycare centres for their children.

The state minister said Bangladesh made significant progress in achieving the MDG by reducing poverty, and women empowerment.

"We believe the experiences of implementation of the MDGs will help us to achieve the targets of the SDGs before 2030," she said.

Women and Children Affairs Secretary Nasima Begum joined the discussion, while Danish Permanent Representative Ambassador IB Peterson, Canadian Charge d'affaires Ambassador Michael Douglas Grant made remarks on the impact of social protection in eradicating poverty and bringing gender parity.

Representative of International Food Policy Research Institute, Dr. Shalini Roy and Representative of FAO Ms. Carla Mucavi made presentation on 'social safety net and 'economic empowerment' respectively.

The event was moderated by Shannon Howard from WFP, while Dr. Abul Hossain, Project Director, Multi- Sectoral Programme on Violence Against Women, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, made a power point presentation on Social Protection and women empowerment in Bangladesh.

Earlier, the state minister attended an interactive meeting with the officers of Permanent Mission of Bangladesh and members of her delegation.

Source: BSS