National Women Development Policy

In order to ensure women empowerment, equal rights and opportunities, the government of Bangladesh has formulated the national women development policy in 2011.
The objectives of National Women Development Policy are as follows: (i) to establish equal rights of men and women in areas of state and public life in the light of the constitution of Bangladesh, (ii) to ensure security and safety of women in all areas of state, social and family life, (iii) to ensure the socio-economic, political, administrative and legal empowerment; (iv) to establish human rights of women, (v) to extend overall assistance to ensure rights of the disabled women and women belonging to the smaller ethnic groups, (vi) to provide overall assistance in ensuring the growth of women entrepreneurs, (vii) to establish gender equality in politics, administration, other areas of activity, socio-economic activity, education, culture, sports and in all areas of family life, (viii) ensuring Human Rights and Fundamental Freedom of Women, (ix) development of Female Child, (x) elimination of All forms of Abuse against Women.
In order to eliminate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, a number of keys strategies will be implemented by the strategy in order to improve food security of women, including: (i) to strengthen the government food distribution system keeping an eye on the need of distressed women, (ii) ensuring participation women in planning, supervision and distribution in the process of achieving food security, (iii) to accord recognition and make evaluation of the toil, role and contribution of the women in ensuring the food security.
In order to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the plans to improve women and faming through among others the following strategies: (i) to extend all kinds of support and assistance in eliminating bottlenecks created due to climate change and disaster, (ii) to take initiative to ensure equal wages for the same job and to remove wages discrimination to women in agriculture, (iii) to take steps to ensure the farming women have equal opportunity in having agricultural inputs like fertilizer, seed, farmer's card and credit facilities etc.
Regarding the reduction of rural poverty, the policy plans to eliminate women poverty. The strategies to be implemented include: (i) to include the dead poor women inside the social safety net, make allowance for the widow and distressed women, aged allowance, disability allowance, provide for maternity allowance and continuing food security for the women without means (VGD) programs, (ii) mobilizing poor women to increase their skills and creating alternative socio-economic opportunities through giving them training, (iii) to increase budget allocation to meet all the demands of women including those of food, clothing, home, health care and education, (iv) to give full and equal opportunity to women in health, education, training, lifelong education (continuing education), technical education, income generating training, information & technology etc, (v) to give women the rights to wealth and resources earned through income, succession, loan/credit, land and market management, (vi) to undertake all out initiative for employment of the educated and illiterate women labor, (vii) to make necessary reforms of all concerned law, rule and policy for wider employment of women.
In the context of governance, the implementation of women development policy and work plan is the basic responsibility of the Government. This responsibility can be discharged on a sound basis through building up a well organized and broad based institutional system. Efforts will be made to include women development perspective in all the GO and NGO activity.