During the last national election almost all the political parties in their manifestos recognised the need to improve law and order situation and establish the rule of law in every sphere of life. The ruling party, Awami League in its manifesto promised the following:

a)   eliminate “mastaani” i.e. hijacking and organised violence by terrorist groups;

b)   ensure fair and free justice to all by separating the judiciary from the executive service;

c)   not to interfere in the judicial process;

d)   repeal or totally abolish all the “black laws” like the emergency law, the “Special Power Act” and oppressive laws like the section 54 etc, which might encourage abuse of power by the law enforcement agencies demonstrated by arbitrary arrest and preventive detention.

But in practice it was a different story.

The Current Scenario of Law and order Situation in Bangladesh:

A Brief Overview

Over the last decade or so, there has been a massive deterioration as far as the security of the general public is concerned. A more sinister dimension of the scenario has been that, the law enforcers have themselves turned into fierce violators of the law. According to human rights monitors, the number of people who died in police custody from January to September 1996 was 23.12  In June 1997, a man was arrested for attempting to enter the grounds of the Prime Minister’s office in Dhaka and was later beaten to death by the police. In 1998, the number of people who died in police custody was six, according to the government sources.

On July 23, the police arrested a university student Shamim Reza Rubel on charges or possessing illegal arms. Five days after he was released from the police station, he died of massive injury, which he sustained during his stay in the police station. The concerned authorities charged 13 people for the murder twelve of who were police officers, but the trial is still going on. Moreover, the family members of Rubel at several news conferences had complained that the police were harassing them.

Another important characteristic was political violence both by the ruling party and the opposition.

The scenario had not changed in 1999. Due to the continuous deterioration in the situation, the government has taken several measures to improve the state of law and order situation. The Home Minister was removed from his office and replaced by another on 11 March 1999. The police brought down a highly trained and indeed expensive “Dog Squad” from abroad to hunt down den of terrorists—but so far, there has been very little to be hopeful about. Especially during the last Eid, largest religious festival in Bangladesh, incidents like snatching purses of women, hijacking, chaandabaji (organised and forceful snatching of money from business groups) become a general feature of the law and order situation. It was alleged that during the last Eid, a new dimension was added to chaandabaji, where police officers were involved in forcefully charging large amounts of money from large vehicles carrying goods.13 

Deterioration of Law & Order Situation: Some Prevailing Features

Many observers feel the breakdown in the law and order situation is linked to the alleged patronisation of terrorism by political parties and law enforcing agencies. More specifically the use of terrorists to serve political purpose and the alleged mutually beneficial relationship between law enforcing agencies and the terrorists have led to this scenario. Political activists carrying arms in broad daylight in front of law-enforcing officers is a common sight, especially during hartal days. Numerous pictures of people carrying firearms have been published in national dailies. On 14 December 1999, one of the most wanted terrorists of the city, was arrested by the police from the Dhaka city Mayor’s office. But many national dailies claimed that he was released at once on the insistence of the Mayor himself. Terrorist attacks on political rallies and meetings have now become a common occurrence. The most recent attack occurred when Kader Siddiqui, who was expelled from the ruling party Awami League, launched a new political party.

Also the number of deaths during police custody is increasing day by day, a reflection of human rights violation by law enforcing agencies themselves. 12 people died in police custody in 1999 and 11 people died in jail custody.

Terrorism has even entrenched itself in educational institutions with student politics establishing strong links with the general trend of Mastani. The tradition of meritorious students getting involved in politics is now merely a myth with politics being controlled by lower calibre students often identified as trouble makers.

The terror that has been unleashed in our country also has a psychosocial dimension. Insane brutality and attempts to demonstrate ‘heroism’ in imitation of Hindi and Bengali action movies have added to the severity of terror and crime especially in urban areas. The unfolding story of politically patronised criminals like Ershad Shikdar of Khulna clearly exemplifies this process, which in fact started taking shape from the post-1971 period.

Fundamentalist forces are also more active now like in the period of the liberation war. Though the number of seats in parliament held by the major fundamentalist party Jamaat-E-Islami has sharply fallen from 1991’s national election to 1996’s election, the overall influence of fundamentalism is still very much alive. This is mainly due to its realignment with the major opposition political parties and the activities of the student fraction of the party.

“Hartal” or strikes originally perceived as a means to fight for democracy has now been turned into a tool of terror and violence. From this year, authorities have begun to monitor the number of deaths during hartals with the number of deaths for 1999 being 32.

State of Women in Bangladesh

“Equality of sexes” is confined to mere jargon in Bangladesh where even basic needs of the common people are not met. In the ever-deteriorating condition in the social, economic and political sectors, women’s conditions are also jeopardised although there are laws to provide and safeguard their interests. However, these laws exist only on “paper” due to the fundamental “depositioning” of women’s status in Bangladesh. Let us consider several statistics that reveal the situation of women in Bangladesh.

As has been discussed before, Bangladesh is no exception to the “missing women” trend prevalent in South Asia. According to natural norms, women have an in-built biological advantage over men. And this natural advantage maintains that the women population should exceed the male population according to a ratio of 106:100. In Bangladesh, the media portrays the picture, as fifty-fifty, but the reality is far more precarious. Here, there exists 106 male population vis-à-vis every 100 female population in the country. In terms of more appropriate calculation, women are 48.58 per cent of the total population of Bangladesh.

According to the biological norms female children too have more capacity to sustain during infant age than male children do. In Bangladesh, the patriarchal societal structure-which neglects rearing practices and treatment of illnesses of the female child, has contributed to upset the global trend. The rate of infant mortality was 84.2 per cent for female children and 95 per cent for male children during the year 1996-97.14  It is therefore, evident that discriminatory policies in terms of gender starts from the very beginning of a woman’s life.

In case of female life expectancy, Bangladesh is one of the few countries where female life expectancy rate is less than that of men. According to BBS 1996, women’s life expectancy in Bangladesh is 58.6 years compared to 59.1 years for men.15 

While the literacy rate in Bangladesh is generally very low, here again women comprise the disadvantageous group. According to the Statistical Year Book, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 1997, female literacy is 38.1 per cent compared with 55.6 per cent male literacy. However, at the primary level the rate of literacy is quite high, as the Government gives monetary and other incentives to female students to encourage their enrolment. However generally after the completion of eighth grade, the rate of drop out of female students increases drastically. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, only 0.85 per cent female students complete their graduation.16 

Sixty-two per cent women are economically active in Bangladesh, which is not only the highest rate in South Asia but also ranks above the average of 50 per cent for developing countries.17  We saw an immense increase in the number of female labour force in Bangladesh after the 1985-86 period. Considering the number of female labour force was only 3.2 million of a total of 30.9 million labour force in 1985-86, it has increased to 21 million of a total 50.7 million in 1990.18  The reason for women’s increased participation in the labour force can be inferred from the acknowledgement of women’s unpaid contribution to the economic activities. Women in Bangladesh have always been responsible to provide assistance in the household activities. Generally works of women in all areas involve preparing and processing foods and managing household works. The life for working-women, however, is much more difficult since these works are considered as “women’s work” and they are not spared from performing these “usual tasks” after returning from office. In the rural areas, women are involved in works like taking care of domestic animals, poultry, husking crops and so on. From the 70s decade, women’s silent contributions, which were generally overlooked, started to draw the attention of policy planners and were considered as part and parcel of economic activities. Moreover, with the increase of garment industries in the country, the number of women in the formal labour market has increased.

The increased number of women’s participation in the labour market does not indicate the elimination of discrimination against women in the economic sector. Despite a high increase of women in the labour market, again women are faced with discrimination because of their gender and paid less than their male counterparts who perform the same amount of work. The wage rate of day labourers averages 46 taka for men but stands at only 26 taka for women.19  Due to women’s acute economic need and vulnerable social standings, it becomes easier for the employers to exploit women labourers. According to the UNDP report, a female worker in Bangladesh receives only 42 per cent of wage of a male worker.

In Bangladesh, occupational promotion is also very difficult even for highly educated women. Women are usually encouraged to choose so-called “feminised” occupations like teaching. In case of administrative jobs, three-fourth of the women work at the level of third-grade officers according to the statistics of 1992.20  One positive aspect is the reservation of 11 per cent of top civil service jobs for women. At the same time, there are not enough women available to fill the higher administrative posts designated only for women.

After the election of 1990, both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have been women in Bangladesh. However this does not indicate a high rate of women’s participation in politics. Women’s participation in the high decision-making bodies of political parties is very low. There are only three women in the Presidium Council of the ruling party, the Awami League whereas, in the fifteen-member national committee of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), the leading opposition party, there is only one woman, who is the chairperson and the leader of the opposition in the parliament. Among the thirty-member central committee of the Jatiya Party, there is only one member, who is the wife of the party’s chairperson. Besides the Prime Minister, there are four female ministers in the cabinet. In the last Union Council election, 102 women competed among 4,271 for the chairman’s post and twenty of them were elected. 110 women among 38,484 were elected as general members.

Legal and Administrative Arrangements Available for Women in Bangladesh:

Constitution of Bangladesh and the Rights of Women

The Constitution of Bangladesh, endorsed in 1972, has undergone various amendments but firmly declares the equality of man and woman in terms of rights and laws enacted in it. In this respect, it is noteworthy to identify some of the special characteristics of the constitution with regard to the women of Bangladesh. The rights of the people of Bangladesh, as stipulated in the constitution, are applicable equally towards all the male and female citizens of the country. The constitution identifies the unequal status of women at the social arena and also advises the state to take appropriate measures to eliminate discriminations against women vis-à-vis men. In other words the constitution of Bangladesh guarantees various rights to Bangladeshi women through the following specific articles.

Article 9: “The State shall encourage local government institutions composed of representatives of the areas concerned and in such institutions special representative should be given as far as possible, to peasant, workers and women”.

According to Article 10, “steps shall be taken to ensure participation of women in all sphere of national life”.

Article 11: “The Republic shall be a democracy in which fundamental human rights and freedoms and respect for the dignity and worth of the human person shall be guaranteed”.

Article 15: “It shall be a fundamental responsibility of the State to attain, through planned economic growth, a constant increase of productive forces and steady improvement in the material and cultural standard of living of the people, with a view to securing to its citizens (a) the provision of the basic necessities of life, including food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care; (b) the right to work, that is the right to guaranteed employment at a reasonable wage having regard to the quantity and quality of work; (c) the right to reasonable rest, recreation and leisure; and (d) the right to social security, that is to say to public assistance in cases of undeserved want arising from unemployment, illness or disablement, or suffered by widows or orphans or in old age, or in other such cases.

Article 17 states that the State shall adopt effective measures for the purpose of – (a) establishing a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education and extending free and compulsory education to all children to such stage as may be determined by law; (b) relating education to the needs of society and producing properly trained and motivated citizens to serve those needs; and (c) removing illiteracy within such time as may be determined by law.

Article 26 of the Part III of the Constitution, which deals with Fundamental Rights states, (1) All existing laws inconsistent with the provisions of this Part shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, become void on the commencement of this Constitution; (2) The State shall not make any law inconsistent with any provisions of this Part, and any law so made shall, to the extent of such inconsistency, be void; and (3) Nothing in this article shall apply to any amendment of this Constitution made under Article 142.

Article 27 states, “All citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law”.

Article 28 states:

(1)    The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.

(2)    Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and of public life.

(3)    No citizen shall, only on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth be subjected to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to access to any place of public entertainment or resort, or admission to any educational institution.

(4)    Nothing in this Article shall prevent the State from making special provision in favour of women or children or for the advancement of any backward section of citizens.

Article 29 of the Constitution ensures equality of opportunity for all citizens in respect of employment or office in the service of the Republic and prohibits any discrimination against any citizen on ground of sex in matters of such employment. The Article keeps a clause whereby it allows reservation of any class of employment or office for one particular sex on the ground that is considered by its nature to be unsuited to members of the opposite sex. However, Clause 3 of the same Article is a safety net, which states that, “Nothing in this Article shall apply to any amendment of this Constitution made under Article 142, which deals with the power to amend any provision of the Constitution”.

According to the Constitution, a woman may be elected as a Member of Parliament by directly competing in the national election with her male counterpart or being indirectly elected on the vote of the 300 Members of the Parliament as one of the 30 seats reserved specially for women representatives. In the 1972’ Constitution, the number of seats reserved for women was 15, which was reserved for a period of ten years. By the Second Proclamation Order No. IV of 1978, the Parliament of 1978, raised the number to 30 seats and enhanced the period of ten years to fifteen years. Again, by the Constitution Act, 1990, that is the Tenth Amendment, this provision of indirect election of women in the reserved seats was extended for another ten years.

Women’s Status under Personal Law

Personal law means the law that governs the personal life of a person, e.g. an individual’s marriage, divorce, custody and guardianship of children and of their property inheritance, maintenance, etc. In Bangladesh, there are different kinds of law according to different religions, such as the Personal Laws of the Muslims, Hindus and Christians. Very little change has been made so far in the personal laws of both Muslim and Hindu.

Moreover, no attempt has been taken so far to examine whether personal laws of different religions, open grounds for differential treatments for men and women thereby contradicting the laws of equality enacted in the Constitution under the provisions of Articles 26, 27 and 28.

a)  Muslim Personal Law: Muslim Personal Law is known as Shariah Law which has originated from the Quran and Sunnah, based on Hadith. The Muslim Personal Law (Shariat) Application Act 1937, initiated by the British rulers in the then Indian sub-continent, became operative for the Bangladeshi Muslims by the Laws Continuance Enforcement Order. Section 2 of the Act states that “Notwithstanding any custom or usage to the contrary, in all questions regarding interstate succession, special property of females, including personal property inherited or obtained under contract or gift or any other provision of Personal Law, marriage, dissolution of marriage, including talaq, ila, ziha, lian, khula and Mubara’at, maintenance, dower, guardianship, gifts, trust and trust properties and wakfs (other than charities and charitable institutions and charitable and religious endowments) the rule of decision in cases where the parties are Muslims shall be the Muslim Personal Law (Shariat)”.

According to Advocate Sigma Huda, although this law contradicts the Articles 26, 27 and 28 of the Constitution of Bangladesh, it is somehow protected under Article 41 of the Constitution which guarantees the right and freedom to profess, practice or propagate an individual religion.21 

Under Muslim law, divorce is the unilateral right of a man and a woman can exercise this right only if she is delegated the power to do so. Little change has been brought about in the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939 except for the Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of 1961. According to Muslim Inheritance Law, a Muslim female is entitled to inherit property in four capacities—as a wife, a daughter, mother and sister.

b)  Hindu and Christian Personal Laws:  In Bangladesh, the Hindu women are still governed by the ancient Shastric law. The laws enacted during the colonial period are still applicable to the Hindus of Bangladesh and were never revised in the post-independence period. The specific laws concerned are Hindu Widows Remarriage Act 1856, Hindu Women’s Right to Property Act of 1937 and the Hindu women’s Right to Separate Residence and Maintenance Act of 1946. Hindu women in Bangladesh do not enjoy the right to divorce as per law but can retain the right to live separately. Hindu law does not make marriage registrations compulsory. However Hindu women’s inheritance of property is very restricted.

The marriage of Christians is regulated by the Christian Marriages Act, 1972. According to the law, marriages of Christians have to be registered under the provisions of the Act. While a Christian male holds the right to divorce his wife through the relevant court on the only ground of adultery, a Christian wife can perform the right on seven but difficult grounds including adultery. It is noteworthy here that only the Christian marriage law interdicts polygamy whereas both the Muslim and Hindu Marriage law permit it.

Laws Protecting Women against Violence

Several laws have been enacted to protect the security of the womenfolk. Some of these laws follow:

•     Muslim Family Laws Ordinance, 1961 (repelled in 1986);

•     Muslim Marriages and Divorces (Registration) Act, 1974;

•     Dowry Prohibition Act 1980 (repelled in 1986);

•     The Family Courts Act of 1985;

•     Cruelty to Women (Deterrent Punishment) Ordinance, 1983;

•            Repression against Women and Children (Special Provisions) Ordinance 1995, a repealed version of the earlier Ordinance; and

•            Repression against Women and Children Bill, 1998, which is again a repealed version of the earlier Ordinance.

The draft Suppression of Violence against Women and Children Bill, 1998, however has raised tremendous controversy among women activists. The Sammilito Nari Samaj (United Women’s Forum), a coalition of women’s activists formed in 1995, has expressed its reservations over some of the sections of the Bill, which is yet to be passed in the national parliament. The major concern has been the incorporation of terrorist activities in to the bill, which was supposedly aimed to provide protection to women and children against violence. The inclusion of such a clause actually puts to question the overall direction of the Bill. Moreover, the bill contains some procedural lacunae e.g. in case of definition of terms like “rape”, “offences” etc. Another major concern is to provide legal sanction for the practice of placing women in “safe custody” without prior consent of the person concerned. However, “there was a total consensus within the women’s and human rights organisations, irrespective of their political beliefs, on the issue of elimination all the sections from the Bill that related to the terrorism activities.”22  However, the government has completely rejected the plea to amend the Bill and is preparing to place it in parliament to pass as a law.

National and International Initiatives for Women’s Development

Apart from enclosing articles of equality of women in the Constitution and enacting different laws, the government has taken several other steps to ensure the development of women. One of these is the setting up of a  Central Cell in the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs for the prevention of repression and violence against women. The government has also formed committees at the district, thana and union levels to serve the purpose. It has set up a 15-member Inter Ministerial Committee headed by the Minister for Women and Children Affairs. The responsibility of the committee is to monitor and review the activities of the Central Cell and take remedial measures against gender-based violence.

Table 4: Allocations for Women's Sector in Bangladesh Five Year Plan
(in million Taka)23		

The government had declared a “National Policy for Women’s Advancement” on International Women’s Day in 1997. The policy was aimed at guaranteeing and realising the goals of equality through various means. Hence it offered a comprehensive framework to ensure women’s development. Although the policy had its loopholes, there was no doubt of the goodwill on part of the government at least at the policy level.

In the Fifth Five-Year Plan, covering the period 1997 to 2002, the government has recognised the need to eliminate discriminatory laws, rules, regulations and practices governing the family, social, cultural, economic and political aspects of life. Nevertheless, the budgetary allocations for women’s development remain insignificant.

In September 1997, the Local Government Representation Act, 1997 was adopted. This provides for the direct election of women to three reserved seats at the local tier of administration. The law generated tremendous enthusiasm among the women especially in the rural areas. However, it did not ensure women’s proper emancipation due to the in-built social declassification of women. Most of the elected women members have raised complaints of being denied the opportunity to exert their rights at the workplace.

Bangladesh ratified the United Nations Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (UNCEDAW) in 1984 with reservation to four important articles. According to the Article 18 of the CEDAW, state parties have to submit within a year of ratification and thereafter, at least every four years, reports on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures which they have adopted to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention and on the progress made in this respect.

In 1994, the government completed drafting the Third and Fourth Periodic Report and submitted it to the UN Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women in June 1997. The government in the report has acknowledged the existence of different forms of discrimination against women and problems regarding the implementation of the existing legal provisions. It has, however, identified the existing social and cultural practice and personal laws based on religion.

The women’s organisations, however, have always expressed their grave concern about the presence of personal laws based on various religions in Bangladesh. They have avowed their firm position on the introduction of a “uniform family code” applicable to all nationals of Bangladesh irrespective of religion. The probable negative impact such a law could have on Muslim religious sentiment, the possibility of loosing the vote-bank and strong opposition from the religion-based political parties, have so far restrained any government to pursue the adoption of such a law. The CEDAW Committee has, in its response, raised concern on the issues of continued violence against women in Bangladesh and has urged the government to take appropriate measures to curb gender-based violence.