Women's participation and decision making power after the local government act of 2009 : a study of local government (Union Parishad) in Bangladesh | |
| Author | Prodip, Md. Mahbub Alam |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.GD-15-06 |
| Subject(s) | Bangladesh. Local Government Act 2009 Women--Political activity--Bangladesh Local government--Bangladesh |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfilmentof the requirements for thedegree of Master of Science in Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no.GD-15-06 |
| Abstract | The women of Bangladesh face discrimination socially, economically and politically in every sphere of life. They are still far from decision-making processes in the family as well as state affairs. Since male dominates all aspects of society, women are hardly given space to enter in the political power structure. Women face various problems to have access to political life. In this backdrop, the governments of Bangladesh have taken various strategies to promote women’s access to the political decision-making process. The affirmative action of reserved seats for women is one of them; especially the local government institutions have opened up a new era for rural women in Bangladesh. The government introduced reserved seats for women as a form of gender quotas in the local level politics. The Local Government (Union Parishad) (Second Amendment) Ordinance of 1997 was introduced with a view to enhancing women’s inclusion in the decisionmaking process in the local government bodies. Due to having ambiguity and difficulties of the ordinance of 1997, further reforms was brought and reinstated the Local Government Act of 2009 with some significant features those are closely related to women’s inclusion in the decision-making process. The research study intends to explore the impact of the local government act of 2009 on women’s decision-making power in the UP. There has been an attempt to assess the changes to women’s political participation through the local government act of 2009 as well as to find out the barriers and facilitating factors of women’s political participation in the decision-making process in the UP. The study has adopted qualitative research approach; taking six ups from six Upazilas of two districts. Purposive sampling was used and 18 elected women members were interviewed for the research study. The study used both primary and secondary sources of data. The research study revealed that the act of 2009 has increased women’s decision-making power in few aspects including institutional functions, development functions, social welfare functions, and ward shava in the UP. Nevertheless, the act of 2009 could not contribute to enhance women’s decision-making power in few aspects like standing committee, project distribution and implementation committee, budget preparation, and finance mobilization in the UP. The study also disclosed that the act of 2009 has brought significant changes to women’s political participation in the UP. Despite having positive changes, women members face several institutional and socio-cultural challenges to participate actively in the decision-making process in the UP. Few facilitating factors also promote women’s decision-making power in various activities of the UP. To overcome the challenges, it is necessary to bring changes in both structure and gender power relations in the UP. |
| Keyword | Women Member; Local Government; Women’s Political Participation; Women Decision-Making Power; Union Parishad. |
| Year | 2015 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no.GD-15-06 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Gender and Development Studies (GD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Doneys, Philippe; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kusakabe, Kyoko;Soparth Pongquan; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | HM Queen (Thailand); |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2015 |