Naznin Tithi

Shojag is working to end gender-based violence in our garments industry. It is a coalition of five organisations—Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), the Human Rights and legal Aid Services (HRLS) Programme of BRAC,

With most public universities already fixing dates for admission tests after the publication of this year's HSC examination results, the battle of admission seekers for getting a seat at their desired university is about to begin.

Iqbal Habib, Member Secretary, Urbanisation & Governance Programme, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), talks to Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star about why lack of coordination among the agencies concerned is the main barrier to solving Dhaka's waterlogging problem and how this issue should be addressed.

For the last 10 years, the budgetary allocation for health has been constantly around five percent of the total budget. If at least 3 percent of the GDP could be spent on health, it could have a major impact. Generally, the government provides allocation to public hospitals based on the number of beds. The amount allocated for each bed is very small. But as the number of people seeking treatment is much higher than the number of beds available, these extra people do not get any portion of the budgetary allocation.

It felt like I was in the Ladyland of Sultana's Dream. In Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's famous feminist utopian story, women go about doing their daily work with much ease and face no risk of being harassed or abused by men because men are kept indoors. I felt a similar sense of security when for the first time in my life I got onboard a bus exclusively for women. The experience was rather surreal.

Last year when the news of Rohingya women giving birth in no man's land along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border first surfaced in the media, I heard many men glorifying such births which took place out in the open without any assistance from any birth attendants. They were comparing the Rohingya women's experiences of childbirth with that of our urban women, who can afford quality maternity care during their pregnancy and give birth at quality

There has hardly been any news in the media about the ongoing HSC examinations that started on April 2. And that's probably good news.

While the BCS examinees and students of various public universities and colleges across the country have been demonstrating on the streets demanding reforms in the existing quota system in Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations, some groups of freedom fighters' children have also been protesting, but clearly, for the opposite reason.

DEVASTATION IN THE WAKE OF FLOODS

AS we look back at the previous year which saw an increase of violence against children we must take a vow to play our part to make 2018 a better year for children. It is really hard to drive away our frustration at our collective failure to protect our children from the various forms of abuse that they have to suffer on a regular basis.

First, I have been a human rights and political activist for the last 29 years. I can't call myself a human rights defender and turn my back on my own country's genocide, like most human rights defenders in Myanmar are doing today.

A teenage girl named Zannat used to come to our house in Mirpur occasionally to help my mother with household work, some six or seven years ago.

One of my teachers at college would often say, “Even if you take a walk through a (public) university campus, you will learn many things about life.”

According to Bangladesh Shishu Adhikar Forum, a total of 494 children were raped in the eight months from January till August this year—among them 58 were gang-raped. According to their statistics, 37 disabled children were raped during this time, while 46 were victims of attempted rape.

The photo in the newspaper, of a baby girl born a few days ago at Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia makes me marvel at how beautiful she is; but the next moment I remember the reality she has been born into—what the future holds for her, what her mother had to go through while fleeing her own country and whether she too, will have to face hunger, disease and emotional trauma.

Being someone who is keen on watching films that were made on our Liberation War in the early seventies and the films that made an impact on our nation's movement for freedom, for me, Zahir Raihan is a legend.

Let's start with the “punishment” awarded to the health workers. This is not the first time that government officials were transferred to remote areas as “punishment”. This practice is, in fact, quite common.

A few years back, as I was walking past the National Museum in the cool afternoon breeze, I stopped under the shade of a huge tree.

It was February 27, 2004. I was a resident of Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam Hall at Jahangirnagar University.

From the particular perspective of Bangladesh, two types of challenges impede her bilateral trade with India.