Following the footprint of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh has made significant strides in advancing women empowerment in many areas including in the field of technology use under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Fazilatun Nessa Indira was quoted as saying at a Ministerial Roundtable in the United Nations on March 7.
She is attending the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Stating various policy initiatives of Bangladesh, State Minister Indira shared with the Ministerial delegations of other countries that after successful “Digital Bangladesh” campaign, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has launched the ‘Smart Bangladesh’ campaign, where the entire economy of Bangladesh will be operated with the support of technology. Women will have equal opportunities to engage themselves in this technology-driven development journey of Bangladesh, she further added.
In her remarks, the State Minister highlighted that over 5000 digital Centers have been established across the country where 50% service providers are women. She also shared other best practices in which women were given priority such as the receipt of salary by RMG workers – 80% of whom are women, through mobile services; empowerment of around 10.25 million of rural women across the country through ICT based signature project “Info Lady”; introduction of a mobile app named ‘Joy’ and the two 24 hours national hotlines109 and 999 to prevent and protect women from violence and sexual harassment. These good practices were highly applauded by the international community.
Referring to the target of Bangladesh to increase women’s participation in ICT to 30 percent by 2030 and 50 percent participation by 2041, the State Minister sought support and cooperation from United Nations and development partners to achieve these goals.
Prior to the Ministerial Roundtable, the State Minister attended a high-level event on "Getting it Right from the Start: Empowering Women in Green STEM through the Education Pipeline” organized by the Permanent Mission of Australia and a Ministerial breakfast arranged by the World Bank Group. Earlier on 06 March, she met Prime Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir and President of Swiss Federation Alain Berset at receptions hosted by the Permanent Mission of Iceland and Switzerland for the visiting Ministers.
The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body of the United Nations exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The current session of the Commission started on 06 March and will continue till 17 March 2023.