The budget allocation for the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs has increased this year but the urgency to implement budget allocation for women’s safety and employment has become more important because many women lost work and many are stuck in their own home with their abusers because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the National Budget for the Fiscal Year 2020-21, the government proposed Tk3,860 crore for the ministry while the size of the budget for this ministry was 3,789 (revised) crore in the last fiscal.
Maleka Banu, general secretary of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, told Dhaka Tribune that this year the implementation of the allocation should be a little different because many women have lost their source of income because of the pandemic and domestic violence against women has increased due to movement restriction, and they are forced to stay with their abusers for a significant amount of time at home.
“It is too early to comment if we are satisfied with the overall budget for women this year. Shelter homes, social security and employment-- these three things need immediate attention from the authorities,” she told this correspondent.
“Too many women have to live with their abusers as they have nowhere to go and the government needs to provide more funds to build more shelter houses for these women,” she said.
While placing the budget, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the coverage for social security for women will be increased in this fiscal year.
He said: “I propose to increase the coverage of the social security programs in the following area -- all widows and the women who were deserted by their husbands in 100 upazilas, most prone to poverty due to the coronavirus outbreak will be brought under the coverage of the allowance program for widows and women deserted by their husbands as per the existing policy. This will add 350,000 new beneficiaries, and an additional allocation of Tk210 crore will be provided to this program.”
The transgender community will receive capacity building training under the Ministry of Social Welfare.
Joya Sikder, president of Somporker Noya Setu, an NGO campaigning for Hijra rights in Bangladesh, said: “The Social Welfare Ministry every year gets a budget allocation to provide training for transgender community; however, the real challenge for this community is to find a job.”
Joya believed the government should have allocated budget to provide small loans for the transgender community so that they can stand on their own feet after the training.
In the last fiscal year, an allocation of Tk1,61,247 crore, which is 5.56% of GDP, and 30.82% of the proposed budget for FY2019-20, was proposed for the development of women in the country.
The government assigned 43 ministries and divisions to implement the allocation.