Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance and Planning Prof Dr Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir today said violence against women was reached its highest level in the past 17 years, with the reality on the ground failing to match the development narrative of the ousted government.
“However much the ousted government talked about development, there is no consistency between the development indicators and reality,” he said.
Dr Titumir was speaking as the chief guest at a seminar titled “Land Rights and Violence against Women in Rural Bangladesh”, organised by the Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD) at CIRDAP auditorium in the capital.
He said violence within families persists when the state itself becomes violent.
“When a state seeks to govern through fear, it creates a culture of fear through every step, and that also spreads into families,” he said.
He said that various indicators of patriarchy had increased significantly over the past 17 years, the consequences of which were reflected in the discussions at the seminar.
The adviser said the number of poor people had increased due to inherited problems, with around one crore people becoming poor from the lower-income group according to some estimates.
“After the previous government’s social safety-net programmes ended, it was found that the number of poor people in the country had increased by one crore,” he said, adding that the previous government had merely spread an empty narrative of development.
“We want to learn from the past. We want women to be beneficiaries throughout every stage of their lives. Our government wants to ensure their rightful entitlements during childhood, motherhood and old age,” he said.
Dr Titumir stressed the need for movements and struggles to establish people’s rights and ensure state accountability.
