Women in Bangladesh

I have visited some areas in Bangladesh. Most visits were during the panchayat level election time. I am impressed with how active women are in Bangladesh. Many of election candidates were women. In fact, places where I conducted focus group discussion, I got to watch some woman candidate campaign for election. I understand Bangla about 80 percent and I can tell her campaign was great. It was a very powerful political campaign. I cannot even imagine coming up with such agenda for a political campaign. In focus group discussions I had invited 12 women, but in one of my focus group, there were 30 participants. I asked them why they all wanted to come. They told me they had lot to say and I thought that was great. Bangladeshi women participation in politics is an equally impressive thing. The major political leaders are women and the major ministries are run by women.

Introduction

I arrived in Bangladesh on 18 May, 2011. I started my work on the 19^th. My work here is divided into two parts: 16 days is for Rural Enterprise for Alleviating Poverty project (REAP) and remaining of the days is for Farmer to Farmer program. So far, I completed my REAP project and today I moved on to Farmer to Farmer. I don’t know what to write here, so I am writing all this.  12 days I worked in the office and four days I worked in the field. I worked in 6 sub-districts of Gazipur, Tanail and Mymensing district. I conducted four focus group discussions, four group interviews, one SWOT analysis, and presentation of my final report and also I conducted a seminar on my findings.

Well, there is really nothing so exotic to talk about for me in Bangladesh. I find it very similar to Nepal. I don’t usually feel I am in a new country. I feel like I am back in Nepal. The food is similar, the culture is similar and the sense of humor is very similar to Nepali people. There are some differences in Bangladesh and Nepal. Bangladesh is extremely crowded and Nepal is not. Dhaka is an overwhelming city. It is surrounded by tall and modern buildings, big malls, etc.  Also, there are many rickshaws and auto-rickshaws. The villages here are very similar to villages in Nepal. My next project (Evaluation work) is focused on the northern and southern region of Bangladesh. I am looking forward to it.