Grassroots Women and Children Development in the Society
Women’s Status: The women especially the poor women are the most oppressed in the society. They are treated like slaves to do all sorts of household work, which are not considered as economic activities. That is why they do not have any human dignity or social value or participation in any decision making. Women are gradually exploited: they are the dominated by their male counterparts as well as by the dominating class. They are strictly dominated by social barriers and religious superstitions and are not well permitted to go out of the family, participate in economic activities and education. They are the victims of divorce, abandon, separation, polygamy, dowry and oppression, which make their lives tragic, painful and miseries. Occupations: In the operational areas, most of the slum dwellers are Rickshaw puller or daily laborer and rural dwelling households depend on agriculture as the main source of household income with 39% on cultivation/share cropping including 5% in shrimp/fish cultivation, 20% on agricultural labor, 20% on marine fishing. Other 21% are on other occupations like live-stock, fishery, forestry, pisciculture, and nonagricultural labor, business and employment. Women Are Still Underrepresented in Leadership and the Technology, Information and Media industry Despite years of continual efforts to promote gender equality in the workplace, women remain underrepresented in leadership positions. This lack of diversity not only limits organizations' potential to thrive but also reinforces gender biases. The analysis highlights the need to continue to implement policies that promote gender diversity. These include expanding the talent pool by hiring for skills (and not only employment history or degrees), promoting flexible work arrangements such as remote work to accommodate the needs of all workers, and continuing to remove barriers for women for being promoted into leadership positions. In many industries, women face obstacles that hinder their career progression, resulting in a disproportionate number of men occupying top positions. Globally, we estimate that less than a third of leadership positions are held by women. We found this same gender gap - a smaller proportion of women in leadership positions than the overall proportion of women in the workforce - in each industry. Despite the fact that in entry-level roles, women are achieving parity with men or even holding the majority in certain sectors, their representation in leadership positions remains significantly lower due to various biases that obstruct their career progression. Representation of women by seniority: It provides important insights into the potential future evolution of gender gaps in employment. With many higher-paying job opportunities and increasing reliance on technology, the industry will only grow in importance over time. If existing gender gaps persist, they will only exacerbate the overall disparities in the economy between men and women. It is still well below parity with men and even below the proportion of total tech workers who are women (as reported above). In other words, women are not only underrepresented in tech, an industry expected to grow, but they are even more underrepresented in a rapidly growing area like AI and in leadership roles within the industry. Standard of living: The standard of living of the maximum people is most traditional and primitive type. They are quite acquainted with primitive living due to illiteracy and unconsciousness, remoteness and hardship communication. Moreover, they are not touched by modern science. Living conditions like government and other efforts are not available in the operational areas. Most of the people live in thatched houses, which are unhygienic and insanitation condition. So, most of the people suffer from different diseases throughout the year. The environmental condition of the operational areas is also not suitable and favorable. High malnutrition, food deficiency, nutrition deficiencies etc. highly existed. The poor people live from hand to mouth with one meal or half a meal a day. Most of the poor people are suffering from malnutrition and health hazards. Health situation: In relation to these statistics with health facilities in Bangladesh, there are only 96% maternity and child welfare Centre, 13 school health clinic, 15 urban dispensaries which are very much insufficient in respect of health care facilities. District Hospital were major operations are taking place is 9, out of 64 administrative districts in Bangladesh. Objectives: · To motivate and organize people in small groups. · To increase 50% literacy rate among the group members. · To increase the education rate of children through providing education facilities for poor children. · To improve health status and plan families among the group members through providing primary health, nutrition, and family planning education. · To provide curative health services and counseling to the poor people. Adult Education: During the project period, a total of 1500 illiterate group members will be provided financial literacy. It will include basic literacy, numeric and social awareness. Yearly 100 learners will be covered. Each year 25 Teachers will conduct 5 education centers, each center will be included 20 learners. The USCC-B method and materials will be followed to teach the learners. The Teachers will be provided with 7-day training on USCC-B method and materials to conduct the classes effectively. The course duration will be 6 months. Each day classes will be conducted for 2 hours, 6 days in a week. Two examinations will be conducted to justify the learners’ knowledge and skills. Children Education: A total to 10 children education centers will be opened in suitable places. The centers will be set for one year. First year 10 Teachers will be involved, and they will collect 100 children. Each school will include 30 children of age 9 to 16. In the 2nd year and third year same procedures will be followed up. So, the total student will be 900. Each center will be provided with all necessary materials to conduct the classes. Strong monitoring and supervision will be maintained to make the education program a success. Training, Seminars, Workshops and Meetings: Training plays a very important role in the field of rural development, even organizational development. With out proper training, no effective and successful implementation of any activity or program could be possible. PDAP believes that to conscientize, make experienced, knowledgeable and make skill training, workshop and seminars are essential and important. So, PDAP emphasizes training in every case as the first and foremost component. PDAP will arrange different training courses on trade wise to orient and develop the skills of the project participants for carrying out the activities smoothly and effectively. The courses will be set according to the demand of the activities. Necessary resource people will be invited to conduct the sessions as the courses are technical. Emphasis will be given to the practicability of the courses by which the participants can learn black and white. A Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) will be established among the group members of PDAP, which will help to continue the project activity through gaining service charge. The leader of the grassroots women will collect Taka 20 weekly or monthly Taka 100 and will give loan to their members who will be needed. 5% service charge will help to cover the recurring cost of the community. Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) has been kept in the credit program for 3-5 years. If the RLF is revolved and added other incomes of the project like service charge, demonstration income etc. the RLF size will be more after the three-year period. If the RLF revolved will be continued, the money flow will be increased. This process will be sustainable for the women of the community.
