[{"bbox": [96, 153, 1136, 390], "category": "Text", "text": "**Bangladesh has signed most of the UN conventions related to women's human rights.** This includes the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which the country ratified in 1984. The Constitution recognises equal rights for women and men in the public sphere and there is a comprehensive legal and policy framework guaranteeing women's rights. The Prime Minister has declared Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment as one of the ten priority action areas, and Bangladesh has taken multipronged actions to achieve this goal. In its journey to a middle-income country, Bangladesh prioritises, as outlined in its 8th Five Year Plan, improving women's human capabilities, increasing women's economic participation and security, enhancing women's voice, and creating an enabling environment for women's advancement."}, {"bbox": [96, 418, 1136, 843], "category": "Text", "text": "**However, despite these efforts and positive trends, the rapid economic growth has exacerbated patterns of marginalisation, especially among women.** With a female-to-male HDI ratio of 0.898, the Gender Development Index (GDI) shows low equality in HDI achievements between women and men.¹⁰ Inequality gaps persist in labour markets, and in particular, regarding women's participation and representation in high-levels of decision making, women's participation in the formal economy and the persistent wage gap between women and men in most sectors. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down progress, resulting in a reversal of some development gains. The pandemic has impacted women more than men, emphasised pre-existing social and economic vulnerabilities and posed new challenges to social cohesion. In fact, Bangladesh has experienced in 2022 a decline in overall gender parity, as reflected in a lower gender gap score and index ranking compared to 2021. The change is the result of lower country performance on 'educational attainment' as well as on the 'economic participation and opportunity' sub-index, with a reduction in women's workforce participation of 5.45% points. Gross national income per capita for Bangladeshi women stands at USD 2,811, compared to USD 8,176 for men. In the 2022 World Bank's Women, Business and the Law index, which measures a country's legal and regulatory framework to promote women's participation and representation in economic life, Bangladesh gets a score of 49.4 out of 100. The overall score for Bangladesh is lower than the regional average observed across South Asia (63.7).¹¹"}, {"bbox": [96, 868, 1136, 1135], "category": "Text", "text": "**In addition, GBV is another major barrier to gender equality.** GBV remains highly prevalent in the country and Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriages worldwide, with 59% of girls marrying below the age of 18 and 22% below the age of 15.¹² A survey in 2015 by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BSS) found that almost two thirds of women experienced violence at least once in their lifetime.¹³ A 2021 WHO report analysing violence against women in 61 countries between the years 2000 and 2018 found that Bangladesh has become one of the top-ranking countries in domestic GBV. In 2013, the Government of Bangladesh approved the Domestic Violence Act. The legislation aims to prevent domestic violence, which was until then considered a private matter, protect women and children from domestic violence, and establish equal rights for women and children. However, the Law has only been implemented so far in four districts due to the lack of budget allocated for its implementation."}, {"bbox": [96, 1160, 1106, 1400], "category": "Text", "text": "Besides domestic violence, other forms of violence include violence towards domestic workers, rape, acid violence, sexual harassment, dowry-related violence and punishment by Salish (mediation). As a response, the Government of Bangladesh started implementing in 2000 the Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence Against Women (MSPVAW), in partnership with Denmark, and developed a comprehensive National Action Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women and Children 2013 - 2030 (revised in 2018 to extend the Action Plan until 2030) with the aim to achieve \"a society without violence against women and children by 2025\". CEDAW Concluding Observations to the 8th Periodic review in 2016 still highlighted concerns related to legal reform, women's access to justice, tackling harmful social norms and stereotypes, and strengthening the gender-responsiveness of law enforcement and judiciary. Further, the Government has yet to allocate a budget to the"}, {"bbox": [87, 1468, 550, 1492], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹⁰ Human Development Report 2021/2022, Table 4, page 288"}, {"bbox": [87, 1492, 1144, 1558], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹¹ The WB index covers 190 economies and is structured around the life cycle of a working woman. 100 represents the highest possible score. Available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/36945/9781464818172.pdf?sequence=13&isAllowed=y"}, {"bbox": [87, 1557, 326, 1579], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹² Girls Not Brides, Bangladesh"}, {"bbox": [87, 1578, 1144, 1622], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹³ Report on violence against women (VAW) 2015. Available at: https://evaw-global-database.unwomen.org/-/media/files/un%20women/vaw/vaw%20survey/bangladesh%20vaw%20survey%202015.pdf?vs=2125"}, {"bbox": [1038, 1682, 1144, 1706], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "Page 5 of 27"}]