WUNRN
BANGLADESH - DISCRIMINATION AGAINST
WOMEN FARMERS WHEN LAND REGISTERED IN NAME OF HUSBAND (OFTEN OUT OF THE
COUNTRY)
Photo: IFPRI-IMAGES
Women farmers in
DHAKA, 30 September 2011 (IRIN) - A significant number of women
farmers in
Close to half of all farmers in Bangladesh are women, and the majority have not
received their Agriculture Input Assistance Card (AIAC) required to access
government subsidies, said Sadeka Halim, of the Information Commission, the
government-run agency which oversees and enforces the country's right to information act. Farmers must present their AIAC
cards to receive subsidies, such as diesel for irrigation equipment.
The problem, according to Sharmind Neelormi, an associate economics professor
at
“It is our understanding there are millions of women who have not received AIAC
simply because their land is registered under the name of their male partners
who left the country while these women work in the field,” Neelormi said.
“It’s a humiliation for millions of women who are relentlessly working for food
production in the country,” she added.
The Ministry of Agriculture has temporarily stopped issuing new cards amid
allegations of corruption in the AIAC programme. Government officials say they
are investigating. But farmers are still required to present the cards in
exchange for subsidies.
Quazi Akhter Hossain, additional secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, said
the AIAC programme was intended to provide farmers with a way to verify their
status. Since it began in 2010, nearly 14 million cards have been distributed -
short of the 19 million target, said Anwar Faruque, the Ministry of
Agriculture's director-general of the seed division.
More women farmers
The number of men working in agriculture in
“The AIAC scheme overlooked the fact that more and more women are now engaging
in the agriculture sector while more men are abandoning this job to go in
search of jobs in the city and abroad,” said Ziaul Hoque, a steering committee
member for the Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL),
a local alliance of 200 local NGOs and civil society organizations campaigning
for comprehensive agrarian reform in Bangladesh.
The director-general of the Department of Agriculture Extension Service, Habibul
Rahman, said the AIAC programme was not designed to distinguish between
male and female farmers, but focused on land ownership only.
“In order to recognize the role of the real food heroines of the country, the
government must revise its policy related to AIAC,” said Neelormi. “Ownership
of land cannot be the main criteria for distributing AIAC.”
Discrimination
Aloka Rani, a 45-year-old female farmer from Rangpur District, began farming
after her husband’s death a decade ago. She said she is discriminated against
as a woman in every step of food production.
“When I go to buy fertilizer, I am served last, and I face difficulties in hiring
day labourers because in the village powerful males mock labourers who work
under women,” Rani said.
A bank declined to give her a loan, too, because her land is registered under
her husband’s name.
“This discrimination against me must end because our agriculture minister is a
woman and our prime minister is a woman too,” the widow said.
husband, who is paralyzed. She said she spoke in March at a national programme
marking International Women’s Day in