Topics

421

BBA Discussion Forum / Violence against women: Where is justice?

« on: May 30, 2013, 01:01:55 PM »

Violence against women is one of the major obstacles to achieving equality, development and peace. This deprives women from enjoying their human rights and fundamental freedoms. In every part of the world and in every society, women and girls are subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse to a greater or lesser degree. Violence against women throughout their life cycle is a demonstration of the historically unequal power relations between women and men. Women traditionally possess lower status in the family, workplace, community and society, and it is exacerbated by social pressures.

The UN has launched a global campaign to end violence against women called 'UNiTE to End Violence against Women' in March 2008. The campaign will end in 2015, coinciding with the deadline for meeting the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals).

The United Nations defines violence against women as 'any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.' Every day, women and girls are subject to domestic violence, exploitation, sexual violence, trafficking, forced prostitution, honour crimes, harmful traditional practices e.g. bride burning and early marriages, and other forms of violence against their bodies, minds and human dignity. The most unfortunate is that in the world of male dominance women or girls are treated from a 'thing-based' approach, a mode of sexual pleasure rather than considering them as
individuals.

Six out of every ten women around the globe experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. World Health Organisation (WHO) has conducted a study in ten developing countries titled WHO Multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence against women which reveals that, 30 per cent of the rural women in Bangladesh aged 15 to 49 years reported that their first sexual experience were forced. The consequences of violence against women are many-folds. Violence is a major cause of death and disability for women and girls aged 16 to 44 years old. Moreover, violence against women increases women's vulnerability to HIV.

The patriarchal society and its structure is the root of violence against women in Bangladesh. Due to the weaknesses in the police and judicial systems, women's rights are not preserved. The law-enforcement authorities in Bangladesh still consider domestic violence as a social issue. In addition, corruption and greed ensure that the testimonies and complaints of victims are stalled. Moreover, financial and political intervention by the local influential people gives protection to the criminals. As a result, more and more women are becoming victims of violence and there is still no justice for them (Odhikar, 2012).

The scenario of violence against women in Bangladesh is not satisfactory at all considering the statistics from different government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Bangladesh Police statistics (January to December 2012) reveals that a total of 20,251 incidents have been recorded as 'Cruelty to Women'. The picture is far below reaching the target of eliminating violence against women, because, 14,987 women on average (2001-2012) have become the victims of violence against women per year in Bangladesh.

According to the statistics of a non-governmental organisation in Bangladesh, 'Odhikar,' 2338 women were killed, 1025 women physically abused and 172 women committed suicide because of dowry violence from January 01, 2001 to February 29, 2012. A total of 281 women and 447 children were victims of rape between January and November 2012. During the same period, a total of 753 women experienced the horror of dowry, among them 257 were killed, 13 committed suicide and 483 were abused. 'Odhikar' statistics also reveals that 51 women, along with 19 girls, were victims of acid throwing in the same period. Moreover, 15 out of 459 girls, who were victimised by stalkers, committed suicide while three were killed, 24 injured, 15 assaulted, nine abducted and 64 became victims of attempt of rape.

Although, the Constitution and the Penal Code of Bangladesh contain provisions for protecting women from various forms of violence, 'sexual assault' is not clearly defined. Specific crimes of serious nature include rape, kidnapping, abduction, acid throwing or attempt to cause death or grievous injury because of dowry out of which the Penal Code prescribes capital punishment for kidnapping, abduction, acid throwing and rape. A number of laws reflecting the provisions of the Penal Code are there with avowed goal of reducing or eliminating violence against women, which include:

l Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929

l The Family Court Ordinance 1985

l Dowry Prohibition Act 1980 and its amendment in 1986

l The Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act 1933

l The Cruelty to Women (Deterrent Punishment) Ordinance 1983

l Trafficking in Women and Children Act 1993

l Suppression of Violence against Women and Children Act 2000 (also known as Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act 2000)

l Acid Control Act 2000 and Acid Crime Prevention Acts 2002

l Legal Protection Provision Act 2002

l Domestic Violence Act 2010

Traditionally, the married women in Bangladesh suffer all sorts of violence due to fear of being divorced as the society does not treat a divorcee equally along with a married woman. Breaking such social and traditional barriers of gender disparity, we have to move forward in achieving a broader target of gender equity.

The number of violence against women is following a vertical drift which is one of the main barriers to building a society of gender equity and free from violence against women. In building such a society, we have to change, first of all, our attitude of treating women or girls from a 'thing-based' approach. Women are not products of sexual pleasure rather they participate in any activities along with their male counterparts.

We have to accept women as our fellow companions in social, cultural, economic, national and global activities. The male counterparts have to come forward to build a world free from violence against women leaving behind the vague pride of masculinity.

written by A. Z. M. Saleh and Nahida Sultana

422

BBA Discussion Forum / Exempting education expenditure from taxes

« on: May 28, 2013, 04:36:50 PM »

Education is the backbone of a nation. Indeed it is the most significant driving force of development in this world. After liberation of Bangladesh and during the last couple of decades, the government has been setting and expanding educational institutions but facilities so far created have measurably failed to meet the growing needs of the people. From pre-liberation time, the private sector has been supplementing the government efforts that are still going on. Previously educational institutions were not set up and run by profit motive but now it is. The new educational institutions are charging exorbitant charges from students. Formally the owners of the institutions do not take charges in cash or in kind but take those informally.

Students from service-holder families have no alternative but to study for a living. They are confronting acute hardship to pay the exorbitant fees and other expenditures on education. The fees and other charges of private educational institutions particularly at higher secondary, under-graduate and graduate levels are so high nowadays that even the middle income group of people is facing huge difficulties to pay those. The Education Minister recently asked the private universities to fix fees and other charges at levels that are affordable to general masses. The Chancellor of the universities have urged in several convocation ceremonies of different private universities to reduce tuition and other charges but in vain.

In these circumstances, the government needs to come forward to bear some financial load of the guardians. It can exempt the education expenditure of dependents from taxable income of the service-holder guardians, who formally have to pay to private colleges and universities as tuition and other charges against their students. Excluding formal tuition and other fees of private educational institutions from taxable income of a service-holder guardian will give at least a little relief in these days of high prices of commodities.

We would like to urge the government to exempt formal tuition and other charges that a service-holder guardian pays to private university for his student son and daughter from his taxable income from the national budget 2013-14 fiscal year.

423

Business Administration / As you sow, so you reap.....

« on: May 28, 2013, 01:57:43 PM »

Perhaps it is a time to have a look at the external sector of Bangladesh that constitutes roughly 40 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In this article, this writer will heavily draw upon Sadiq Ahmed, an eminent economist and vice chairman of the Policy Research Institute. An X-ray of the external sector is of utmost importance when the country has turned out to be more open over time, and has been serving as a barometer of the performance of the domestic economy. If one wanted to breathe a sigh of relief amid economic and political tensions gripping the economy till February 2013, it must have been an improvement in balance of payments (BoP) of Bangladesh. BoP is an account that depicts a country's external economic performance. Particularly, the period from 2011 to 2012 saw a series of external shocks especially resulting in a loss of reserves and a substantial depreciation of the Taka. Now things seem to have taken a positive look reversing the earlier trends. The BoP has been in a satisfactory state of health, if not the best. The rationale of the developments needs to be duly reckoned well before celebration.

The first cause of the seeming comfort could be the correction in monetary stance of the Bangladesh Bank when it decided to take a contractionary monetary stance on the heels of an expansionary one that allegedly produced the perils - high inflation, bubble in the asset market, depreciation of home currency Taka etc. But denouncing the earlier expansionary policy may not do justice to its makers as it was necessary to leave the economy out of the shadow of the worldwide economic recession. John Maynard Keynes was once asked about the change of his stance. He quipped, information changes, so do the conclusions. The recent change in monetary stance is akin to that. Medicine should follow the disease, not the other way round. However, this new tight policy arguably has helped reduce inflation, pressure on asset prices and eliminate the excess demand pressure in the first half of FY13. This signifies that you can be off the hook by adopting a prudent monetary policy e.g., controlling inflation, stabilising asset prices and ensuring conducive exchange rate management. Second, the recovery in exports and a surge in the flow of remittances reaching a record high surely have helped the turnaround. Third, a fall in imports and a rise in private capital inflows also went to ease the pressure. And finally, as rarely heard before, net capital inflows (both private and public) have increased following few positive policies. Many factors could be adduced to the apparent 'surprise', but the correction in the monetary policy and associated decline in demand for dollars is likely to have played a part. By and large, significant improvement in the capital account is a major positive outcome which, if sustained, could leave beneficial impacts on investment and growth in Bangladesh.

But things have changed radically since the last few months. The sky of the economy is covered with political clouds. The intense political instability followed by a series of hartals is poised to reduce economic growth. The export sector led by the readymade garments (RMG) has been worst affected, in terms of image abroad and inflows from abroad, due to a number of man-made disasters. As political tension mounts, imports are likely to go down substantially impacting negatively upon investment. Erroneously, the sluggish investment is adduced to the correction of monetary policy. But things as they are seem to tell a different story. There is no shortage of domestic liquidity with private credit running at 18-20 per cent. The fix, as we reckon, lies in putting the investment plate proper and creating an investment climate. Poor investment plate springs from the inability to implement infrastructural development projects fuelled by the lack of land availability, property rights, and quick decisions by bureaucracy. This has nothing to do with monetary policy as often tagged with. For some reasons or the other, the deteriorating investment climate is set to put the last nail on the coffin. The most recent political instability for the last few months associated with devastations in terms of human lives and property, rise of fundamentalist forces, etc. have led many investment and business delegations to postpone their visits to Bangladesh; some have allegedly packed up to back out; image crisis has cast a serious blow to the already fragile environment.

So, it seems that improvements on the external front might be outweighed by deterioration on the domestic front. Taken both domestic and external front together, Bangladesh, at least for the next six months or so when a new government is likely to take over, will be poised to pass through a tunnel without any light at the end. Everywhere politics dominates economics but in Bangladesh, politics destroys economics. Henry Kissinger once brutally termed Bangladesh as 'bottomless basket' in economic sense; now it seems that Bangladesh is going to be a politically bottomless basket and the onus lies on the politicians to lift the nation out of the shadow of such crisis. For the last few decades, Bangladesh worked very hard to emerge as a role model for developing countries where others of the same level had to learn from the country. We just want to get back our fame at any cost. As we sow, so we shall reap.

The writer is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. aabdulbayes@yahoo.com

     

424

Business Administration / NRBs suggest FBCCI to engage lobbyist to get GSP facilities from US

« on: May 28, 2013, 01:39:05 PM »

Non Resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) suggested the country's apex trade body on Monday to constitute a high-powered business team for engaging lobbyist and convincing the US Congressmen to secure GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) and other business facilities.

The suggestion came after the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) called upon the visiting US business delegation to work in favour of Bangladesh for getting such facilities from the USA.

The country's apex trade body also urged the United States (US) through its business delegation to include all products exported from Bangladesh in the US GSP list.

Shabbir Chowdhury of the US Bangladesh Advisory Council (USBAC) said Bangladesh can create goodwill ambassador through formation of the team to convince US Congressmen for getting GSP and other business facilities from the US.

"At the same time, Bangladesh business leaders need to be engaged with African businessmen who have been raising their voices against the facilities of duty free access or GSP to Bangladesh," Mr Chowdhury, also a NRB, told the meeting at the Federation Bhaban at noon on the day.

Citing US investment in Tourism, backward linkage industries for RMG, light engineering, ship building, telecom, fisheries, plastic, leather and energy and power, the FBCCI president said the country currently generates 6350 MW electricity.

He said the production capacity needs to be enhanced to 11457 MW by 2015 which would require another US$15 billion investment out of which US$10 billion is expected to be provided by the private sector.

"We require more foreign direct investment. The government adopted an open door policy only to create competitive atmosphere for investment. So, the US investors can take the opportunity," he added.

425

Business Administration / Credit flow under BB refinance

« on: May 27, 2013, 04:36:02 PM »

Credit flow under BB refinance scheme gains momentum
Rezaul Karim ( published on 27th May,2013, Financial Express)

Disbursements of funds for financing projects in some areas of renewable energy, with the support of the refinancing facility of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), witnessed a satisfactory level of increase since its inception, thanks to initiatives taken by the country's central bank in tandem with those of a number of its scheduled banks, sources said.

Under the facility or scheme, funds were disbursed at a faster pace for projects to generate biogas and install solar photo-voltaic (PV) module assembling plants, Hybrid Hoffman Kilns (HHKs) and effluent treatment plants (ETPs), the sources added.

According to the latest available data, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) provided funding support to the tune of Tk 853.54 million until December 2012 compared to Tk 251.23 million (25.123 crore) at December-end in 2011, to the scheduled banks under its refinancing scheme.

This made it possible for the banks to disburse more credits to their clients operating in relevant areas of renewable energy. Of the aggregate credit flow, an amount of Tk 23.90 million was disbursed for the purpose of solar irrigation, Tk 102.84 million for installation of solar home systems, Tk 262.70 million for biogas generation, Tk 90.40

million for setting up ETPs, Tk 124.80 million for HHK and Tk 248.80 million for solar PV module assembling plants, the BB statistics showed.

The disbursements for the purposes of solar irrigation and installation of solar home systems was, however, markedly slower than what was earlier expected because of lack of awareness of the people about green banking across the county, officials said.

The BB launched the Green Banking Refinance Scheme involving Tk 2.0 billion on August 03, 2009 to provide funds as credits by banks to the renewable energy projects in the country against the backdrop of chronic power outages around that time.

Under the special scheme, banks and financial institutions get the support under the central bank's refinancing scheme at a 5.0 rate of interest.

"The people are not aware of our refinancing facility. They even do not know about, from where the credits for related projects are available. This is the main cause for the low level of fund disbursement in this particular area. But disbursements of credits for the purposes of biogas generation and installation of solar PV module assembling plants and HHKs are increasing faster than those in other areas," a high BB official told the FE.

The scheme was undertaken in line with the government's plan to meet 5.0 per cent of the total demand for electricity from green energy by 2015 and 10 per cent by 2020.

The BB officials said the central bank in May last year increased the lending rate on credits under the green banking projects. It was done to encourage and facilitate the commercial banks to step up further their credit disbursement operations relating to such loans.

The BB allowed the raising of the lending rate on loans for biogas and cattle-rearing to 11 per cent from the earlier level of 10 per cent.

426

Business & Entrepreneurship / CSR in RMG

« on: May 27, 2013, 04:15:53 PM »

The United States has asked Bangladesh to introduce Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the readymade garment (RMG) industry and sign the Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (TICFA) to have better industrial and business environment in the country.On the other hand, Dhaka has sought duty and quota-free market access for its apparels in the US market.

The proposals and demands were tabled on the first day of the second Bangladesh-US Partnership Dialogue, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Dialogue will conclude today (Monday) with a joint briefing, meeting sources said.

US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman led the US delegation while Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque the home side to the dialogue.

Three sessions were held under the platform of the Partnership Dialogue. These focused trade and

investment, security cooperation and development and governance.

Other issues like labour standards compliance, labour law reform and Bangladesh-US cooperation in energy sector were discussed at the meeting.

Higher studies in the US, women's empowerment, non-traditional security issues, including food security, healthcare, climate change, maritime cooperation and migration were also discussed at the meeting.

"The discussion also highlighted counter-terrorism cooperation, security assistance, cooperation in the United Nations peacekeeping operations and humanitarian assistance," a Foreign Ministry official said.

The ongoing political turmoil affecting business and economy and the next poll-time government are likely to figure prominently on the concluding day of the dialogue, he added.

The 'US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue' in Dhaka is the second of its kind that is taking place after the first dialogue held in Washington in September last year.

The Partnership Dialogue was established under an agreement signed by the two countries in May last year. It is intended to institutionalise the ongoing partnership in a broader perspective covering trade, development, counter-terrorism and security aspects.

"The US side stressed the importance of introducing CSR in the clothing factory, trade unions and enforcement of compliance in all garment factories in the country," the senior Foreign Ministry official, who attended the meeting, told the FE.

"We assured the US that Dhaka is serious about establishing proper and globally accepted labour standards in the clothing industry."

427

Business & Entrepreneurship / Zero coupon bond

« on: May 27, 2013, 04:03:22 PM »

Zero Coupon Bond is a money market instrument. So if the key players (banks, insurance companies and financial institutions) in the money market can enjoy such a tax exemption facility on the income from Zero Coupon Bonds, the Zero Coupon Bond will be more popular and widely used as a source of funding.