Reduce female school drop-out ratio
Development activists tell seminar
Development activists at a seminar yesterday underscored the need for reducing drop-out ratio of female students from schools to achieve millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015.
Though male and female enrolments are parallel, the ratio of female student drop-out is at least twice that of male students, they said.
The girl student drop-out rate is 27 percent, they added.
Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangha (BNPS) and United Nations Millennium Campaign jointly organised the seminar titled “MDG achievement for women: current situation and responsibilities” at National Press Club in the city.
Speaking as chief guest Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Affairs Dipangkar Talukder said government has been working to reduce infant and maternal mortality and increase female student enrolment in primary schools.
This will ultimately help to achieve the MDGs, he added.
Rokeya Kabir, executive director of BNPS moderated the seminar while Faisal Bin Majid, coordinator of BNPS, presented the keynote paper.
Quoting the keynote paper, speakers said though women's employment doubled from 1995, the rate is still 26 percent. Most of the female population are employed in readymade garments sector, health and community clinics and self-employed by taking micro-credits.
They said 20,000 women still die annually during delivery. Six lakh women suffer due to pregnancy related complications as skilled birth attendants conduct only 18 percent of the deliveries. The paper stated that 69 percent of poor women did not get postnatal care.
Senior Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), Pratima Paul Majumder and Monisha Biswas of UN Millennium Campaign also spoke at the seminar.
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