Bangladesh kan være et slemt sted, hvis du bor på landet og er kvinde
DHAKA, 30 September 2011 (IRIN): A significant number of women farmers in Bangladesh are unable to access (få fat i) fertilizer, cash assistance and other government subsidies intended for farmers, because the land they work is registered in their husband’s name, according to government officials, NGOs and women farmers.
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 is that the AIAC program-me requires eligible (gyldige) cardholders to own land, explains Sharmind Neelormi, an associate economics professor at Jahangir Nagar University in Dhaka who has studied gender trends in farming, and others.
– 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 is 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
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