Girls Advocacy Program Plan Bangladesh

Violence against girls and young women and the denial of their economic rights stand in the way of achieving meaningful gender equality. Serious violations of these human rights are affecting millions of girls and young women. Societies pay a high price for not tackling these issues. Despite being one of the major work forces in Bangladesh women are deprived from their right to equal pay. Survey of the ready-made garment industry indicate that most female workers are unaware of their legal rights, 42% of the female workers are paid less than the minimum wage and do not claim labour rights. In rural areas, 83% of the employed women aged 15 years and over are engaged as unpaid helpers. Socio-cultural norms support women staying at home, rather than pursuing a career. Rates of Child Marriage and adolescent motherhood are among the highest in the world. Despite the fact that according to the CM Act 1929, the legal marriage is 18 for girls, 75% of the women aged 20-29 were married before the age of18. Eve teasing, which is sexual harassment in public places, is one of the major causes of adolescent girl’s marriage and dropout from school. Research has shown that 91% of the women are victim of eve teasing; out of these 87% incidents in the ag level of 10 to 18 years. Approximately 2 million women and children have bee trafficked o the Middle East, about 20.000 women and girls from Bangladesh are trafficked to Pakistan each year, mainly for the purpose of sexual exploitation.