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Contributions from
the Column
Media
Peripherie, a critical academic journal
Women’s empowerment in Bangladesh
Exile formed South Africa’s new elite
3rd Conference on Early Warning
03/2006 |
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Gender stereotypes:
progress in Banglades
Ashish Bose:
Women’s empowerment through capacity building.
Enduring efforts in Bangladesh.
Delhi: Samskriti, and Dhaka:
Gonoprokashani, 2004, 186 pages,
$ 15.00, ISBN 984-8233-39-3
In Europe, Zafrullah Chowdhury is just as likely to appear at conferences held by medico international (a left-leaning German NGO), InWEnt (a German government agency) or the Novartis Foundation (a subsidiary of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant). The physician from Bangladesh is in high demand in development circles – and for good reasons, which are elaborated on in this book by Ashish Bose.
Chowdhury was one of several influential professionals who returned to Bengal during, or shortly after, the war of independence in the early 1970ies. Initially, Chowdhury treated freedom fighters in a hospital on the Indian side of the border. Today, his organisation Gonoshasthaya Kendra – the Bengali term stands for “people’s health centre” – is still involved in delivering medical services, but also in many other fields. A particular emphasis is on empowering women. GK, as the NGO is known for short, is active in education. It also provides employment in various businesses – for instance in its pharmaceutical production facilities or in a textiles company, which was started as a joint venture with the Grameen Bank.
In Chowdhury’s view, the notion of health care should not be reduced to access to an academically trained doctor, who hands out pills or administers shots. Such services are normally not available for the rural poor. Nonetheless, they need help in case of illnesses or injuries. They need information on how to stay well and how to treat patients. Most of all, however, they need dependable livelihoods.
Early on, GK started to work with paramedics to reach out to the villages. The organisation trained women in basic medical as well as other skills. Riding a bicycle, for instance, was unheard of for women. But using one was necessary if paramedics were to assist sick people not only in their own village, but also in neighbouring villages. As the organisation grew, it trained more and more women in more and more skills that, according to tradition, were definetly not suitable for women.
Ashish Bose’s book, which he wrote in cooperation with several other authors, does a fine job of outlining the basic GK philosophy. Fifty biographic case studies of women who work for GK demonstrate to what extent the organisation has succeeded in challenging and changing conventional ideas of appropriate female behaviour. Nonetheless, one would have liked to learn something on how GK funds its activities. This book would make for better reading, had Bose also tackled the issue of finances.
Hans Dembowski
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