Women Lead Grassroots Advocacy Efforts in Bangladesh

March 8, 2024

While women’s political empowerment in Bangladesh has increased in recent decades, public life remains largely male-dominated with limited opportunities for women to have a voice. With the support of Counterpart’s Promoting Advocacy and Rights activity, funded by USAID, grassroots civil society organizations are bridging this gap by building the leadership capacity of women in marginalized communities to advocate for their rights. In 2023, 19 women took on leadership roles in Counterpart’s programs to mobilize and amplify the needs and demands of various marginalized communities at the national level. Through inclusive grassroots advocacy, the project is supporting these women to transform the social dynamics and drive positive change in their communities.

Konka Das, Hena Aktar Rupa, Jharna Aktar, Mollika Das, and Laxme Das are five examples of the many women who have emerged as leaders of grassroots citizen-led advocacy campaigns in Bangladesh. With assistance from our team, these women have learned how to actively collaborate with government officials to demand improved service delivery and create cleaner, safer, and healthier environments for everyone in their communities.

Konka Das is member of the cobbler community in Dhaka, where most women face child marriage or domestic violence. Under a Counterpart social inclusion grant, Das learned about her social and economic rights and how to mobilize women in her low-income neighborhood to identify educational and job opportunities in her community. She quickly rose to become a leader of the cobbler advocacy forum and became the first cobbler woman to speak directly to the press at a media even. She is now helping to lead advocacy with national policymakers to advance the cobbler community’s roadmap for rights and sustainable development.

In Dhaka’s Hazairbag slum, Hena Aktar Rupa deeply understood the challenges her community faced. Through the Dhaka Citizens’ Advocacy Collaboration Against Polluting Environment project (part of Counterpart’s overall effort in Bangladesh), Rupa overcame her fear of public speaking and successfully voiced her community’s demands directly to the Dhaka South City Corporation and on television. She has become a champion for environmental justice and now serves as her community representative on the ward committee for solid waste management.

In Khulna, Jhorna Aktar, a devoted nurse, joined Counterpart to promote urban planning and unite 800 individuals across 40 youth groups to transform their neighborhood in the Dattabari slum. Aktar has mobilized women and youth in her community to work with government officials to improve and expand service delivery, including waste management, drainage, clean water, and access to safe and clean public spaces. After previously discouraging Aktar from participating in public events, her husband and father are now praising her accomplishments and urging her to do more.

Mollika Das is a Dalit woman in Khulna who survived child marriage and domestic abuse. Under Counterpart’s social inclusion grant, 115 Dalit women and youth learned about government-sponsored technical training and Das participated in a cosmetology training course. With their new skills, the training participants started their own income-producing businesses. She was able to successfully establish her own home-based salon and is now training additional Dalit women to build their skills and secure their own financial independence.

Laxme Das is also a member of the Khulna Dalit community and helped lead an advocacy campaign to promote Dalit rights. During the campaign, she had the opportunity to advocate directly to councilors and the mayor. She quickly emerged as a dynamic representative of her community and is now representing Bangladesh on the global stage. Das recently participated in the 16th Session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues in Geneva and had the opportunity to present the Dalit community’s demands.

Together, with support from Counterpart, these incredible women and others in their community are paving the way for increased rights and political participation for all women across Bangladesh.

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