Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP)

BMP came together as a 'movement' led by women's activists about four and half decades. Today, the work is carried out in the spirit of 'volunteerism' by more than 2500 members across the country with emphasis on women's legal rights, security and safety, economic opportunities, and women's political participation among a host of other issues. Their work has become even more crucial under the current context with growing intolerance, confrontational politics, ethnic clashes, increase in incidences of VAW, womens trafficking, rising trend of fundamentalism in the backdrop. The following are some of the major examples of results that have been achieved during the project's implementation (source: Final Narrative Report of the project). Access to Justice: With combating violence against women and children as one of their prime forcus, BMP's activities contributed to ensuring access to justice for the survivors of different forms of abuse. The organisation provided legal aid support to 6,908 survivors by achieving verdicts in their favour under a judicial process which is lengthy and complicated, gender insensitive, and expensive. Notable convictions made regarding cases of sexual and gender based violence including sexual harassment and cyber crime. BMP also conducts alternate dispute resolution (ADR) in family matters out of court. During the project period, BMP received 6,704 complaints and conducted related mediations at the central, district, and grassroots levels. The ratio of peaceful settlement was reported to be 50%. ADR has gained popularity as it is easier to obtain compared to the formal legal process. By means of ADRs, BMP was also able to ensure recovery of dower and maintenance money in cases of marital separation/divorce. Approximately BDT 42,0 million was recovered and handed over to the complainants during this period. This money contributed to rehabilitation of the victims. Some of the beneficiaries of this programme have since shown interest and been involved in BMPs organizational activities. Legal Reform: Advocacy for legal reform is one of the main activities of BMP. Employing a gender lens, and together with other CSOs, the organisations has consistently made significant contributions to the drafting of new laws and amendment of existing ones. Among the mentionable ones are (i) the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act amended in 2020, which now makes it mandatory to also physically examine the accused in rape cases (previously only the victim would be examined), (ii) Anti-Discrimination Law (Bill) has placed in the National Parliament in 2022, and (iii) advocacy for sexual harassment prevention law has been strengthened, with the national human rights commission pursuing the government for its enactment. Gender responsive budgeting: BMP continued its advocacy and lobby for introducing gender responsive budget, gender responsive financial policy, engendering the five-year plan, and midterm budgetary framework. Over the years, 45 ministries have introduced gender responsive budgetary plan which is incorporated into the national budget. BMP is now advocating for monitoring and implementation of gender responsive budget and its impact towards reducing gender discrimination. BMP organizes pre and post budget discussion meetings with different stakeholders both centrally and locally to review the budget with a gender equality perspective.

Incrementally contribute to reducing all forms of gender based discrimination in Bangladesh by engendering the post 2015 development agenda and keeping gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights at the center while upholding the basic values of human rights, democracy and good governance.