The Relationship between Gender Equality in Bangladesh and Middle-Income Country Status by 2021

Abstract

Bangladesh has been graduated from lower income category to lower middle-income category in 2015. It was made possible due to steady growth during 2000’s from a mere 2.8% in the 1970’s to 6% in 2010’s and 7.11% during 2015–16. The per capita income also increased from US $90 only in 1973 to US $1314 in 2015. There have been significant achievements in the areas of life expectancy, primary schooling, gender parity in primary and secondary level of education, lowering under-five mortality rate and access to credit by Grameen Bank which have minimized the distance from achieving MDGs. As the study shows, significant gender gap still persists in Bangladesh in the areas such as labor force participation rate, in economic activity, and in wage earnings, in responsibility for house and care work and in political participation. Bangladesh has now an ambitious goal of achieving middle-income country status by 2021 which will require an accelerated growth with a GDP growth of 10–12% in the face of significant obstacles. This is not possible without ensuring gender equality and therefore requires the active participation of men and women side by side. It is to be noted that one of the demographic features of Bangladesh is the increase in the share of working-age population from 58.2% in 2000 to 68.9% in 2013 which applies to both men and women. Therefore, it is imperative that we take full advantage of the so-called “demographic dividend” by converting the people of working age into human capital by giving them proper education and utilizing them productively. To address gender-based violence, government and legal agencies need to ensure that exiting human rights laws are enforced.

Keywords: Lower Income Category; Middle Income Country Status; Gender Equality; Demographic Dividend; Human Capital; Gender-based Violence

Australian Academy of Accounting and Finance Review, vol 4, issue 2, April 2018, pp 66-79