In Pakistan, a handful of women are challenging entrenched norms by driving rickshaws. Can access to assets, training, and safety support open the door?
Mobile money strengthens women’s financial control not through privacy, but through perceived ownership. Even without secrecy, digital payments and earmarked cash reduce income hiding and shape how money is claimed.
This blog examines long-term evidence from an IVR-based program in 90 Khulna and Satkhira villages, showing how mothers’ involvement in children’s phone-based learning improved digital connectivity, decision-making power, and economic participation.
Dhaka University’s hall renaming campaign risks politicizing martyrdom and suppressing dissent. As dominant forces push enforced unanimity, women students’ resistance underscores that democracy survives through consent, debate, and protecting disagreement—not intimidation.
গণভোট মূলত রাষ্ট্রীয় বা সাংবিধানিক গুরুত্বসম্পন্ন কোনো বিষয়ে জনগণের মতামত জানার একটি প্রাতিষ্ঠানিক পদ্ধতি। তবে বাংলাদেশের বাস্তবতায় প্রশ্ন থেকে যায়, আমাদের সমাজে প্রয়োজনীয় নাগরিক শিক্ষা, তথ্যপ্রবাহ ও প্রাতিষ্ঠানিক সক্ষমতা গড়ে উঠেছে কিনা, যা এই ধরনের একটি প্রক্রিয়াকে অর্থবহ ও সচেতন অংশগ্রহণের মাধ্যমে সফলভাবে বাস্তবায়ন করতে পারে?
Over the past six weeks, while working on the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)’s Voting Behavior and Perception study, we travelled across Khulna, Pabna, and Barishal, speaking with people in hundreds of informal conversations. Almost everywhere, the reaction was the same. At tea stalls, the moment we mentioned the referendum, people looked at us blankly. Then they asked: “What is this yes/no vote? What happens if I tick yes? What happens if I tick no? Can you please explain?”
বাংলাদেশের জনমানুষের আশা কোনো সরল আবেগ নয়; এটি দীর্ঘ রাজনৈতিক অভিজ্ঞতা থেকে জন্ম নেওয়া সচেতন অবস্থান, যা নীরব প্রতিরোধ, এজেন্সি ও নৈতিক রাষ্ট্র-দাবির সঙ্গে যুক্ত।
BRAC IED’s Creative Club offers adolescents a safe, joyful space to express creativity, build resilience, nurture well-being, and grow into confident, environmentally conscious individuals through play and community connection.
Providing smartphones with targeted training significantly outperforms cash transfers in closing the mobile gender gap, boosting women’s digital skills, mobile money use, and intra-household equality, though device durability remains a critical challenge.
From the streets to silence, fear and family protectionism after the uprising redraw the boundaries of young women’s political lives, exposing how insecurity steadily erodes women’s public participation.
