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.
Caroline Wainaina, a public health researcher and PhD fellow at UMC Utrecht, explores how digital financial services (DFS) shape women’s economic empowerment and maternal mental well-being in rural Kenya. Supported by WEE-DiFine, her research reveals both the empowering potential and hidden risks of mobile money platforms like M-Pesa and Fuliza. By combining qualitative methods such as “deep hanging out” with empowerment frameworks, her work highlights the need for inclusive, protective, and gender-sensitive approaches to digital financial inclusion.
Despite constitutional guarantees bringing over 1.4 million women into local governance in India, real power often remains elusive. Our interviews with 81 Sarpanches reveal that while 90% of men report having final authority, only 18% of women feel the same. A key barrier is “proxyism,” where male relatives exercise control—often through mobile phones. Rather than empowering women leaders, digital tools can reinforce patriarchy unless accompanied by confidence, skills, and agency-building support.
Village politics in Bangladesh has transformed significantly between 2009 and 2024. Once shaped by personal relationships and community trust, the Union Parishad has become increasingly influenced by ruling party networks. With MPs steering local decisions and party symbols introduced in elections, access to services now often depends on political links rather than rights. Citizens engage more but participate less freely, highlighting the need for renewed democratic practices at the grassroots.
