Good mothers for good families

Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque and Nasir Uddin :
International mother day has already been observed throughout the country. The day was observed in a befitting manner with various women organizations observing the day with cultural functions, seminar and symposium. The media focus on the day featured life stories of some mothers as role model.
The day reminds us of the special position and attribution status apportioned to woman as mother. Nature in fact has been symbolized as mother with the terms such as matribhumi (motherland), maajanani, Dharti etc. In a traditional Hindu society the image of sati nari (purity and piousness) symbolized as the Maa,, and various icons like Durga, Pratima, Ma Laxmi, and Sarasati in changeless traditional societies ought to be respected. In fact any women are held in esteemed for her chastity as the divine entity. Nature is considered peaceful, a suitable human abode dominated and harnessed for human ends. By extension, the feminist mind set objectifies, controls and values all that is labeled MAA.
True, ecofeminists or environmetal feminists endeavour to address the gap in the state of knowledge about human rights movements in the cotext of environment that has come under threat from climate change. Man-made crisis and several antecedents of feminization of poverty coalesce to account for the violation of women rights. In the countryside a lot of contraindications in technological transformation tend to imperil survival strategies of women as mothers.
Autonomy of women in community life is the rallying cry of feminism articulated by feminist intellectual and development practioners. They are organizing seminars, cultural activities and peaceful procession on women day. The community of mothers has by now felt the impacts of human rights movement organized by female activists. They are beginning to be aware of the adverse impacts of development and globalization and about the myths of techno-patriarchal values exploiting women. They work their way out of misery and thralldom.
During the last couple of decades a crop of new social movements presented a seemingly comprehensive framework for understanding the vulnerable-their world view, cognitive orientations, cultural patterns and age-long socio- economic institutions. Anthropologists while presenting ethnography on a particular community try to understand the vulnerable from a ‘creative cultural perspective’. There seems to be post-modernization phenomenon with emerging social movements sharing a common trait: disenchantment with modernization as elusive concept and emphasis on the status of mothers. Human rights movement, feminist movement and environmental movement are some glaring examples of new social movements.
All such movements led the think tanks to a new realization-brushing aside seemingly erroneous notion of development. This is to seek fuller insights into the disadvantaged people, their hopes and aspirations, plight and predicaments. They seek to project a critical view of discursive transformation process in the framework of post-modernist social deconstruction putting neglected population first.
New social movements as new perspective are highly anti-colonial and non-parochial. The forerunners of such movements do not see woman as a ‘fixed idealized category’. A careful review of the ethnography reveals the depth of the community, its socio-cultural styles and its identification of mother with to land, territory and flora and fauna. Contemporary women movement tends to challenge established political, economic and cultural order as the end results of patriarchal domination and manipulation. It advocates a new social order not only for relation between man and woman, but also for relation between mother and nature.
‘Now feminist theorists have known for a long time that women have historically been associated with nature and that nature has been feminized as in myths such as ‘mother nature.’ Even since the development of eco-feminist theory there has not been ‘a coherent body of ecofenmnist theory’ with differing accounts ‘that wove together a perceived interconnection between the domination of women and nature. Even feminist theory itself is not homogeneous being divided into various school of thoughts.
‘Vandana Shiva claims that women have a special connection to the environment through their daily interactions with it that has been ignored. Women in subsistence economies, producing and reproducing wealth in partnership with nature, have been experts in their own right of holistic and ecological knowledge of nature’s processes’ (Wikipedia). These alternative modes of knowing, which are oriented to the social benefits and sustenance for good community life needs to be recognised. Depressingly’ the capitalist reductionist paradigm, fails to perceive the interconnectedness of nature, or the connection of women’s lives, work and knowledge with the creation of wealth.
What the eco-feminists or environmental feminists propose is sustainable development for gender justice. Sanctity of environment is required for sustainable development and a clean feminine character contributes to the piety and purity of traditional social order. In a traditional Hindu society the image of sati nari (purity and piousness) symbolized as the Maa, Dharti, and various icons like Durga, Pratima, Ma Laxmi, and Sarasati in changeless traditional societies ought to be respected. In fact any women are held in esteemed for her chastity as the divine entity.
Our great Prophet (SM) in a divine proclamation out of revelation said ‘A person whether man or woman will be rewarded heaven for his/her good deed. He or she will be given what is due to him/her without reservation whatsoever’. Hazrat (SM) advocates humanitarian predisposition giving women folk a sense of community life with the prospect of empowerment and emancipation. He exalted the position of mother. Right from the early years of our great Prophet(SM) women were enjoying freedom in the society. Due to the intervention of Muhammad(SM) men and women were ‘put perfectly on equal footings’. He prescribed apportionment of high status to wife in her family of procreation where she lives with her husband’s agnates and her children as their caretaker (Bukhari and Muslim).
Recently policy communities at the international levels and many other development partners stress shoring up care for mothers to protect child and promote safe motherhood initiative. Many among cross cultural communities understand the importance of safe motherhood. Bangladesh, for illustration, observes an annual safe mother day as a reminder for caring for pregnant women as a anchorage point for healthy starts for babies at the early childhood. In Bangladesh public promotional agencies in health and family planning sectors as well as NGOs have been rendering safe motherhood services. Maternal literacy is important for child development. Educating mothers about the supports and services required for safe motherhood and for understanding health as well as reproductive health messages can eliminate harmful health practices
Violence against young mothers may be equated with violence against children injuiring/even killing mothers and under mining child survival. It creates health problem and behavioral disorder on the part of child. The rights of mothers are violated by the acts of both verbal and psychical aggression at home and out of home. Domestic violence entrenches gender-inequality, denial as well as threat to health care as a basic human right. A veritable manifestation of gender inequality is ‘assertive masculine prejudice’. In a patriarchal society everything is predominantly controlled and influenced by gender biased mind- set, which has been fueled by mass ignorance among woman folk (Rashid 2005: 45). Ignorance about health is profound. This is due largely to lack of information about access to health care, maternity service and reproductive health. What is badly needed is benignity of patri-virilocal authority to show full charity and sympathy to mother nourishing her baby. Powerlessness of mother caused by inequality tends to threaten babies. Each year almost eight million stillbirths and early neonatal deaths occur due to malnutrition of women during pregnancy, inadequate care during delivery and lack of care for the new born. More, the babies of physically and sexually weak mothers are more likely to be malnourished and less likely to be immunized or to receive oral re-hydration therapy for diarrhea.
Mother’s and Child’s rights are intrinsically connected. Health sector is no exception. So the cost of caring for safe health for mothers and children is considered to be an important social investment. True, much of parenting function is taken on by mother. While caring for her child at home she ought to be aware of the health needs of the early childhood. For the development of such awareness mother’s training program has been initiated by governments and NGOs alike in many part of the world.
Home seems to provide best maternity services. What we need is enhancement of mother and child friendly environment around home. Sympathetic family members at home and even the kindred may contribute to such enhancement through stimulating reproductive health services.
Indeed, empowerment of mother is a central theme in health and related sectors. The factors involved include mother’s enhanced status, rightful share in amenities, strong position in strategic family decisions and participation in remunerative and rewarding works.
This appears to have a positive influence on the lives of the children. Distressingly public policies on health and related policy issues are formulated and implemented without accounting for their effects on the mother and children. Measures of safe motherhood are to be taken and monitored with close scrutiny of women’s state of health development. Measures that empower mother lead to improvement in child’s lives.

(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor of Public administration, Chittagong University and Nasir Uddin, Lecturer of Public Administration, Chittagong University)