Women in technology, arts and crafts
Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Women are not only the symbol of beauty but also the creator of beauty. Only a woman can build an ideal society and a nation. A woman is not just a human being, not just an inspiration but a collection of qualities, attributes and skills. The inevitable demand for survival and innovation are the driving force behind civilization. It is because of women that the world has become so beautiful, balanced and glorious. This woman has built the gift of dreams, the foundation of the future and innovation. All merits, competence-skills, tolerance-cooperation, love have provided encouragement-inspiration to the male race. This world has been built with absolute mercy and made this world habitable. Man has always been given strength, courage. Women are the symbol of love and the guiding light of inspiration.”
Rural women in Bangladesh have limited access to resources and public spheres (e.g., educational, health, law and human rights institutions, and many public services) due to socio-cultural restrictions. Women also suffer from severe discrimination, thought to be due to lack of access to information. Information and communication technologies (ICT) can reach rural women and have the potential to address knowledge and information needs. Since empowerment is a complex phenomenon to measure a model – Women’s Empowerment Measurement through ICT (WEM-ICT) – was developed to take into consideration the socio-cultural norms and context of rural Bangladesh. Using a structured questionnaire based on the model, data was collected from both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries in two villages where different ICT projects have been introduced. A second data set was collected two years later using the same instrument for longitudinal as well as new participants.
The impact of ICT intervention in women’s lives in the micro (individual or domestic), meso (village or community) and macro (global, national or regional) environments through an investigation of material, cognitive, perceptual, relational and technological dimensions. Since it is important to make women aware of the benefit of their empowerment through information and knowledge sharing, many research suggested possible ways to reduce the gap at the implementation level. The context of the rural Bangladesh along with its culture, awareness, maturity and engagement affected the empowerment process. ICT intervention impacted positively on many factors empowering women in both villages and cities, but other factors did not change due to cultural and traditional limitations of the village areas.
Women of our country have been well versed in arts and crafts since ancient times. In the rural society, women have been making various types of handicrafts including nakshikantha, mud dolls, nakshipaka, Shitalpatti, jute shika, charka cutting, loom cloth weaving, paper flowers, cloth dolls, making bamboo and cane tools. To recognize the contribution of women in folk and handicrafts and to play a role in the development of this industry, Bangladesh Folk and Handicrafts Foundation is giving opportunities to male artisans as well as female artisans to participate in regular folk festivals. Seeing women artisans in this, many are interested in taking this art as a profession. Besides, new women entrepreneurs are also being created. Women are being appreciated by everyone by using their talent and skills to create their own works of art. These women artisans are participating in various folk fairs, exhibitions and craft conferences not only in our country but also abroad. Artisans participate in various handicraft exhibitions of the country including folk festival of Sonargaon. If various artisans from different regions get an opportunity to come to a suitable entrepreneurial platform, then their products will gain popularity in the world. And the demand for their products will expand in the world. In today’s era of globalization, our products will be of global quality and our women will make the arts, crafts and cultural world more fertile, fresh, beautiful and attractive – that day is not far away.
Before we conclude same questions arise on this issue. Is role played well by women in modern civilization and industrialization? Has the conformity of Art and culture with present diversification? Lastlyhow advanced are women in technology, arts and crafts? Finally, we can say that art, literature and culture are not just entertainment and joy. They have aesthetic utility as well as socio-economic utility. Any art gives beauty. From beauty, and joy art is being transformed to crafts which have immense product values. If our crafts have their market value, this may attract foreign investment which ultimately turns to a feasible commodity diversification by our women. Beauty of any kind has an economic value in today’s capitalist world. And from his point of view, the products produced as literary and cultural materials such as books, magazines, pictures, films, dances, songs, dramas, etc. become exhibit able and gain the ability to fulfill people’s consumption and desires – which in turn results as a means of income-earning. Today, commercial and market environment is created through all the activities of educational products, art-literary-cultural products etc. as an expanded model of capital. By reading this article, we can easily imagine that our women will get the incentive and encouragement to wake up in the arts and crafts along with art, literature and culture. And along this path, the women of Bangladesh will be able to achieve the goals of SDG by 2030 by making the economic, social, cultural and political liberation of the society. And by utilizing this women’s power, Bangladesh will join the ranks of a prosperous and developed country by 2041.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP).
