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Spanning decades cements Bangladesh-China relationship

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is situated on the northeastern bank of the Buriganga river and for centuries the river had remained a hurdle in reaching the capital. Finally this major hurdle was overcome by China building a bridge so that people on both banks could easily cross the river, making life easier for all. The construction of the first Bangladesh-China Friendship Bridge, with a span of more than 917 padma bridgemeters in length, began in October 1986, and was completed in February 1989. Seven mo...

Indian scholarships for over 800 BD students

India on Sunday distributed scholarships to over 800 Bangladeshi students under the ‘Muktijodha Scholarship Scheme’. The scholarships were distributed at the hands of Minister bd-indiafor Liberation War Affairs in the presence of Indian High Commissioner Harsh Vardhan Sringla. The Indian Government in 2006 initiated the scholarship scheme to strengthen the historic legacy that both countries share in fighting and winning the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan. Under the scheme, descendants of freedom fight...

Trafficked Nepali, Bangladeshi women trapped in Syria

Nepali villager Sunita Magar thought she was heading to a safe factory job in Kuwait, but only when she landed in Damascus did she realise “something had gone very wrong”.
Frequently beaten with a baton and given only one meal a day, Magar says she spent 13 months working as a maid for a Syrian household and pleading to be allowed to go home. “I was just in shock, I couldn’t stop crying,” the single mother-of-two told AFP. Magar is among scores of poor Nepali and Bangladeshi women who travelled to the Middle East on the promise of a good job, only to be trafficked into Syria, wracked by five years of civil war.

Women changing exploitative garment industry

Tuesday marked International Women’s Day, and demonstrations of solidarity or activism were held around the world. In Bangladesh, garment workers demanded equal pay, an end to violence against women, and safe working conditions. Women make up 85% of garment workers in the country, often taking home the pitifully small minimum monthly wage of $68. That is a far cry from the $113 per month that the E.U. states is needed to cover a worker’s basic needs, and well below a real living wage. Exacerbating that dismal state of affairs is the fact that many garment workers put in 60-140 hours of overtime per week, but are often cheated of the overtime pay. Many are denied

Bangladesh allows jute export to Pakistan

Bangladesh has allowed export of 11,000 tons of jute to Pakistan, which was booked before exports were banned in November 2015, but shortage may still occur as Islamabad has not taken up the matter with Dhaka to get the issue resolved immediately, says a local industry official. “Pakistan Jute Mills Association will meet local demand after receiving jute consignments for which letters of credit were established before imposition of the ban on exports by the government of Bangladesh,” a spokesman for the association said in a statement on Thursday. With sufficient supply, he said, the jute industry would be in a position to meet the demand of federal and provincial governments this year.

Government ‘incapable of tolerating dissident views’

The government in Bangladesh is set on stopping dissenters from expressing their opinions, claims Nurul Kabir, the editor of the leading English-language daily newspaper New Age, in an interview with DW. Bangladeshi protesters remember murdered journalists Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi The shrinking space for free speech in Bangladesh has drawn international attention in recent months. The South Asian nation has seen a number of gruesome attacks on bloggers this year that left four people dead and several others critically injured. The attacks have targeted not only bloggers, but also minority communities.
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