RESEARCH PAPER
ON“GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTHCARE SPENDING IN THE HOUSEHOLDAND WOMEN’S ACCESS TO RESOURCES: PERSPECTIVE OF BANGLADESH”

By
Khandaker, Mu. Mizanur Rahman
Student ID: 51-118218 (MPP/IP)
The University of Tokyo

Prepared for :Professor Hiwatari Nobuhiro
GraSPP, The University of Tokyo

July 22, 20131

Contents

Page no.

Abstract3

1.0 Introduction

4

1.1

Conceptualization of some terminologies on gender issue

4

1.2

Background issues and research motivation

5

1.3

Aim and Objectives of the research8

1.4

Hypothesis and Key research question

11

Literature review

12

2.0

3.0 Data and Research Methodology
3.1

3.2

Data

14

(a)

Source of the data,(b)

Sampling methodology,(c)Period of the data collection.

14

Research Methodology

15

4.0 Empirical Findings

16

4.1

Discussion on summary statistics and average health care spending

16

4.2

Discussion on regression results

17

4.3

Table and charts

19

5.0 Cause analysis of gender gap
5.1
6.0

23

Socio-economic and cultural factors that cause gender disparity

24

Conclusion and policy implications

30

2

GENDER DISCRIMINATION IN HEALTHCARE SPENDING IN THE HOUSEHOLDAND WOMEN’S ACCESS TO RESOURCES: PERSPECTIVE OF BANGLADESH”

Abstract :This paper aims to estimate whether there is gender biasness in health care spending forchildren within the household of Bangladesh. The prime subject matter of the research is gender
discrimination. It is a multidimensional issue which is deeply embedded in the improvised andtraditional cultural settings in Bangladesh, and it is considered as a major constraint towards thedevelopment process in the country. We, therefore, also have made an attempt to determine the root
causes of pervasive gender gap persists in the society in Bangladesh. Data from the Household
Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES)-2010 of Bangladesh has been used in order to estimate
gender biasness in health care spending for children of age ten and below ten years of old (age<=10)
at household level. To conduct the research, linear regression model has been chosen as model
specification where the expenditure on healthcare for individual children is considered as dependent
variable and the variable of interest is gender. The study reveal that the health care spending forfemale is significantly lower than that of male children. It is evidenced that socio-cultural norms,
religious beliefs, patriarchal family setting and dominance of male counterparts of womencontribute to the regular forms of discrimination against women. The study highlights some basic
causes of gender disparity against women includes patriarchal family settings, ignorance of female
children at birth, lacking of opportunities for education, poverty among women, less investment for
women’s health care in the household and so forth. Promotion of gender, women’s empowerment,
and women’s integration in the mainstream economic activities along with men are given top mostpriority by the government and the policy makers as well. We, therefore, have provided some policy
implications for further improvement of the gender situation in the country.

31.0 Introduction:
1.1 Conceptualization of some terminologies on gender issue:(a) Sex:
Sex refers to the biological differences between men and women, boys and girls. It isdefined as the property by which organisms are classified as males or females based on reproductive
organs and functions (www.thefreedictionary.com). Biological and physiological differences
between males and females are represented by sex such as reproductive organs, chromosomes andhormones etc. distinguish men and women, boys and girls (WHO, 2010).
(b) Gender :Gender describes socially constructed differences between men and women, boys andgirls etc.

Gender is defined on the basis of social norms, behaviors, activities, relationship,

responsibilities which are assigned by the society as appropriate for male and female (WHO, 2010).
Understanding of gender varies in different races, nations, castes, ethnic groups, religions.
(c) Gender equality :The gender equality means that both men and women, as human being, have equal rights
and opportunities irrespective of gender. It also refers that all people (men and women) must haveequal right to develop their personal abilities and free to make personal choices. State or society will
not discriminate between men and women on the basis of gender. Moreover, gender equalityemphasis that natural or biological difference between men and women will not lead to difference instatus and rights in all sphere of life between men and women (www. http://global.finland.fi).
According to World Bank (2012), “Gender refers to the social, behavioral, and cultural attributes,
expectations and norms that distinguish men and women. Gender equality refers to the extent towhich men’s and women’s opportunities and outcomes are constrained—or enhanced—solely on
the basis of their gender”.
41.2 Background issues and research motivation :Gender discrimination is the consequence of persistent inequality between men
and women in all spheres of life. The dimension and degree of discrimination against women
manifests itself in different culture, politics, race, region, countries, and economies differently.
However, gender discrimination is considered as a tremendous constraint towards the development
process and it is found as a causal factor of violence against women. (Jannatul Ferdaush, K. M.
Mustafizur Rahman, 2011). Gender equality, therefore, is the current subject of concern among thepolicy makers of the world because of enhancing economic growth and maintaining continuity ofthe development process as well (cpd-unfpa, 2002). The present concerns for gender equality, inorder to forward the development process is established on a long historical background. Genderissue, in particularly, bringing equality between men and women, has been become a common goal
for the International Community since it had been set out in the preamble to the Charter of theUnited Nations (UN) in 1945. Later, in 1948, gender issue and non-discrimination on the basis ofsex was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Moreover, the Convention on
elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) was adopted by General
Assembly of United Nations in 1979 which is considered as a great success towards the struggle for
equal rights for women of the world. CEDAW is a key international document on the rights ofwomen and it creates tremendous moral as well as legal pressure on the UN member countries totake necessary steps in order to ensure equal rights for women. It also emphasis the civil rights,
legal rights of women, reproductive roles and rights, impact of cultural factors on gender relations
and barriers on advancement of women (World Bank, 2012). In addition, the Fourth World
Conference on Women: Equality, Development and Peace was held in Beijing in 1995. The
governments of the UN member states committed themselves to taking a number of measures inorder to promote women’s economic rights and eliminate discrimination against women in the5Beijing Platform for Action, adopted at that World Conference, (OECD, 2002). Moreover,
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were adopted in the Millennium Summit of theUnited Nations in 2000 and endorsed by 189 United Nations member states also emphasize on
gender issue. “Promote gender equality and empower women” is the third goal of MDGs. The
vision of the Millennium Declaration and the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is tocreate a more just and equal world where equal access for women along with men is essential to theachievement of all MDGs.
However, different approaches or strategies had been adopted in the past few
decades with a view to promoting the advancement of women and gender equality as a whole but incourse of time, it was found that the successive approaches failed to address gender issue in aproper manner and could not improve the status of women as it was expected. Thus, at present time,some significant changes have been noticed in the efforts to promote gender issue at national andinternational level. Until the late 1960s, it was assumed that the overall economic development andmodernization process in the developing world would improve the status of women by benefiting
both male and female with equal pace (CPD-UNFPA, 2002). During that time, attention was given
on women’s reproductive health, especially women’s access to food, contraceptives, nutrition andhealth care. However, by the early 1970s different feminist groups, social workers, policy makers
and networks had created tremendous pressure on their governments for policy reform and pursuing
better strategies to address the gender issue (Farida Faisal, 2011). Consequently, we found that 1975
was declared as the International Women’s Year and UN Decade for women (1976-85) which
sensitized the gender issue in the global level and International Donor Agencies like International
Labor Organization (ILO) , World Bank , World Health Organization (WHO) etc extended their cooperation to improve gender related action plan. During this time, a new paradigm was introduced
to address the gender issue namely “Women in Development (WID)” which aims to include women6

in development projects in order to make them more efficient. According to Moser (1993) WID
paradigm had three phases such as -“Equity approach”, second “Anti-poverty” phase, the third“Efficiency” phase. Later, there were found some drawbacks in this development model. In the mid
1980s a new paradigm called “Gender and Development (GAD)” emerged as an alternative effort of
WID. “Gender and Development (GAD)” was developed to address inequalities in women's andmen's social roles in relation to development. Gender Mainstreaming is the most recent and seems
to be the most promising of all the various gender reform paradigms for reforming public policy(Farida Faisal, 2011). Gender Mainstreaming is considered as the modified version of GAD. It
emphasizes on the full participation of women for the attainment of sustainable development. The
approach Gender Mainstreaming was endorsed by 189 countries while the UN member countries
adopted, by consensus, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, at the UN Fourth World
Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Some affirmative approaches of Gender Mainstreaming
are : (i) it considers men and women as a complementary forces and not as opposing forces, (ii) it isan umbrella approach targets gender equality policies, (iii) It has a wide scope to address all kindsof development settings from poverty alleviation to environmental protection, (iii) It aims at
institutional restructuring for sustainable development on gender equality, (iv) It tries to determine
the root causes of gender discrimination and institutional reform to achieve sustainable development
in all spheres of the nation (Farida Faisal, 2011).
In the recent decades, some significant progress has been made towards thegender issue. For instance, literacy rate among the women are increasing gradually, gender gap inprimary and secondary level enrollment rate reduced remarkably, and women participation in labor
force higher than ever before over the world. Despite of considerable progress in reducing gender
gap, there still exists huge discrimination against women in different sectors such as women haveless access than men to resources and economic opportunity. Furthermore, they have limited access7

to a wide range of services and the movement of women is still restricted in many societies (World
Bank, 2012). It is evident that the status of women has changed a little , in particular they haveachieved a little gain in economic well being due to traditional social structure (Shahnaj Parveen,
2008; Tamale, S. ,2004). Thus, evaluation of gender situation and monitoring the effect of someapproaches adopted in reducing gender disparity is essential for further social and economic
development as a whole. It is stated in “Gender Equality in Sector Wide Approaches (June, 2002)”
that gender differences and inequalities in resources, access, needs and potential contributions
should be assessed to form a gender responsive policy frame work. Necessarily, the economy andsociety as a whole (macro level), the sector and its key institutions (meso level), and households andtheir individual members (micro level) should be covered by the assessment to conceptualize howsocietal, sectoral and household-level conditions shape the relative opportunities and resources ofmales and females (OECD, 2002). A research on gender discrimination, therefore, has significant
importance to the policy makers, social workers, even for the politicians, in the present national andinternational context.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of the research:
Gender situation in Bangladesh has been changing over last two decades due toconsiderable economic transition and social change. Although progress has been made in many
spheres of social life of women, they still receive less investment for health care, education andintellectual development (unicef, 2010). Low literacy rate among the women of age group (15-49)
enhance the ratio of child marriage and adolescent motherhood. In the long run, it is found that highmaternal mortality ratio in the country is attributed to early marriage, women’s malnutrition, lackingof access to and use of medical services and lacking of knowledge and information.
There is a huge impact of socio-cultural settings of Bangladesh on gender disparity.
Bangladesh is a densely populated country of the world. According to the housing and population8

census 2001, the size of the population is still quite high, it is approximately 142 million and thenatural growth rate is 1.4 percent. Approximately 90 percent of the total population is Muslims, 9
percent are Hindus and the others constitute about one percent. It is, therefore, mention worthy thatmulti dimensional religious norms exist in the society of Bangladesh which affects the gender
relation in different way. Moreover, the half of the population consists of women as the sex ratio is103.8. Another important finding of the census-2001 is that the life expectancy for female is 64.5
and for male it is 64.0. Statistical evidence shows that women’s opportunity and public
involvement, particularly in labor force and in economic activities, has been gradually increasing in
the recent decades. A significant progress is found in reducing gender gap in school enrollment forsome effective public interventions in the education sector. Moreover, due to increasing pattern offoreign direct investment and advancement in industrialization process in Bangladesh offer apotential job market for women.

Bangladesh is a signatory to the convention on the

Elimination of all forms ofDiscrimination against Women (CEDAW),to which of committed to meet the rights of women andeliminate gender inequality. There are a wide range of laws have been enacted in Bangladesh suchas the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1980, the Child Marriage Restraint Act (amended in 1984) and theFamily Courts Ordinance of 1985. Though it would take time to get the total impact of theseinterventions at the national level, it might be a positive initiative towards the improvement ofgender situation. Moreover, the Article 28(1), 28(2), 28(3), 28(4) of the constitution of the people’s
Republic of Bangladesh ensure the equal rights for both men and women. It also (Article 65(3))
provides reserved seats for women in the Parliament and it promotes (Article 9) special
representation for women in local government. Besides this, government has initiated someencouraging programs ( micro credit programs, incentives for female students in secondary level,9various training programs etc.) to increase women’s participation in governance. Furthermore,
National Council for Women’s Development (NCWD) headed by the Prime Minister has been working
with a view to eliminating all for forms of discrimination against women and integrating them inmainstream economic activities as well (CEDAW report, Bangladesh, 2009)

Despite of afore said policy intervention of the government and progress of gendersituation in some cases, a high degree of gender discrimination exists pervasively in the community
because of patriarchal social structure and cultural as well as religious norms (Shahnaj Parveen,2007). In addition, different studies (BBS-2006, BBS-2005) show that Gender discrimination
against girls and women, subordination and deprivation persist, as evidenced by key indicators
including high mortality rate and a lower literacy rate, high unemployment rate, lower average wage
rate. The nutritional status of children and women continues to be a major concern in Bangladesh.
Sexual abuse of children and adolescent girls is a significant problem in the country. The situationof children and women of marginalized groups, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, including
urban slum dwellers, refugees, tribal groups, river gypsies and those living in remote andinaccessible areas deserve special attention. However, issues of gender equality, equity, and theempowerment of women are increasingly recognized as essential to the process of sustainable
development. Gender issues today are not merely special concerns but are considered crucial
elements in policies, plans and strategies. Women’s and men’s contributions to society, theirpartnership and full participation, their different needs and different access to resources are essential
components towards the development process. Some empirical evidences show that while equality
between men and women exists in the society, the economies grow faster, poverty reduction
strategies work effectively, and it becomes easier to achieve sustainable development (World Bank,
2012). It also enhances the possibilities of achieving the targets of Millennium Development Goals

10

(MDGs). Thus, it is a dire need to address the gender issues properly and effectively. This paper,
therefore, would be an effective endeavor towards addressing the gender issues of Bangladesh.
The present study analysis the healthcare spending for the children of age below ten years athousehold level as the healthcare spending for children of the this age group totally depends on the
resources of the parents comparing with the teenagers or adolescents children. We also try to findthe overall causal factors of gender discrimination by discussing socio-economic status (access toresources, participation in labor force, literacy & school enrollment) of women in Bangladesh. To
address the aforesaid issues, the study has the following specific objectives:(i) To estimate gender biasness in healthcare spending for the children (age <=10) within thehousehold;(ii) To find the determinants that cause gender gap in the household as well as in the society,and(iii) To recommend some policy implications.
1.4 Hypothesis and Key Research Questions :The prime subject matter of this research is to determine the causes of gender
discrimination. It is a multidimensional issue which is deeply embedded in the improvised andtraditional cultural settings in Bangladesh, and it is considered as a major constraint towards thedevelopment process in the country. This paper examines whether there is gender biasness in thehealthcare spending for the children of under ten years of age within household and it also attempts
to find the root causes of gender disparity that exists in the society. In this regard, I would search forthe answers of the questions mentioned below through regression analysis.
(i)

Is there any gender biasness in healthcare spending for the children within thehousehold in Bangladesh ?

(ii)

Do the socio-cultural norms influence gender gap against women in the society?

11

2.0

Literature review:
A wide range of empirical studies are available on investment in healthcare

spending at household level. Most of the studies of this kind have been conducted with a view todetermining gender biasness in healthcare expenditure and suggested some policy implications how
to reduce gender gap from the health sector. It also provided with some valuable recommendations
how to improve women’s health status and integrate them into the mainstreaming economic
activities in order to empower women as a whole. I have reviewed some of the research papers
which focused on women’s health situation and determined the factors that cause gender
discrimination against women. Abay Asfaw, Stephen Klasen, Francesca, Lamanna (2007) haveinvestigated whether there is gender discriminations in the health care financing behavior ofhousehold for the infants and children of age below nine years old, in India. The findings of thestudy reveal that no discrimination among boys and girls is found, while the households use current
income to finance inpatient health care expenses. However, significant gender discrimination isfound in health care spending for children while the households face resources scarcity. The study
has been conducted using data from the 52nd round Indian National Sample Survey and thebivariate probit model has taken to investigate the afore said issue. It has been proven by the stydy
that the probability of households to sell assets, borrow money to cover the inpatient costs of girls is
respectively 1.4,3.2, and 4.3 percent less than that of boys. The study suggests two specific ways toreduce gander gap in healthcare spending such as (i) To ease household budget constraints, and (ii)
To introduce some specific healthcare insurance.
Shahnaj Parveen (2007) has focused on gender awareness among women in rural
Bangladesh and the authoress has also highlighted the social status of women in the rural part of
Bangladesh which are thought to be the root causes of gender discrimination against women. The
research has been conducted taking a sample of 156 women from three villages under an old district
12

“Mymenshing”. The major argument of the authoress is that personal income and physical beauty ofwomen determine a relatively higher status of women in the household and community as wellcomparing with the women who are distressed, mentally and physically disabled, illiterate, infertileand very young. The Likert scale method has been used to find the women’s social status and genderawareness. The study suggested that it is a dire need to improve women’s gender awareness in terms of
their literacy levels, access to information and productive resources, participation in social activities by
establishing women’s organizations in the locality.

In the case of Sri Lanka, Rozana Himaz (2008) found that intrahousehold allocation of
education expenditure differs between boys and girls in rural Sri Lanka. It has been proved that Sri
Lankan rural households seem to be allocating more educational resources towards girls in 1990/91
for age groups 5-9 and 17-19 and in 1995/6 for age groups 5-9 and 14-16. The research was
conducted using the data comes from three cross-section Household Income and Expenditure
Surveys (HIES) for 1990/91, 1995/6 and 2000/01 carried out by the Department of Census andStatistics (DCS), Sri Lanka. “The Working-Lesser Engel form for demand analysis with a linear
relationship” model was used to make a better estimation of the research work. The researcher
admitted that the finding is to some extend is different from the gender situation of other South
Asian countries. However, he argued that wage returns to junior and senior secondary education
have been higher for females than for males through the 1980s and 1990s, thus the household level
decisions might be reasonable and it represented the real phenomenon of the society in rural Sri
Lanka.
Fariyal F Fikree, Omrana Pasha (2004) argued that the life advantages which women fromdeveloped countries enjoyed is not seen clearly in the society where gender gap against women
persists pervasively. The study showed that sex selective abortions, neglect of girl children,
reproductive mortality, and poor access to health care for girls and women are some basic reasons in13

perpetuating gender discrimination in developing countries, in South Asia. This a study based on
qualitative analysis approach which would help to reduce gender related barriers towards social
development, in particularly improve the life of people as a whole. The authors urged the policy
makers and social workers to pay attention to the detrimental health effects that gender plays
throughout the life cycle because they have shown that women in south Asia are mostly
disadvantaged in terms of healthcare, education, dignity, even to some extent, they are the victim ofviolation of human rights.
3.0 Data and methodology :3.1 Data :The research on “gender discrimination in healthcare spending within thehousehold” has been conducted using data from the Household Income and Expenditure Survey(HIES)-2010 of Bangladesh. Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES)-2010 is a national
level survey conducted by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the World Bank in2010. It is a household based sample survey. A two stage stratified random sampling technique wasfollowed in drawing sample of HIES-2010. The primary sampling unit, PSU (PSU is basically an
enumeration area for HIES-2010) was defined by taking contiguous two or more enumeration areas(EAs) used in Population and Housing Census 2001. Each PSU comprised of around 200
households. Integrated Multipurpose Sample (IMPS) sample design consists of 1000 PSUs where
640 rural and 360 urban PSUs, was developed on the basis of the sampling frame based on the
Population and Housing Census 2001.
Stage-1: A sub sample consists of 612 PSUs was drawn for HIES-2010 from Integrated
Multipurpose Sample (IMPS) sample design which consists of 1000 PSUs. These PSUs wereselected from 16 different strata. There were 6 rural, 6 urban and 4 Statistical Metropolitan Area
(SMA) strata.
14

Stage-2: Using random sampling method, 20 households were selected from each of therural, urban and SMAs primary sampling unit (PSU). Thus, the sample of HIES is a sub-set of
IMPS. In HIES-2010, 12240 households were selected where 7840 from rural area and 4400 fromurban area. According to the sample design, the survey had been completed in one complete year
(1st February, 2010 to 31st January, 2011) and the data was collected through the year round by 18
terms.
3.2 Research methodology:
In this study, we investigate how the health care spending for children within thehousehold differs by gender in Bangladesh. We focus on health care spending for infants (age lessthan one year) and the children of age group (1to 10 years old) because the spending of medicalcare for the children of this age group totally depends on the decisions of the parents comparing
with the teenagers or above. Through this mechanism, we would be able to see the intra-household
gender biasness in health care spending more correctly. Our hypothesis in this research is that there
is more likely gender biasness in health care spending for children within the household. To
estimate the gender biasness in the health care spending among the children in the household, we
adopt the linear regression model where the expenditure on health care (healthcare_cost) for
individual children is considered as dependent variable and the variable of interest is gender. The
coefficient of gender in the regression function estimates the variation of health care spending
between male and female children within the household. The model specification is as follows:

Ln_healthcare_costi = β0 + β 1 Genderi + β 2 Agei + β 3 Rurali+ β 4 What_Classi +β 5 Immunization i+ β 6Hhsizei + β 7 Parent_edui +β 8 Highest_passed+ β 9 Hhwealthi + β 10 Regioni + εi

15Where,Healtcare_costi = Spending on healthcare for individual children,
Genderi= A dummy variable where, gender =1 for female and otherwise = 0

What_classi= What class/grade currently attending by individual childreni,

Highest_passedi = Individual level of education,
Immunizationi = Whether the children are given some basic vaccinations (these are also dummy
Variable where Immunizationi =1 if Immunizationi is given and other wise 0)
Hhsizei= Household size,

Parent_edui= Level of education of fathers and mothers of individuali ,Hhwealthi= Land asset and non-land asset of the household,

Rurali= A dummy variable where rural =1 and otherwise =0

Regioni= Regional dummy(s) which are geographical locations of seven administrative
divisions of Bangladesh (Borisal, Chittagonj, Dhaka , Khulna, Rajshahi ,Rangpur and Sylhet),εi= Error terms

4.0 : Empirical findings :4.1 Discussion on summary statistics and average health care spending :In order to check the validation of the regression, we have estimated the summary
statistics of the variables taken in the regression. Our sample size is 2491 and we have included theinfants (children of age less than one year) and children of age from one (1) to ten (10) years in thesample (age<=10). From the summary statistics (Table:I) we find the total observations for all
variables (dependent and independent) are 2491 which implies that the regression does not sufferfrom the problem of missing variables. The table for summary statistics (Table:I) also contents theminimum values and maximum values of all variables which reveals that there is no inconsistency
among the values of the variables.

16

We have also estimated the average yearly spending on healthcare (Table: III) for
children within household by sex for the children of four age groups. We find that the average
yearly spending on healthcare for female children is lower than that of male children for all age
groups. Moreover, the difference of average yearly spending on healthcare between male andfemale children is statistically significant for all groups except the age group (9-10) which reveals
that there exists gender biasness in yearly spending on healthcare for children within household.
4.2 Discussion on regression results:(a)

Our principal target is to estimate the gender biasness in health care spending forchildren in the household. We, therefore, have run regression of several specifications in order to
get unbiased estimation of health care spending of children. The regression specification (1) in
Table (IV) is the primary regression where we have regressed healthcare_cost on several factors
such as (i) individual characteristics, (ii) family background, and (iii) regional variation. Where
individual characteristics includes gender, age , chronic diseases and so on; family backgroundincludes educational level of parents, household’s resources, household size etc and rural, urban,
and seven administrative regions are taken to control the regional and societal variation in healthcare spending for children in the household.
(b) We have chosen the regression specification (2) in Table: IV, as the basespecification where healthcare_cost is the dependent variable, gender is considered as the variableof interest, and others independent variables such as age, what_class, chronic diseases, hhsize etc
are taken as control variables. The Table: IV is prepared based on the regression results for pulled
sample (individual level Standard Error). It is found that the coefficient of gender is negative andsignificant at 1% level of significance which implies that the health care spending for female
children in the household is significantly lower than that of male children holding all other things
constant. We also find that the coefficients of the independent variables age, chronic_dis, hhsize,
17

nonland_asset, fathereducation, and mothereducation are significant at either 1% or 5% level ofsignificance which imply that these are very important variables in determining the health carespending for the children irrespective of gender. From the regression result we also find that an increase in age of the children is associated with decrease in health care spending of the children
holding other variables constant. Another important finding is that the coefficient of the variablechronic diseases is significant at 1% level of significance which implies that the health carespending for the children who have been suffering from chronic diseases is higher than that ofchildren who have not been suffering from this kind of diseases keeping all other variables
unchanged. It also reveals that an increase in educational level attained by the parents is associatedwith increase in the health care spending for the children irrespective of gender while taking allother variables unchanged as the coefficients of the variables fathereducation, and mothereducation
are positive and significant at 5% level of significance. Furthermore, the coefficients of the regionaldummy(s) are significant at 1% or 5% or 10% which means that there is a substantial regionalvariation in health care spending for the children within the household.
(c) The table:V is prepared based on regression results for pulled sample (Household
level Standard Error). In this case, our aim is to see the effect of collective decision of the parents.
In particularly, we like to see what happens when parents take decision for medical investmentcollectively for all children in the household; whether there is gender biasness when parents takedecision for medical investment collectively for all children in the household. In this case, we alsofind almost same results as the regression results in Table:IV. In both cases, the regression results
reveal that there is substantial gender biasness in health care spending for the children within thehousehold.

18

4.3

Charts and Tables :Table: I

Summary statistics of some variables:
Variable
Healthcare_cost
GenderAge
Highest_passed
Attending_school
What_class
Chronic_dis
Immu_bcg
Immu_dpt_1
Immu_polio_1
Immu_measles
Immu_hepatites
Rural
HhsizeLandasset
Non_landasset
Father’s educeducation
Mother’s education

Obs
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491
2491

Mean
384.5548
0.4628663
4.695303
0.4347652
0.5917302
0.9642714
1.956644
0.5584103
0.5620233
0.5688479
0.6174227
0.6471297
0.6932959
5.124047
53.61582
362998.5
3.758731
3.744279

Min
3
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
3
1
0
0
0

Max
70000
1
10
19
2
19
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
15
1179
1.72E+07
13
13

Table_II

Correlation between dependent and independent variables
ln_hea~tln_healthcare_cost

genderage

highes~dchroni~sruralhhsizelandas~t

non_la~tfather~nmothereduc~n1gender

-0.06891age-0.12710.01061highest_passed-0.0098-0.00130.43311chronic_dis-0.14240.0395-0.052-0.0451rural-0.0781-0.00240.015-0.0397

0.0593

1

hhsize-0.04-0.00150.062

0.0201-0.00070.13461

landasset

0.0357-0.0138

0.03880.03320.014

0.11950.16651

non_landasset

0.0944-0.02310.00360.05070.0033-0.23690.066

0.1041

1

fathereducation

0.14880.0123-0.0290.0645-0.0064-0.2202-0.1206

0.21320.27471mothereducation

0.14860.013-0.1030.0298-0.0078-0.2233-0.1991

0.16680.2746

0.68311

19

1

Table_III
Age group

Average yearly spending on healthcare for male and female children within household(in BD. Taka)t-statistics
Male
Femaledifference0-2

238.0983

118.9199

119.1784**

1.7164

3-5

101.4083

69.69743

85.93774**

1.7282

6-8

65.32046

51.93122

13.38925*

1.28889-10

81.930760.30818

21.62252

0.9167******indicates statistical significant at 1% level of significanceindicates statistical significant at 5% level of significanceindicates statistical significant at 10% level of significanceChart:01
Average yearly spending on healthcare for children within household(in BD. Taka)

300
B 250
D
. 200
150
T
A 100
K
50
A

Male
Female00 to 23 to 5

6 t0 8Children of age group20

9 to 10

Table_IV: Regression results for pulled sample (individual level Standard Error)
Dependent variable:
ln_healthcare_cost = log (healthcare_cost)
Repressors:
Coefficients
(2)
(1)
(3)

(4)

(Base specification)

GenderAge
Age2=age*age
Highest_passed
Attending_school
What_class
Chronic_dis
Immu_bcg
Immu_dpt_1
Immu_polio_1
Immu_measles
Immu_hepatitis
Rural
Hhold_size
Land-asset
Non land-asset
Father’s Education
Mother’s Education
Regional Dummy:
BorisalChittagong
Dhaka
KhulnaRajshahi
RangpurInteraction term:
Age_gender
Rural_gender
Hhsize_genderLand-asset_genderNon land-asset_gender
Father’s education_gender
Mother’s education_gender
Constant-0.161***(0.048)-0.153***(0.047)-0.075***(0.017)-0.069***(0.017)

0.021(0.022)

0.036(0.023)-0.027(0.054)-0.020(0.053)

0.009(0.014)

0.003(0.014)

0.904***(0.125)

0.865***(0.124)

0.330(0.450)

0.461(0.419)-0.335(0.423)-0.413(0.396)-0.011(0.238)-0.065(0.234)-0.090(0.132)-0.082(0.132)-0.103(0.099)-0.070(0.102)-0.067(0.055)-0.013(0.015)
0.0001(0.0002)-0.066(0.055)-0.054***(0.015)
0.0002(0.0001)

6.890*( 3.520)
0.024**(0.007)
0.016*(0.008)

4.820(3.500)
0.024***(0.007)
0.017**(0.008)
0.144(0.131)
0.274**(0.100)-0.182*(0.101)-0.432***(0.115)-0.247**(0.111)-0.488***(0.107)-0.151**(0.047)-0.160***(0.035)
0.009**(0.003)
0.023(0.021)
0.021(0.054)-0.002(0.0146)-0.869***(0.124)-0.605(0.420)
0.313(0.396)
0.171(0.232)-0.081(0.134)
0.065(0.102)-0.070(0.055)-0.056***(0.015)
0.0002(0.0001)
4.710(3.480)
0.025**(0.0075)
0.017**(0.008)

0.267(0.202)

0.134(0.131)
0.272**(0.101)-0.194*(0.101)-0.443***(0.115)-0.266**(0.112)-0.496***(0.107)

0.161(0.132)
0.284**(0.101)-0.170*(0.101)-0.420***(0.115)-0.240***(0.112)-0.092**(0.030)
0.036(0.023)-0.020(0.053)
0.003(0.014)
0.868***(0.124)
0.480(0.420)-0.417(0.395)-0.077(0.236)-0.087(0.132)-0.069(0.102)-0.069(0.171)-0.064(0.046)
0.0005(0.0006)-1.340(1.010)
0.032(0.023)
0.023(.025)-0.471***(0.107
0.015(0.016)
0.004(0.110)
0.006(0.029)-0.0001(0.0003)
1.390(6.820)-0.005(0.014)-0.004(0.016)

5.425***(0.152)

5.707***(0.186)

7.580***(0.316)

5.748***(0.206)

0.1197
1.39
2491

Summary Statistics
F-test: F( 14, 10065) = 127.13,
Adj.R2SERn

Prob > F = 0.0000

0.07410.11730.1201

1.45

1.39

1.39

2491

2491

2491

21

Table_V: Regression results for pulled sample (Household level Standard Error)
Dependent variable:
ln_healthcare_cost = log (healthcare_cost)
Repressors:
Coefficients
(2)
(1)
(3)

(4)

(Base specification)

GenderAge
Age2=age*age
Highest_passed
Attending_school
What_class
Chronic_dis
Immu_bcg
Immu_dpt_1
Immu_polio_1
Immu_measles
Immu_hepatitis
Rural
Hhold_size
Land-asset
Non land-asset
Father’s Education
Mother’s Education
Regional Dummy:
BorisalChittagong
Dhaka
KhulnaRajshahi
RangpurInteraction term:
Age_gender
Rural_gender
Hhsize_genderLand-asset_genderNon land-asset_gender
Father’s education_gender
Mother’s education_gender
Constant-0.161***(0.050)-0.153***(0.049)-0.075***(0.017)-0.069***(0.017)

0.021(0.023)

0.036(0.023)-0.027(0.055)-0.020(0.054)

0.009(0.015)

0.003(0.015).904***(0.130)

0.865***(0.131)

0.330(0.450)

0.461(0.419)-0.335(0.423)-0.413(0.396)-0.011(0.238)-0.065(0.234)-0.090(0.134)-0.082(0.135)-0.103(0.104)-0.070(0.107)-0.067(0.061)-0.013(0.021)
0.0001(0.0002)-0.066(0.060)-0.054**(0.020)
0.0002(0.0002)

6.890*( 3.830).024**(0.008)
0.016*(0.009)

4.820(3.900)
0.024**(0.008)
0.0176*(0.009)
0.144(0.152)
0.274**(0.122)-0.182(0.121)-0.432**(0.136)-0.247*(0.128)-0.488***(0.124)-0.151***(0.049)-0.160***(0.035)
0.009**(0.003)
0.023(0.021)
0.021(0.056)-0.002(0.014)-0.869***(0.131)-0.605(0.421)
0.313(0.396)
0.171(0.233)-0.081(0.136)
0.065(0.108)-0.070(0.060)-0.056**(0.020)
0.0002(0.00020)
4.710(3.890)
0.025**(0.0084)
0.017*(0.009)

0.267(0.202)

0.134(0.151)
0.272**(0.122)-0.194(0.122)-0.443**(0.136)-0.266*(0.128)-0.496***(0.124)

0.161(0.132)
0.284**(0.101)-0.170*(0.101)-0.420***(0.115)-0.240***(0.112)-0.092**(0.030)
0.036(0.023)-0.020(0.053)
0.003(0.014)
0.868***(0.124)
0.480(0.420)-0.417(0.395)-0.077(0.236)-0.087(0.132)-0.069(0.102)-0.069(0.171)-0.064(0.046)
0.0005(0.0006)-1.340(1.010)
0.032(0.023)
0.023(.025)-0.471***(0.107)
0.015(0.016)
0.004(0.110)
0.006(0.029)-0.0001(0.0003)
1.390(6.820)-0.005(0.014)-0.004(0.016)

5.425***(0.171)

5.707***(0.203)

7.580***(0.343)

5.748***(0.206)

Summary Statistics
F-test: F( 14, 10065) = 127.13,
Adj.R2SERn

Prob > F = 0.0000

0.07410.11730.1201

1.45

1.39

1.39

2491

2491

2491

22

0.11971.39
2491

5.0 Cause analysis of gender gap:
Women in Bangladesh find themselves in subordinate position comparing to men.
Because women have very limited access to resources in the country and they are socially,
culturally, and economically dependent on men throughout their whole lives (Fariyal F Fikree,
Omrana Pasha, 2004). The major causes of women’s powerlessness and dependency on men are
illiteracy, lack of awareness, poor knowledge and skills. Besides this, they are lacking of selfesteem and confidence. Moreover, like many other developing countries, patriarchal system ofsocial structure exists in Bangladesh where women hold the lower hierarchical position compared tomen and have a little control over the household decision making process. Furthermore, women are
assigned to carry out the household chores and 3C’s (caring, cooking and cleaning) which are theirtraditional responsibility in the family (Shahnaj Parveen, 2008, Jannatul ,Rahman, 2011). However,
women are disadvantaged with regard to health and health care because of individual and societal
beliefs and attitudes towards appropriate gender specific roles, needs and the choices of individuals
within households on the basis of the factors explained below.

Although the government of Bangladesh, international development partners and NGOs
have been working individually and also collectively in reducing gender gap (as discussed in
section one of this paper), yet higher level of gender disparity still exists in the country. Most of theempirical evidences show that religious and socio-cultural beliefs and norms, individual and social
attitudes towards women, and curse of poverty enhance the gender gap in the society (Fariyal F
Fikree, Omrana Pasha, 2004; Shahnaj Parveen, 2008). We, therefore, need to look into the family
setting and traditional belief of her people to find the root causes (pull and push factors) ofpervasive gender gap in the country.

235.1 Socio-cultural factors that cause gender disparity:(i) Hierarchical family settings :Historically, hierarchical family settings still remain in the country,
in which men hold the controlling position (in terms of resource allocation and domestic decision
making process) in the household and women as a whole hold relatively lower hierarchy whichlargely discriminate women from birth to adulthood (even in whole life).
(ii) Learning at the childhood:
Conditioning (differentiation) of girls and boys starts immediately
after a child is born at home; at the same time, different roles and attitudes of the family areobserved based on gender (sex) of the new born baby which demonstrates the social norms andvalues. These social norms reveal, whether girls and boys get equal access to early childhood
education. For example, socialization goals and child-rearing practices of the parents in the society
differ substantially for boys and girls. In the early age, a girl is taught how to achieve pain
bearing capability, hardships, and modesty which favors the boy of that family. More likely, a girlof tender age is taught to earn domestic skills such as cooking, sewing, caring and cleaning.
Emphasis is given to prepare her to take the responsibility of child bearing and rearing in future. On
the other hand, a boy is taught how to achieve skills for income generating activities and he is sent
to school on the priority basis. Family tries to prepare him as the future leader of the family, more
widely as the future leader of the society (UNESCO Bangkok, 2007, A.M. Sultana, 2010).
(iii) Negligence (Girls are neglected) since birth:

Female children are often neglected in the household in Bangladesh. It
happens even in the well developed higher class people. A common practice based on religion in the
Muslim community that ‘Azan (a call for prayer at mosque)’ is given immediately after a male child24

is born. It is considered as the formal recognition of new born baby and a significant announcementof his arrival in the society (A.M. Sultana , 2010, Zaman, 1999). On the contrary, a female child is
not ritually recognized (‘Azan is not offered) at her birth. Incidence of giving birth of a male childbrings joy and optimism in the family; while a daughter receives relatively poor reception at her
birth. This negligence leads to gender based health disparities among the young age population.
This negligence results into insufficient nutrition, less preventive care, and irregularity in seeking
health care during illness for female children. Consequently, we find in the chirt-01 that the rate
Under 5 mortality rate per 1000 live births by sex in Bangladesh, 1982-2005 is always higher for
female than that of male children.

Under 5 mortality rate per 1000 live births by sex and locality, 1982-2005

250
200
150
100

Male

50

Female0

Source : Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, SVRS (1982-2005)(iv)

Women’s access to education and gender gap:
Lack of education is one of the root causes of gender gap

which prevent women from equal participation in socio economic activities along with men and it
enhances the degree of discrimination against women. According to the human development report25

(HDR) 2002, UNDP, the literacy rate among male and female are 52.3% and 35% respectively.
Though the school enrollment rate of female children at primary and secondary level is much morehigher than boys in recent years. Yet, the status of women does not change accordingly. It happens
because parents are much more concern about the safety for their daughters than sons (Haider,2012). There are a wide range of factors such as poverty, low status in the family and community,
backwardness in education, traditional social practices and lacking of social safety net which enhancethe dropout (from school) rate among the adolescent girls. As a result, they (adolescent girls) fail tocontinue study towards higher education, rather in most cases, family arranges marriage for theseadolescent girls. In Bangladesh, one thirds of the population are estimated living under poverty(HIES-2010). Thus, poverty, negligence and discouraged by family, lack of security andopportunities are the basic constraints towards the female education particularly higher secondary
and above. According to the report of UNICEF, the school attending rate of adolescent girls is 53% at secondary level and for tertiary level, the figure is more shocking. It is six girls for every ten
boys which is well below the MDG target of full equality (UNICEF, 2010).

(v)

Women and poverty :Women are the direct victim of the curse of poverty. It is seen that among

the poor, women seldom can have basic needs like the health care services, education. One of aconsequence of poverty is child marriage which is embedded so deeply in the social and cultural
setting that it could be a leading cause of women discrimination and deprivation of access to all
opportunities and benefits in family and societal life. Though there is a existing law in order to protect
the child marriage, yet the proportion of child marriage is quite high in Bangladesh. The chart shows theprevalence of child marriage.

26

Age at marriage(%) of women married before 15*
100

70.2

64.1
50
16.5

(%) of women married before 18*
77.7

76.1

27.7

33.1

37.5

40

20-24

25-29

30-34

35-39

80.5
45.5

40-44

85.5
56.6

0
0
15-19

45-49

Age group
Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Gender Statistics, 2010.

Among the poor, the young women are thought to be the financial burden for the familyas they don’t provide any financial support for the family like sons , rather the family needs tospend huge amount to arrange marriage for the daughters and it cost relatively higher due to dowry (an amount of money is given by the bride’s parents to the bride-groom). Thus the parents do hurryin marrying their daughter (A.M. Sultana, 2010). Consequently, adolescent girls can not continue
their study while parents decide to merry them off and immediately they drop out from school.
Thus, the girls are deprived of acquiring necessary skills and qualification required for the entry into
the labor market (UNICEF, 2010).

(vi) Religious influence on women lives:
Islam is the major religion in Bangladesh (app. 90%) and the Hindus
holds the second position (app. 8.5%) on the basis of the number of followers. Thus, religion belief
and rules puts significant impact on the lives of her people. It is well known that Islam itself does
not devaluate the status of women, the local practice and wrong explanation of Islamic rules createsdiscrimination against women. For example, PURDAH (used by Muslim women) which isconsidered as a constraint for women towards participation in social and economic activities,
27

particularly in public place. A local belief, based on Islam, is that heaven lies under the feet ofhusband which affects the lives of women, especially the lives of rural women (Haider, 2012). In
the Hindus community, it is mandatory that sons are responsible to perform the last rites at theirparents' funeral and it is strictly maintained in the society which influences the parents to have amale child.
(vii) Inheritance and property rights of women (legal aspect):
The civil laws and Muslim personal laws of Bangladesh ensure theInheritance and property rights of women, though there is a controversy whether the status andrights of women are well protected. In spite of having the right to ownership and having the sourceof income with property under the provisions of these laws, women can seldom practice theserights. According to Muslim marriage law, women are entitled to have mahr (money, property
given to the bride) which is specified in the kabin nama (marriage contract/ marriage certificate).
But due to many reasons, (especially ignorance of women, dominance of men) women rarely canown mahr or the terms and conditions maintain in the cabin nama (Haider, 2012, Kabeer, 1985).
According to Muslim personal laws and inheritance laws, the legal rights of a woman is specified asfollows : (i) Under this law, a daughter inherits only half of a son’s share; if there are no malechildren, a daughter inherits a fixed share and the rest of the estate is inherited by other agnatic
relatives of the deceased. In case, if there are no female children, a son inherits total share of theestate of the deceased. (ii) Regarding the issue of spouses, a wife receives one eighth of thedeceased husband’s property. On the other hand, the husband gets one fourth of his deceased wife’s
property. Thus, it is claimed that Muslim Personal Laws enhance gender disparity in the society,though there is a debate on this issue among the law makers (Sultana Kamal, September, 2001).

28

(viii) Labor force participation :Women in Bangladesh are mainly engaged in household chores
such as child rearing, cooking, cleaning and caring of others. A little number of women are engagedin paid work. The proportion of women’s participation in formal labor force shown in the Table-v.
The labor force survey 2005-06 reveal that 12.1 Million women participated in labor force which is
too small comparing with the male (37.3) at national level. The situation is almost same when we
see the disaggregated figure on the basis of rural and urban. Whereas half of the total population
constitutes by women. Moreover, while women in rural area earn something from poultry or
livestock is spent for subsistence purpose (Sheikh Kabir, Uddin Haider, 2012). As a result women’s
access to resources in Bangladesh is very limited which results into less women’s access todecision making process in the household.
Table: v
Labor force aged 15 years and over by sex and locality, 1995-2006
National
Rural
Urban
Felame Male Felame Male Felame Male
1995-96 LFS
5.6 30.6
3.8 23.9
1.6
6.7
1999-00 LFS
8.6 32.2
6.4 25.1
2.2
7.1
2002-03 LFS
10.3
35
7.7 27.3
2.7
8.6
2005-06 LFS
12.1 37.3
9.3 28.4
2.8
8.9
Source : Labor force survey , 1995-96 to 2005-06, BBS(ix) Health situation of women :The common picture of women’s health situation in Bangladesh, ishigh maternal mortality, high fertility rate, malnutrition and ill health. According to the sample vitalregistration system, BBS, 2010, the maternal mortality rate is 2.16 per 1000 live births and thefertility rate is 2.12 ( average fertility of per women during reproductive age 15-49) which is still
the highest in the world. In patriarchal social setting where women are often dominated by men, the29status of women is always lower than men. Thus, the lower social status, poverty, and illiteracy
cause women’s deprivation of necessary healthcare and malnutrition (Haider, 2012). Moreover, as
caring of other family members is a women’s traditional responsibilities, they (women) are to wait
for meal until all the family members finish their meals. Though women needs to have more
nutritious diet due to menstruation and pregnancy, particularly for reproductive health, they seldom
get it. Consequently, they suffer from anemia, malnutrition, and so many physical complicacy(Srivastava, Goswami, 2011). Women are also susceptible to diarrhea and communicable diseases
because of poor sanitation (unhealthy/ non-improved) system.
6.0 Conclusion and recommendations:
The principal aim of this paper is to estimate gender gap in medical investment
for children within the household and to identify the fundamental determinants of gender
discrimination against women exist in the society. The study reveals that there is a clear gap
between male and female children in health care spending within the household. It is estimated thatthe health care expenses made by the household (within the sample) for female children isapproximately 15% lower than that of male children holding all other variables constant.
Furthermore, the study pays attention in determining the root causes of pervasive
gender discrimination against women in the community. It has been revealed in many empiricalstudies that in spite of remarkable progress in some socio-economic indicators for instancesubstantial reduction of poverty rate, increase in enrollment rate (both male and female) in primaryand secondary level schools, increase in women’s participation in labor forces etc. over last two
decades, still higher degree of gender gap persists in Bangladesh almost all sectors like health,education, participation in labor force, and access to and control over resources etc (Martin , F.
Shah, 2006 ; A.M. Sultana, 2010). It is found that socio-cultural norms, religious beliefs, patriarchal
family setting and dominance of male counterparts of women contribute to the regular forms of30

discrimination against women. The study highlights some basic causes of gender disparity against
women includes patriarchal family settings, ignorance of female children at birth, lacking ofopportunities for education, poverty among women, less investment for women’s health care in thehousehold and so forth. As it has been proven that at household level, the investment in health carefor female children is significantly lower than that of male children, the study suggests to invest
more for women’s healthcare as a whole (at both household and government level) and it alsoemphasizes for special measures on the social, economic and environment (improve sanitation,access to drinking water, logistic supports etc) determinants of health. It is perceived that acomprehensive health care policy including institutional and program levels might help to improve
the health situation of women which would result in reduction of gender gap prevails in healthsector.
However, women are often discriminated at home, at work places, and overall in thecommunity. This study, therefore, also reveals the root causes of pervasive gender gap in the society
which should be reflected in the policy formulation in reducing gender gap. The promotion ofgender and empowerment of women is a burning issue for achieving MDGs and sustainableeconomic development. The government of Bangladesh expressed strong commitment to improve
gender situation by adopting policy reforms and development programs which comply with theConvention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) and FourthWorld Conference on Women: Equality, Development and Peace was held in Beijing in 1995. In
addition to it, many national and international NGOs also have been working towards the reductionof gender gap by improving the status of women. Though some progress has been made on thisissue, the government still has been facing tremendous challenges in achieving expected equality
between men and women. Some policy implications (both short term and long term), therefore, arerecommended on the basis of this study in order to achieve substantive gender equality.
31

I.

It is essential to ease the health care budget of the household so that all the family
members can get better health care services. At the same time, everybody shouldhave some specific health insurance policy;

II.

To promote advocacy and comprehensive gender analysis on health financing andhealth insurance proposal in order to address women’s health and family planningneeds effectively;

III.

Government should ensure equal and easy access to gender responsive health andeducation services more widely;IV.

Law and order enforcing agencies along with both marriage registrars and birth
registrars should be more efficient and sincere in order to end violence against
women and girls at home and in the communities;

V.

Early marriage and dowry, which are two root causes of gender discrimination, aredeeply embedded in the improvised and traditional cultural settings in Bangladesh.
No single solution is available to prevent and protect such kind of social diseases.
The following study, therefore, suggests that women need to have easy access to
education, particularly to the higher study and comprehensive social awarenessprograms need to be undertaken by the government in collaboration with NGOs ofnational and international level;

VI.

Mass media like electronic media, print media even social media like facebook,YouTube, twitter etc. should come forward in order to build mass awareness against
dowry, early marriage, son preference, and violence against women. They should also
take pragmatic steps in raising voice for women regarding women’s legal rights, better
education, nutrition, reproductive health, participation in labor market and above all for
their access to better opportunity.

32

VII.

Women should be given priority for human resources development programs(Training, technical or vocational learning etc) in order to enhance women’s skills
and capability so that they can easily enter into the formal labor force of the country;

VIII.

Gender issues, especially social and cultural education regarding early marriage, sex
biasness, dowry system etc should be incorporated in school curriculum in order tobuild gender awareness among the young generation;

IX.

Local government institutions, NGOs and community leaders jointly can organize
counseling parents on importance of maternal health, women’s education, bad effectof early marriage and dowry system which could be an effective measure to improve
the situation of women in general;

X.

Documentaries, short film or commercial film based on positive image of womencan play a vital role in changing the mind set of common people.

33

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