Government plans divisional-level DNA labs to strengthen justice.
Women and Children Affairs Minister Prof Dr AZM Zahid Hossain today said the government plans to gradually expand deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) laboratory services to the divisional level to ensure transparency in the judicial process and further strengthen the legal protection of women and children.
He said this when UNFPA Country Representative Catherine Breen Kamkong paid a courtesy call on him at his Secretariat office. Women and Children Affairs Secretary Dr. Rowsan Ara Begum was present.
A range of issues, including the Family Card programme, women's education, achieving gender equality, prevention of violence and sexual harassment against women and children, child marriage, domestic violence, adolescent health, children's rights, child labour and cyberbullying.
Zahid expressed gratitude for UNFPA's development assistance and support to Bangladesh at various times since the country's independence and hoped such development and technical cooperation would continue in the future.
The UNFPA representative expressed a positive attitude toward providing UNFPA's technical and knowledge-based support for the rapid and successful implementation of the DNA laboratory programme.
Zahid said adolescent clubs have been established in every union to raise grassroots-level awareness about various social issues, including child marriage.
Kamkong highly praised various development initiatives and commitments undertaken by the Bangladesh government to prevent child marriage and protect women's rights.
She called for greater and closer involvement of local religious leaders and respected community members in completely eliminating child marriage at the grassroots level.
Zahid sought support from the development partners to provide women entrepreneurs with up-to-date marketing training, with the aim of creating opportunities to export traditional and handicraft products made by women at the grassroots level to international markets.
