The observance of the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore symbolizes the deep reverence in which the poet has always been held by Bengali-speaking people not only in Bangladesh and West Bengal but elsewhere around the world as well. Such reverence has to do with the fact that it was Tagore whose poetry introduced a powerful dose of internationalism in the way Bengalis looked at the wider world around them and the other way round. His was a comprehensive way of looking at life, not just through his poetry but through his prose and his art as well. Rabindranath Tagore happens to be one of those rare of illustrious individuals whose comprehension of life and death and everything happening in between has been total and layered with meaning at various levels.
It is surely a matter of pride for the people of Bangladesh that Tagore has consistently been a huge symbolism for us, one we could always fall back on in times of critical note. In 1961, on the anniversary of the Bard's centenary of birth, we as a people defied every attempt by the then ruling classes to have the poet banished from our culture. Even when the Ayub Khan regime decreed a ban on Tagore songs, we fought back. In our armed struggle for freedom in 1971, it was Tagore whose inspiration was all, enough for us to adopt his Amar Shonar Bangla as Bangladesh's national anthem. The formidable hold he has on our psyche can be gauged from the fact that both India and Bangladesh sing his songs as their national anthems. And now we have stumbled on the discovery that even the Sri Lankan national anthem owes its lyrics and its melody to him.
A century and a half after his birth, therefore, Rabindranath Tagore's place in our collective life endures, indeed becomes stronger by the day. A broad hint of that comes in the reality of his birth anniversary being observed this year jointly by India and Bangladesh. It is just as well, for in Tagore resided a poet, a writer of fiction, a humanist, a seeker of truth through a search for divinity in his music.
Tagore keeps our path illuminated.
Employment abroad
Ensure safety for women workers
We are all for expanding our global labour market. It ensures employment of our large work force as it also contributes towards socio - economic development of the country. Remittances from workers abroad have been substantial over the years. During the July 2010- April 2011 period remittances was $9587.15 million, registering a growth of 4.3 percent over the same period of the last fiscal.
The recent government decision to send ten thousand female workers to Saudi Arabia as domestic help is a good one provided it ensures the physical safety and security of these women, some of whom may become victims of abuse and deprivation.
Saudi Arabia has been the principal market for Bangladeshi workers which roughly employ around two million Bangladeshis. With recent political crises in a number of Arab countries and bans imposed by some governments particularly of South East Asia on our workers, Bangladesh faces severe overseas employment crisis.
Our concerns over the safety of women workers stem from bad experiences in the past. A Human Rights Watch member informs that there is no provision for domestic help under Saudi labour law. Therefore, they neither have weekly holidays nor is there fixed working hours. Many have to work for years without break. Many also go without payments for months and kept confined inside the house. They are also subjected to physical hardships.
We want the ministry concerned to make it known as to what measures it plans to adopt to ensure protection of our workers especially the female while sending them to work abroad as domestic help.
There should be clear guidelines regarding workers protection, pay and privileges to be agreed upon by the employers and the employees; workers should be trained in their jobs and in the local language of the receiving countries to make communications easy; and increase the capacity of our missions abroad with trained and supportive officials who will be able to handle the employment related issues without much hassle.
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