1.

Concept of the Discrimination

In neoclassical economics theory, labor market discrimination is defined as the different treatment of two equally qualified individuals on account of their gender, race, age disability and Religion etc. Discrimination is harmful since it affects the economic outcomes of equally productive workers directly and indirectly through feedback effects. Darity and Mason [1998] summarize that the standard approach used in identifying employment discrimination is to isolate group productivity differences (education, work experience). A difference in outcomes (such as earnings, job placement) that cannot be attributed to worker qualifications is attributed to discriminatory treatment. In the non-neoclassical view, discrimination is the main source of inequality in the labor market and it is seen in the persistent gender and racial earnings disparity in the U.S. Non-neoclassical economists defines discrimination more broadly than neoclassical economists. For example, the feminist economist Deborah Figart [1997] defines labor market discrimination as a multidimensional interaction of economic, social, political, and cultural forces in both the workplace and the family, resulting in different outcomes involving pay, employment, and status. Although labor market inequalities have declined after the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, the movement towards equality has slowed down after mid-1970s, especially more in gender terms than racial terms. The key issue in the debate on employment discrimination is the persistence of discrimination, namely, why discrimination persists in a capitalist economy.

1.1 Discrimination Law & Legal Definition

Discrimination refers to the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit. Discrimination can be the effect of some law or established practice that confers privileges on a certain class or denies privileges to a certain class because of race, age, sex, nationality, religion, or handicap. Federal law, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, prohibits employment discrimination based on any one of those characteristics. Other federal statutes, supplemented by court decisions, prohibit discrimination

in voting rights, housing, credit extension, public education, and access to public facilities. State laws also provide further protection against discrimination. The term discrimination is also used to refer to the effect of state laws that favor local interests over out-of-state interests. However such a discriminatory state law may still be upheld if it is narrowly tailored to achieve an important state interest. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) interprets and enforces the Equal Payment Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Title VII, Americans With Disabilities Act, and sections of the Rehabilitation Act. The Commission was established by Title VII. Its enforcement provisions are contained in section 2000e-5 of Title 42, and its regulations and guidelines are contained in Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 1614. State statutes also provide extensive protection from employment discrimination. Some laws extend similar protection as provided by the federal acts to employers who are not covered by those statutes. Other statutes provide protection to groups not covered by the federal acts.

1.2 EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION: AN OVERVIEW

Employment Discrimination laws seek to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. A growing body of law also seeks to prevent employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Discriminatory practices include bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, retaliation, and various types of harassment. The main body of employment discrimination laws consists of federal and state statutes. The United States Constitution and some state constitutions provide additional protection when the employer is a governmental body or the government has taken significant steps to foster the discriminatory practice of the employer. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution limit the power of the federal and state governments to discriminate. The Fifth amendment has an explicit requirement that the federal government not deprive individuals of "life, liberty, or property," without due process of the law. See U.S. Const. amend. V. It also contains an implicit guarantee that each person receive equal protection of the laws. The Fourteenth Amendment explicitly prohibits states from violating an individual's rights to due process and equal protection. See U.S. Const.

amend. XIV. In the employment context, the right of equal protection limits the power of the state and federal governments to discriminate in their employment practices by treating employees, former employees, or job applicants unequally because of membership in a group (such as a race or sex). Due process protection requires that employees receive a fair process before the termination if the termination relates to a "liberty" (such as the right to free speech) or property interest. State constitutions may also afford protection from employment discrimination. The Constitution does not directly constrain discrimination in the private sector, but the private sector has become subject to a growing body of federal and state statutes.

1.3 Federal Employment Statutes Prohibiting Discrimination

Section 1981 of the U.S. Code provides additional federal remedies to deter harassment and intentional discrimination in the workplace. Amended in 1991, 1981 provides the requisite elements for proving a disparate impact claim and permits a jury to award compensatory and punitive damages in situations of intentional discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in many more aspects of the employment relationship. It applies to most employers engaged in interstate commerce with more than 15 employees, labor organizations, and employment agencies. The Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Sex includes pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions. The Nineteenth Century Civil Rights Acts, amended in 1993, ensure all persons equal rights under the law and outline the damages available to complainants in actions brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Equal Pay Act amended the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1963. The Equal Pay Act prohibits employers and unions from paying different wages based on the employee's sex. It does not prohibit other discriminatory hiring practices. It provides that if workers perform equal work in jobs requiring "equal skill, effort, and responsibility . . . performed under similar working conditions,"

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of age. The prohibited practices closely parallel those outlined in Title 7 and protect employees over the age of 40 from discrimination. The ADEA contains explicit guidelines for benefit, pension, and retirement plans. During the 2007-2008 terms, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified the statute in three distinct areas.

1.4 The nature of harassment/discrimination

Harassing behavior can range from serious to less serious levels, however one-off incidents can still constitute harassment. Also, where continued, such behaviour can undermine the standard of conduct within a work area, which may erode the well being of the individual or group being targeted and lead to lower overall staff performance. The absence of complaints is not necessarily an indication that no harassment or discrimination is occurring. The person subjected to harassing or discriminating behaviour does not always complain. This is not necessarily because the act is trivial, but because the person may lack the confidence to speak up on their own behalf or feel too intimidated or embarrassed to complain.

1.4.1 Hostile working environment

Employers also need to be aware of their responsibilities to ensure that the working environment or workplace culture is not sexually or racially hostile. Examples of a potentially hos tile working environment are where pornographic materials are displayed and where crude conversations, innuendo or offensive jokes are part of the accepted culture. A person has the right to complain about the effects of a sexually or racially hostile working environment, even if the conduct in question was not specifically targeted at them.

1.4.2 What harassment/discrimination is not?

Workplace harassment or discrimination must not be confused with legitimate comment and advice (including relevant negative comment or feedback) from managers and supervisors on the work performance or work related behavior of an individual or group. The process of providing feedback to staff during a formal performance appraisal, or counseling staff regarding their work performance, will not always be free of stress. Managers should

manage these processes with sensitivity, but they should not avoid their responsibility to provide full and frank feedback to staff.

1.4.3 What is workplace bullying?

One definition of workplace bullying is the repeated less favorable treatment of a person by another or others in the workplace, which may be considered unreasonable and inappropriate workplace practice. It includes behavior that intimidates, offends, degrades or humiliates a worker. (Source ACTUQ/QCCI/Qld govt Dept of Workplace Health and Safety) Bullies usually utilize power attributed to their status, skills or position in the workplace, and both men and women can be the targets and/or the perpetrators. Workplace bullying can occur between a worker and a manager or supervisor, or between co-workers. Bullying behavior can range from very obvious verbal or physical assault to very subtle psychological abuse. This behavior may include: Physical or verbal abuse Yelling, screaming or offensive language excluding or isolating employees Psychological harassment Intimidation assigning meaningless tasks unrelated to the job Giving employees impossible jobs Deliberately changed work rosters to inconvenience particular employees Undermining work performance by deliberately withholding information vital for effective work performance

References
U.S. Department of Labor LII resources: employment discrimination Workplace Discrimination and Harassment Law Cornell Education Summaries of Agency and Court Decisions Under the Wisconsin Fair Employment Act U.S. Constitution and Federal Statutes 42 U.S.C. 1981, 1981a, 1983, 1988 - Nineteenth Century Civil Rights Acts 42 U.S.C. Chapter 21 - Civil Rights Act of 1964 29 U.S.C. 206 - Equal Pay Act of 1963 42 U.S.C. Chapter 126 - Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 29 U.S.C. 621 - 634 - The Age Discrimination in Employment Act 30 U.S.C. 938 - The Black Lung Act 29 U.S.C. 791, 793, 794(a) - The Rehabilitation Act

2.0 Kinds of discrimination

Workplace discrimination occurs when an individual is adversely discriminated against due to any number of factors. Employment discrimination is a form of discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. Earnings differentials or occupational differentiation is not in and of itself evidence of employment discrimination. Discrimination can be intended and involve disparate treatment of a group or be unintended, yet create disparate impact for a group. These types of discrimination include biased practices based on.

2.1 Educational Discrimination:

2.1.1Educational Discrimination Not Illegal -- Until It Is
Educational discrimination in hiring or in workplace settings is not illegal, as it does not, within context, run afoul of any federal laws protecting workers from discrimination. That being said, educational discrimination may straddle the line between legal and illegal if th e educational requirements of the job make obtaining or doing the job difficult for those protected under other laws.

2.1.2 Educational Requirements and ADA

If it seems that every job from fast food to finance requires a high school diploma, it's not just your imagination. Employers who require a high school diploma for menial labor, however, may unwittingly be discriminating against those with learning disabilities or other problems that have prevented them from graduating from high school. In a discussion letter posted on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's website, a commission representative writes that "if an employer adopts a high school diploma requirement for a job, and that requirement 'screens out' an individual who is unable to graduate because of a learning disability that meets the Americans with Disabilities Acts definition of 'disability,' the employer may not apply the standard unless it can demonstrate that the diploma requirement is job related and consistent with business necessity."

2.2 Gender discrimination at work place

We live in a male dominated society where they are obviously given preference, so much so that during the time of hiring employees many companies still prefer male to female employees. "Why? Is there discrimination at work?" The question might arise in your mind. Many people give a few common reasons for the preference for male employees-men are more hardworking; others would say, if you have women employees in your organisation you have to provide them with more security than men; women are not suitable for the job especially where you've to travel a lot; women give more preferences to family (e.g. taking care of children and

other family members), and you cannot help but provide a three-month (may be six months) maternity leave with pay when situation arises. However, the situation is changing and will keep changing. Many entrepreneurs have faced the truth that without women their organization is not complete, as the female comprise half of the total population and also have comparable if not superior skills and potentials to serve their organizations. So nowadays women are walking shoulder to shoulder with men and also contributing to the growth of the economy. Now many women are placed in higher positions and some of them are doing better than men. Not only that women are also serving those sectors where physical stamina is the priority, such as female traffic police personnel (though quite hard to find them on the streets but there are some).

2.3 Religious Discrimination

Religious discrimination involves treating a person (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs. The law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs. Religious discrimination can also involve treating someone differently because that person is married to (or associated with) an individual of a particular religion or because of his or her connection with a religious organization or group.

2.3.1Religious Discrimination & Work Situations

The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment.

2.3.2 Religious Discrimination & Harassment

It is illegal to harass a person because of his or her religion. Harassment can include, for example, offensive remarks about a persons religious beliefs or practices. Although the law

doesnt prohibit simple teasing, offhand comments, or isolated incidents that arent very serious, harassment is illegal when it is so frequent or severe that it creates a hostile or offensive work environment or when it results in an adverse employment decision (such as the victim being fired or demoted). The harasser can be the victim's supervisor, a supervisor in another area, a co-worker, or someone who is not an employee of the employer, such as a client or customer.

2.3.3 Religious Discrimination and Segregation

Title VII also prohibits workplace or job segregation based on religion (including religious garb and grooming practices), such as assigning an employee to a non-customer contact position because of actual or feared customer preference.

2.3.4 Religious Discrimination & Reasonable Accommodation

The law requires an employer or other covered entity to reasonably accommodate an employees religious beliefs or practices, unless doing so would cause more than a minimal burden on the operations of the employer's business. This means an employer may be required to make reasonable adjustments to the work environment that will allow an employee to practice his or her religion. Examples of some common religious accommodations include flexible scheduling, voluntary shift substitutions or swaps, job reassignments, and modifications to workplace policies or practices.

2.3.5 Religious Accommodation/Dress & Grooming Policies

Unless it would be an undue hardship on the employer's operation of its business, an employer must reasonably accommodate an employee's religious beliefs or practices. This applies not only to schedule changes or leave for religious observances, but also to such things as dress or grooming practices that an employee has for religious reasons. These might include, for example, wearing particular head coverings or other religious dress (such as a Jewish yarmulke or a Muslim headscarf), or wearing certain hairstyles or facial hair (such as Rastafarian dreadlocks or

Sikh uncut hair and beard). It also includes an employee's observance of a religious prohibition against wearing certain garments (such as pants or miniskirts). When an employee or applicant needs a dress or grooming accommodation for religious reasons, he should notify the employer that he needs such an accommodation for religious reasons. If the employer reasonably needs more information, the employer and the employee should engage in an interactive process to discuss the request. If it would not pose an undue hardship, the employer must grant the accommodation.

2.3.6 Religious Discrimination & Reasonable Accommodation & Undue Hardship

An employer does not have to accommodate an employees religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer. An accommodation may cause undue hardship if it is costly, compromises workplace safety, decreases workplace efficiency, infringes on the rights of other employees, or requires other employees to do more than their share of potentially hazardous or burdensome work.

2.4 Class Discrimination

Classism is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes and behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper classes at the expense of the lower classes. Unlike European countries with their centuries old aristocracies, America has an image of itself as a classless society. While often blind to the workings of class power and privilege, Americans are not exempt from their effects.

2.4.1 Why the Silence?

Classism may be uncomfortable for people to discuss for many reasons. Both feelings of guilt and classed-based shame can be conjured up. Guilt for privileges accorded to us if ours is a favored class position. Shame if we view ourselves from the imagined vantage point of those higher up on the class continuum.

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By recognizing class and its workings, we also have to recognize our own role in the perpetuation of the system itself. How do we carry our privileges? Who might be hurt because of them? And how do we help our society face yet another "ism?

2.4.2 Check List for Addressing Classism in the Workplace

Classism also shows up in the workplace. Consider your own organization. From what class are most of your managers and executives? How about your janitorial staff? Who is treated with more respect? Who has more opportunities to gain income and power? How about access to education (consider educational assistance, time to attend courses, and training opportunities)? Does it vary by level?

2.5 Caste discrimination and the workplace

For many Asian employees, caste discrimination is a daily reality but until recently, it wasnt even officially recognized as existing in the UK. The impact of caste is finally beginning to been taken seriously by policy makers. With the new Equality Act, which comes into force in October this year, the minister responsible has a power to introduce secondary legislation if proof is found that caste discrimination exists in the areas covered by the Act, namely education, employment and the provision of goods and services.

2.5.1 Removing the Caste Discrimination

Eradication of caste discrimination is a big public policy issue in India itself, and positive discrimination policies in relation to education and employment are in place, made possible through active caste monitoring, with those people designated as belonging to the lower castes given certain preferences. As a social system, it is breaking down due to the spread of more moderate views, but some of the ideological aspects are alive and kicking and increasingly expressed in very subtle ways.

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3.0 Evidence from Statistics

1. Sex Group: That following graph is showing the percentage of the total number for male & female who participates in that survey. It shows that, the number of female participates are more than the male.

REPONDENTS SEX
Male 38%

Female 62%

2. Age Group: Here, the most number of age group is 18-30. As the newly employed employees are more likely interested on the survey.

Repondents Age Group

[PERCENTAGE]

[PERCENTAGE] [PERCENTAGE]

18-30

31-40

41-60

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3. Job Sector: most of the cases, people are heading towards the Banking and engineering sector to choose as their working sector. There are also Human Resource and marketing sectors which are mostly preferred.

What is the job sector you are working in?

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

4. Racial Discrimination: The racial discrimination comes when there are whites, Asians, black races towards people. Moreover most people are not in support of the racisms but it becomes more violent in the European countries.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination- RACE?
18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 White Asian Black N/A Others

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5. Color Discrimination: Here the skin color is mostly reason for what the workplace faces the color discrimination. Most of the cases, dark skinned employees are always neglected then the light color.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination- COLOR?
25 20 15 10 5 0 Dark Skinned Light Skinned N/A Others

6. Origin Discrinimation: When there is a priority basis on the district, it becomes the origin discrimination. If the CEO of an organization is from Barisal, he will be in priority to choose the native employee.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination- ORIGIN?
25 20 15 10 5 0 Bangladeshi N/A Others Priority on the basis of district

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7. Marital discrimination: For the female worker, the marital status sometimes create a discrimination. An unmarried female worker are more prefrred then a married worker. Other statuses ae given as an option.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination- MARITAL STATUS?
25 20 15 10 5 0 N/A Married Unmarried Divorced Widow

8. Sexual Discrimination: here fmale workers are again sexually discriminated. They faces the pressure more then the male workers. Transgender here had a minimal pressure in the work place.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination-SEX?

20 15 10 5 0 Female Male N/A Transgender

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9. Age Discrimination: Age has the discrimination at the level of experiences and knowledge. As the below 40 aged employees are well knowledgeable and they have the more knowledge over recent changes.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination-AGE?

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Under 40 40-69 70 & over N/A

10. Education Discrimination: In workplace, bangla medium education are not appriciable. They are given less forecasts in selection of a employee. Here english medium background are given priority.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination-EDUCATION?

18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Bangla Medium English Medium Madrasa N/A

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11. Religion Discrimination: Religious view are sometime has the discrimination on the religious cultured institutions. For example Islami Bank recruit only muslim workers.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discrimination-RELIGION?

35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Buddhist Christian Hindu Islam N/A

12. Disability discrimination: Physically

and mentally disabled workers are always

discriminated. Their biased activities are always has a negative impact.

What is the reason (basis) for your claim of employment discriminationDISABILITY/HANDICAP?

25 20 15 10 5 0 Mental Physical N/A

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4.0 Public Awareness

Although there are no official statistics, it is estimated that there are about 5.5 million Suppressed people in Bangladesh. Caste systems and prejudice against so-called untouchables are traditionally regarded as part of traditional practices and originate from Hindu scriptures; but in Bangladesh these traditions and practices have also been adopted by sections of the Muslim majority. In Bangladesh, members of the low castes increasingly refer to themselves as Suppressed people the downtrodden people to emphasize the fact that they have been exploited, oppressed and excluded through generations. The living conditions of Suppressed people are far below the poverty line, and they have extremely limited access to health services, education and emplo yment. They live in colonies with very poor housing and work almost exclusively in the service sector, doing unclean jobs in urban areas such as street sweeping, manual scavenging and burying the dead. The multiple forms of discrimination experienced by the Dalit community in Bangladesh and its active perpetuation and tolerance by the State are in violation of fundamental human rights obligations. To create awareness among them and among public, the Government of Bangladesh should therefore enforce constitutional and policy measures to address this situation, including special legal measures to protect the human rights of Suppressed people. Priority should be given to develop a national action plan to effectively eliminate discrimination against Suppressed people and other excluded groups in society. In this process, the government may decide to use: the comprehensive UN framework to address caste discrimination the draft UN principles and guidelines to elimination discrimination based on work and descent as a model framework for developing such an action plan.

4.1 Success story of diminishing wage gap by a collective force in Nilphamari, Bangladesh:
To address this structural gender bias in the agriculture sector, Pathways project staff and the Empowerment through Knowledge and Transformative Action group (EKATA) volunteers facilitated a participatory analysis on fair wage aiming to motivate the land owners and local elites to reduce the wage gap.

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The meetings brought together all levels of the communities, including representatives of local government, government line departments, land owners in that locality, men and women day laborers, natural leaders, EKATA volunteers, and representative of local non-governmental organizations and CARE staff. On average, 500 ward-level and 2,000 union-level participants attended these events. The EKATA volunteers and representatives publicly presented their analysis of the discrimination in wages; Presently, men and women are working together in the crops field as a team. Landowners are showing a more positive attitude to the women day laborers, and women day laborers are getting equal wages at end of each day without having to request it, and without being harassed as had previously been the case. Recognizing the different needs of female workers, the landowners have even created a space for the women who are breastfeeding and are allowing women to breastfeed their children in the working time.

5.0 Governmental Policies and effectiveness

Regarding Equality of opportunity in public employment the constitution of Bangladesh stated at Article no. 29 that (1) There shall be equality of opportunity for all citizens in respect of employment or office in the service of the Republic. (2) No citizen shall, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, be ineligible for, or discriminated against in respect of, any employment or office in the service of the Republic. (3) Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from 1. making special provision in favour of any backward section of citizens for the purpose of securing their adequate representation in the service of the Republic; 2. giving effect to any law which makes provision for reserving appointments relating to any religious or denominational institution to persons of that religion or denomination; 3. Reserving for members of one sex any class of employment or office on the ground that it is considered by its nature to be unsuited to members of the opposite sex.

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On the basis of Constitution we have tried to identify the effectiveness as well as implementation of those acts in our country. We have asked our respondents open ended question and close ended question regarding few factors. We tried to know about discrepancies they have seen as well as confronted. The following result we have found is very interesting.

5.1 Effectiveness of Government Policies

Effectiveness of Govt. Policies

No Yes

30 75 70 25 Equal pay for equal work Experience of discrimination

20 40

80 60

Employment/ authority opportunity

Governmental support to remove biasness

5.2 Equal Pay for Equal Work:

In Bangladesh, the poorest of the poor (both women and men) are often engaged in day labor as hired seasonal workers on landowners large plantations. Currently, there are about as many women as men engaged in this type of work, and they perform almost identical tasks. But they do not earn equal wages. In an analysis of wages in the four Unions in which Pathways works, it was found that for a days labor, men earn an average of $2.22, while women earn nearly half of that amount ($1.21). Moreover, women who are engaged in day labor are often harassed due to social prohibitions and norms about womens mobility and visibility. Their work is neither recognized nor fully remunerated.

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Knowing the situation of the country 70% despondence said that there is no effectiveness of Government policies and 30% said yes.

5.3 Experience of Discrimination:

Experience of discrimination shows the whole picture of employment discrimination both in terms of mental and physical. Here the graphical picture shows that 25% respondents said negative and 75% yes in terms of experience of discrimination.

5.4 Employment Opportunities:

According to the respondents, 60% of them said negative that there is less opportunity of employment that indicates the poor effectiveness of government policy. Womens inequality as reflected in key labor force characteristics Labor Force Characteristic (%) Unemployment rate Underemployment rate Labor force participation rate Total 5.0 20.31 59.2 Male 4.1 14.40 82.51 7.01 Female 5.7 34.15 35.98 56.3

Male-female labor composition in 21.8 the total unpaid family labor Male-female labor composition of 12.5 the formal sector employment Male-female labor composition of 87.5 the formal sector employment

14.6

7.7

85.5

92.3

Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, Labor force survey 2010

This statistics shows that there is less opportunities of employment for women that clearly indicates the gender discrimination in employment.

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5.5 Government support to remove biasness:

According to the respondents, the government support to remove biasness is very poor. Around 80% said no that there is no government support and 20% said yes.

6.0 Comparison with other countries

Discrimination in workplaces is now one of the most debated issues around the world. There had been innumerous findings on and strong charges against discrimination. In particular, gender bias has become a common occurrence everywhere in most of the developing countries. Some reports also show that such discrimination happens even in developed countries, though the number of facts may be less compared to those in the developing and least developed countries. From the open ended question of our survey, we have identified the contributing factors respect to our country. We tried to compare it with other developing countries like ours. Here we took Philippines as developing country and describe the factors of Philippines later on this discussion.

Most contributing factor/s in gender bias and discrimination in employment and at workplace (%) in Bangladesh Socio-economic factor Family culture Religious restrictions/ values 60-65% 70-75% 65% Acceptance of biasness in the society 75-90% 40% Others

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In Bangladesh, the socio-economic factor that is one of the major factor and gender bias and discrimination is workplace describe the real situation of the workplace. Though according to the constitution, equal opportunities should be created in public employment, but in the real picture it is not the same the way it should be. According to our survey female employees mostly think that our society has the culture of accepting biasness and gender discrimination. Almost 31% women believe it to be the most contributing factor in this regard. At the second highest remains the individual family culture. It would not be aggravating to say that the parental way of teaching children the biological and psychological differences between a girl and a boy in our country offers a discriminatory attitude growing from childhood which in the course of time turns into a belief at adulthood. As a result, most adult males have the confidence that they would be preferred in the labor market rather than the females. On the other hand, the females intending to enter the job market, give too much thoughts. Religious values and restrictions and socio-economic factors are found to contribute almost to the same extent which is 60-65%. As a real life example the respondents said that in Bangladesh, Islami bank offers job to the students from madrasa background than any other background. Among the other causes of gender bias and discrimination, we found that the atmosphere surrounding the workplace is a major factor. If the superior authority and the immediate

Most contributing factor/s in gender bias and discrimination in employment and at workplace (%) in Bangladesh
31% 23%

24% 22%

Socio-economic Factor Religious Restriction value

Family Culture Acceptance of biasness in the society

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colleagues do not cooperate to keep a discrimination-free environment, the female employees cannot fight alone for a long time. Now we would like to discuss on the employment discrimination of Philippines.

Most contributing factor/s in gender bias and discrimination in employment and at workplace (%) in Philippines
20% 27%

21%

32%

Socio-economic Factor Religious Restriction value

Family Culture Acceptance of biasness in the society

Most contributing factor/s in gender bias and discrimination in employment and at workplace (%) in Philippines Socio-economic factor Family culture Religious Acceptance of Others

restrictions/ values biasness in the society

80-85%

75-80%

55%

60-65%

30%

The family culture of Philippines shows a different pictures than Bangladesh. In Philippines, women are more encouraged in every working place. They got chance in maximum field of workplace with minimum discrimination of gender, race, wages etc. But the big problem comes when the issue comes on the higher positions of the companies they strictly maintain the gender discrimination. They never gives the higher position to women. The higher level authority is

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maximum time dominated by men. Here around 32% respondents believe that it is the major dominating factor for the gender bias and discrimination in workplace.

Some employment laws exist in the Philippines. However employees and job applicants are openly discriminated and abused on the grounds of sex, age, appearance, background, educational achievements, race, wages, illegal sackings, employer tolerance of bullying in the workplace, little or no work benefits, anti-union practices, no staff supervision, no staff appraisals, threats of poorer no references etc. And its big name and small Companies that are equally quality of such employee abuses. Examples -specifying gender preferences in adverts, specifying age brackets, demanding photos on applicants, staff being sacked for no reason on the day and without wages or commission. Here the statistics shows Almost 27%respondent believe it to be the most contributing factor in this regard.

Perception of religious discrimination within certain groups vary, the tanenbaum report said, with 66 percent of Muslims saying Muslims face discrimination and 55 percent of atheists saying atheists face bias. But the report found religious, racial and other minorities arent the only workers who see themselves as victims of discrimination. Some 40 percent of white evangelical Christians said they face a lot of discrimination. And 59 percent of evangelical say discrimination against other religious groups. Here we found that 21% respondents believe that it is an important factor in this regard. And acceptance of biasness in the society is 20% in gender bias and discrimination in workplace.

References
The Daily Star on March 8, 2010, p.18, 19, 23 The Daily Star on February 19, 2010, p. 14 The Star, A weekly publication of The Daily Star on March 5, 2010, p. 9

International: UN Charter (Art. 1, 8, 13, 55, 76) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Art. 2)

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 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Art. 2.1, 2.2, 17.1, 26) Convention on The Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (Art.2, 3, 4, 11, 14, 17, 21) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Art. 7) The ILO Convention (Art. 2) The UNESCO Convention (Art. 1, 4) Domestic: Constitution (Art. 29) IDSN briefing note;2012 Links: http://idsn.org/fileadmin/user_folder/pdf/New_files/Bangladesh/Bangladesh_briefing_not e_2012.pdf http://www.asaub.edu.bd/data/asaubreview/v4n2sl13.pdf http://wwwwds.worldbank.org/servlet/WDSContentServer/IW3P/IB/1999/09/20/000178830_981019 11035773/Rendered/PDF/multi_page.pdf http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865585613/Religious-discrimination-in-theworkplace-increases-with-diversity.html?pg=all http://www.carepathwaystoempowerment.org/equal-pay-women-workers-fair-wagecampaign-bangladesh-case-study/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNsBCtwQ5dI

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7.0 Rural and urban scenario:

One enduring feature of the development process, highlighted by Lipton (1977), is that ruralpopulations are lagging behind their urban compatriots this observation also applies to Millennium Development Goal (MDG) indicators. This paper is focused on policies aimed at closing this gap for one of the MDGs, the under-five mortality rate (U5MR or MDG 4), trying to shed light on what may be required to raise the rural population up to the urban level for this indicator or, more modestly, in terms of the government health services that reach them. The size of the effort that is required to achieve such objectives depends on a number of structural features of the modelled economy, including the rate of urbanization, rural-urban cost differentials for health services, and the magnitudes of initial rural-urban gaps in terms of the indicator itself, the U5MR, and its determinants, including access to health services and other aspects of rural living conditions. Rural and urban MDG data for low-income countries in

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7.1 Employment and unemployment scenario

Employment trends in recent decades, as observed through National Sample Survey (NSS) data have evoked mixed reactions among policy makers and researchers. The workforce participation rates (WPRs) by usual (principal) status13 in the 15-59 age group have gone down systematically for all categories (males and females, in rural and urban areas) since late seventies to the end of the last century (Table 3). It is difficult to explain this secular trend in terms of higher enrolment in schools as the children (up to age 14) have been excluded from the calculations. Percentage of workers in 1559 age-group by Usual, Weekly and Daily Status

During the period 1999-2000 to 2004-05, the latest period for which large sample survey results are available, there seems to be a stalling of this trend. For rural men, the figure has not declined while for women, it has gone up both in rural and urban areas. The increase has been large enough to restore back the levels of 1993-94. There is slight decline in the rate in the year 2005-06 as per the thin sample results (all other figures in the table are based on large sample) but that, if not due to sampling error, reflects that the employment generated in the growth process is not sustainable in the long run. It may also be pointed out that only a small part of the total women employment is in the formal labour market. Close to half of the rural women

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workers are helpers or unpaid workers in family run enterprises. Among urban women, this figure is close to one quarter. WPR by usual status has gone down for men both in rural and urban areas during the decade 1993-2004 implying that employment has grown at a pace less than that of population in most age groups over the entire decade. Only, the decrease in the WPR in the age group 15-19 could possibly be attributed to larger number of boys and girls going to colleges and universities (Table 4). The decline has been considered all the more surprising since the economy has registered reasonably high growth in income. As a result, scholars have argued that Indian economy is experiencing some sort of jobless growth. The decline in WPR as also growth rate of employment is dramatic particularly during 1993-99 in all age groups. Understandably, planners and policy makers got very alarmed and launched Constitutional and administrative measures for employment generation within or outside the macro level growth strategy, resulting in passing of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and launching of a scheme guaranteeing 100 days of work to every rural household in a year. Furthermore, employment generation entered the political agenda of the government and most political parties in the country. A departure from this trend during 1999-2004 has been noted from the data from the 61st round of NSS. The changed employment scenario has been welcomed by one and all as it is argued that the decelerating trend in employment growth particularly that of the nineties, often attributed to the programmes of structural reform, has finally been stalled. The systematic decline in WPR among children (in the age group of 5-19) during the entire period 1993-04 reflects spread of primary education. Understandably, more and more children are attending schools. The decline, however, is sharper in rural compared to urban areas, both for boys and girls. Possibly, it is the employment opportunities opening up within the household sector and various informal activities within urban economy which is responsible for this lower decline in WPR. The increase in WPR in the age group of 20-24 (by usual principal status) for urban male is surprising as one expects this to fall due to boys going to colleges and other higher institutions of learning. This unfortunately has not happened as they have been drawn into employment in the urban informal sector (Table 4). The overview of the trends by weekly and daily status strengthens many of the above conclusions, although, one gets a relatively more gratifying picture of the labour market. The growth rates in employment work out as much higher than by usual status during the entire decade. No category reports a decline in 15-59 age group during 1999-04 (Table 3). The WPR for women by weekly status has gone up above that of 1993-94

29

both in rural and urban areas. This is the case for men as well but only in urban areas. Further, there is no decline in the male employment rate by daily status in rural or urban areas, opposite to what is noted by usual status. For women, the increases in WPR by both weekly and daily status are somewhat sharper than by usual status, both in rural and urban areas. Percentage of workers by usual (principal) status

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8.0 Labour Market Bias:

8.1 Gender Wage Discrimination in Rural and Urban Labour Markets of Bangladesh
Female wages in Bangladesh are significantly lower than male wages. This paper quantifies the extent to which discrimination can explain this gender wage gap across the rural and urban labour markets of Bangladesh, using unit record data from the 19992000 Labour Force Survey. The gender wage differential is decomposed into a component that can be explained by differences in productive characteristics and a component not explained by observable productive differences, which is attributed to discrimination. An attempt is also made to improve on the standard methodology by implementing a wage-gap decomposition method that accounts for selectivity bias, on top of the usual explained and unexplained components. Analytical results from this paper show that gender wage differentials are considerably larger in urban areas than in rural areas and a significant portion of this wage differential can be attributed to discrimination against women. The results also show that selectivity bias is an important component of total discrimination.

8.2 Caste discrimination in the Bangladesh urban labour market

This, the pioneering quantitative analysis of caste in the Bangladeshurban labour market, examines the age-old problem of caste in the light of discrimination theory and government policy. Using a survey of workers in Delhi, the gross wage difference between scheduled (untouchable) and non-scheduled caste is decomposed into its explained and discrimination components and, from a model of occupation choice, into wage- and job-discrimination. Discrimination is found to exist, and to operate at least in part through the traditional mechanism, viz. assignment to jobs, with the scheduled castes entering poorly-paid dead-end jobs. It is assisted by methods of recruitment based on contacts, prevalent in the manual occupation, which also cause past discrimination to carry over to the present. Its practice serves the economic interests of those who exercise a taste for discrimination.

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This survey which provides the data base for this paper was financed by a grant (RF71078, allocation no. 16) from the Rockefeller Foundation, and was conducted by the first author when he was visiting the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, during 197476. The paper was completed at the Institute of Economics and Statistics, Oxford, before he moved to the International Monetary Fund. the legit model.

We are grateful to Gordon Hughes for this help with the estimation of the logit model. We acknowledge the assistance of a referee; but we alone are responsible for the views expressed.

8.3 Urban and rural labour markets and the impact of migration on poverty
Given the wide gaps between the earnings in rural and urban labour markets, one can hypothesize that migration would be an instrument of improving economic wellbeing and escaping poverty. A cross classification of migration data9 across consumption expenditure categories reveals that at the macro level, economic deprivation is not the critical factor in migration decisions of men (women migration being determined largely by socio-cultural factors), both in rural and urban areas. The migration rate tends to behigh in the category reporting the highest monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE), which goes down systematically, both in rural and urban areas. Importantly, a similar pattern emerges in case of seasonal or short duration migrants; those who have gone to any other place for 60 days or more during the last six months from the date of survey and returned back, in urban areas.10 This contradicts the proposition that short duration mobility is very high among the poor when compared to middle and upper class households. A segment of the migrants are indeed those who adopt coping strategies for livelihood and survival by shifting to other places in lean seasons. However, if this was a major factor, there would be a negative association between the percentages of seasonal migrants with the level of consumption expenditure. One would stipulate that a large segment of the short duration movement is due to factors like periodic transfer of regular workers, temporary posting of marketing and extension workers etc. All these suggest that even this channel of short term migration in urban areas is being utilized largely by relatively well off sections. Indeed,

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both poor and rich households report migration, although the reasons for sending out their family members and the nature of jobs sought by them are different.

There is significant variation in the percentage of migrants across educational categories when all urban centres are taken together. The percentage figure goes up from 32% for the illiterates to 44% for the graduates. In case of seasonal migrants, however, the differences are not very significant. Immigrants are about a third of the total illiterate population in all size class of urban centres. The figure is similar in case higher educational categories in large cities. However, in case of medium and small towns, incidence of migrants is much higher for people with secondary or higher levels of education. These towns report about 50% of their graduates to be in-migrants, as opposed to the figure of 34% for million plus cities.One may argue that educated persons in rural areas and small towns shift to medium sized urban areas in search of employment. The large cities, on the other hand, recruit the educated manpower more from among the city dwellers. Their dependence for illiterate manpower is, however, similar to that of other size class of urban settlements. Percentage of migrants to total population in different size class of urban centres classified by their levels of education in 1999-2000

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8.4 A perspective for intervention in the labour market

The overview of the trend and performance of economic growth in the context of changing macroeconomic scenario over the past three and a half decades reveals that the high growth in income and other economic indicators have been associated with increase in regional and social inequality. There has been systematic reduction in poverty but inequality in consumption expenditure has gone up both in rural and more significantly urban areas. Furthermore, poverty has got concentrated in a few regions and social groups where poverty alleviation is much more difficult. Migration for employment from rural to urban areas emerges as a tool of poverty alleviation, irrespective of the size class of the city, type of work etc. Migrants into large cities have greater chance of alleviating their poverty than those going into smaller towns. Considering all urban areas together, migrants coming from other urban centres have a greater chance of being above the poverty line than those from rural areas. Education is a critical variable in poverty alleviation. Men with primary and secondary education constitute a major part of the (male) migrants in urban areas as employment opportunities for them have gone up. Illiterate unskilled males have less chance of putting their foothold in large cities or getting a job. However, for women, illiteracy is not a handicap, as they find employment in low productive service sectors including as domestic help. The jobless growth syndrome of the nineties seems to be over as growth of employment has been high in recent years. India is enjoying demographic dividend which is likely to continue for the next couple of decades because of increasing proportion of people in 15-59 age group and higher work participation rates among the adults, particularly women, as compared to other countries. Much of the employment growth has been in informal sector, which is manifest in high growth in self employment.

The existing legislated and occupational benefit plans presently enjoyed by the organised sector workers are under an urgent need for overhaul. These benefits need to be extended to entire labour force through a time bound program. This has become extremely important because of the declining role of joint family and other traditional arrangements for taking care of old and ailing persons, increasing number of 41 small nuclear families and working spouses. Also, there has to be an old age and contingency pension and health/medical care as the percentage of aged would go up over the years. The overhaul of the system should mean bringing down the contributions

34

of the workers and employers in small enterprises, including the self employed, within the level of affordability. The minimum core social security component needs to be defined modestly and be made mandatory to all. It could include only an indexed minimum pension for old age, disability and medical security and may not permit withdrawal for various social reasons. This must enjoy full governmental support, including payment of instalments during periods of unemployment/ailment and protecting the minimum pension amount indexed to price rise etc. so as to enable the workers in the lowest economic strata to remain covered. Contingency pensions must recognize needs of the disabled individual and/or dependent family members. Workers at higher levels of income can have additional plans, besides the mandatory one, on a voluntary basis.

9.0 Observations:
9.1 Observations of Rural and Urban Scenario:
Percentage of workers by usual (principal) status Percentage of workers in 1559 age-group by Usual, Weekly and Daily Status Employment and unemployment scenario

Employment trends in recent decades, as observed through National Sample Survey (NSS) data have evoked mixed reactions among policy makers and researchers. The workforce participation rates (WPRs) by usual (principal) status13 in the 15-59 age group have gone down systematically for all categories (males and females, in rural and urban areas) since late seventies to the end of the last century (In Table 3).

9.2 Suggestions:
It may also be pointed out that only a small part of the total women employment is in the formal labour market. Close to half of the rural women workers are helpers or unpaid workers in family run enterprises. Among urban women, this figure is close to one quarter.Policy makers got very alarmed and launched Constitutional and administrative measures for employment generation within or outside the macro level growth strategy, resulting in passing of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and launching of a scheme guaranteeing 100 days of work to every

35

rural household in a year. Furthermore, employment generation entered the political agenda of the government and most political parties in the country. As these has to be followed for betterment of Urban people.

9.2.1 Observation of Labour Market Biasness

Expenditure categories reveals that at the macro level, economic deprivation is not the critical factor in migration decisions of men (women migration being determined largely by sociocultural factors), both in rural and urban areas. Female wages in Bangladesh are significantly lower than male wages. This paper quantifies the extent to which discrimination can explain this gender wage gap across the rural and urban labour markets of Bangladesh, using unit record data from the 19992000 Labour Force Survey. This, the pioneering quantitative analysis of caste in the bangladeshurban labour market, examines the age-old problem of caste in the light of discrimination theory and government policy. Using a survey of workers in Delhi, the gross wage difference between scheduled (untouchable) and non-scheduled caste is decomposed into its explained and discrimination components and, from a model of occupation choice, into wage- and job-discrimination.

Given the wide gaps between the earnings in rural and urban labour markets, one can hypothesize that migration would be an instrument of improving economic wellbeing and escaping poverty. A cross classification of migration data9 across consumption

Conclusion:
The existing legislated and occupational benefit plans presently enjoyed by the organised sector workers are under an urgent need for overhaul. These benefits need to be extended to entire labour force through a time bound program. This has become extremely important because of the declining role of joint family and other traditional arrangements for taking care of old and ailing persons, increasing number of 41 small nuclear families and working spouses. Also, there has to be an old age and contingency pension and health/medical care as the percentage of aged would

36

go up over the years. The overhaul of the system should mean bringing down the contributions of the workers and employers in small enterprises, including the self-employed, within the level of affordability. The minimum core social security component needs to be defined modestly and be made mandatory to all. It could include only an indexed minimum pension for old age, disability and medical security and may not permit withdrawal for various social reasons. This must enjoy full governmental support, including payment of instalments during periods of unemployment/ailment and protecting the minimum pension amount indexed to price rise etc.

References:
www.asaub.edu.bd siteresources.worldbank.org/SOUTHASIAEXT/Resources unctad.org/en/Docs dspace.bracu.ac.bd http://www.jstor.org http://www.indexmundi.com/g/g.aspx?c=bg&v=74 www.scribd.com www.academia.edu www.ghior.com

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