The number of third gender people in Bangladesh is around 10,000, according to the government.State Minister for Social Welfare Promode Mankin came up with the number in reply to a query in Parliament on Sunday.He said the government has taken different steps to bring the people of this gender to the mainstream.
He said old and insolvent third gender people get Tk 500 a month as allowance.The government also gives Tk 300 stipend to each third gender primary student monthly, Tk 450 at secondary level, Tk 600 at higher secondary level and Tk 1,000 at higher education level, the minister said.The government recognised the transgender people, called Hijra, as people of the ‘third gender’ in 2013.Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told Parliament there are nearly 11,000 run-down schools in the country.He said the government is constructing new buildings for 8,540 of these schools.
The country has 16,282 madrasas approved by the Madrasa Board in the country.He said over Tk 22.36 billion has been earmarked for madrasas in this fiscal year.
Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain told Parliament 503 acres of the ministry’s land has been grabbed.He said the government cannot conduct eviction drives on these pieces of grabbed land due to running cases.
He also said 6,406 abandoned houses in Dhaka have been allotted for only Liberation War martyrs’ families and wounded freedom fighters.
source:Greenwatch desk
