A daylong booth camp was held with the main thrust of creating awareness among people, particularly marginalized women, on the Right to Information (RTI) Act in the Mahisbathan area of Rajshahi city.
The Association for Community Development (ACD) hosted the camp financially supported by USAID and technically supported by the Carter Centre on Tuesday.
Organised on behalf of the "Advancing Women's Right of Access to Information in Bangladesh" project, the camp showcased ideas about various public services among the marginalised community besides making them interested and inspired to the services.
Ensuring responsiveness of the GOs and NGOs for providing information in an efficient and equitable manner was the main objective of the camp.
With Ward Councilor of Rajshahi City Corporation Muhammad Nuruzzaman in the chair, Principal of Women Technical Training Centre Shafiqul Islam, Assistant Director of Department of Youth Development Alam Ali, Women Affairs Officer Nawshad Ali and Social Development Officer Shafiqul Islam addressed the event.
Project Coordinator Subrata Kumar Paul moderated the discussion.
The discussants observed that substantial and sustainable improvement of access to information has become crucial for improving the living and livelihood conditions of rural women.
Terming the access to information as vital the discussants viewed the full-length implementation of the RTI act with unhindered flow of information by all government and non-government organization's concerned needs to be ensured for expediting development and ensuring good governance everywhere in the society.
Subrata Kumar Paul gave an overview of the project along with its aims, objectives and implementation strategy during his multimedia presentation.
He said the project is being implemented in the Ward Number 5 and 6 of Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) and Gogram and Matikata Unions of Godagari upazila and Chanduria and Saranjai Unions of Tanore upazila of Rajshahi district.
As a whole, the project is intended to create an enabling environment where women, especially Dalit and Marginalized are able to enjoy Right to information from government and non-government agencies for protecting their fundamental Rights.