Women suffer to get essential healthcare services from existing facilities due to lack of gender sensitiveness, said women rights activists at a discussion on Tuesday.
The activists urged the government to address obstacles to receiving healthcare services.
The non-government women rights organisation, Naripokkho, in collaboration with the Daily Prothom Alo organised the discussion in the capital.
The organisation found that health service providing institutions lacked infrastructures as well as the service providers were not sensitised to women鈥檚 needs.
Jahangirnagar University associate professor for anthropology Rezwana Karim Snigdha said that doctors and other healthcare providers in hospitals frequently asked women offensive questions when they went to get healthcare.
Sometimes, in the case of abortion women are denied and service providers target them asking offensive questions such as who is the father of the child and why do they want abortion, she said.
Naripokkho executive member Tasnim Azim said that in the 80s they started a movement to get body rights which was still relevant.
She said that the government was trying to limit women鈥檚 access to medical menstrual regulation with medication, also known as MRM, which was harmful to women.
She demanded making the MRM service available and safe.
Women rights activists and head of the Women鈥檚 Affairs Reform Commission Shireen Parveen Haque said that she did not see any significant change over the past 40 years of the women rights movement.
Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy director general Syed Jamil Ahmed said that some reforms including reforms in education, family structure, economic involvement and in some cultural matters were needed to overcome the situation.
Naripokkho president Gita Das, Bonhi Shikha managing partner Tasafi Hossain, researcher Halida Hanum Akter and Taranga Mohila Kallayan Sangtha executive director Shamima Khan spoke at the event.