The newly formed interim government in Bangladesh has distributed the responsibilities of various ministries and departments among its members. Among them, writer, researcher, activist, and tobacco control activist Farida Akhter has been given the responsibility of the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock. This responsibility was distributed after a meeting at the Rashtriya Guest House Jamuna on Friday (August 9). Later, a gazette from the Cabinet Department informed about the distribution of offices.
Farida Akter, executive director of the non-governmental organization UBINIG (Unnayan Bikalper Nitinirdharoni Gobeshona, the Policy Research for Development Alternatives), and TABINAJ (Anti-tobacco Alliance of Women).
She was born in Harla village of Chandanish police station of Chittagong. Farida Akhtar studied economics at Chittagong University. Her main area of work is research and writing on policy making to understand and change the situation of poor people in rural Bangladesh.
Her published books include Women and Trees, The Women and Trees of Kaijuri Village in Bangladesh. She has been working intensively for nearly three decades on women’s development, health, agriculture, fisheries, textile industry, garment industry, workers, population, and developmental issues.
Farida Akter is well-known nationally and internationally for her writings and redressal campaigns on the dire consequences of population control and its detrimental effects on women’s health. She is actively involved with women’s movement in Bangladesh.
