Women repression prevention project: Outsourcing move puts staff jobs at risk

Existing employees of the women repression prevention project running under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs are facing job uncertainty.

Although a new project has been taken up in the same format after the previous project ended, it has been decided to recruit staff for the project through outsourcing.

Earlier, several officials of the ministry had assured that existing staff would be given priority in recruitment for the new project. However, with news that recruitment for the new project will begin later this month, more than 300 existing employees now fear they may be left out.

The project began in 2000 with support from Denmark under the title Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence Against Women, implemented by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.

Under the programme, One-Stop Crisis Centres (OCCs) were established at 14 medical college hospitals, along with 67 One-Stop Crisis Cells at district hospitals and upazila health complexes.

The project also includes the National Forensic DNA Profiling Laboratory, eight divisional DNA screening laboratories, the National Trauma Counselling Centre, eight regional trauma counselling centres, and the National Helpline Centre 109 for preventing violence against women and children. Of the project’s 381 staff members, 102 are women.

The project was being implemented in its fourth phase (2016-2023). Denmark withdrew its support in 2022, while the project also came under financial pressure from the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, following protests by project staff, the ministry extended the project’s duration in phases to keep it running.

During the fourth phase, the project’s tenure was extended three times. It finally ended on 30 June 2024, after which operations were continued for six more months on an emergency basis.

Although this project has ended, the ministry has planned a new project with similar activities. A new project titled Strengthening Integrated Services for Prevention and Redress of Violence Against Women and Children and Quick Response Team Activities has been approved, with a workforce of 554. The project is scheduled to run until 2029.

One project official said that while earlier project proposals stated that existing staff would be given priority in recruitment for the new project, this provision has now been dropped. The new project director, he added, has not given staff any time for discussion.

Several project officials said they are now living in fear of losing their jobs. After working on the project for 25 years, many of them are too old to find new employment. As a result, they fear falling into a humanitarian crisis with their families and are deeply worried about how they will manage their households.

When asked about the issue, the new project director, Joint Secretary Mohammad Iftekhar Hossain, told Prothom Alo that although the ministry is sympathetic towards the existing staff, retaining them will be difficult.

Explaining the decision to recruit through outsourcing, Iftekhar Hossain said that since the adoption of the 2018 Service Procurement through Outsourcing Policy, approval from the Ministry of Finance for new projects is not granted unless manpower is recruited through outsourcing.

As a result, it is uncertain whether existing staff will be retained in the new project. He explained that the outsourcing firm will recruit staff through its own process in line with the ministry’s conditions, and the ministry cannot formally request the firm to hire existing employees. On humanitarian grounds, however, informal requests might be made for a few individuals.

Iftekhar Hossain added that efforts are under way to complete the recruitment process by the end of January and launch the new project soon after.