DHAKA: A river ferry carrying about 100 passengers capsized in central Bangladesh after being hit by a cargo vessel, killing at least 31 people, officials said. A rescue operation was underway, but it was not clear how many people were missing.
The ferry was struck by the cargo vessel at the Daulatdia-Paturia crossing on the Padma River, said fire department official Shahzadi Begum. Rescue teams were deployed and passing boats were helping in the operation, he said.
The site is 40 km northwest of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. Ferry accidents are common in Bangladesh, an impoverished South Asian nation that is crisscrossed by more than 130 rivers.
The ferry was submerged at a depth of up to 6 meters, said Inspector Zihad Mia, who is overseeing the rescue operation.
By Sunday evening, at least 31 bodies had been recovered, Mia said.
He said officials had yet to determine how many passengers were missing. Ferries in Bangladesh usually do not maintain formal passenger lists.
“We don’t have a clear picture about how many were exactly in the ferry when it sank,” Mia said. “But I think many have survived.”
A passenger who survived said many people got trapped inside when the ferry sank.
“The passengers who were on the deck have survived, but many who were inside got trapped,” Hafizur Rahman Sheikh was quoted as saying by the Prothom Alo newspaper.
Sheikh said the cargo vessel hit the middle of the ferry.
The Padma is one of the largest rivers in Bangladesh, where overcrowding and poor safety standards are often blamed for ferry disasters.
Last August, a ferry with a capacity of 85 passengers was found to be carrying more than 200 when it capsized on the Padma near Dhaka, leaving more than 100 people dead or missing.
The ferry’s owner was arrested after weeks in hiding on charges of culpable homicide, unauthorized operation and overloading.
At least five people were killed earlier this month when a ferry sank in southern Bangladesh.
Bangladesh ferry with 100 passengers sinks; at least 31 dead
Bangladesh ferry with 100 passengers sinks; at least 31 dead
Workplace equality exists nowhere: World Bank
- The bank insisted that reforms are needed because 1.2 billion young people — half of them women — will enter the workplace over the next decade
WASHINGTON: Full workplace equality does not exist anywhere in the world and only a tiny fraction of women live in countries with a labor market that comes close to it, the World Bank said Tuesday.
Even when workplace equality laws are passed by lawmakers they are truly enforced in only about half of all cases, the bank said in a report on women, business and the law.
“Even in economies that have modernized their laws, women still face constraints that shape the work they can do, the businesses they can start, and the safety they need to pursue opportunities,” said Indermit Gill, the lender’s chief economist.
The report assesses not only equality laws that have been passed but also public services created to help women in the workplace and ensure these laws are enforced.
The bank insisted that reforms are needed because 1.2 billion young people — half of them women — will enter the workplace over the next decade.
“Many will come of age in regions where women face the biggest barriers, and where the GDP boost that would result from their participation is most needed,” said Tea Trumbic, the report’s lead author.
And ensuring equal workplace access for women benefits not just them but society in general, the report argued.
Indeed, in countries where women have more opportunities, men’s rate of labor force participation is also higher, the report says.
Advanced-economy countries have conditions most closely resembling equality, with Spain at the top, this report says. Countries in the Middle East and Pacific lag far behind.
The most significant progress in reducing the workplace equality gap came in low-income and developing countries such as Egypt, Madagascar or Somalia.
In these nations efforts were made to ease restrictions on women entering certain fields, institute equal pay for equal work and allow parental leave.
Altogether nearly 70 countries approved around 100 reforms from 2023 to 2025 seeking to give women more access to the job market and business world.
