Bikroy’s Initiative ‘Moner Janala’ for Female Employees

Indeed, even in the 21st century, women constantly need to fight for their rights. Regardless of whether a lady works at home or outside, everyone expects her to be in charge of indoor chores. However, her commitment towards her family and work often remains unrecognized. The difficulties she faces regularly are not tended to or talked about. In light of constant carelessness, at a certain point, she moves towards becoming demotivated and unsettled. In order to increase the number of female employees and ensure women empowerment, Bikroy.com, the largest marketplace in Bangladesh has created a forum called ‘Moner Janala’ in association with the ‘He for She’ campaign of the United Nations. As part of this forum’s regular activity, Bikroy organized a special event for the female employees on 14th September, 2018 at Fusion Hunt restaurant located in Dhaka. This event has been organized once in every quarter over the past 3 years at Bikroy.

Popular Bangladeshi singer and journalist Elita Karim was present as a guest at the event. All the female employees along with high officials of Bikroy were present as well.

Through the ‘Moner Janala’ forum, female employees of Bikroy can share any of their thoughts or feelings. The objective is to reduce gender discrimination in the workplace. Naz Hussain, Rehenuma Islam and Eshita Sharmin, the three advisers of the forum are continuously working to realize this objective. Although the forum came into being keeping female employees in mind, male employees can also share their opinion here.

Bikroy is one of the few organizations in Bangladesh attempting to ensure more female participation in the work environment, and the outcome is very inspiring. According to Rehenuma Islam, Head of Human Resources and Administration at Bikroy, the proportion of female employees has increased by 7% than the previous year. The neighborly workplace supports an ever-increasing number of female employees to venture into Bikroy.

Elita Karim said at ‘Moner Janala’, “The life of a working woman is extremely challenging. The good news is that we women have gladly accepted the challenge. The herculean task of maintaining home and handling a job at the same time tends to be tiring. In order to take a breather and keep going forward with enthusiasm, we all need an open window. I want to congratulate Bikroy.com for arranging such an amazing platform.”

Rehenuma Islam, Head of Human Resource and Administration of Bikroy.com said, “‘Moner Janala’ is a platform for our female employees where they can open up about their feelings related to the work environment and share any other challenges they face in the workplace. There is a prevailing sense of where we work. We emphasize on the development of our female employees and the balance between their professional and personal lives. Every time we invite an established female guest speaker to our event for ‘Moner Janala’. By sharing their stories with our female employees, these guests motivate them to achieve career goals despite facing everyday challenges of being a woman. This time we invited the immensely popular singer Elita Karim. She shared with us the story of how she became a successful singer and a household name in the country. I believe that her story will inspire our female employees to strive at the workplace.”

Eshita Sharmin, Head of Marketing and Ad Sales of Bikroy.com said, “‘Moner Janala’ is a tradition of Bikroy.com, one of our regular initiatives. We’ve been regularly arranging it for the last three months. We can always share our inner feelings at ‘Moner Janala’. Team performance at the workplace is always important. Personal contribution from all the employees will ensure a better and efficient workplace.”