This presentation will describe and compare some governmental and non-governmental programmes in Bangladesh and India: programs intended to provide poor, marginalised, and other rural women with local leadership opportunities. Laws in both countries reserve seats for women in elected or regional governing councils, Indian panchayats and Bangladesh union councils. India's Panchayati Raj law further requires that some council seats must be filled by women of scheduled tribes or castes. In both countries there also are large-scale non-governmental programmes or projects promoting political participation opportunities for poor and marginalised rural women. In Bangladesh some of these projects have focused on regions called chars -- unstable riverine lands, giving women of such places (who are all poor) training and encouragement to participate in union councils and also in socially-based decision-making bodies called salish. Evaluation studies of all such programmes have shown mixed results. Complex social, economic, and political factors affect outcomes in both countries. Critical questions remain to be answered.
