The New Nation - Internet Edition

HUMAN capital, as a strategic resource, is flowing out of Bangladesh where it could make significant contribution to human welfare. A nation is considered to be modern and advanced on the basis of its technological development. The main sources of knowledge and know-how for these technologies are the educated and motivated scientists, doctors, engineers, teachers and business pioneers. But in a country like Bangladesh, where most of the people are illiterate, technological development is difficult to achieve. Those who are educated and capable of contributing towards the growth of the nation, prefer to live abroad. There is a significant number of highly educated Bangladeshis abroad who contribute to the welfare of foreign countries.

Statistics show that 65 percent of the newly graduated doctors in Bangladesh attempt to practice abroad when, in the country, there are millions of children and other people who need their care. One can only imagine what improvements the new graduates could have made in the country if they were to practice here. Moreover, every year thousands of people die of diseases untreated. Even though there are free treatment facilities available, the doctors who are available are usually inexperienced. The public is well aware of this fact and, therefore, whenever a complicated operation is to be performed, the patient, if he happens to be from a wealthy family, is rushed to either Singaproe, Bangkok, Calcutta, Mumbai or any other destination. The fate of the poor patients, on the other hand, lies in the hands of the inexperienced doctors.

The general feeling in Bangladesh is that anything "foreign" is better. They would rather go and struggle to survive in a developed country than struggle in their own land. The youths, who are supposed to bring sustainable development to Bangladesh by means of their creative skills and technical and technological know-how, are leaving the country at a bewildering pace. They all want to live abroad. The best of our students are migrating for overseas institutions of higher learning - some through scholarships, others by self-finance; very few of them ever return. If this trend of brain drain continues, Bangladesh will surely face major challenges, if not facing them already, in the initial decades of this century. India and Pakistan have taken several initiatives to bring back their highly qualified expatriates from overseas destinations. It is high time for our government to act and take hard measures to address the situation of brain drain.