The New Nation - Internet Edition

Bijan Lal Dev

About 25,000 people die every day across the world, which is one person in every three and a half seconds, of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often. The deaths have one thing in common: they result from extreme poverty. Poverty keeps hungry people from buying enough food to nourish them. Poverty keeps sick people from receiving basic medical treatment or taking simple preventive measures against AIDS, Pneumonia, Diarrhoea, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Measles. The vast majority of these preventable deaths occur among the poorest people in the poorest countries. They do not have enough money for medical treatment as over 70 per cent of their income is being spent on food.

There is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish them. Being continuously malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. Over a billion people have to live on $1 a day or less. More than 800 million people most of them women and children know what it's like to go bed hungry. They are losing their health and lives, their potential for prosperity and their hope for a better future. 226 million children are stunted physically and mentally from malnutrition wrecking their chances for a good education and productive future. Millions of pregnant women miscarry or give birth to malnourished children. 2 million babies a year are so weak from hunger that they die when they get a bad case of diarrhoea. This downward spiral often continues until deaths for them and their families.

These should not be the phenomena of a civilised world. World should get rid of hunger and poverty. But how and when it would be furnished? And who will take the lead? These questions remained unresolved till 17th October 1987 when over a hundred thousand people gathered at the Trocadero in Paris, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, to honour the victims of extreme poverty, violence and hunger. Since then, the people of all walks of life have gathered there on the day to renew their commitment and show their solidarity with the poor. The United Nations General Assembly on 22 December 1992 declared 17 October as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. From 1993 the Day is celebrated every year throughout the world. The theme for the Day in 2007 is 'People living in poverty as agents of change: 20th Anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. '

The UN estimated that about $195 billion a year is needed to stop deaths from hunger and poverty-driven diseases. Responding to the demand 22 developed countries in 2002 agreed to work towards each giving 0.7 percent of their national income as aid to the poorest countries. 5 countries have so far reached the goal. Another 11 countries set up a schedule to reach the goal from 2012 to 2015. But six potential countries including the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland have not yet set up a schedule to give 0.7 per cent. As a result, most of the least developed countries including Bangladesh cannot implement their poverty reduction initiatives including efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. In order to achieve MDGs, Bangladesh should get at least $7.5 billion in foreign aid in a year but Bangladesh gets 1.5 billion on average and specifically $1.625 billion in 2006-07 and $1.567 billion in 2005-06. Besides the majority shares of the aid came as loan and the percentage of grant is reducing every year.

Bangladesh has made some definite progress in the fight against poverty. The indicators like reducing child mortality, improving life expectancy, enhancing net primary enrolment, empowering women, participating by more and more women in economic activities, improving rural infrastructure and communication network, expanding micro-credit equally both in villages and slums in urban areas. But still there are a number of challenges to be addressed to eradicate poverty in Bangladesh and to achieve MDGs by 2015. These are: demolition of extreme poverty pockets concentrating in the northern region, removing social barriers in consolidating women's gains in social and economic fronts, accelerating the growth process by public-private partnership in all socio-economic sectors and ensuring good governance. Strong monitoring and coordination of the social safety net programmes to rein in their flaws and speed up the poverty alleviation process is also needed. At the same time, the authorities should note that the transfer of food and cash are complementary, not alternative to ensuring food for the extreme poor. Faster growth is essential for speedier poverty reduction. There is no other trick to it. At the same time, achieving a sustainable growth trajectory of around 8 per cent by 2015 is necessary to make a significant dent in poverty.

The Caretaker Government is progressing steadily to that goal in addition to its prime goal to ensure a free, fair and credible election and establish a sustainable corruption-free environment in the country. The on-going anti-corruption drive will also have an impact on reducing inequality in accumulating wealth and distributing resources to rural and urban areas in the long run. Let us put in our collective efforts to achieve a poverty-free Bangladesh where only a spirit of peace and prosperity will remain.

-(PID)