The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mehreen, Amanullah Khan and Abdur Rahman Jahangir

Ever since the dawn of civilization, mankind's quest for a better, decent and quality life for all has been an unending saga shaping the course of its history. Poverty degrades and demeans humanity and is a disgraceful legacy of the society. While a handful of the fortunate wallow in wealth and abundance leading a lavish lifestyle, vast majority of the public in the developing world have been desperately struggling to break free of the shackles of ignominious poverty. The wide disparity in income and wealth distribution among the various groups of people foments social unrest, instability and upheavals. Raising the low standard of living and lifting the downtrodden out of the morass of impoverishment and despondency has been the major challenge of democracy and development.

A groundbreaking event occurred when 189 member states of the UN including Bangladesh adopted a millennium declaration in 2000 that set eight goals known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to be attained by 2015. These goals spell out specific, realistic, comprehensible and attainable targets for the developing countries to pursue. They are not utopian goals nor meant to be a panacea for all ills but they deliver powerful calls to action for combating the ills that overwhelm these countries with international partnerships. They offer a gleam of real hope to the developing world to emerge from their predicament.

Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger which is the first among the 8 goals and directly or indirectly linked to the rest, envisages three targets viz. - to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day, between 1990 and 2015; achieve full and productive employment with decent work for all, including women and young people; and halve in the same period, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. Pursuant to the millennium declaration, Bangladesh is committed to reducing its extreme poverty level by half from 58.8 per cent to 29.4 per cent. Despite some progress towards fulfilling this goal, as the latest available figures, trends and indicators suggest, Bangladesh is likely to miss the targets because of its slow economic growth, rising unemployment, inadequate resource base, the shrinking share in national income of the poorer section of the citizens who constitute nearly half the country's total population.

In spite of all the sustained efforts and a comprehensive strategy drawn up to reduce the level of poverty in Bangladesh 40 percent of the country's population still remain below poverty line (Year 2005) (MDG's: Bangladesh Progress Report 2008). Compared to the urban areas, poverty is more pervasive in rural areas where 56 million poor live with the most vulnerable conditions prevailing in the north-western part of the country in the Rajshahi Division. Nilphamari, Rangpur and Kurigram districts of this Division become victims of the worst weather conditions regularly in the wake of drought that lead to `monga' - a near famine condition where people go out of work during the entire dry season for lack of irrigation facilities required for agriculture. Poverty rate creeps over 60 per cent in this region. Of the poor, two out of three are caught in extreme poverty, as measured by the Direct Calorie Intake (DCI) method (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2004). Though the poverty rate has decreased since 2001, the absolute number of poor has remained almost static as a result of the rise in population on a year to year basis. Currently about 71 million people in Bangladesh are trapped in poverty, face hunger and malnutrition who account for about 44 percent of the country's total population.

The economic growth elasticity of poverty in rural Bangladesh was estimated by the government at -1.9 in 2000 and -1.8 in 1991-1992, while income inequality elasticity of poverty was 0.5 and 0.2 respectively during those two periods. These trends have continued more or less into the recent years. In such a scenario, significant poverty reduction will not be possible with the present level of economic growth accompanied by high income inequality. Such a reduction of poverty can occur if a higher level of economic growth tempered with social justice that provides the poor access to wealth and increased economic opportunities is accomplished. A number of fundamental principles of the state policy enshrined in Bangladesh Constitution seek to promote economic and social justice [Article 8(1)]; attain emancipation of peasants and workers [Article 14]; and ensure provision of basic necessities like food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care, secure the right to guaranteed employment and cover social security in cases of unemployment with a view to improving the people's standard of living through planned economic growth [Article 15].

As reported in the 2000 Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES), the headcount poverty ratio declined from 58.8 percent in 1991/92 to 49.8 percent in 2000. The average annual decrease in poverty was only one percentage point during the period. At this slow rate of improvement, the MDG poverty reduction target of 29.4 percent by 2015 will not be attainable. According to the MDG Bangladesh Progress Report 2008, though increases in labour force and remittances and the decline in family size have contributed to a fall in urban poverty to match the MDG target, the existing rate of poverty reduction (3.2 percent annually over 2000-2005) in rural areas where majority live will prove insufficient for catching up with the target by 2015. In order to arrive at the target, it will be necessary to attain an accelerated pro-poor growth rate that will lead to a poverty reduction rate of 3.26 percent annually for the remaining period (2008-2015). This poses a big challenge for the policy-makers to adopt a holistic approach to reduce rural poverty, the report adds. The Communication and Media Research Initiative (Camri), a research organization, reports in 1992, the poor's share in national income was 6.5 percent which slipped to 5.3 percent in 2005, recording a decline of 18.46 percent in 13 years. This share is estimated to fall further to 4.9 percent in 2015 when the MDG deadline approaches. A recent government report comments that the depleting share of the poorer segments of the society in national income and consumption shows that the poor are not benefiting from the economic growth. The exclusion of the poor from economic growth undermines the fundamental principles of the state policy proclaimed in the Bangladesh Constitution as mentioned earlier. The Labour Force Survey 2005-06 of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics reveals unemployment rose by one lakh or 5 percent between 2002-03 and 2005-06."The challenge is clearly to create employment opportunities at a much faster pace," says the report on the MDG Campaign.

We talked to over a dozen poor during our recent visit to Jimkhana Railway Colony under Naraynganj Sadar thana (police station) situated about 20km north of Dhaka. Nearly 20,000 people, all chronically poor, reside in a deplorable condition in the colony dating back to about a century and spread over a land of 10 bighas. We tried to probe the reason behind their poverty, and explore what could be done to overcome it. We got almost identical set of answers from all the respondents. Most of them point out that they are poor because they were born in poor families with no ancestral property or assets and their parents could not afford education for them. They believe getting paying jobs in the formal sector can come with good education. They also blame poverty on other reasons such as widowhood, divorce/abandonment by husbands, lack of capital, a saturated labour market, deficiency of income over expenditure, illiteracy, shrinking job opportunities, early marriage, social injustice and poor governance. They say that irrespective of the gender, they want to work hard at any job they can get hold of so as to extricate from poverty in which they are entangled. But there is little demand for their labour which they find hard to sell.

Rasheda, 35, a mother of two daughters - one 16, another 12, lost her rickshaw puller husband Solaiman three years ago leaving her in a wretched condition. "Within a week after the death of my husband, I had to go out of the house in search of a job to feed my children. First I went to a few garment factories but could not manage any job as I am illiterate. After a long search I managed to find a job of brick-breaking. And I am stall at this job," says Rasheda, a battered woman looking much older than her age. But her miseries were far from over as her ill paid job brought her little relief and comfort. She told she earns a paltry amount of 60/70 taka daily which is quite inadequate to cover the day-to-day expanses of her three-member family. She had to stop sending her daughters to the school. "I am desperately looking for a work that can pay me enough money to meet the basic needs of my family members and mine," said a disappointed Rasheda.

Others also complain that they do not have any better option than a job in garment factories or work as a domestic help. But earnings from these types of jobs are also not sufficient to properly maintain their families. They came up with the suggestion to set up labour intensive cottage, small and medium scale industries such as handlooms, boutiques, block prints, crafts, pottery and sewing. They urge the government and NGOs to provide them free technical training so that they can build their career as semi-skilled and skilled operatives or artisans. They also plead the donor agencies to invest in husbandry, dairy, poultry and farming sectors, which are not capital intensive but can lead to job creation for them. Nearly 70 percent of the households of the community cannot afford square meals. They take rice as their staple food, once in a day and have a bite of biscuits, bread or light meal once or twice. Most of the children (under 5 years) are deprived of healthy food and suffer from malnutrition that make them susceptible to an array of illnesses.

Sujan, 28, a father of two children, serves in a restaurant on a monthly salary of Taka 1500. Sujan's wife Rekha works as a domestic help in two houses in the area and earns Tk 1000 per month. Even the combined income of the couple proves hardly adequate to fend for themselves and their family. "We find it very difficult to satisfy all the needs of our family with these amounts. I have to borrow or cut consumption every month to get along. We have no means to buy nutritious food for our children. Sometimes we can't even get the bare minimum food for them," Sujan said, adding that their kids frequently fall prey to a host of diseases, To their relief, Sujan, like his other neighbours, appreciate the services being rendered by the local hospital where the community people get proper treatment. But they encounter difficulties in buying the prescribed medicines which are not supplied by the hospital.

According to a study conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), about 31 percent of the rural population presently have been facing the scourges of chronic poverty -- low consumption, hunger and malnutrition, lack of access to basic health services, illiteracy and other deprivations, for more than a decade. "Accurate figures are not available for urban areas, but it is estimated between 25 and 30 million of the country's citizens are chronically poor," it said.

(To be continued)