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BITTER TRUTH

Roadblocks in poverty alleviation

But rhetoric can't fill the stomach. They preach one thing and practice another. These slogan-chanting people are the worst threat for the country. Mutual respect and trust in each other are sine qua non to flowering of democracy, development and prosperity.

Md.Asadullah Khan
THE discussion meet titled "Creating jobs for All" now being held in the city as part of the International Conference on People's Empowerment and Development stressed the need for creating better paying jobs, mostly in the manufacturing sector, for the 1.8 million odd youth who enter
the labour market every year. Unfortunately, that possibility remains a distant dream as political conflict lingers, reform measures and development efforts stall, economic woes mount and more and more people from the countryside continue to migrate to cities.
Apart from politics, economic expectation has turned into economic disappointment as the proposed World Bank-funded Padma Bridge construction has stalled due to graft allegation; metro rail project is now in limbo; roads communications is battered; and there is price hike of essentials.
In rural areas there is desperate poverty, mainly because of bad politics and uncaring governments. According to 2009 Planning Commission report about 30% of the 150 million people are living in extreme poverty.
Government effort to eradicate poverty is halfhearted. Most of the NGOs working in this line seemingly lack adequate skill, strategy and experience and have started projects with a business motive. NGOs can't lift the face of the country unless entrepreneurs with sound industrial projects and investment proposal come forward. Measures they take are only palliative and can never cure the ills plaguing the country. But who is going to invest money in a country mired in dirty politics, petty squabbling and frequent policy changes? In the years following 1975, the ailing economy grew worse with sharp division between two opposing blocks. In the wake of the bickering that often exploded into violence and even killing, sluggish growth and rising unemployment have hit the country hard.
The country and its people are being held hostage by a group of hyperactive leaders in the major political parties as well as some stalwarts in the administration talking irrelevantly on issues that foment conflict and tensions in the country. Most distressingly, some of them seem to make some astounding pledges that give
a feeling that the country will be flowing with milk and honey from tomorrow. But rhetoric can't fill the stomach. They preach one thing and practice another. These slogan-chanting people are the worst threat for the country. Mutual respect and trust in each other are sine qua non to flowering of democracy, development and prosperity.
One can justifiably say that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina serves a citizenry weary of economic hard times. In a situation when just living is at stake, people are less interested in the different ideological biases or political bargaining or tall promises that can never be materialised. Let there be no debate that if we can't put bread on people's tables, there would be chaos everywhere.
The privatisation or rejuvenation of sick industries didn't succeed properly because of neglect and lack of
commitment of the persons involved. Entrepreneurs from home and abroad are not interested in investing in the country because of the violence and frequent power breakdowns. The huge losses and ultimate closure of these industries is attributable to system loss, lack of accountability, pilferage, over-staffing and investment in the unproductive sectors. If things continue to run like this, the country
will soon attain the status of economic pariah.
The ministers for planning and finance said in a press briefing that the country's economic crisis has been compounded by bureaucratic paralysis. Unless the bureaucratic machinery can be set in motion and some politicians and people's representatives rise above their hankering for wealth, no progress can be achieved and poverty elimination programmes will just become a slogan. To create infrastructure and avenues for employment, the government must set up skill development training centres at every district.
Failure of successive governments to create job opportunities has aggravated the problem. New arrivals are pouring in at the rate of 3 lakh a year in the capital city, crushing into a highly over-congested area. With each new wave come ever greater problems like street agitation and extortion and political infighting and environmental degradation, which the administration finds difficult to tackle.
Almost 60% of Dhaka city's population are under 22 and are without jobs. Almost 45% of the population are slum dwellers. The migration has been spurred by catastrophes like drought, cyclone, flood, loss of farmland and famine-like conditions in the lean months of Ashwin-Kartik.
The rural areas have vast possibilities. The populace is implicitly committed and imbued with a sense of sincerity of purpose. But these possibilities remain to be exploited. Because of lack of patronage, entrepreneurship and motivation, much of the countryside is facing insurmountable problems — poverty, illiteracy, corruption, social breakdown, vanishing resources, drought and environmental catastrophes.
Agriculture offers little hope for job creation because it faces a crisis of land as the spread of cultivable land for food grains has remained stagnant. The profitability from this land has not increased either, as land holdings have become smaller and investment is negligible. There is disincentive amongst the younger rural people to get involved in agriculture, which appears
to promise only an uncertain livelihood and crippling debt. Until this government came to power, farm subsidies in the form of fertilizer, irrigation facilities and price protection were non-existent. Farmlands have given way to shrimp farms in large areas of greater Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong.
But despite the threats to the growth of the economy, there is a lot of enthusiasm and craving for a better life among the people. What is needed for the political leaders and industrial entrepreneurs is to consider selfsacrifice rather than self-service. The largely illiterate and overwhelmingly poor electorate signaled their disillusionment with the previous regime's failure to deliver on its tall promises to spur equitable economic growth. Agricultural and industrial rejuvenation as expected by the people did not happen. The ruling party has to stem the eroding public confidence in the government. What is needed is probity in public life as well as on the part of our leaders accompanied by tough and consistent enforcement of laws. Containment of corruption in public life and exemplary punishment of the corrupt public servants would reassure not only investors from home and abroad but all categories of people who want to serve the country with their head, heart and toil. Senseless bureaucratic regulations and political interference have almost stalled the growth of business and industries in the country.
Successive governments in the last two decades hardly took any measures to create growth centres beyond the city limits. In many ways cities are self feeding monsters perpetuating their own growth in some selected areas by devouring the country’s resources. Dhaka perhaps now controls 70% of the country’s money supply. Of the country's entire capital investment, more than 60% is invested in Dhaka and Chittagong. The situation today can never brighten the total face of the country.
Most of the other cities and towns, not to speak of the rural areas, remain brazenly neglected. Roads, bridges and other infrastructures, deemed to be most essential for overall growth and mobility in business, are in bad shape. The neglect, apathy and discriminatory attitude has created a great imbalance in income generation in the wide countryside beyond Dhaka and has given rise to tensions and mounting discontent that tend to bedevil the good works done in some selected areas. The unending tide of people to cities, especially Dhaka city, in search of employment can hardly be stopped even by draconian measures with the rural surroundings remaining neglected.
The benefits of economic growth must be distributed evenly; such economic growth which was spurred by the successive governments' stray economic liberalisation has tended to benefit the already affluent class. The poor must be provided with greater access to educational and employment opportunities.
It must be brought home to those entrusted with planning and drawing the future strategy of the country that nearly 50% of the population is under 25 years of age. These youths, if disgruntled, can become explosive, blocking the little bit of reform and structural reorganisation that are taking place here and there. The writer is a columnist of The Daily Star.
E-mail: aukhandk@gamil.com