Poverty, inequality among the marginalised people Need strategic policies to eradicate

ASM Anam Ullah :
Bangladesh is now in its proudest moment as the nation celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence. Cultural and linguistic differences and unequal economic distribution between West and East Pakistan made East Pakistan independent in 1971. But democracy was also an essential issue. West Pakistani rulers often refused to give East Pakistanis democratic and voting rights. As a result, the East Pakistanis led a popular mass movement, which was later organised and conducted under the framework of the Liberation War. Finally, after nine months of brutal fighting and sacrificing millions of lives, Bangladesh became independent on 16 December 1971.
Bangladesh, as a newly independent country, faced severe socio-economic obstacles. Political instability was also typical in the newly independent country. In addition, several military atrocities were severely hampering the nation from moving towards democracy. Another popular mass movement in 1990 overthrew the undemocratic and military government. Since then, the country’s two main political parties, Bangladesh Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have mainly formed the governments.
However, these two parties are often involved in the clash and try to overthrow governments following undemocratic processes. The country has been following a parliamentary system of government since 1991; however, the National Assembly has never been active and functional as voters demanded it to be. Moreover, in 2014 and 2018, the National Assembly elections were not adequately conducted, while electoral manipulation and the current government’s political intervention in the national polls were observed. So ordinary citizens blame Awami League and BNP; they believe that these two political parties do not practice democracy. Therefore, ordinary citizens are being significantly affected in various aspects of their regular lives because of the power politics of these political parties in Bangladesh.
In addition to the issue of democracy in the country, economic segregation and income inequality between employers and employees have intensified the debate over whether the ordinary people of the country are better off. When East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) started its independence campaign, the economic segregation of the East Pakistanis by the West Pakistan Government was a significant issue. Though there was talk of establishing economic independence and civil rights in the newly independent Bangladesh, it has not been seen in reality. Unequal financial and wealth distribution is very evident in Bangladesh, which still creates robust tensions among the ordinary citizen of the state after 50 years of independence.
Newly independent Bangladesh has created a bourgeois or capitalist class. In Bangladesh, now, the capitalists are much more potent than before. They occupy the political positions of the major political parties in Bangladesh and the top executive positions of the state’s offices. Moreover, Bangladeshi capitalists are known as crony capitalists because they often take advantage of the governments of Bangladesh. On the other hand, capitalists exploit workers at low wages and do not give them proper benefits for their welfare. As a result, marginalised people are becoming more marginalised in Bangladesh. Critics say the whole money-making process of capitalists is unethical and a severe obstacle to establishing social justice in the country.
Poverty is a crucial issue in Bangladesh. According to Asian Development Bank (ADB), in Bangladesh, the population living below the national poverty line has dropped from 24.3 per cent in 2016 to 20.5 per cent in 2019. On the other hand, the World Bank’s recent report suggests that following a robust economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and as per the international poverty rate, poverty has dropped to 11.9 per cent in FY21 from 12.5 per cent in FY20. I am indeed afraid to disagree with these financial institutions’ evaluations. But unfortunately, neither these international financial organisations nor the current or past national governments have had any proper data about the number of poor people or how many people live below the poverty line in Bangladesh.
Economically marginalised groups include slum dwellers and street children etc. In addition, millions of people live in Bangladesh’s haors and coastal areas. Poor or lack health care services and lack proper living standards, marginalised and uneducated people in haor or coastal regions are extreme sufferers in Bangladesh. If the successive governments, NGOs and international organisations of Bangladesh in the last 50 years had substantial policies to eradicate poverty and other social and economic barriers of marginalised people, the situation in Bangladesh would be different today.
The current national government’s high officials often claim that they have been able to reduce poverty and create employment in Bangladesh in the last decade or so. However, the cities of Bangladesh have faced irresistible population growth and extreme poverty. This is partly the result of rural poverty, which has led to the migration of poor people from rural to urban areas searching for a better life, better job opportunities and better social services. Most of these rural migrants are immersed in small retail trade, transportation, manufacturing, construction, and domestic services in the urban informal sector.
Most importantly, when a young village girl has to go to school, she takes care of her family and moves to the big cities of Bangladesh for their living earnings. A young woman sells her labour at meagre wages at the unhealthy sweatshops; then, the question is, where are the capitalists and the Bangladesh governments? Have the capitalists and the national governments taken significant initiatives to stop the exploitation of workers in the last 40 years? Perhaps this is a very tricky question for them to answer.
After 50 years of independence, every state citizen should have received a basic service from the state, and this is why Bangladesh became independent from West Pakistan. However, critics of the Bangladeshi Government and major political parties have also widely blamed the bureaucrats for failing to serve the interests of ordinary people in Bangladesh and their association with the political parties.
On the other hand, while the current government claims to be deeply interested in developing the country’s infrastructure, other Asian countries are investing in human development. For example, Vietnam and Indonesia have significantly improved human capacity when their workers and staff show high productivity, but Bangladesh lags far behind in this process. As a result, Bangladesh has the lowest human development index among other countries in Southeast Asia. So, yes, it is essential to improve the country’s infrastructure, but there must be a significant investment in human development that will ultimately contribute to national productivity.
For marginalised people, the main concerns are about access to education, healthcare, housing, sanitation, drinking water and job opportunities in Bangladesh. According to a recent investigation, most children from primary school drop out of school due to a lack of funds; in some cases, those who continued their education till high school could not continue their education for higher secondary. So, poverty is the curse for many young cohorts in Bangladesh.
Therefore, it is a genuine appeal to the Government of Bangladesh to allocate a sufficient budget for at least the next ten years and to formulate necessary mega strategic plans with other social and political partners, including international organisations like ILO, the World Bank, IMF, ADB to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh and prevent the people of Bangladesh from becoming more marginalised.
Moreover, in a developing country like Bangladesh, the role of capitalists in CSR must be significant as the government may be unable to look at other social issues more carefully. Therefore, it would also be the primary obligation of the capitalist to spend more CSR budget to alleviate poverty and other social barriers in Bangladesh.

(The author is an Australian Academic and member of Amnesty International Australia and Sydney Outreach Committee (SOC), Human Rights Watch Australia).