The amount spent on welfare of the rich is four times higher than the money allocated for protection of the poor in Bangladesh, reported a Bangla newspaper based on the Asian Development's The Social Protection Index: Assessing Results for Asia and the Pacific. Evaluating the social protection programmes and spending in 25 economies in the region, the ADB report has placed Bangladesh in the 21st position, whereas the country boasts of record number of social safety net programmes. However, Bangladesh, still not a rich country, allocates only 1.2 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) for social protection purposes while Japan, which tops the list, spends 21 per cent of its GDP for social protection of its citizens. The countries that are behind Bangladesh in the index are Myanmar, Cambodia, Bhutan and Laos.
This is the state of spending for the relatively helpless people when, according to a Financial Express report, 20 per cent of the national budget is spent on pay and allowances of the public servants numbering 1.3 million. Currently, the number of beneficiaries of the government's social safety net programmes is 7.4 million. We also know that resource disparity is widening in Bangladesh when the country is on the development highway. Unless there is any mechanism for distribution of resources, especially channelling them to the poor, how will we establish an egalitarian society?
Furthermore, the poor are still deprived of some basic services such as proper medicare facilities. If a lower middle class person is affected with a deadly disease, s/he is in real distress. Dr Zafrullah Chowdhury of Gonoshasthaya Kendra once proposed that a health insurance for all industrial workers of the country was possible, if the government allocated Tk 20 billion (Tk 2,000 crore) in the budget and the industry owners and relevant corporations spent a similar amount. He also pointed out that such allocation would help the business of the insurance sector as well. We can only hope that the poor would be brought under the coverage of social protection in the coming days.
Moloy Saha
Mirzapur, Tangail
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