Finding our children in better times

In the thick of news in the media offering a dismal picture of Bangladeshi children, the information about a forecast on them will hearten anyone. It speaks of a survey conducted by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre's Global Attitudes Project. The survey took place in the period from early to mid-part of this year. It was carried out on 1,000 Bangladeshi adults out of total 48,643 persons from 44 countries. The countries covered ranged from developing and emerging to the developed ones. Quoting 71 per cent of the Bangladeshis, the study says better days await the country's children in the future.
Lead economist of the World Bank in Dhaka Zahid Hussain feels that the country showed impressive performance in its poverty reduction and human development in the past three decades. "People are encouraged by these accomplishments," He notes.
Given the country's being stuck in the bottom rung of numerous indices focusing on economy and different social sectors, the upbeat prediction on the future of its children comes as a pleasant surprise. Better times may have eluded the older generation, but the emerging one is in for its buoyant days. Apart from making us take heart from a mere hint of this prospect, it also points out the otherwise blighted nation's verily invisible efforts to meet the targets of achievements in many vital sectors. In the recent decades we have seen, on occasions, how a fast-growing 'people power' overwhelm the successive governments' ostentatious exercises in development. The shining future that has been portrayed by the respondents in the survey on our children is possibly the outcome of the largely unnoticed upheaval.
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) says the country has been growing at a rate of 6 per cent over the last one and half decades despite many hurdles.  It finds the country's poverty drop by 1.7 per cent every year since 2000. Elaborating on the survey's findings, the Washington-based research centre's project has found that it is the emerging and developing nations that feel more confident about their children's better living standards.
The bright prospects for our children notwithstanding, we cannot ignore the flip side. Like in many emerging economies, governments in this country have often failed to deliver on their electoral pledges. But the people have to find a way out. Leaders might desert them once they are at the helm. The people can ill afford to don a laid-back posture. They keep on badgering whichever political party is in power.  At times rebuffed and disillusioned, the people begin to act of their own volition. People's power in the socio-economic sector then holds its sway over official rituals and formalities. Spontaneity and zeal reign supreme. The irony is, in the modern times a government's structural strength cannot be belittled. On this count, a state's brightening future eventually has to be shaped by government-people collaboration. To cite an instance, governments customarily undertake massive projects and programmes on formal primary education, literacy etc. People come forward by sending their wards to school. But pitfalls litter a government's path. If it falters in any of its much-touted jobs, then the people take the reins by becoming pro-active. They lack the inherent strength of a state, but their will and determination, which sometimes border on desperation, lead them to triumph.
The Pew Research Centre-sponsored survey and the Bangladeshi respondents' optimism about their children's bright future point to these complementary roles. Bangladesh continues advancing economically, and on many fronts, especially those social and related to human development. Global endorsement of this progress keeps coming in the form of the country's slow upward climb in many world indices --- alongside its poor performance in some others. This gain should not be squandered mindlessly.
Who does not want to see one's child basking in happier times? The optimism is natural. In our case it is based on concrete facts. As an older generation petering out, we love to wish --- Aamar shontan jeno thakey dudhey-bhatey (may our children live on bread and honey).
shihabskr@ymail.com