Optimism about Bangladesh despite poverty and inequality
Monday, 9 January 2012
Shaheed Akhand
This scribe visited Bangladesh briefly last month after long six years. Before homecoming, he travelled to Bangladesh at similar intervals -- although for longer periods -- during the past two decades. The country was not preparing to observe its 40th founding anniversary when he arrived in Shah Jalal International Airport in November.
But soon after his arrival and elapse of some days in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh, he could feel that winds of change were blowing powerfully and positively over Bangladesh. He, for one, does not agree with the incurably pessimists about the future of Bangladesh. Anyone who looks back and attempts to measure Bangladesh's progress 'objectively' and with an open mind, cannot fail to spot the tremendous successes attained by this country in the last four decades.
Independence of the country that became complete on the Victory Day of December 16, 1971 set forces in motion, which were unthinkable in the pre- independence era. The class system or the system of privileges is certainly weaker today compared to the past. Many people in this country are still in poverty. But they do not perceive themselves like the serfs of the middle ages destined to be always at the beck and call of their masters.
They have learnt to hope, to feel that they are the masters of their destiny with rights and liberties and that they can hope to win against their wretched conditions by dint of their own hard work and little else, because there is no wicked system to keep them in bondage perpetually. This is proved by the steadily eroding number of the poor in Bangladesh.
This is not to say that a large number of Bangladeshis are not in poverty. Yes, they are. But their number has significantly declined and notwithstanding all sorts of less than satisfactory achievements in the struggle against poverty, the various anti-poverty activities in this country constitute a potent force.
Bangladesh had a population of 75 million in 1971 but out of this number only about 20 million people had an existence above the poverty line. The population of Bangladesh has doubled in these thirty years to 150 million. But about 50 per cent of this vast population live in poverty-free conditions today which gives some idea about the success in the Herculean struggle to banish poverty on a sustainable basis.
Very significant has been the psychological liberation of people from the colonial days when they suffered from the inferiority complex that was sought to be imprinted massively in their minds by the colonial rulers. They were persuaded to think and feel as inferiors to be ruled by the so-called superior races. The coming of independence shattered such wicked notions and for the first time, the Bengalis in their own land learnt to hold up their heads high in an air of freedom and feel that they are next to nobody in intellectual prowess and other abilities to change their lot for the better in the individual and collective sense. This feeling of emancipation can be a tremendous force for development in any setting and this was possibly the greatest gift of independence for the people.
Dhaka today, as indeed the entire country, is cleavaged broadly between two classes of haves and have-nots. But the point to note is that despite the lack of uniformity in their move up the social ladder, Bangladeshis generally are changing their lot for the better. That half of the doubled population of today from the time of independence is economically better off today and also on the move -- what appears to be sustainably -- is no small achievement.
A greater number of the Bangladeshis are seen to take on enterprises in diverse fields. With varied entrepreneurial abilities, Bangladeshis have proved to be assets for the country so far as its entrepreneurial gate-crashing in different fields are concerned. Such bursting of entrepreneurial abilities was unimaginable in the suppressive colonial times. This growing entrepreneurial flair holds out the best assurance for this country to continually improve its economic status while bestowing the benefits of its economic growth and development among more and more people in the future.
The future, it seems, is far from bleak for Bangladesh although the impatient ones or the incurable skeptics in Bangladesh society would have us all believe that this country is destined to ultimately become a failed state from the burden of its accumulated problems. But is this not a very gross distortion of reality?
The writer lives and teaches at Toranto, Canada
This scribe visited Bangladesh briefly last month after long six years. Before homecoming, he travelled to Bangladesh at similar intervals -- although for longer periods -- during the past two decades. The country was not preparing to observe its 40th founding anniversary when he arrived in Shah Jalal International Airport in November.
But soon after his arrival and elapse of some days in Dhaka and elsewhere in Bangladesh, he could feel that winds of change were blowing powerfully and positively over Bangladesh. He, for one, does not agree with the incurably pessimists about the future of Bangladesh. Anyone who looks back and attempts to measure Bangladesh's progress 'objectively' and with an open mind, cannot fail to spot the tremendous successes attained by this country in the last four decades.
Independence of the country that became complete on the Victory Day of December 16, 1971 set forces in motion, which were unthinkable in the pre- independence era. The class system or the system of privileges is certainly weaker today compared to the past. Many people in this country are still in poverty. But they do not perceive themselves like the serfs of the middle ages destined to be always at the beck and call of their masters.
They have learnt to hope, to feel that they are the masters of their destiny with rights and liberties and that they can hope to win against their wretched conditions by dint of their own hard work and little else, because there is no wicked system to keep them in bondage perpetually. This is proved by the steadily eroding number of the poor in Bangladesh.
This is not to say that a large number of Bangladeshis are not in poverty. Yes, they are. But their number has significantly declined and notwithstanding all sorts of less than satisfactory achievements in the struggle against poverty, the various anti-poverty activities in this country constitute a potent force.
Bangladesh had a population of 75 million in 1971 but out of this number only about 20 million people had an existence above the poverty line. The population of Bangladesh has doubled in these thirty years to 150 million. But about 50 per cent of this vast population live in poverty-free conditions today which gives some idea about the success in the Herculean struggle to banish poverty on a sustainable basis.
Very significant has been the psychological liberation of people from the colonial days when they suffered from the inferiority complex that was sought to be imprinted massively in their minds by the colonial rulers. They were persuaded to think and feel as inferiors to be ruled by the so-called superior races. The coming of independence shattered such wicked notions and for the first time, the Bengalis in their own land learnt to hold up their heads high in an air of freedom and feel that they are next to nobody in intellectual prowess and other abilities to change their lot for the better in the individual and collective sense. This feeling of emancipation can be a tremendous force for development in any setting and this was possibly the greatest gift of independence for the people.
Dhaka today, as indeed the entire country, is cleavaged broadly between two classes of haves and have-nots. But the point to note is that despite the lack of uniformity in their move up the social ladder, Bangladeshis generally are changing their lot for the better. That half of the doubled population of today from the time of independence is economically better off today and also on the move -- what appears to be sustainably -- is no small achievement.
A greater number of the Bangladeshis are seen to take on enterprises in diverse fields. With varied entrepreneurial abilities, Bangladeshis have proved to be assets for the country so far as its entrepreneurial gate-crashing in different fields are concerned. Such bursting of entrepreneurial abilities was unimaginable in the suppressive colonial times. This growing entrepreneurial flair holds out the best assurance for this country to continually improve its economic status while bestowing the benefits of its economic growth and development among more and more people in the future.
The future, it seems, is far from bleak for Bangladesh although the impatient ones or the incurable skeptics in Bangladesh society would have us all believe that this country is destined to ultimately become a failed state from the burden of its accumulated problems. But is this not a very gross distortion of reality?
The writer lives and teaches at Toranto, Canada