Poverty alleviation in the context of Bangladesh

M Jalal Hussain Poverty alleviation is a concept widely recognised by the government and non-government organisations around the world and various researches, plans, and programmes were launched throughout the world to get rid of the menace. Poverty is the state of a person who lacks or is deprived of the basic human needs like food, shelter, clothing, health care, education, safe drinking water, and nutrition. Poverty has been defined by the UN thus: "Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one's food or a job to earn one's living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation." According to the World Bank, "poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one's life." There are numerous causes of poverty namely, lack of education, lack of individual responsibility, inequitable and uneven distribution of wealth, unemployment, wrong policy of the government, wars, civil wars, riots, overpopulation, globalisation, high standard of living and high cost of living, economic and demographic trends, corruption in society, natural calamities, climate change and the causes vary from country to country depending on the size and location of the country. Poverty in Bangladesh is widespread; 31 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line and the percentage has been reduced from 35 per cent (in 2005) to 31 per cent in 2011. Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world and 78 per cent of its population who live in the rural areas are prone to extreme annual flooding that causes extensive damage to crops, homes, livelihoods, roads and infrastructures. It is also responsible for outbreak of water-borne diseases, soil erosion and destruction of forests, which affects the climate adversely. Many people also live below the poverty lines in the urban areas facing the acute problems of unemployment, shortage of pure water, health-care, and sanitation, among others. Many research works have been carried out on the alleviation of poverty in Bangladesh and the most important causes are identified as overpopulation, lack of education, unemployment, ignorance and natural calamities. Many NGOs have started working on the programmes on poverty alleviation in Bangladesh and have been working for years together but the result is quite unsatisfactory and frustrating. We found many NGOs started with the aim of poverty alleviation and later on switched over to commercial ventures like running restaurants, private universities (charging high tuition fees), loan giving agencies (charging exorbitant rate of interest), office building in the posh area of Dhaka metropolitan city and earning huge income as rent from the building rental and in the process they are earning a lot in the name of poverty alleviation, hunger-free society, rural advancement and so on. They diverted the ventures from poverty assuagement to commercial businesses. But the unfortunate and ill-fated people are groping in the vicious circle of poverty. From the researches and studies undertaken by economists, researchers and some philanthropic organisations, it is evident that there are two major and preeminent causes for poverty in the rural and urban areas in Bangladesh: (1) lack of education and (2) overpopulation. Education is central to development -- it empowers people and strengthens nations economically and financially. It is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty, hunger and inequality and helps lay a foundation for sustained economic growth. It is one of the important programmes of the World Bank to alleviate and reduce poverty at different levels of the society. The bank helps countries integrate education into national economic strategies and develop holistic and balanced education systems that produce fruitful results. The aim is to help countries achieve universal primary education and quality learning for all while investing in the skills and knowledge necessary for their growth and competitiveness. The World Bank is committed to helping countries achieve Education For All (EFA) and, through Education for the Knowledge Economy (EKE), building dynamic knowledge societies. The Global Campaign for Education (CGE), an organisation of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and teachers' unions from over 150 countries, is striving to attain universal, quality education. It promotes education as a basic human right, and, through mobilising public opinion, pressures governments and the international community to fulfill their promises to provide free, compulsory, and basic education for all people, particularly for children, women and other disadvantaged sections of society of the underdeveloped and developing countries. To alleviate and to reduce poverty, the government should give top-most priority to educate the millions of uneducated people, reduce the illiteracy rate and make education up to the secondary level compulsory. Compulsory secondary education is a must for the emancipation of the extreme poor. Many countries in the USA and Europe had implemented compulsory education in the 19th century and these countries by dint of their education reached the peak of development. Leaving other programmes for poverty reduction aside, the government, NGOs and other organisations must resort to education for all and there is no alternative to education to alleviate poverty at all levels of society. Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density (the ratio of people to land area, usually expressed as numbers of persons per square kilometer or square mile) or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources. Only a certain number of people can be supported on a given area of land, and that number depends on how much food and other resources the land can provide. In Bangladesh where people live primarily by means of simple farming, gardening and herding, even large areas of land can support only small numbers of people because these labour-intensive subsistence activities produce only small amounts of food. In developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and the countries of Western Europe, overpopulation generally is not considered a major cause of poverty. These countries produce large quantities of food through mechanised farming, which depends on commercial fertiliser, large-scale irrigation, and agricultural machinery. This form of production provides enough food to support the high densities of population in the metropolitan areas. A country's level of poverty can depend greatly on its mix of population density and agricultural productivity. Bangladesh, for example, has one of the world's highest population densities, with 1,078 persons per square kilometre. A large majority of the people of Bangladesh engage in low-productivity manual farming, which contributes to the country's extremely high level of poverty. Some of the smaller countries in Western Europe, such as the Netherlands and Belgium, have high population densities as well. These countries practice mechanised farming and are involved in high-tech industries, however, and therefore have high standards of living. High birth rates contribute to overpopulation in many developing countries like Bangladesh. Children are assets to many poor families because they provide labour, usually for farming. Cultural norms in traditionally rural societies commonly sanction the value of large families. Also, the governments of developing countries often provide little or no support, financial or political, for family planning even the people who wish to keep their families small have difficulty doing so. For all these reasons, developing countries tend to have high rates of population growth. Most developed countries provide considerable political and financial support for family planning. People tend to limit the number of children they have because of the availability of this support. Cultural norms in these countries also tend to affirm the ideal of small family size. The government and the NGOs should undertake family planning programmes including birth control at rural and urban areas and this will help reduce poverty levels and may save and protect the future generation of Bangladesh from the wrath and vicious cycle of extreme poverty. The writer is Group Financial Controller of a private group of industries, and can be reached at email: m.jalal.hussain@gmail.com