Prime movers of development

Nilratan Halder The urbanites, particularly the Dhakiites, are used to synonymising their cities with Bangladesh. They think their city is the centre of the Earth, let alone the tiny country of which Dhaka is capital. All depends on how the city of 15 million, not the country of the 150 million fares. What a parochial and partial view of a country that has undergone significant changes for the better! Political leaders who think they are the builders of people's fortunes actually live in a world of illusion. In fact the prime movers and change-makers are none other than the common village people. Sure enough, administrative support and intervention, courtesy of farm technology, infrastructure and development programmes, have been of help but those cannot be considered a great favour; rather those were the least people at the helm of affairs could do. Priorities vary depending on a man's position in an urban or a rural setting. Once village people used to keeping their antennas hoisted in order to be in touch with the latest developments in the capital. This was because they thought their fate would be governed by the extraordinary tidings in the big city. Today villagers have grown a bit nonchalant largely because they feel segregated by the type of urban politics now taking the centre stage. Common people, barring the political thugs and lackeys, no longer look up for economic deliverance from the top. Unconcerned as they are about the high-sounding development rhetoric and intricate financial parable, they go about their own business knowing full well that they will have to address the myriad problems facing them and build their own future. The result has been spectacular. That Bangladesh has become one of the first 20 countries to have achieved the distinction of halving extreme poverty to satisfy the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number one well before the deadline is because village people have gone whole hog to boost production and change their financial fortunes. It would be a travesty of truth to say that poverty no longer exists in villages but then it has also to be recognised that destitution is no longer endemic. People in general have improved their financial status and it has got its reflection on their better housing and improved standard of living complemented by use of water from tube-wells and sanitary latrines. Open defecation is almost non-existent. There are more village people than before who live in buildings or houses of brick walls with tin roofs. Similarly more people today have developed fish farm in ponds in the absence of indigenous varieties of fish from natural sources. Now here is a clue to the success in areas where individual enterprise is enough. Bangladesh is well on course of achieving the MDGs in areas where people can put effort in order to get results. Out of the eight MDGs set for achieving by 2015, the country is not very happily placed on account of reducing maternal mortality although it has come down to 194 for each 0.1 million. Addition of nutrition to common people's dish has remained neglected because society is yet to pull itself out of the mental hangover over the wrong concept of foods. It is fast getting rid of illiteracy but without functional education, society does not find itself enlightened enough to be mindful of practices and habits involving nutritional food intake. Had bird flu not caused the pandemic with poultry farms young people started managing all across the country, villagers would have been better served on account of availability of nutrition at a low cost to their meals. This finds its correlation with yet another burning issue of today's Bangladesh. It concerns employment on which count the country has little to show by way of achievement. Villagers are sending their sons to different countries in the Middle East and some East Asian countries as labourers. Their own initiative is not enough here. Diplomatic negotiations play the primary role. In this context, the state-to-state agreements reached between Bangladesh and Malaysia have been quite a positive development. Saudi Arabia has also offered an opportunity for illegal migrant Bangladeshi workers to get enlisted as legal ones. Opening up of opportunities like this will facilitate legal migration of workers from Bangladesh. Remittance sent mostly by such unskilled workers has so far buoyed the foreign exchange reserve and it will expand if the drive continues fruitfully. Yet such achievements should not blind the vision of policymakers and planners concerning the vital task ahead on the home front. Employment generation at home will have to be taken care of on a priority basis. And together with goal number-6 (combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases), goal number-7 (environmental sustainability) and goal number-8 (fostering a global partnership for development), there is a need for integration of education not just at the primary level but also at the secondary level and perhaps beyond. In reducing child mortality which is goal number-4, the country has made remarkable progress and the momentum has to be kept up. These are areas where individual initiatives must be backed up by enough government programmes and facilities. When the two come together to tick, the country will catapult itself on to a higher trajectory of development. [email protected]