Removing prevailing inequality in society

Social Safety Net (SSN) programmes in Bangladesh are diverse in structure and scope reflecting variations in demographic characteristics, seasonal, ecological and social status. To make a specific classification, this paper identifies three models of SSN programmes in Bangladesh: The first model is based on programmes relating to people affected by natural shocks, the second model is based on the vulnerable and extreme poor, and, the third model is on children and elderly people. Major programmes under the models are presented in Table 1. The oldest model of SSN dates back to early1970s. Then the second model was launched in 1980s. In late 1990s, the age-based support model such as old age allowance was introduced as in other developing countries.
NATURAL DISASTER-BASED SUPPORT MODEL: This model refers to the support transfer programmes for those who are affected by natural disasters like flood, cyclone, drought, land erosion and others. As a disaster-prone country, Bangladesh is affected by natural disasters at different times. The colossal floods of 1998 and 2007 affected as many as  the 68 million and 11 million people in this country respectably.
Test Relief (TR) is another food transfer programme for those, who are unskilled poor and unemployed. They are employed to develop, maintain and construct rural infrastructure which requires unskilled labourers. Under this programme, employed labourers receive 3.5kg food grains per day for maximum thirty days. The total budget allocation for this programme was $120 million in 2010-11.
Gratuitous Relief (GR) programme provides livelihood protection with emergency food and other necessities for natural calamity-affected people. Considering the situation, food grain is distributed among the victims with cash in some cases. The Fund for the Welfare of Acid Burnt and Disabled is only for women, who are affected by acid violence. Under this project, medical treatment support, training and assistance for rehabilitation are provided to the targeted women. About 80,000 women are targeted under this project annually. The Climate Victim Rehabilitation Project programmes are for climate victims who lost their homestead or last resort. The government builds houses and distribute among them so that they can get a shelter to live.
EXTREME POVERTY-BASED INCOME TRANSFER MODEL: As the government of Bangladesh is constitutionally committed to eradicating extreme poverty, SSN programmes are offered to the vulnerable people of the country to improve their living pattern by eliminating hunger and poverty. SSN programmes are introduced to make a safeguard for vulnerable people against poverty and hunger. Moreover, focusing on extreme poverty and food security, the government has been implementing a number of programmes since 1980s. These can be termed extreme poverty-based income transfer model. This type of model is also found in Sub-Saharan countries like Angola, Ethiopia, Liberia, Rwanda and Somalia.
After the famine of 1974, the first programme was Food for Work (FFW) for vulnerable women. This programme aims to improve the economic and social condition of destitute rural women. But in 1988, a complementary package consisting of health and nutritional education, literacy training, savings were introduced. The main objectives of this programme were to create food-wage employment and to provide income to the rural poor in the off season, when the unemployment rate increases in the rural areas. Under this programme, about 3.13 million people were benefited.
To provide facilities for the poorest rural women and their family to overcome food insecurity and low economic and social condition, the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) programme was launched in 1975. The VGD selection committee selects women for a cycle of two years from the destitute and the very poor. To be selected for the programme, a household should meet at least four of the following criteria: severe food insecurity, no land or less than 0.15 acres of land, very poor housing conditions, extremely low and irregular daily family income or casual labour, and headed by a woman and has no mature male income earner. In 1988 a complementary development package was included consisting of health and nutrition, literacy training, savings and training on income generating activities. In 2011 about 0.75 million rural women benefited from this programme.
Employment Generation Programme was introduced in 2008 by the Caretaker Government. The main objective of this programme was to provide benefits to the hardcore poor people who are unemployed. Under this programme, selected persons are employed for 100 days. They are paid Tk 100 per day. Then in 2009, the government modified the programme with a provision for 60 days' employment in the winter and 40 days' employment in the summer. With this change, the programme has been renamed Employment Guarantee Programme for the poorest. This programme is being implemented with the help of World Bank. In 201, the wage rate was increased to Tk 120 and the total allocation was about $ 125 million.
Honorarium for Injured Freedom Fighters is for the injured and disabled freedom fighters. Under this programme, the freedom fighters receive cash, treatment facilities and other services. Every year about 8,000 freedom fighters receive this benefit.
The government has set up some orphanages for children who lost their parents and have no guardians. For this, the government allocates money every year under the Grants for Orphan Students in Orphanages. Under this programme orphans get shelter in orphanages and they are provided education and other facilities.

Maternity Allowance for the Poor Lactating Mothers is a new addition to the list of SSNs in Bangladesh. Under this programme, antenatal care, post-natal care within six weeks of delivery and obstetric services are provided to poor pregnant mothers. The benefits are given in three steps such as Tk 500 as transport cost to clinics, Tk 500 for referral district hospital, Tk 500 for gift items, and Tk 2,000 as cash. Around 100,000 mothers get this benefit annually supported by the WB, UNFPA and WHO.
The Strengthening Household Ability for Responding to Development Opportunity (SOUHARDO) programme is for the poor households in chars, haors (wetland) and coastal areas. The objective of the programme is to ensure nutrition, food security and capacity-building for poor households. This programme is implemented with the help of USAID and CARE. Under this programme around 74,000 households received benefits in 2010. Open Market Sale (OMS) is one of the large subsidy programme for the extreme poor. Through this programme, poor people can buy food grain and other goods at low piece. For this programme the government allocation for OMS in 2010-11 was about $ 1387 million (BER, 2011).
AGE-BASED INCOME TRANSFER MODEL: The age-based SSN was launched as a non-contributory pension scheme for elderly people in South Africa in the late 1920s. After 1950s, this programme was extended to Europe and other parts of the world for older people. Now the old-age pension and child allowance have become an effective policy response to help the elderly people and the families with children in poverty.
In Bangladesh the age-based allowances have been in practice to transfer financial support to poor households with older people or children since mid-1990s. The Old Age Allowance programme targets those who are 65+ and have less than yearly income of Tk 3,000 (below $ 50) and have no work regularly or in the formal sector. Under this programme, ten elderly people are selected from each union for the benefit. About 4.8 per cent people are elderly people of the total population (IDB, 2012). According to this estimation, about 7.5 million are elderly people. Only 2.5 million elderly received Old Age Allowance benefit at Tk 300 per month in 2011 (BER, 2011). As the beneficiaries are selected at the ratio of 50 per cent from males and 50 per cent from females, only 1.25 million elderly women receive old-age allowance, which is 40 per cent of the old women and 16 per cent of the total elderly population.
Another programme is Allowances for the Widowed, Deserted and Destitute Women (AWDDW), launched in 1998. The widowed, deserted and destitute women are extremely helpless in Bangladesh.  In social context, a woman's marital status is important for her survival and safety. Once her husband dies or she is separated from her husband, her economic condition becomes uncertain in most cases. It is estimated that more than 6.0 million women are widowed in Bangladesh. Among them, around one million women get this benefit in a year.
For poor families with children, there are two programmes: Primary Education Stipend Programme (PESP) and Female Secondary School Assistance Programme (FSSAP). The previous Food for Education project was replaced in 2002 by the cash-based PESP. It is a countrywide programme covering about 7.8 million students at the primary level from poor families. This programme provides cash to families that keep children in primary education. The households can receive Tk 100 for one children and Tk 125 for two or more children as long as the children attend classes on 85 per cent of school days and also obtain at least 40 per cent marks in annual examinations.
Another programme for female students is the FSSAP. The main target of this programme is to increase the number of female students in the secondary school to avert their under-age marriage and to reduce poverty rate through human development. Every female student gets a fixed stipend per month and need not pay any tuition or examination fee. However, every girl student must fulfil some conditions to get the benefit such as regular attendance in the school, obtaining the required marks in examinations and meeting the marriage criteria. About 5.0 million girl students benefit from this programme every year.
CHALLENGES OF CURRENT SSN PROGRAMMES: The government of Bangladesh has adopted different SSN programmes. Currently, the government is implementing 84 programmes, but nearly 97 per cent of the budget allocation is spent on about 30 programmes. The government spent on SSN programmes 13.32 per cent, 15.22 per cent, 14.75 per cent and 13.79 per cent of its budget in the FY 2007-08, 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 respectively and 2.14, 2.52, 2.64 and 2.51 per cent of GDP respectively. Since expenditure on SSN programmes has effects of both protection and promotion, it is negatively associated with the poverty rate. The poverty rate falls as the government spends more on SSNs. The government spends more every year from its non-development budget to implement a number of SSN programmes. While continuing with the ongoing programmes, the government also adopts new programmes that would contribute to the welfare of the poor and also the deprived community.
The government has to deal with several challenges in implementing the SSN programmes. The demographic projection shows a rapid increase in the number of elderly people. The growth rate of elderly people from 2000 to 2030 will be more than 200 per cent. As the traditional joint family support for the elderly people is declining rapidly, more support for the elderly people from the government is required.  Though allowances for them were launched in 1990s, the coverage and the allowance are still inadequate. From every union, 10 elderly people are selected for the old-age allowance, for which the men and women are selected equally. It targets only those who are extremely poor and destitute people.
At the national level, there is no database on the actual number of eligible people for SSN benefits. But it is estimated that only 10 per cent of the poor receive benefits. Only 24 per cent of the poor receive benefits at least under one SSN programme a year. In some cases, one household receives benefits under more than one programme at a time. The amount of benefit per beneficiary lies between Tk 300 ($4) and Tk 350 ($3.5) per month. With this amount, a beneficiary can buy six-kg rice or four-kg wheat. The monthly benefit covers about 27 to 32 per cent of the Food Poverty Line (FPL) and about 70 per cent of the per capita GDP yearly. The existing SSN programmes cover only a fraction of the vulnerable and poor people.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) shows that about 1.0, 2.0 and 2-3 per cent of GDP could be sufficient to cover basic pension, child benefit and health provision respectively. But in Bangladesh only around 2.5 per cent of GDP is spent on all SSN programmes. It is still less than the required amount.
About 31.5 and 17.6 per cent people are poor and hardcore poor respectively. And about 20 per cent people are affected by natural disasters annually. People staying just above the poverty line are falling below it again due to inflation.
CONCLUSION: As mentioned earlier, three models of SSNs have been identified in Bangladesh: age-based vulnerability, extreme poverty and natural disaster risks. Age-based vulnerability model sees a number of programmes that focus on children and elderly people. Extreme poverty-based model presents a group of programmes targeting the vulnerable and extreme poor. The natural disaster-based model encompasses those programmes that are for people affected by natural calamities.
Three areas are identified as key policy areas of SSN programmes. Little attention has been paid to aged-based vulnerability, especially of elderly people. So, more attention should be paid to it to increase the coverage and financial support. It can be mentioned as an example that the government of Maldives has started Old Age Basic Pension Plan replacing the Old Age Allowance. Under this plan, all people who are 65 or older will receive cash through bank accounts, if he/she applies for the benefit. Second, the coverage and the amount of benefits under programmes on extreme poverty and natural shocks are limited. In terms of money, it is below $4.0.
 The total allocation for SSN programmes is below the required amount. National priority should be to reduce poverty and provide resources and services to the targeted people in a befitting manner. This will assist, both economically and socially, the people who are vulnerable, destitute, homeless and at risk. Since high inequality persists in the economy, the budget needs to increase taxes on the rich. Through this the prevailing inequality can be removed to some extent.

Dr Abdul Hannan is a faculty in the Department of Economics at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), Sylhet.
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