End child poverty to achieve SDGs

To achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs), immediate steps need to be taken to curb multidimensional poverty of children, said speakers at a seminar yesterday. 

They also urged separate budget allocation for children.

They were addressing a roundtable titled "Multidimensional Poverty of Children" organised by Prothom Alo at its Karwanbazar office. Dr Shamsul Alam, member of General Economics Division of Bangladesh Planning Commission, said the education system  needs to be remolded to eradicate multidimensional poverty.

Executive Director of Power and Participation Research Centre Hossain Zillur Rahman said for the eradication of multidimensional poverty, rural and urban children are needed to be differentiated as nature of their poverty is different.“It's more challenging to address multidimensional poverty of urban children,” he said.

Carlos Acosta, country representative of Unicef Bangladesh, said the country has strong and clear policy in eradicating poverty. About 46 percent of children are poor but only 8 percent of social safety net is allocated for them, he added. Director (Safety) of Save the Children Laila Khandakar, social policy expert of Unicef Hasina Begum, and Associate Editor of Prothom Alo Abdul Qayyum, among others,  spoke..