No one cares?
WITH recession gripping the country, followed by global economic turmoil and the closure of a number of industries, joblessness has surged. An ominous addition is that thousands of workers are returning home from Malaysia and some countries in the Middle East.
Other than the garments factories, which employ about 30 lakh people, the employment situation in the country is hardly assuring. On the trade front, continuing deficits with India, the main trade partner, has also caused a slump. The erection of buildings and superstructures does not mean that there is an economic boom.
Although the wealthy are doing somewhat better, most middle class and lower middleclass Bangladeshis are feeling squeezed. The present price spiral of essential commodities has added to their woes and agonies. It is not true that they are not crying for relief, as some ministers have hinted, but their voices have been drowned in the rhetoric indulged in by self-seeking politicians.
Government policies towards poverty alleviation are good on paper but the implementation is flawed. The economic boom, if there has been any, has not distributed its benefits evenly. In the past few years, the rich have gotten richer and those in the middle have gotten squeezed.
This is a very sorry state, and an unmistakable signal that the country is plunging into a situation, which no government, even with democratic mandate, can perhaps control. The people would not have resented the rich getting richer but the poor must not get poorer. But this has not come to pass.
The yawning gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider by all indications available. We don't know how it will impact the reform measures that this government wants to undertake, but the stark reality is that it may threaten the "dream of alleviating poverty," which we have cherished so long.
Bangladesh has been mostly dependent on agriculture. But because of our failure to give proper thrust to this sector, the rural landscape unveils a shocking litany of poverty, joblessness and deprivation that continue to drag the country down.
We attack poverty through subsidies along with some schemes and measures that are palliative. People have seen how such subsidies given to the farmers during the tenure of the last CTG went down the drain. If the amount could be invested in building irrigation canals, wells, dams, rural roads, and water-harvesting projects, it would have triggered multiplier effect and transformed the economic landscape of the country. Alas! We do not invest money, we simply spend it.
The fixed income group, retired people and employees of private firms find themselves in a bind.
Momtazul Islam, a retired government employee living in a rented house in the city, having still four members dependent on him, faces a grueling battle with his savings, a small pension and a pension benefit he has put in a bank. Hundreds and thousands others like Momtazul are passing their days in extreme hardship by slashing expenses on food items.
Compounding the crisis is the non-performing power sector, which is not producing enough power to keep the existing industries viable. At the moment, gas crisis is the biggest problem. Nasiruddin Biswas, owner of Nasir group of industries, who plans to set up several new industrial units, now has second thoughts because of the gas crisis. In such a scenario, the crime situation in will take an ominous turn.
The middle class is gradually getting extinct as most of its members fall prey to poverty. Educating the children puts the middle class families under ever-increasing strain. The cost of studies for a student either in an English medium school or private university is about 40% of the median family's total income.
But many parents feel they have no choice. A college or university diploma, once the passport to upward mobility is becoming a necessity just to avoid falling out of the middle class.
Ironically, during the last decade, wages or incomes rose less than the prices of essentials, putting the taxpayers in higher brackets and forcing them to pay higher bills on gas, electricity, water, and municipal taxes. The double dilemma of increasing prices and taxes cut down the purchasing power of the middle class and more so of the poorest section of the society.
The trend toward inequality is rife with the potential for social conflict, not just between classes but within the middle class itself. The differing prospects for university educated people and those who go no further than high school is one potential source of antagonism.
Another is the growing cleavage between young and old -- while younger couples wonder if they can ever buy a house, some people of their parents' generation are thought to be sitting on a gold mine.
Many of them bought a 10-katha piece of land for just Tk.80,000 thirty years ago, which is now worth much more than that. This growing inequality could threaten even those who benefit from it, by putting an end to the economic expansion that the nation needs so much.
The danger is that growing disparities in wealth and living standards will undermine the sense of community and optimism that have kept the country from being riven by class resentments.
What the government could do, and should do right now, is offer social security net to the unemployed youths, in line with the advanced countries, by levying proportionate taxes on the richer section. The decision of the government to take on terror socially and politically, as indicated in a press report on August 24 last, by involving the unemployed youths in various development works and different trades through small loans is a very laudable step.
Today the soaring prices and the diminishing value of our currency have eroded even the minimum standard of life. The middle class is the largest section in the society. Given proper incentives, ideal conditions of employment, and last of all, better housing and schooling facilities for children, they can provide a steady support to the demand for national development and economic growth of the country.
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