Micro-credit system of NGOs slated
Criticising the NGOs' micro-credit system, Social Welfare Minister Enamul Huq Mostafa Shaheed yesterday said their loan distribution could not bring any remarkable change in the lives of the deprived, underprivileged and handicapped people of the country.
“An economist of the country has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his micro-credit initiatives, but the question is has there been any change in the lives of the country's poor? …this needs to be analysed,” he told a meeting at Chittagong Circuit House.
The meeting was arranged for exchange of views with representatives of the NGOs being run in the Chittagong division.
Enamul Huq said the activities of the NGOs which work with micro-credit should be regulated. “The NGOs always demand various facilities from the Bangladesh Bank but they never talk about the visually and hearing impaired people, the elderly people and widows…this is very much disappointing,” he said.
He said implementation of various programmes undertaken by the social welfare ministry is being hampered because of internal conflicts of the NGOs.
The minister told the meeting that the government is constructing six old homes in the six divisional headquarters and called upon the private entrepreneurs and NGOs to come forward to undertake various welfare activities like old homes and hospitals.
Presided over by Deputy Director of Social Welfare Department Sitangshu Kumar, the meeting was addressed, among others, by member of the parliamentary standing committee on social welfare ministry Cheman Ara Tayeb MP and the representatives of different NGOs.
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