Food price hike forces dropouts to work
The food price hike has led to an increase in school dropouts and in many cases forced these dropouts to earn money, revealed a research yesterday.
“Dropout rate is higher in rural areas compared to the urban areas. 84 percent of the female-headed households responded that their children had to quit schools because of the recent surge in food prices,” remarked the June-August issue of Bangladesh Economic Outlook, the quarterly of Shamunnay, a research organisation.
It said 19 percent and 11 percent of rural and urban households respectively lost their capabilities to meet children's educational expenses because of the fall in their real income. “Also, about 20 percent and 14 percent of the urban and rural households respectively reported that their children were involved in work to earn money,” it said.
Selim Raihan, associate professor of Economics at Dhaka University, presented the highlights of the research released at a function, organised by Shamunnay and Manusher Jonno Foundation, a local non-governmental organisation. The research especially focused on the impact of food price hike on school enrolment and dropout in the poor and vulnerable households.
Regarding '100 days employment generation programme', the quarterly said the challenges in implementing the programme include targeting and selection of beneficiaries, timely implementation, overlapping with existing social safety net programmes, setting appropriate wage rate, creating assets, monitoring and evaluation, data management, capacity building and definition of family.
On the monetary policy, it said a contractionary monetary policy is ineffective in controlling inflation.
Speaking at the function, Syed Manzur Elahi, former adviser to the caretaker government, said, “Entrepreneurs have now started new investment, as business confidence is growing, which was absent for about one and half years after 1/11.”
Commenting on the possible impact of the global financial turmoil on the export-oriented industries, Elahi feared the sub-contracting industries in RMG sector might face a closure due to such turbulence. “However, the self-reliant industries may survive from the financial recession,” he said.
He also suggested the RMG exporters focus on European markets rather than US market, which is a confusing market. “European market is more capable to recover from the recent recession,” he remarked, adding that the local RMG exporters will also have to go for high-end product manufacture, otherwise they may not sustain the global competition.
He said although the country's export may exceed target in terms of value and volume, it is a question that what will be the net foreign exchange.
Dr Atiur Rahman, Shamunnay chairman, and Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, also spoke on the occasion.
Comments