Bangladesh News

The citizens of the country are experiencing a ’silent famine’ due to spiralling prices of essentials and unemployment, Dr Akbar Ali Khan, chairman of Regulatory Reforms Commission (RRC), said yesterday.

Although 40 percent of the country’s population are categorised as poor according to official statistics, the rate of poverty has gone up and a larger section is starving as prices of essentials have increased by 20 to 25 percent and income rose only by 5 percent, he said at a roundtable at the National Press Club in the capital.

“Interestingly, the prices of essentials that are mainly consumed by the poor increased more…therefore, measures must be taken to lower the essentials’ prices because there is no possibility of quick wage hike,” said Dr Khan.

The roundtable titled “Moving towards sustainable development in Bangladesh” was jointly organised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

Dr Khan, also former finance adviser to a caretaker government, said, “We cannot tackle poverty unless we are able to reduce the growing disparity between the rich and the poor.”

Criticising inconsistencies in official statistics on unemployment, he said the youth unemployment rate is much more than 13 percent as claimed by the government. The statistics showing only one out of 1,000 people in urban areas drink polluted water is also not correct, he said.

“You cannot do good work on the basis of such information. The complexity and intensity of the problems are not actually presented before the nation,” he added.

Dr Khan observed that agricultural production and the use of land and water are among the biggest challenges for Bangladesh.

Asked if the price hike of essentials has any link with political situation, he said there is no direct link, but political governments with closer ties with the people are able to take aggressive measures for increasing the food reserve. The present government also recognised the problem recently, he noted.

On major political parties’ opposing the local government elections before national polls, Dr Khan said the political parties are suspicious because governments in the past used such local government elections to their advantage by holding them before the national elections.

“I however prefer that the local government and national polls are held simultaneously because it will save money. There are examples of such elections in the US and Pakistan.”

Development experts and environmentalists at the roundtable said the authorities must ensure that development programmes do not harm the environment — the most important component for sustainable development.

Urging the government to formulate a comprehensive land use policy, water management plan and to check population growth, they said the government also should take the climate change and food security issues very seriously and act accordingly.

The government should take measures to stop arbitrary use of land for constructing houses, structures or roads and seek out ways to increase agricultural production with reduced use of fertiliser.

Dr M Asaduzzaman, BIDS research director, in his keynote presentation said, “We should not do anything that will deprive our next generation.”

The development projects therefore must be socially acceptable, economically efficient and environmentally sustainable, he said, adding that land degradation in the country became a very important issue because excessive use of chemical fertiliser is causing serious degradation of land.

“We must make ourselves aware of the technologies and the up-to-date knowledge on system of production,” Dr Asaduzzaman said, adding that common landed properties of the country are heavily misused and the practice must be stopped for future production.

M Aminul Islam, assistant country director of UNDP in Bangladesh, said rivers of the country are seriously polluted and the problem demands immediate attention of the authorities.

Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, chairman of Forum of Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh, moderated the roundtable where environment ministry Joint Secretary Mohammad Qamar Munir, economist Dr Enamul Haque, Professor Sajjadur Rasheed, Brac University Professor barrister Manzoor Hasan and Ubinig Executive Director Farida Akhter also spoke.