The government should provide assets to the poor so they can fight well against poverty, using those resources, said the chief of a parliamentary standing committee yesterday.
The beneficiaries of various safety net programmes spend all they receive, and cannot come out of poverty, said Israfil Alam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on labour and employment ministry.
The ruling party lawmaker said the government in the current fiscal year allocated around Tk 6,000 crore to Tk 7,000 crore for a raft of social safety net programmes to lift the poor out of the poverty trap.
“Under these projects, the poor people regularly receive allowances, benefits and incentives, but they spend all the assistance they get. They do not use the assistance to build capital,” said Alam, also the chairperson of All Party Parliamentary Group on extreme poverty.
He also called upon the government to boost the rural economy for the poor.
He said the seasonal unemployment that exists in the agriculture sector also warrants proper attention.
The lawmaker also criticised the country’s education system, which, he said, is responsible for generating millions of educated unemployed.
Alam was speaking at a public event on ‘building awareness and creating opportunities to address extreme urban poverty’ at Banani Chairman Bari field in the capital.
Shiree, a partnership between Bangladesh and UKAid, and Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction (UPPR), an initiative between Bangladesh, UKAid and United Nations Development Programme, co-organised the event titled ‘Promote Inclusive Cities, Eradicate Extreme Urban Poverty’.
Shawkat Ali MP, deputy speaker and co-chairman of All Party Parliamentary Group Commission, attended the programme as chief guest, while Shaheen Anam, executive director of Manusher Jonno Foundation, chaired the discussion.
Representatives from the government, donors, non-government organisations, private sector and poor communities attended the event that discussed the challenges, possibilities and innovative approaches to fight extreme urban poverty.
According to the speakers, around 40 percent of Dhaka’s 15 million population are poor, languishing in nearly 5,000 slums without access to basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity and gas, education and housing.
Half of the country’s eight million extreme urban poor, who live on less than Tk 22 a day, also live in Dhaka, they said.
“We will not be able to solve the problem with piecemeal solution,” Shawkat Ali said.
He said urban poverty is the part of national poverty, and so all the political parties, development partners and social organisations should work collectively to solve the problem.
The deputy speaker also warned that Bangladesh will have to face problem if it fails to rein in the rising population.
“The population is increasing across the country and there is no control,” he said. “It seems that we are not being able to control it or we are not controlling it.”
Ali said the poor remains poor even if they move to towns and cities from villages.
Shaheen Anam said the importance of the people living in the capital’s slums cannot be undermined.
“Dhaka will come to a standstill if they stop working for just a single day,” she said.
She said people come to urban areas, as the scope for employment is very limited in rural areas. “Everyone of this group is working, but most of them do not have access to basic services.”
Shaheen Anam underscored the need to find innovative ways to help difficult-to-reach citizens get access to basic services.
Shishir Shil, secretary general of All Party Parliamentary Group, Kaiser Kabir, chief executive officer of Renata Ltd, and Debasish Deb, country manager of Coca-Cola, also spoke.
A fair was also organised on the sidelines of the event, where 35 organisations showcased their poverty alleviation projects.
