SUPPLEMENTARY IMCOME-GENERATION IN BANGLADESH : PROPOSAL FOR THE
WORK-HOUSE COMPLEX
(Part Three)
03.00 ENDEAVORS TO ERADICATE POVERTY
04.00 INADEQUACIES IN THE CURRENT ENDEAVORS
In spite of the endeavors by the Government and the NGO's, there has
not been any significant improvement in the poverty situation in
Bangladesh. We shall briefly mention the limitations and
non-appropriateness of some of their programs hereunder :
(01) PROBLEMS IN THE ENDEAVORS BY THE GOVERNMENT : The various relief
activities (e.g. Relief through local government authorities, State
relief and Relief in emergency) solves the problems of the needy
people for the time being. These however, fail to bring any permanent
solution to the problem. Such relief activities are most
unpredictable, because these considerably depend not upon the actual
situation or peoples' need, but on the political decision of the
government. Many a times the projects are prepared to ensure the
interests of the political leaders and bureaucrats.
(02) PROBLEMS IN THE ENDEAVORS BY THE NGO's : What have been
mentioned in case of the projects by the government are equally true
in case of those by the NGO's. The NGO projects have further
limitations because of the control of both their donors and the
government. The projects taken up by the NGO's are subject to
endorsement of their donors. As such there is little predictability
and continuity in their projects. Here we shall mention some cases of
unpredictability in their projects :
(a) Tree plantation is a popular program undertaken by the NGO's.
Quite often they plant trees on road sides and do not take any program
for maintenance, such that those vanish few weeks after those are
planted.
(b) Some NGO's have been found to take quite costly maintenance
program for the plants and to continue the same for a couple years.
Then their donors did not agree to continue the maintenance program
and all the immature trees were looted.
(c) Some NGO's were found to take up a program of giving 'monetary
help' to the poor students for studies. Such programs encouraged the
poor parents to send children to schools. After a few years the
program was stopped because their donors wanted so. Instantly all who
were previously benefited by this program were plunged in bigger
problems.
(d) In giving micro-credit the NGO's consider only the able-bodied,
literate and trust-worthy persons. In our rural areas the number of
such persons is not many. On the other hand those who actually need
loan are physically handicapped, old aged, illiterate or under-aged
(like the poor students). So, there is no possibility for the majority
of the needy people to get any benefit of micro-credit.
05.00 WHO NEED HELP ?
From the above discussions we may deduce that the people in need of
help fall under the following major types : (01) Poor students, (02)
Low-waged employees, (03) Childless men and women in old age, (04) Old
parents abandoned by the children, (05) Jobless persons, (06)
Physically handicapped persons. The easiest way to help these people
is to donate money and materials. But such activities are neither
feasible nor endorsable because of the following reasons:
(i) One-way contributory help to such persons would pave the way for
incessant and ever-increasing help for these persons and also in
further increase in the number of the needy persons. Such a program is
not economically feasible.
(ii) Such help would create inferiority complex among the
beneficiaries, who, by all means, would be in a state, which will be
no better than beggars.
An acceptable solution may be that in order to get help the needy
people also would have to contribute something. Now we shall present
brief descriptions of the above types of needy people and the various
probable ways in which they can contribute in return.
(01) POOR STUDENTS : They are the sons of the poor people who wish to
continue studies, but cannot because of want of money. The government
and philanthropic organizations have programs for helping the poor
meritorious students. However, majority of the poor students are
deprived of such help because of the reasons that (i) all of the poor
students are not meritorious and (ii) they need some money at the
initial state to prove their merit.
How can the poor students contribute ? : Irrespective of their age,
education, gender or built, all such students are capable of doing
some manual works. In addition the students can do education-related
jobs like counting, keeping accounts, coaching others etc.
(02) LOW-WAGED EMPLOYEES : They are the low-waged employees working
under the government or private organizations. Some of them may have
large families, not because of many children but due to relatives as
dependents. It has been mentioned that a section of these people are
indulged in immoral activities in order to supplement income.
Naturally the honest people and their dependents turn to be the worst
victim.
How can the Low-waged employees and their dependents contribute ? : It
is difficult to know if the low-waged employees or their dependents
possess any special skill or education. In case they do, those may be
utilized. However, irrespective of their age, education, gender or
built, it is almost sure that all of them can contribute by doing some
manual works.
(03) CHILDLESS MEN AND WOMEN IN OLD AGE : Men who have no children
(because of infertility or child-death) and little wealth suffer from
poverty. They need both supplementary income and shelter to live.
How can they contribute ? : Irrespective of their age, education,
gender or built, they can contribute by doing some manual works. Some
of them may contribute in other fields also. Since they have no
shelter they need to be provided with the same.
(04) OLD PARENTS ABANDONED BY THE CHILDREN and (05) JOBLESS PERSONS :
Their situations and probable contributions are like those of the
Childless men and women in old age.
(06) PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED PERSONS : Persons handicapped and crippled
due to congenital reason, disease, accident etc. cannot earn their
livelihood. Some of them cannot use one limb, but probably can others,
some may have education and some might have skills and so on. In
addition to sustenance such people may need shelter.
How can they contribute ? : It is possible to make use of the
contributory properties of the crippled persons by providing suitable
and properly designed equipments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, HEAD ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA UNIVERSITY,
KHULNA, BANGLADESH
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