Steps must be taken to Eradicate Poverty and Inequality

Imran Hossain Emon

As soon as we hear the word poverty, it floats in front of our eyes, pictures of underprivileged people living in a half-starved society. According to a report by the World Bank in 2020, there are still 700 million people living below the poverty line. India ranks first in the world in terms of the number of extremely poor people, and Bangladesh ranks sixth.

The World Bank classifies those who earn less than $1.90 a day as extremely poor. According to a recent report by the World Bank, about half of the people in Bangladesh are at risk of poverty due to COVID-19 and climate change. And with the fear of increasing poverty in Bangladesh, the World Bank has also expressed doubts about the eradication of extreme poverty by 2030 under the Sustainable Development Goals.

Sustainable development requires the establishment of a balanced economic and social structure without discrimination. Long-term development begins by reducing the income inequality between the rich and the poor and extending the benefits of economic growth to the disadvantaged sections of society. The biggest threat to global development is income inequality. Statistics show that the income of the richest 10 percent of the world is about 40 percent of the world's total income and the income of the poorest 10 percent is only 2 to 7 percent.

One of the specific goals of SDG-10 is to ensure equal opportunities by reducing income inequality among all, irrespective of rich-poor, caste-religion. As well as working to increase the income of the lowest 40 percent of the population. SDG-10, in fulfilling this goal, has also taken specific steps to reduce inequality and alleviate poverty in Bangladesh.Guinea coefficients can be used to measure income inequality in a country. Many call this coefficient the Gini coefficient. The coefficient was discovered in 1912 by the Italian statistician Corano Gini.

The value of Guinea coefficient is between 0 and 1. If the value of the Guinea coefficient of a country is zero, then the income of all the people of that country will be equal. On the other hand, if all the income of a country goes into the hands of one person, then the value of Guinea coefficient will be 1. Then there will be extreme inequality in that country and again. In fact, it is never possible, though.

According to statistics, the value of the Guinea Coefficient Index of Bangladesh in 1974 was 0.24. In 2010, it rose to 0.458. In 2016, it increased to 0.483. In 2016, 10 percent of the richest families in the country had 38.16 percent of the total income. The income of five percent of wealthy families increased by 27.9 percent. On the other hand, the income of 5 percent of poor households decreased by 0.23 percent. At that time, the value of Guinea coefficient in rural areas increased from 0.43 to 0.45 and in urban areas it increased from 0.45 to 0.5.

In the Sustainable Development Goals, there are 17 global goals. The Millennium Development Goals have expired by the end of 2015. But now the Sustainable Development Goals are replacing the Millennium Development Goals. The term of SDG is from 2016 to 2030. The SDGs include 17 targets and 169 specific targets.

The first goal of the SDGs is to eradicate poverty. Ending the extreme poverty of people whose income is less than $1.25 by 2030. Ensuring safe, healthy and nutritious and adequate food during this period with special priority for all people, especially the vulnerable, neglected poor and children. The tenth goal of the SDGs is to reduce inequality.

To increase the lowest income population by 40% by 2030 and to provide special policies to reduce inequality.Therefore, it is very important to take specific steps to alleviate poverty and inequality in Bangladesh. This will play a vital role in helping the poorest people of this country to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty and reduce social inequality.

In order to prevent inequality, technical education should be spread among people of all classes and professions. As a result, it will be possible to transform uneducated people into human resources. The spread of technical education among the uneducated sections of society will enable them to stand on their own feet. In this case, computer training would be a very important and timely decision. Even if they have minimal knowledge of computers and the internet, they can become self-sufficient by taking up freelancing as a profession.

Farmers will need to provide high yielding seeds, climate-change-tolerant crop seeds and fertilizers. As a result, their production and wages will increase and the tendency of unemployed workers to seek employment in urban areas will be greatly reduced. On the other hand, poverty will be able to come out of the hands of the people and poverty and Bangladesh will become a food self-sufficient state.

Since the vast majority of people in rural areas are poor, it is possible to reduce economic inequality through rural infrastructure development. Government spending on rural roads, educational institutions, culverts, electricity, healthcare, water salinity control, and irrigation needs to be increased.

A communication system between village and town needs to be developed. The farmers of the village spend a lot of money on hard work and producing the crop and sell it at a nominal price. As a result, they are deprived of the fair price of the crop. But the middlemen benefited in the middle. So, transportation and communication systems need to be improved. During the rainy season, it is very difficult to walk from one place to another due to mud on the unpaved roads of the village.

 It is almost impossible to take agricultural produce to the market and sell it. As a result, they sell the crop to local wholesalers at nominal prices. In this way, everyone from local level wholesalers to the latest retailers benefit. In many cases, they sell the agricultural products purchased from the farmers at double the price. This will enable farmers to get a fair price for their produce and reduce social and economic inequality to a great extent.

Microfinance programs from government and non-government organizations will play a significant role in alleviating poverty. Institutions like BRAC and NGOs will play a special role in this. According to the Eighth Five Year Plan, the Government of Bangladesh has set a target of creating employment for 11.7 million people by 2020 to 2025.

Through micro-credit programs, the poorest families in the villages will be able to become self-sufficient by taking loans at nominal interest rates, raising poultry, cows and goats or by investing in certain businesses. It is possible to change the social and economic conditions by giving them cash or interest-free loans for economic and social upliftment.

Social security must be ensured among the lower castes of society. They are persecuted at different times by the influential people of society, but they cannot protest despite their lack of power and money. These lower class people need to be protected from land grabbers, usurpers, abusers of power, and domination by influential people.

As a result, it will be possible to establish equal rights in society and reduce the inequality between rich and poor.
Special attention should be paid to women empowerment. Bangladesh women's empowerment is very enviable to the outside world! Women hold important positions in this country. But in terms of women empowerment, the villages are far behind the cities, so more attention can be paid to women empowerment in the rural areas.

Special programs need to be taken to prevent child marriage. We have to increase social awareness in this regard. It is possible to reduce child marriage by spreading the light of education among the marginalized people of the country. The incidence of child marriage increased in Kurigram district during the Corona period. Yet this district is prone to child marriage. Therefore, in addition to formal education, non-formal education should be expanded to control child marriage.

Health care and women's education should be expanded. The lower classes of society have seen the light of education from far. But they could not enlighten themselves in that light. On the other hand, we have to ensure improved healthcare. Special attention should be paid to the health of mothers, children and adolescents. An educated mother can form an educated nation. Therefore, there is no alternative to women's education in building a planned society and nation.

Poverty can also be alleviated through taxation. By evading taxes in society, the rich are becoming richer day by day and the poor are becoming poorer day by day. Therefore, necessary steps have to be taken to implement the taxation system. Get rid of poverty and inequality! May the future Bangladesh be filled with happiness and peace.


Imran Hossain Emon is a Student, Department of Sociology, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur.