Reducing inequity for sustainable development

It is distressing that Bangladesh ranks 148 among 157 countries on the Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CTE) index. According to the international charity organisation Oxfam, even among eight Asian countries most backward in this record, Bangladesh stands second from the bottom. Bhutan is the only Asian country below Bangladesh.

While Bangladesh may be ahead in other economic indicators, it does not bode well to fall so behind in reducing inequalities. According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the income percentage of the most poor has fallen from 2 to 1.1 per cent. And the income rate of the 90 per cent of the population has either decreased or remained static. On the other hand, the income of the most affluent comprising 5 per cent of the population in 2010 was 24.61 per cent and now stands at 27.89 per cent. The income of the top 10 per cent of the people has risen from 35.84 per cent to 38.16 per cent. That indicates that the wealth in the country is accumulating in the hands of a tiny percentage of the population. The majority are not benefitting from the development. So if the wealth does not percolate down to meet the demands of the majority of the people, then that cannot be called actual development. While being ahead of its neighbours in many areas, it is to be seen why Bangladesh lags behind in this particular sector.

The World Bank has recently predicted that Bangladesh’s HDP will be from 7 per cent to 7.5 per cent. That is certainly a positive factor. For over a decade now the GD has been vacillating between 6 per cent and 7 per cent. But investment and employment has not been increasing in the private sector in that proportion. Every year around 2 million to 2.5 million young people are entering the job market, but most of them are not finding employment. Unemployment is on a steady rise, moving towards a serious crisis.

Unemployment does not just create economic problems, it has a negative social impact too. Inequalities increase along with unemployment. According to the World Bank, the pressures on Bangladesh’s macro economy include inflation, deficiency in foreign funding, liquidity crisis and increase in budget deficit. A good bit of news is that inflation has dropped in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

The significant factors taken into consideration in the Oxfam survey include expenditure in the social sector, the taxation policy and the rights and wages of the workers. Workers wages in the country are relatively low. Take the readymade garment sector for example. Around 80 per cent of the country’s import earnings come from this sector, yet the workers of this industry are the lowest paid. The concerned persons must realise that low wages and high profit margin may have immediate benefits, but will not bode well for the industry in the long run.

Bangladesh is committed to fulfill the sustainable development goals to be achieved by 2030 as set by the United Nations. But it is obvious that this cannot be achieved without lessening inequalities and poverty. State minister for finance and planning Mohammed Abdul Mannan has questioned why Oxfam should run such a survey, but he could not disprove any of the survey’s data. The organisation did not deny that Bangladesh was achieving economic development. If, as the minister claimed, the government was conscious about the issue of inequalities, then why are effective and sustainable steps not being taken to address this?