Bangladesh should pay heed to the needs of the youth labour force and meet their expectations in a rapidly changing world to fight militancy, a noted economist said yesterday.
“We need to worry about the vulnerable non-poor, especially the problem of the youth labour force belonging to a group, in terms of meeting their new expectations and extremism,” said Binayek Sen, research director of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).
By vulnerable non-poor, he meant people whose per capita income stands between $1 and $2 a day; they form 39 percent of the population.
The economist made the remarks at a national dialogue on the role of the budget and other policy frameworks in cutting inequality and poverty at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka.
The All Party Parliamentary Group organised the programme in association with Oxfam, an alliance of international non-governmental organisations.
Bangladesh has a large young and productive workforce that will continue to increase until 2030.
Of the country's 16 crore population, 10.5 crore are between 15 years and 64 years of age. This age-group would increase to 13 crore by 2030, said the United Nations Development Programme in April.
Every year, 20 lakh people join the labour force. But only some six lakh jobs were created in the last two years, which should have actually been 26 lakh. Nearly 74 percent of the jobless people are young.
The government should also think about the stubborn pockets of poverty caused by river erosion and such in the areas of haors and hill tracts, the economist added.
Speaking at the event, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said population control is a big problem in the way towards development. Hence, focus should be on family planning.
Strict measures should be taken to keep the population of the country within 20 crore, he added.
The minister said social safety net programmes in Bangladesh are the best in the world. The safety net money reaches the beneficiaries through banks and no pilferage is reported in this area, he added.
Muhith said electronic systems have to be introduced in all transactions, payment and trading to cut corruption.
“To reduce corruption, we have enacted various laws, and the Anti-Corruption Commission has been restructured but it could not make much progress.”
The finance minister said a college in Sylhet introduced an online admission system, which resulted in a hike in its annual income -- from Tk 8 lakh to Tk 83 lakh.
Abdur Razzaque, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the finance ministry, said food production increased in Bangladesh but the farmers are not getting fair prices for their produce.
It cost Tk 700 to produce a maund (37.32 kilograms) of rice this year, but depending on varieties, farmers got Tk 450 to Tk 650 a maund during the harvesting period.
But Razzaque, also a former food minister, said farmers are now getting Tk 900 a maund upon selling rice to the government warehouses. Razzaque said the government will have to take steps to ensure fair prices for the farmers.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said 25 percent of Bangladesh's people are still poor and 15 percent are ultra-poor. “Lifting them out of the poverty trap is a challenge.” Separate projects will have to be taken for the people living in the remote areas, he added.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét