Eradication of extreme poverty

ANALYSTS and experts think that Bangladesh has the capacity to obliterate extreme poverty by 2021, well ahead of other countries in the subcontinent. A plan and a timeline have been underscored by discussants at an inter-ministerial meeting jointly organised by Rural Development and Cooperatives Division (RDCD) and Economic Empowerment of the Poorest (EEP) in the city on Wednesday.
To attain this, Bangladesh needs to bring one million extreme poor families out of the poverty cycle each year until 2020. This is a doable task provided the 10 ministries which are directly involved in the process of dealing with the poor worked in concert. We need prioritising the needs of the ultra-poor and promoting institutional policy reforms to address extreme poverty.
We have to take note of the fact that extreme poverty is chronic and can last for years affecting generation after generation. The total number of extreme poor 2.5 crore or nearly 60 lakh families. The task looks manageable but may not remain so if lower the guard on eradication steps which have barely begun. Before long we have to get a decisive move on to grapple with this eminently solvable problem. Political will is there, now it is the ministries dealing with the ultra-poor who have to come out pulling themselves up by the boot-straps for a turn around.