Editorial
A cosmetic sign of improving living standard
Still a long way to go in quality and numbers
BETTER lifestyle, improved standard of living, increased welfare and reduction of poverty have been inter-changeable phrases as far as laymen's understanding of economics goes. As a matter of fact, economists themselves are still immersed in expressing each of the indicators of development in measurable terms. That is when our understanding of what is going around in our life's conditions is enriched.
A welfare monitoring survey (WMS) conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) reveals that those below the poverty line have dropped to 31.9 per cent in 2009 from what was 40 per cent in 2005. Although the assumptions differ between both calculations; the 2005 measure was based on household income and expenditure surveys while in the WMS poverty figure, self-claims of the respondents formed the basis.
Even though clearly in terms of clothing and footwear, things have improved and, more importantly, access to TV, radio, electricity and cell phone has increased, a vast majority are still deprived of basic needs, such as water, sanitation, healthcare, literacy and old age security.
The government has stood by the ultra-poor through 100-day seasonal employment and other safety net programmes but these are largely confined to calamity affected backward areas sometimes suffering from opaque distribution mechanism to top it off.
An increasing number of people, 61 per cent of the respondents, borrowed money to meet food expenditure adding a poignant dimension to low-purchasing power or erosion of real income which basically means being entrapped into poverty. A somewhat consumerist culture also seems to have permeated the lower stratum with people borrowing money, a little like in the West.
Whatever may have been the average changes in lifestyle indicative though it is of a certain jest for life, yet in terms of human development and vulnerabilities indicators we have a long way to make the mark. The checklist reads daunting enough: well under 40 per cent completed primary education, only 1.9 per cent have computers and 78.1 per cent mothers delivered babies at home through assistance from midwives.
The overarching fact is that while we have had a demographic dividend through better food harvest, yet GDP growth dividends have not reached the vast majority of our people. It is the wealth distribution pattern riddled with corruption, expropriation and flight of capital that has increased the gap between the rich and the poor, which if it yawns further could only disrupt social stability to the peril of our polity. The sooner we realise it and roll back the negative trend the better it will be. Indeed, that is where our litmus test lies.
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