Editorial
Bangladesh moves a notch higher on HDI
Bracing for tougher challenges ahead imperative
The UNDP's Human Development Report 2013 shows that Bangladesh has been making significant progress in providing its citizens with improved health services, increased access to knowledge and better standard of living.
As a result, its Human Development Index, HDI, for 2013 has moved one point higher placing it in the 146th position among 187 countries f the world. Even though Bangladesh is behind Sri Lanka and India in its HDI performance, it has still done better than India in the areas of life expectancy at birth and mean years of schooling.
This is undoubtedly a good piece of news and something to celebrate given the difficult times it has had to pass through including political instability at home, meeting the needs of a huge population with meagre resources, financial crises in the major developed economies impacting negatively on its earnings from export as well as foreign remittance.
The UNDP report released on Friday has attributed Bangladesh's success in maintaining this sustained growth to increased rate of public investment and what it termed 'great success' in textiles. The report further points out that the country's advancement in these sectors has been rapid over the three decades plus years. During this period, the life expectancy at birth has increased by 14 years from 55.2 years in 1980. Over this period, the mean years of schooling has also increased from 2 to 4.8 years.
Admittedly, Bangladesh's success rate in the above two sectors have been something enviable given that last year the life expectancy at birth and mean years of schooling in the case of India have been 65. 8 years and 4.4 years respectively.
It is hardly surprising that the sustained progress has elevated Bangladesh's place among the 18 countries of the world including China, India, Malaysia and Vietnam that have been making great strides in the human development sectors.
So far, so good. But there is no room for complacency. The challenges before the country's continued growth are formidable. The onus is on the political leadership to navigate the nation prudently through troubled waters of confrontation in the coming years.
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