The number of extra-judicial killings in the first half of the year, according to a report of Ain Shalish Kendro, a dynamic human rights organisation, stands at 63. Neither numerically, or breakup-wise in terms of the agencies killing them off the situation is any better than in the corresponding period of last year.
Actually, the pattern seems to be consistently extensive: Thirty were killed in 'gunfights' with Rab, nine with police, one with a joint team of Rab and Bangladesh Coastguard. Add to these, police torturing eight persons to death and shooting one to death. Also, seventeen inmates and thirty detainees died in police custody.
The statistics speak louder than comments and explode the myth of improving human rights situation. There are two broad implications of such brazen acts of abuse of power and the custodians of law taking law into their own hands aside from other ramifications. The first is that of higher incidence of crime and the second relates to sliding human rights scenario. In between there is a lurking suspicion whether the real criminals are being caught. This stems from the fact most grisly murder incidents are going unsolved with criminals roaming around in a state complete impunity or being shielded away. An impression has grown that law is not for weak and vulnerable and that the general sense of insecurity of the citizens is on the rise.
The ASK report on human right violations draws on newspaper stories. Ironically but not surprisingly perhaps, the journalists themselves are falling prey to killers' hands. At least three journalists were killed in the period under review and forty-three have faced intimidation and death threats allegedly from ruling party men, government officials and criminals. Equally concerning is the fact that a couple of hundred journalists were tortured and one went missing while returning home from work.
Given the vulnerability of journalists it won't be long before they would need special security arrangements to carry out their duties in sensitive beats. A sense of denial of information is collateral to lack of security.
The continuing delay in relocating Hazaribagh tanneries to Savar is inexcusable. One of the reasons for Buriganga's extremely bad state is the effluents that run off into this river which is the lifeline of the capital. All the leather factories should have been moved to the new location with an ETP set up in the new leather estate by February 2010, according to a Supreme Court order.
However, last year the government had sought two years as grace period from the court, which will also be over next year.
It is unimaginable that there is no palpable action on the nearly Tk.500 crore ETP project even after three months that the contract was signed with a foreign firm in February this year. It is a pity that the government is yet to start construction of the buildings to house the ETP.
Clearing Hazaribagh is contingent upon the construction of the ETP, without which relocation of the tanneries and leather factories will make no sense at all.
The government can ill afford to drag its feet on relocating the Hazaribagh tanneries to the designated spot in Savar for more than one reason. For apart from putting a stop to disgorging tannery effluents into the Buriganga river and settling damages claimed by tannery owners and looking into other related issues, it will also be a race against time. The project must be completed ahead of 2014 keeping an eye on EU's compliance requirements.
Given its urgency, it is hoped that the government will consider the matter with highest priority and complete the project within the stipulated time.
Despite government claims to the contrary, data published by government institutions point to some disturbing facts about child malnutrition and mortality. Child malnutrition has decreased nationally over the last five years, according to Bangladesh Demographic and Health Service (BDHS) 2011 but there is a flipside to it. This is reflected in the Sylhet division where up to 49 per cent of all children belonging to lower income groups suffer from large-scale malnutrition, this figure goes up to 51 per cent in families where mothers are less educated.
These statistics all point to changing food patterns, that too for the worse, in rural Bangladesh. A joint study by the Bangladesh government and USAID on income and expenditure at Thana level concludes that food consumption patterns at village level have undergone a fundamental transformation. The rural populace were found to be consuming more rice and less protein. Protein including meat and fish, milk and milk-based products consumption at rural level was found to be much lower than urban centres of population. Although the lack of knowledge on nutrition is partly to blame, there is no denying the fact that economic hardship has played a major role in this lopsided food basket rural people in general, and children in particular, are consuming today. On this issue, according to Trading Corporation of Bangladesh data, average prices of food essentials like cooking oil, lentil, fish, farm chicken and free range chicken have shot up between 9.68% and 38.46% over the last one year.
Indeed, the case of child malnutrition is directly responsible for half the child mortality Bangladesh suffers each year. Looking at it from the economic perspective, malnutrition costs the nation an estimated Tk75 billion in lost productivity as adults who have suffered malnutrition as children lack the physical strength of average healthy adults. Even if one looks at the national average of 41 per cent of children suffering malnutrition, the fact that 4 out of 10 adults in the future workforce having less of an ability to contribute is a daunting figure. Food aid that is tailor-made to children's needs is needed and steps need to be taken today as opposed to tomorrow to make them available nationwide.
(Dated-01/07/2012)
What Prof Yunus said on Friday while addressing the opening ceremony of the "Social Business Forum 2012" at the North South University was not only relevant to a growing younger generation but also inspirational for them. There was a message for the educationists as well. In what is a sharp critique of the present education system, he said education today is merely job oriented and motivates students to earn as much money as possible. In a bid to reverse this trend, he urged all universities to have their curricula reshaped and text materials rewritten. They have to set a different goal for the students, which as well as giving a good job will infuse in them a sense of responsibility towards society, a skill for resolving social problems and serving its downtrodden people.
Likewise, he called for a substantial change in the existing business models. Whereas today's corporate business models are obsessed with profit maximization and see money-making as an end in itself, he envisions a model that will see money-making as a means to solving mounting social problems. The Nobel Laureate pins his hope on the educated youth and calls upon them to come forward to set up businesses where serving the social ends selflessly will be the predominant goal rather than personally driven profit maximization.
In another programme, Nasa astronaut Ronald Garan who came to attend the third Social Business Day event at Savar and delivered a lecture on "Planet and Life in Space: An Orbital Perspective" struck a responsive chord in the youth. Elaborating his idea of ''orbital perspective'', he likened the earth with a spaceship in the universe and said that all human beings are interconnected and riding together in the same spaceship like a family. Referring to the youth, he stressed that they have got all the tools they need to change the world.
Taken together, they have lighted the pathway for the youth to be an engine for change in society and in the world, consigning poverty to museum.
(Dated 01/07/2012)
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