Creation of job opportunities pivotal to stability
WITH the country racked by political infighting, prices of food items shooting up, and inflation mounting, the news item that some 30,000 Bangladeshi workers from Kuwait and thousands others from Oman are being repatriated is most disquieting. During the last 11 months, some 68,000 Bangladeshis working in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia returned to Bangladesh and about 2121 working in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia died.
While celebrating the "record forex earnings ceremony" by immigrant workers, the Bangladesh Bank governor indicated that forex reserve, largely attributable to 65 lakh immigrant workers' remittances, had exceeded $10 billion.
At a function organised by the expatriate welfare and overseas ministry, speakers expressed concern about the way workers at home and abroad fell victims to harassment and deceit by the manpower agents. Alongside the hardship of the workers, pathetic state of living, deprivation, and torture by the so-called employers have come to public attention. The vast mass of unfortunate, nay gullible people, have fallen in the trap of manpower agents, operating in most cases illegally.
Political leaders and the party in power can't remain oblivious of the gigantic issue of people's life and living and can hardly avoid being in the turmoil bubbling in the whole countryside. A report in the Prothom Alo on November 7 said that Jewel Rana paid Tk.2,10,000 to manpower agent Emasek Pvt. Ltd., and got a work permit for Malaysia. But his ordeal began after landing in Malaysia.
After serving prison terms in Malaysian jail for months, he returned home empty handed. Jewel Rana might consider himself fortunate that he has been able to come back alive, but reports revealed that there are at least 6,500 Bangladeshis now languishing in different jails and concentration camps in Malaysia, Oman and Saudi Arabia for illegally entering these countries.
It would be naïve to think that the country can be turned into an oasis of peace, stability and prosperity while the teeming millions are steeped in squalor and poverty. What is envisioned now is that the future of a country that was once so tantalisingly rich in promise seems to be fraught with dangers. Against the backdrop of 8,32,000 workforce who went abroad for overseas job in 2007, and 8,75,000 in 2008, the numbergoing for overseas jobs in 2009 came down to 4,51,571, mainly because of world recession of workers among other factors. The biggest number, about 26,000 returned from Saudi Arabia this year.
Many of the returnees are now pulling rickshaws and running tea stalls on roadsides in Dhaka. Many immigrant workers, including women, died in foreign lands after being subjected to inhuman torture and physical abuse. Mahesh Sarkar went to Malaysia after selling his homestead land, but he could not get any job there as the work permit he got from the manpower agent was fake. Consequently, he was put in a concentration camp and he passed eight months in appalling misery, almost without food and bare necessities of life. He died in the Bangladesh High Commission shelter house in Malaysia in October 2007.
If the rural areas with their vast populace are not strengthened with job opportunities, which means creating infrastructural facilities for industries based on rural produce, these people will be descending on the metropolis in increasing numbers.
The economy of the country is undoubtedly in a bad shape. The past government undertook a reform and restructuring programme for Rupali Bank, Agrani Bank and Janata Bank in 2004, and about Tk.130 crore was spent in the last five years as consultants' fees, but their financial health remains as it was in 2004. Consultants were appointed for Sonali and Janata and a management group was working in Agrani, with precious little being achieved. The move to sell off Rupali Bank ended in a fiasco. On the other hand these four banks have written off default loans to the tune of Tk.6,398 crore to the detriment of the economy. People who crafted these policies of exempting loans and spent millions of taka for overseas trips and other lavish expenses with no fruits should be held accountable to the nation,
Even as a number of other countries are dismantling their state-run economies, Bangladesh remains mired in a mixed pattern that has ceased to contribute anything worthwhile because of lack of initiative, incentive and entrepreneurial dynamism. The Freedom Fighters Welfare Trust, established in 1972 by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman through allocation of 19 industrial establishments with the avowed desire that the profits accrued from these concerns would help the martyred and wounded freedom fighters and their families, is now in dire straits and 16 of these industrial plants have been closed down.
The present AL-led government that values contribution of the freedom fighters must form a probe body to find out as to why and how all these profitable concerns had to be closed down. The committee will identify the person or groups who swindled state fund and installed junk machinery valued at Tk.35 crore in 1983 in the Multiple Juice Concentrate Plant at Kalurghat in Chittagong.
The government should immediately take some performance-based measures to encourage banks and non-banking financial institutes to issue loans to SMEs (small and medium enterprises ) on easy terms and nominal interest. To be sure, the vast number of unemployed youth in the countryside can be rehabilitated by a steady infusion of loans by the government agencies and NGOs in line with the ACCION, a self-help NGO group operating in Santa Domingo in Peru. The administration might take note of what William Burrus, executive director of ACCION, said about encouraging the small initiatives. Burrus observes: "The large infrastructure projects are needed but that should not be the way we define development and certainly that should not be the strategy for helping the poor." In his view "the best way to do that is by putting the money in their pockets so that they can help themselves." With Korea, Taiwan and India having achieved tremendous economic growth by sourcing capital for SMEs, the government should not waste time in crafting modalities for issuing such loans to enthusiastic young entrepreneurs.
In this context, the proposed project titled "Promoting Decent Work through Migration," to be launched in July next year by the ministry of manpower and overseas welfare, as indicated in a newspaper report on December 20, at a cost of Tk.25 crore through utilising the skill and expertise of the returnees in skill development and other related sectors is a laudable venture.
We have to reach out to enthusiastic entrepreneurs like Asaduzzaman Manik of Sreepur village, Gazipur with money and equipment. He has succeeded in producing electricity from paddy husk and has lighted three hundred houses by utilising one-third of the amount of power produced with one of his three machines with World Bank assistance.
No overseas job seekers, especially women, should be sent abroad as domestic help or labourer for washing the floors and streets, cleaning the toilets and removing garbage. The government must set up skill development training centre at every district and train up people in different trades, and only successful trainees should be sent abroad as per requirement of the host countries.
At the same time, mere issuing of loans or credit facilities to SMEs or individuals willing to set up an industry or run a business will not help unless the government can ensure smooth supply of power and gas. Because of acute gas shortage, smooth supply cannot be ensured, and the government may have to give more subsidy to diesel used for power generation in industrial units during outage.
The country's move towards industrial growth that will provide employment opportunities to thousands of Bangladeshis seems to be very slow. With the country now producing about 3,700 MW against the demand of about 5,000 MW, the energy pressures alone threaten further growth of industrial plants, stifle the operational line of the existing plants and breed social chaos and political instability.
With so many obstacles standing in the way, a comfortable climate for investment seems to be difficult to achieve. Many foreign investors are continuously assessing and evaluating the political situation and availability of power before committing funds for setting up plants. Investors from within the country are undecided. They have neither planned to grow nor to go away. Economists believe that until a solution to the lingering political infighting is found and power situation eased, most investors will look elsewhere for less risky options.
Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.
e-mail : aukhanbd@gmail.com
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