Editorial
Time for a shift to food for work
Some people are becoming hooked to relief
Five weeks have passed since cyclone Sidr devastated eleven districts in the southwestern part of the country. All this while our handling of the aftermath has been relief-centred, even though we should have by now plunged headlong into rehabilitation work.
Three things are indicated by our preoccupation with relief even at this stage: one, we couldn't expeditiously reach the four corners of the affected areas with succour; two, there has been repeat distribution of relief to some people at the expense of others; and three, gaps remaining in terms of the outreach, relief work should have a realistic cut-off date.
The net result of all this happens to be the handout dependency in many parts of the affected areas. We have reports from districts of people going for relief hunt setting aside their daily chores of mending their fences or otherwise nurturing the ground for cultivation. In this scenario, there is an acute dearth of agriculture labour. Time is fast running out for planting Boro. Whereas they get a hundred taka as daily remuneration by working in the land they can earn as much as four to five hundred taka from scrounging relief from different sources. This is partly the reason why compensatory agriculture or rehabilitation work is not getting underway in full swing.
We see three possible ways of turning a corner. Firstly, all logistical support like agricultural inputs, production implements and seed money will have to be delivered to the affected people to bring them back to work. Secondly, where distribution of relief material like food, medicines, drinking water is unavoidable, it should be continued for some more specified time but only in kind not in cash. Thirdly, all routes to black-marketing of relief goods will have to be sealed as pilferage and corruption are eliminated.
Actually, an answer to dependency on handouts lies in extending food for work programme. It must be extensively utilised as a vehicle in realising the productive potential of people.
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