Editorial
Negligence to a project for disabled
It can't be countenanced
IT can only be termed as apathy on the part of the implementing agencies, and by implication, the ministry concerned that a 35-million dollar donor-funded project has not quite got off the ground. This appears even more disconcerting when one considers that the fund is to do with a project for the welfare of the disabled and for the disadvantaged children.
The 5-year project, having two components, 'Disability and Children at Risk,' and 'Promotion of Services to the Disabled Persons of Bangladesh,' remains a non-starter because the Department of Social Service could not meet the donor deadline to set the project in motion. The launching date has been missed, and as of today the former doesn't have a project director, and recruitment of manpower for the latter under an independent body -- the Jatiya Protibondhi Unnyan Foundation, is yet to start, more than four months after the deal was penned.
Both the projects are specific to two very vulnerable segments of society, and when one of those segments persons with disability, accounts for ten percent of the population, one finds it very disheartening to read that the project has not made any headway, reportedly, because of the failure of relevant government officials to do their bit to get it off the ground.
How does one rationalise this lack of action? Given that we suffer from resource crunch for our development projects what cannot be accepted is that the much-needed fund could be reverting back to the donors because of our inability to put the required personnel in place on time. This is a special project having to do with the disabled and disadvantaged children, and we wonder why not one of the two bodies, entrusted to carry out the project, could ensure that the deadline for commencing the job was met.
One needs hardly emphasise the importance of the project. There is urgent need to address the problem of the large number of children facing various types of hazards in their daily life. And there cannot be a more unfriendly environment than what we find in our country for the disabled to go about their daily chores. No wonder that so many of them feel utterly neglected.
The ministry must urgently intervene so that implementation of the project gets quickly underway. We also feel that those responsible for lack of action must be asked to account for it. It is also essential to set up an oversight body in each ministry to watch over the implementation of the donor-funded projects.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments