Tanim Ahmed

IT HAS been almost four months since the south-western part of Bangladesh was ravaged by cyclone Sidr. According to the typically conservative government estimates, the cyclone killed over 4,000 people, while another 1,000 still remain missing and 55,000 sustained injuries. Some one million homes were seriously affected and 1.5 million livestock destroyed. According to a report prepared by the government, cyclone damage amounted to about $1.675 billion and, coupled with the floods from earlier in the year, the losses stand at about $2.775 billion. In comparison, the floods of 2004 caused losses of $2.51 billion. This report also states that the recovery efforts would require spending of about Tk 10,000 crore on immediate- and long-term needs. According to recent reports, people of the cyclone affected regions are still almost entirely dependent on relief since they have not been able to resume their livelihood in earnest.

Beginning with the local administration, officials at the highest levels of the government appear to exhibit a thoroughly apathetic attitude towards the plights of these people. For instance, a compensation of Tk 10,000 is paid to the family of every person killed in Sidr. However, there is no such measure for the families of those missing. As a report illustrated the account of a young woman, Amina Begum, whose husband has been missing for almost four months, has not received any assistance. She has to take care of her two children, one of them barely a month old. When approached, officials insist on evidence of death.

Although no one realistically believes that the missing people are likely to return since they have probably been washed away into the sea, there have still not been any measures to address the problems of people like Amina. But those who may in fact engage in some kind of income-generating activities are also dependent on relief materials. Reports indicate that while rehabilitation efforts have been inadequate with fishermen barred from fishing due to a government ban, much of the arable land remains fallow.

Mostafa Zaman, upazila nirbahi officer of Patharghata in Barguna, was quoted in another report saying the people seem to be idle and do not take any initiative to plant crops. ‘There is no shortage of seeds and fertilisers, but even then the farmers are not interested in farming,’ he said. The sub-district executive would perhaps realise that the only thing that farmers are interested in and know is farming. It is a vocation passed down to them for generations and they would rather cultivate crops than anything else. If the land is lying fallow and if there is indeed no shortage of inputs then it must be the case that the farmers in question do not have the funds with which to buy those inputs.

The farmers are the ones who feed the nation toiling night and day without any guarantee of a fair price and are more often than not deprived of a reasonable price for their produce. The farmers, despite the negligible government support or subsidy, unlike their counterparts in other parts of the world, attend to their fields and keep on cultivating their crops. The fact that arable land is lying fallow only proves that people in the cyclone-affected areas have not had enough support from the incumbents to revive the largely agriculture-based rural economy of the south-western Bangladesh. It is because despite assurances from the government, the farmers have not been provided with adequate loans and funds as was necessary for farming during the boro season.

The food-for-work programme has not started yet either, although it should have begun much earlier to provide the affected people with a means to earn their living in a respectful and dignified manner. Instead, the incumbents have followed their elected predecessors stressing on distribution of relief, which is nothing but alms, and something that self-respecting peasants would rather not take if there were genuine opportunities for gainful employment.

When asked whether the government had any plans to generate employment, Mostafa Zaman said a tender had been floated for repair of the embankments. ‘We will need to rebuild many embankments and construct a few.’ But he could not confirm when the programme would be launched.

The needs of the cyclone-affected areas are surely much greater and more acute than perhaps anywhere else. But the need to generate employment and provide the people a dignified means to livelihood is imperative all over the country. When the losses and damage of the floods are taken together the need for government expenditure becomes all the more pressing. It is in this context that the interim government’s decision to slash its development expenditure — annual development programme worth Tk 26,500 crore – by Tk 4,000 crore appears strange.

Despite the need to significantly enhance government spending, especially in ‘food for work’ or ‘money for work’ programmes, the incumbents have not only failed to spend the money but in fact decided not to spend the money. With more than half of the fiscal year over, the incumbents have only been able to implement a quarter of its development funds and lags behind even the previous regimes that were notoriously slow in ADP implementation.

To make matters worse, the incumbents have failed to contain inflation, more particularly food inflation that is worsening almost every month. The rising prices and overall unemployment, due to the lack of investment, has spelt doom for the general masses. Yet the policymakers at the highest levels continue to remain preoccupied with balancing the books.

The finance adviser, AB Mirza Azizul Islam, was quoted in the media as saying budget deficit, which is set to grow from that projected at the beginning of the year, would be somewhat contained with the curtailment of development expenditure. Every time there is mention of subsidising such essentials as fuel, power or fertiliser which provide a cushion of sorts to the people, budget deficit – and keeping it within limits prescribed by the multilateral lending agencies – appear to become the overriding concern. It has been pointed out by different sections of the citizenry, including bureaucrats and politicians, that survival of the people and provision of food must be the foremost concern of the incumbents, but they appear to be more worried about balancing the books instead of lives of people.

The number of cyclone-affected people – 20 lakh – is a small percentage of the population but the incumbents’ attitude towards them is only symptomatic of its overall attitude to public welfare. When the poor state of the economy is in question, there is the obvious mention of the GDP growth and increasing reserves of foreign currency, so on and so forth that do not represent the true picture of the common man on the street or in the villages.

Admittedly, the past year has not been an ordinary one and there were more than one instance of severe disruptions that were quite beyond the control of the incumbents. But those natural calamities only worsened a deteriorating trend that the incumbents have failed to reverse. But more alarmingly the downtrend that has begun this year with the negative growth of the economy, decreasing investment and widespread unemployment is expected to take its full toll on the economy, and quite invariably on the masses in years to come as the economy continues to deteriorate.

Perhaps the only reason that the policymakers of the military-controlled government can afford to be so uncaring and apathetic to the woes and misery of the people and ignore the advice of the citizens is because the administration enjoys the support of quarters apparently more powerful than the weak masses. The sooner they realise the importance of public opinion and make amends the better.