Before going to the root of poverty in Bangladesh, let us share with you a short story of some American rats. In the editorial of a famous magazine I read a long time ago, a special experiment called rat theory cut a scar in my mind. An American scientist named John Canhul once decided to do a study on rats in the fifties. The purpose of the study was to find out if there was any change in the social system of rats with an abnormal increase in their limited resources. As a result of the study, he was surprised to find that when the number of rats increased abnormally, they could no longer live peacefully. They then fight with each other, fight for food and even in some of the more horrific cases some rats unnecessarily attack children and women, causing sexual misconduct.
See if you can find the similarity of this rat society with the social system of Bangladesh? Bangladesh, a small country with limited natural resources, has an incredible population and is prone to natural disasters. Billions of people are competing for limited food, shelter and other basic rights, which has led to an epidemic of corruption, murder and lawlessness in society. Sexual perversion is happening in the society, attacks on women and children are increasing. Kinship, abuse of law, uncleanliness and environmental pollution, low quality of education are all daily occurrences. We cannot become a civilized nation in the conference of all of them and as a result Bangladesh is not succeeding in eradicating poverty.
After reading this story of mine, many people may have come to know what are the main reasons behind the poverty of Bangladesh. If not, there is no problem, now I come to the main point. Before I sat down to write the answer, I read the answers of others. Most of the respondents saw that corruption, lack of political will, and low quality education system were the main reasons behind Bangladesh's poverty. There is no doubt that all these factors are behind the poverty in Bangladesh but I think all these problems are part of a bigger problem like the rat society. To put it more simply, in my eyes, there are only 4 reasons behind the poverty in Bangladesh. These four factors are the cause of almost all the other problems that have dragged Bangladesh into the category of a poor country. The reasons are
Overpopulation: We all know that overpopulation is one of the major problems in Bangladesh and I personally think that overpopulation is the main cause of poverty in Bangladesh so far. Just two examples are enough to show that the population of Bangladesh is unimaginably high.
The population of Bangladesh, which is equal to the state of Iowa in the United States, is half that of the United States with an area of 98 million square kilometers. If Bangladesh had the same population density as the United States, the world's 750 billion people would be confined to only one-third of the United States, leaving the other two-thirds empty.
Another example can be given to indicate the overpopulation of Bangladesh. Mongolia is home to only two people per square kilometer. If the population of Mongolia were equal to that of Bangladesh, the size of Mongolia would have to be equal to the land area of the whole world to accommodate these 16 million people in Mongolia. Now you understand what a deadly burden population is for Bangladesh with an area of only one and a half lakh square kilometers? If it is not clear yet, see the image below. Believe it or not, the population of Russia, which is larger in size than the planet Pluto, is 2 million less than that of Bangladesh.
This huge population is putting unbearable pressure on the limited size and resources of Bangladesh. Unemployment is on the rise in the country, the amount of land per capita is declining, forests are being deforested, corruption is on the rise and above all, Bangladesh is not getting out of the vicious cycle of poverty. However, the hope is that since the immediate period of independence, the government of Bangladesh has taken several steps to control the population, as a result of which the fertility rate of Bangladesh has come down from 8 to about 2.
If we had control of the state apparatus during the Pakistan period, it would not have happened today. Throughout the Pakistan period, no significant measures were taken to curb the population growth in the then East Pakistan, as a result of which the population of that time reached only three crore and today it has reached sixteen and a half crore. Since independence, the Bangladesh government has shown enough sincerity to control the population, but unfortunately it is too late.
Lack of Natural Resources: Bangladesh's misfortune is that there is hardly any natural resource in Bangladesh that can take a country to Qatar in a very short period of time. Look at the oil rich Gulf nations of the Middle East. With the strength of the petro dollar, the Dhu Dhu desert quickly became a paradise.
Kuwait vs. before the discovery of oil
Kuwait after receiving oil
On the other hand, in Bangladesh, oil is far more valuable than oil and other ore resources like gold, diamond, aluminum, uranium and bauxite are also not available here. Natural gas is plentiful but less so than in neighboring countries. Besides, most of the coal found in Bangladesh is of low quality. The amount of forest is not very much and what is there is also a source of deforestation under the pressure of population. The natural resources of Bangladesh are mainly fertile lands and fisheries. It is doubtful whether all these resources will remain in the future. I will explain later why I said that.
Geographical Location: Bengal, once formed at the confluence of thousands of rivers, developed into one of the richest regions of the world due to its geographical location, in more detail the fertility of the land and the benefits of maritime trade but the present situation is very different. Almost all the major rivers of Bangladesh enter Bangladesh through China and India.
They prevent Bangladesh from getting a fair share of water by building dams on international rivers for their own cultivation and to facilitate hydropower generation. Since both countries are many times larger in size, population and economy than Bangladesh, Bangladesh does not have much to do in this regard. But the loss of Bangladesh is no longer sitting. As the rivers lose their normal navigability, the lack of water is hampering cultivation in the summer and the flood situation is deteriorating in the rainy season. In addition, hundreds of kilometers of shipping are being disrupted, the amount of fishery resources is declining, which has become a major obstacle in the way of overcoming poverty in Bangladesh as a whole. Apart from this, Bangladesh is also a victim of the complex geopolitics of the present world.
Bangladesh's two neighbors, Nepal and Bhutan, are landlocked countries, meaning they have no maritime borders, and so do China's southern states. In that case Bangladesh could earn a lot of money a year by giving them port facilities. But even here in Bangladesh, China and India are in a tug of war. Naturally, India will not allow China to use its territory to connect with Bangladesh, even forcing Bangladesh to abandon the Chinese-funded Sonadia port project in Bangladesh. The construction of this port would give a new impetus to trade and commerce and increase Chinese trade and investment in the country.
The BCIM forum is also at risk due to the Rohingya crisis and the Sino-Indian conflict. With the implementation of this forum, Bangladesh will go a long way economically and will make unprecedented progress in the field of transportation. Giving port facilities to Nepal and Bhutan can also be a difficult task for Bangladesh if they are at odds with India for any reason.
As seen in 2015 centering on the amendment of Nepal's constitution. I say so because I have to point out that in order to make a profit due to Bangladesh's inconvenient geographical location, we have to look at the foreign policy of another country and being an upstream country, river rule of another country severely damages Bangladesh's economy. I think the geographical location of Bangladesh is the main reason behind the kneeling foreign policy of Bangladesh and a big obstacle for development. Notice in the figure below how the presence of a single state around Bangladesh is hampering Bangladesh's direct connection with other states and turning it into a downstream country.
Natural Disasters: Now let's look at the main problem caused by the unfortunate geographical location of Bangladesh. The role of natural disasters in the poverty of Bangladesh is so deep and large that it has to be included in a different paragraph apart from its geographical location. Bangladesh is one of the most disaster prone countries not only in India but in the whole world. Almost the whole of Bangladesh is a huge delta i.e. the confluence of hundreds of rivers. Heavy rains during the monsoon season and flood waters from neighboring countries that share the same river with us in some cases inundated up to two-thirds of Bangladesh. The floods killed thousands of people and destroyed billions of tons of crops. Besides, I did not mention the immense damage caused to houses, schools, paved roads and other infrastructure. The government of Bangladesh has to provide thousands of crores of rupees every year for flood control and mitigation of its losses, which is creating a deficit of money needed to allocate to Bangladesh's development sector.
As a riverine country, river erosion is another major problem of Bangladesh. This erosion is mainly seen in the Brahmaputra and Padma basins. Due to erosion, thousands of hectares of land are being submerged in the river every year and millions of people are losing their homes and lands. . Most of the day laborers and rickshaw pullers in Dhaka are refugees affected by river erosion. Displaced people from all over the country are putting a lot of pressure on Dhaka city due to various natural disasters and out of respect for these displaced people, their uncontrolled migration is one of the main reasons why Dhaka is one of the most uninhabitable cities.
Not to mention another natural disaster that happens regularly in Bangladesh. Before that, notice the image below, how the position of India and Myanmar on both sides of Bangladesh has made the Bay of Bengal fun.
Due to such a unique shape of the Bay of Bengal, cyclones or tidal surges caused by low pressure in most cases hit the coast of Bangladesh with strong force, excluding Myanmar and India. You have all heard of the loss and loss of life of Sidr, Aila, Bhola, 97. A single Bhola cyclone in 1970 killed at least 500,000 people in Bangladesh, the highest death toll in a single cyclone in human history. As almost the entire Bangladeshi is only 12 meters above sea level, the cyclone blows deep into Bangladesh. Apart from the Sundarbans, there are no natural barriers to cyclones. The sea water brought by the cyclone's gusts of wind makes thousands of hectares of coastal land unsuitable for cultivation, leading to a drastic reduction in crop production. Besides, thousands of crores of rupees are wasted by the government in controlling cyclones like floods and rehabilitating the displaced people and rebuilding the broken infrastructure as a result of which the poverty is increasing.
I still haven't heard about the real natural disaster. It is said that a catastrophe is waiting for Bangladesh in the future called climate change. The less we talk about the effects of climate change in Bangladesh, the better. It is thought that by the end of this century, if global warming had increased by 2 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times, one-third of Bangladesh's area would have been submerged. You can imagine what kind of inhuman situation this will create, I do not want to write about it. However, the only "consolation" effect of climate change will be observed all over the world. Bangladesh is not the only victim.
I could have ended here, but after writing so far, it seems that the answer will not be complete without a little more analogy and a brief mention of what our duty is to eradicate poverty. Compare poverty in Bangladesh to a tree and imagine corruption, lawlessness, traffic jams, nepotism, unemployment as the stalks and leaves of the tree.
The four main reasons mentioned above are the role of tree roots in this case. If there is a problem in the roots, the whole plant falls down, stalks and stems get various diseases. Here with the care of the stalks and leaves, you can do nothing with pesticides unless you are touching the roots of the tree. Similarly, population control, disaster management, prudent and economical use of resources, and other factors behind poverty cannot be prevented without raising public awareness against climate change. To solve the problem, one has to put one's hand at the root of the problem, there is no benefit in putting one's hand in the front. The efforts of the Government of Bangladesh in population control are commendable. Our government has undertaken a 100-year Delta Plan 2100 project with the Netherlands on river governance and flood prevention, which we hope will play an effective role in flood prevention and mitigation. Besides, Bangladesh has now entered the satellite era.
By analyzing the data from these satellites, it is possible to get an early idea of river erosion and cyclones, so that in the future we may be able to recover a lot of the damage caused by these disasters. Although we do not have the issue of geographical location and climate change in our hands, we have to continue our efforts through diplomatic skills. The geopolitical tug-of-war of another country must be used wisely to improve itself. The Paris Agreement, signed to combat climate change, must be complied with, and other countries must be encouraged to do so through diplomacy and propaganda. Climate change, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, artificial intelligence, the whole human race is standing in front of so many Mahendrakshan. Now is the time for us to move forward to make Bangladesh a developed and prosperous country free from poverty.
Thanks for being with me for so long.
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