Economy grew, but didn’t benefit poor

Bangladesh witnessed significant economic growth in the last 15 years but the growth did not benefit the poorest people, said two UN experts studying extreme poverty.

“Even if poverty indicators point to a decline in poverty, some regions are lagging behind and segments of the population are not reaping the benefits, thus inequality is on the rise,” said Catarina de Albuquerque at a press conference at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital on Thursday.

Catarina and Magdalena Sepulveda, two UN independent experts on safe drinking water and sanitation and extreme poverty respectively, made their statements at the press conference.

From December 3-10, they collected firsthand information from slums, Dalit colonies and Bihari camps in Dhaka, Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar and poor communities in Comilla and learned about social protection policies and access to water and sanitation.

They also met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, high officials of various ministries, NGO officials and donor community.

“We found people living in tremendously difficult conditions, which are a cause and consequence of a wide range of human rights violations suffered by many, particularly women, children, persons with disabilities, elderly, ethnic minorities, indigenous populations, migrants and refugees,” Catarina said in the joint statement.

“The state must put the extreme poor at the center of national policies and public debate,” she said, adding that around 40 percent people are poor and 20 percent extreme poor. This is the state despite significant progress of the country in poverty reduction, she noted.

She urged the government to include explicit recognition of water and sanitation as human rights in the legislation, saying access to the services is linked to human development and they must be available.