Introduction:
Non Government Organization (NGO) is a non-profit agency that
serves some public interest. It is an autonomous body which run as a voluntary. Non Government Organization is established to
fulfill some social purposes other than monetary rewards to financial backers.
Technically the term includes Government or Tax supported agencies, but it is
usually reserved for private, voluntary social agencies and excludes for profit
proprietary social agencies. In
other words it is stated “NGO’s are usually
defined as an association of persons organized on voluntary basis through the
initiative of one or more dedicated persons committed to the planning and
implementation of development projects at the grass root level. NGO’s although
work outside the government structure but they are within the legal framework
of the country.
History of NGO:
Right
now Non-Governmental Organizations or NGOs have become a widely discussed theme
in the third world countries. Bangladesh is not exception. The NGOs have
appeared as the savoir of countless number of people without food, cloth,
education and basic health facilities. Bangladesh is one of the top thirteen
underprivileged countries. With the record of being the most densely populated
country in the world and shabby manpower competency, Bangladesh is facing huge
challenge to meet up the demand of her ever-increasing population. Although
agriculture sector is the main source of income for this rural-agro based
country, unfortunately this sector has completely failed to create rewarding
employment opportunity for the landless. Considering these overall situations,
the NGOs are working on poverty eradication by directly involving the poverty stricken
population.
At
primary level NGO activities was confined to religious trust, school, hospital,
orphanage or social reform based .In our country NGO came in 1970 to help the
cyclone affected people . After the war of liberation NGO began its work as recon
structure of devastated economy.
Different Leading
NGOs: BRAC,
ASA, PROSIKA, NIJERA KORI etc.
What
is Rural Poverty?
Those who are landless farmer and
small or marginal farmer they are usually identified as the rural poverty suffering
population .On the other hand, talked about usage of various socio-economic
variables identifying rural poverty. These are: Family Size, Adult literacy rate,
Health and Nutrition facility, Cultivable land and elements, Security, Family
income and savings. Some aspects of rural poverty are:
ü Lower
income
ü Rapid/easy
fall in income
ü Lack
of coping crisis ability
ü Limited
access to the social resources
ü Insufficiency
or total deprivation from social and civic amenities
ü Insufficient
health and nutrition service
Rural Poverty:
By the end of nineteenth century
almost in every country census of urban poor were taken and most of the
development works were directed through the government. Due to poor
communication system, lack of solemn desire of the administration and
information inadequacy no separate projects were undertaken for the rural
underprivileged. Moreover, at the beginning of twentieth century worldwide
rapid industrialization and urbanization took place, which lead to further
breach of congruency between the urban and the rural sector. There began the
effort of the government to improve the rural state of affairs. Then activities
like employment generation to ward off unemployment, expansion of economic
activities and cash donation were carried out to improvise the condition of the
underprivileged .In most of the countries around the world poverty condition is
divided into two broad sectors: urban and rural. The primary reason is to
undertake separate plans for each type considering the features, demand,
necessity and priority of urban and rural sector. Since the rural sector is
greater than urban sector in the developing countries, rural development is
directly co-related with national development and now many people are of the
same opinion that poverty alleviation is one crucial factor for rural
development.
Missions and Goals of NGOs:
Non
Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are launched with various purposes. Based on
the region or local demand and problems, divergence in each NGO targets and
objectives can be observed. But everywhere the main purpose of NGOs is the
much-desired development of poverty suffering deprived people. The missions and
goals with which the NGOs are established and conducting their operations in
Bangladesh are:
1.
Assisting the poor and suffering people as well as exercising self-control
through utilization of own resources.
2. Identifying native assets, local leadership
and ensuring effective utilization of these for welfare and development.
3.
Coordinating the poor and deprived ones through formation of co-operatives and
thus facilitate the socio-economic progress.
4.
Health and Nutrition development.
5.
Acting as the associate of the government and no as competitor.
6.
Generating alternatives to overcome special social problems and hurdles besides
taking necessary steps to aware the general population.
7.
Creating positive attitude of the society, annihilation of superstition and
belief against development and bringing in the deprived ones in the main stream
of development.
8.
Helping out people in coping with the changing societal environment.
Poverty
Situation in Bangladesh:
The
incessant battle against poverty and famine is long observed in our country.
People like day labour, rickshaw puller, weavers, fisherman, small businessman,
shop owners, smith, and landless people, farmer and marginal farmer live in
abject poverty. According to World Bank, poverty rate in Bangladesh is around
36%-40% with 40% ultra poor living in the rural area and 15% in the urban area.
Poverty at the rural area is considered one of our most important and
increasing tribulations.
Eradication
of poverty in Bangladesh is an enormous and multi-dimensional challenge. Almost
42.5% of the people living in villages are poor while 18.7% are termed
ultra-poor. In the last three decades
the government has undertaken extensive activities. The main objective of first
five-year plan (1973-1978) was poverty eradication.
NGO Activities to Remove Rural Poverty:
The NGO have taken some significant
initiatives to handle the poverty situation in Bangladesh considering certain
aspects stated below:
a) Speedier economic growth achievement
process
b) Human Resource development
c) Specific target setting for poor
Humanitarian Progress
and Structural Development of Organizations for Rural Poor:
Despite the fact that
poor people have vast experience about life, still they are incapable of
developing exact ways to scientifically analyze and fix their problems and
whatever possessions they have. In this case, efforts of the NGOs are worth
mentioning to help these people analyze the society and problems in the
backdrop of old, superstitious, anti life perspectives. For example: primary
training, improved training, organizing exchange of views program among
different groups or areas, regular adult education activities, weekly
analytical discussion etc.
Employment Generation:
In order to encourage
the rural poor to participate in different economic activities and to increase
their income through employment generation, several policies, methods and
strategies of the NGOs have attracted the attention of some foreign development
experts. NGOs usually create employment in two ways. First of all, they provide
employment in their own organization since they also need human resource to
operate. Secondly, they provide loans and management assistance to individuals,
which create new employment opportunity. Currently the projects that are being
conducted under the supervision and assistance of NGOs are: Irrigation project
for landless Fishery in ponds, Fishing, in the coastal area, Weaving, Equipment
supplies for landless share cropper, Bee keeping, Small business, Rice and
popcorn production, Sericulture, Handicrafts i.e. earthen wares, wood and cane
works, Developing nursery etc.
MICRO CREDIT SCHEME BY MAJOR NGOS IN BANGLADESH
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2253
1132
873
667
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2560.10
667.40
925.10
157.20
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Informal and Non-formal Education:
The NGOs are highly
active in the sector of informal and non-formal education. The best way to
develop human resource is through appropriate education. Illiterates created
due to lack of education is one major obstacle for socio economic development
hence also for poverty eradication. The Bangladesh Government and UNICEF are
trying at their utmost level to eradicate illiteracy. The low rate of admission
in the primary schools, failure to attract the children to schools, unlikable
education method and syllabus for etc. reason the rate of primary education in
the rural area are not at all hopeful. The largest NGO in our country and also worldwide,
BRAC have started satellite school system based on informal education policy.
As a result the poor children at the rural area are now being given special
importance. More emphasis is given on the participation of parents as well as
community in this regard. This program has turned into a vital accompaniment
for the primary education system by the government. In 1998, World Vision spent
taka 13, 06, 87,996.58 which amounted to 40.10% of their total expenditure. So
far the NGOs have been successful in providing education to 23 lakh people in
the last five years through establishment of 30 thousands primary schools and
44 thousands adult-education centers. At present almost 9 lakh men and women
are studying in these schools.
Health, Nutrition and Hygiene:
In Bangladesh, Health and nutrition status of the rural populace
is very poor. Majority is deprived from even minimal health and nutrition
facilities. For this reason, a significant part of the active NGOs of
Bangladesh are providing training and education service in the field of health
and nutrition. An independent organization named Voluntary Health Services
Society (VHSS) is supervising the NGOs that are working on the health and
nutrition sector.
However, in our country expansion of loan amount, loan activities,
and success are needed for poverty eradication. Moreover it is essential to
establish a warm and dependable relationship by setting aside different
obstacles between Government and NGOs. In this case expansion of Government-NGO
partnership activities, opinion exchange/knowledge sharing at a regular
interval and developing contemporary strategies, ensuring accountability, and
by staying above differences in political opinions are absolutely essential for
the sake of this country, for its poor and forsaken populace.
Conclusion:
However,
some limitations was observed in the NGO effort to poverty eradication for i.e.
leaving out the ultra poor, partial and sub-divided working frame, area based
differences in activities/projects, differentiating outside target people and
weak relationship, participating in commercial activities, supporting political
parties etc. If NGOs can overcome these limitations then it can surely be hoped
that they continue playing the role of savoir of poverty eradication and social
development in Bangladesh and lead the country to sustainable economic growth
and development.
Reference:
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