Make no mistake. Bangladesh is by no means a developed country by any standard imaginable. Even after making some modest achievements on social fronts, its indicators are still far from that of developed countries. On the Human Development Index, Bangladesh rests at 0.632x with the ranking of 133 out of 170 countries. Bangladesh is still considered as one of the poorest countries of the world, though thankfully, not one of the ten poorest countries. These irrefutable facts require no explanation and speak volume about quality of life in Bangladesh. These are grim realities of Bangladesh. But are they the only realities? The harshest reality is that Pakistan should and must evaluate what it can learn from Bangladesh.
On the flip side, Bangladesh, today, is an emerging Asian tiger. Its GDP growth rate is anticipated to be around 8% in 2020, which is even greater than that of India, the third largest Asian economy. With a population growth rate of 1% (most recent) and rising per capita income, Bangladesh is expected to shun its “Least Developed Country (LDC)” status within a short span of five years.
Ever wondered how a feeble country, which was once a poor part of Pakistan and mockingly dubbed as a basket case by none other than Henry Kissinger former US National Security Advisor and Secretary of State and wracked by poverty, famine and horrible natural disasters, emerged as the Asia’s most enviable success stories in the recent times.
Bangladesh was once a part of Pakistan and famously called East Pakistan. As a result of political upheaval and military intervention, it was disintegrated and became an independent and sovereign country in December 1971. Within a short span of 3 decades, Bangladesh enjoys an annual GDP growth rate in excess of that of Pakistan by around 2.5pc per annum. Its growth rate is expected to outshine India’s by a far margin (although India’s economic slowdown is mostly responsible for its declining growth rate). Additionally, Bangladesh’s population growth rate (1.1pc) is lower than that of Pakistan (2.2pc). It translated into a growing per capita income as compared with that of Pakistan.
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These are no small achievements for a country, which came into existence merely 48 years ago. It offers a lot of insights to probe for Pakistan. What miracles Bangladesh has performed, which Pakistan could not and therefore it still swam in the back water? A careful scrutiny will reveal that, among other things, three factors have played an instrumental role for meteoric rise of Bangladesh’s economic and social progress: women empowerment, business-friendly government policies and a curb on population growth. Each of these factors deserves a careful analysis.
Women Empowerment
No other South Asian country can match Bangladesh in terms of women empowerment and gender equality. One of the core strengths of Bangladesh is its working women. It is no miracle that Bangladesh has achieved an enviable success in improving the lives of its women and girls. Today, its maternal mortality and fertility rates follow downward trend, while there is significant gender parity in school enrolment. On the flip side, around 82pc of Bangladeshi married women suffer violence and sexual harassment, which prevent them from performing their due role in national progress. Bangladesh is still infamous in South Asia for getting its girls married before the age of 18.
Thanks to the tireless of efforts of governments and non-governmental organization like Grameen Bank and BRAC (Building Resources Across Communities), Bangladesh has made monumental contribution towards educating girls and giving women economic opportunities, both within home and in the public domain. Full credit goes to the government on massively investing in the primary education. More importantly, girls’ education was given a top priority. Resultantly, it hardly came as a surprise that more and more women are entering into job markets. Today, over 80% of organized textile sector jobs are occupied by women. Let us compare these realities with the state of affairs in Pakistan. Just one irrefutable fact is enough. Pakistan occupies 151th place out of 153 countries on the global gender parity index. Need to say more?
Business friendly government policies
Until 1970s, Bangladesh was an agrarian economy. However, the transition form an agrarian economy to an export oriented industrialization economy within a short span of two decades is no miracle, but a result of foresightedness, determination and of course business friendly government policies. It is the government’s effective policies, with almost no international attention, Bangladesh has become an emerging Asian Tiger and its garment industry is only second to China’s. The famine of the year 1974 had taught Bangladesh the need to attain self-sufficiency in food production for its people. Its per capital income has risen threefold since year 2009, exceeding $2068 in February 2020. Its number of people living in abject poverty-classified as under $1.25 per day- has reduced from a whopping 19% in 2009 to 9% in 2019, according to World Bank. This year Bangladesh has a reason to celebrate as it met UN criteria for transition from its “least developed country” status by the year 2024. According to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the upgradation to the “developing economy” status means a momentous boost to the country’s self-image.
Business friendly policies also paid off on many economic fronts. With focus on manufacturing sector, especially garments industry, Bangladesh’s exports have seen unprecedented growth of 15-17% in the recent times to reach at $46.36 Billion in 2019 ($40.56 Billion for 2018). It has set an export target of $50 Billion for the year 2021 to mark the 50th anniversary of war of independence. In order to further strengthen its manufacturing base, Bangladeshi government has an ambitious plan to develop over 100 special economic zones (SEZs) around the country.
According to the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), Bangladesh’s economy ranks 40th position among 193 countries and will graduate to 25th in 2034.
Curb on population growth
Like most of the developing countries, unchecked population growth was also a major challenge for Bangladesh. Today. Bangladesh is the fifth most populous country in Asia and eight-most populous in the world. It attributed mostly to the high fertility rate coupled with low mortality rates in the past. Secondly, at least 43% of its population is below the age of 15 years in 1997, while 46% of the female population was in the reproductive age (between 15 to 49 years).
No Bangladeshi government turned a blind eye to the population explosion since 1970s. To control the uncontrolled population growth was always among the top agenda of all the successive governments. Bangladesh also got benefitted from government pioneering policies. Post 1970s, a community based method was implemented by Bangladesh. As per this method, it recruited married, literate village women trained in basic family palling techniques to go door-to-door educating women the use of contraceptive pills and condoms. These women acted as a bridge between
poor Bangladeshi women and modern medical facilities. Being literate and villagers, they have the capacity to win the confidence of other poor women. On its part, government also massively invested in girl’s education. Resultantly, education delays marriage and childbearing and ornate women with knowledge, status and confidence to have adequate control over their loves. In the 70s decade, Bangladeshi social planners coined a phrase: “Development is the best contraceptive.” It requires no elaboration. If you developed a society with raised literacy and income, alleviated poverty, disease and hunger, provided decent jobs and housing facilities and above all, raised the standard of living of its common men- people will generally found no reason to extend their families and fertility rates would shrink.
In contrast to Bangladesh’s multipronged strategies, Pakistan, in the 1960s, adopted just one form of contraception-the intrauterine device (IUD). Needless to say, with corruption, political unwillingness and a lack of basic education and training, it yielded poor results. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, the issue of population planning has taken a back seat. None of the quarter, worth a mention, raised its voice against this unchecked explosion.
It is the high time for Pakistan to do some introspection and ponder as why we could not make our presence felt in the world community on development fronts. We prided ourselves on being the world’s 7th nuclear power, but we could not match Bangladesh’s achievements, let alone surpass it. If we continue to be indifferent and have insensitive attitude towards economic growth, education and women empowerment, the day is not far when countries like Nigeria, Rwanda and Ethiopia will outshine Pakistan in terms of development and progress.
