Will Tahura's Rapists And
Killers Go Unpunished ?

Tahura Begum, wife of Awami League worker Babar Ali from Kamarganna Ramkrishnapur village, Jessore, was six months' pregnant. It is the time when a mother-to-be needs immense care and support. But in Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh her cadres subjected the pregnant woman to the outrageous barbarity no sane person can even think of in the worst nightmarish scenario. Not only was the innocent woman gang-raped by the six BNP cadres, the rapists also saw to it that the woman could not receive any medical treatment. Babar Ali and his wife were confined to their home after she had an abortion due to the gang rape.

Tahura Begum was raped on November 8 and she died on November 16. The story however is not as straight and simple and does not end there. In the intervening period what happened can beat the regimes of Halaku Khan or Ghengish Khan in ferocity and brutality. On November 10, the victim's husband could somehow manage to reach the local police station to inform of the heinous crime but the officer-in-charge tried to avoid him but when Babar Ali started shouting, a sub-inspector was sent with him. The sub-inspector escorted the victim to Jessore General Hospital but the police station refused to record a case implicating the BNP cadres. Babar Ali filed a general diary. On November 11, the rapists abducted the victim from the hospital but thanks to the interference of a SI, the rapists returned the victim to the hospital. But on November 12, she was once again abducted and her abductors took her to the police station for withdrawal of the GD. On November 15, she was once again lifted from the hospital to an unknown place but when her condition became critical, Tahura was brought to the hospital at midnight the same day. The next morning Tahura breathed her last.

What is Tahura's crime? Her crime is that she was the wife of an AL worker whom the BNP cadres wanted to join their party. After repeated requests when Babar Ali did not oblige them, the BNP gang committed this terrible crime. But does the BNP think that this is a crime? Immediately after the October election victory, the BNP top leaders continued to deny that their cadres unleashed a reign of horror marked by predatory sexual abuse, looting and physical attack almost all across the country. Election victory meant that the cadres had got the licence to do whatever they pleased. That attitude has not changed much–not in case of the BNP goons of Ramkrishnapur village.

The OC of the local thana and the in-charge of the gynaecology ward of Jessore General Hospital were only too willing to collude with the rapists in their attempt to hide their crime. Why? Clearly the monsters have reach and influence beyond the area they prowl on. Reports on the collusion of the OC and the hospital's gynae ward chief has been publish ed. If the prime minister, herself a woman, cared to show any respect for female, indeed human, dignity and abhorred such bestiality, she should have immediately ordered stringent punishment for both the perpetrators and the OC and the gynae in-charge. But you can almost bet nothing will happen to anyone responsible for this vile act. Politics that drags man so low should be banished once for all. Tahura's suffering and death will haunt the nation unless those responsible are brought to justice.

Remittances Breaking Back Of Poverty

According to the Bangladesh Economic Survey 2003, more than 50 percent of the population live below the subsistence level.  The Economic Survey also revealed that the fate of poverty-stricken people of Bangladesh has not changed since independence. Rather the gap between the rich and the poor has widened and the poor have been reduced from being in the poor category and are now the poorest of the poor.  The statistics reveal that the disparity of income between the rich and poor of Bangladesh has also so widened and that 10 percent rich magnates at the top level of society enjoy 40 percent of national income whereas the share of the 10 percent at the bottom of the society is only 2 percent. 

Although the World Bank in a report says the proportion of people living in extreme poverty in developing countries has dropped by almost half between 1981 and 2001, from 40 to 21 per cent of global population, and rapid economic growth in East and South Asia has pulled more than 500 million people out of poverty, the proportion of poor in Bangladesh raises concern that the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the first of which is to reduce the 1990 poverty rate by half by 2015, may be beyond our reach.

But poverty alleviation is not an issue concerned only with money and any approach made toward alleviating poverty must include the provision of basic education.  With such a large percentage of the poor unable to read or write, this has impinged on their ability to earn. It is painfully obvious that, to be able to get rid of the abject poverty that affects so many people we must first attack illiteracy.  However the rapid urbanisation we have experienced has given an explosive dimension to widespread poverty and human deprivation. Bangladesh’s rate of urbanisation over the last quarter of a century has been faster than in most countries and at the rate it is multiplying, nearly half the population will be living in urban areas by the year 2025.

One redeeming feature is that Bangladesh has been reasonably successful in accessing overseas employment and is among the top 10 recipients of workers' remittances for countries in the SAARC region. But despite the spectacular rise in living standards of the recipients of overseas remittances resulting in an escape from poverty by millions of families.  However, as the World Bank said only recently, the rich and poor countries need to make it cheaper for immigrant workers to send money back to their families to “sharpen” the impact of remittances on poverty reduction.

International remittance flows to developing countries are expected to rise to US $167bn this year, twice the amount of official aid paid by governments, the Bank said in its Global Development Prospects report. And unreported flows mean that remittances are probably 50 per cent greater than the recorded number. And said Fransois Bourguignon, the Bank’s chief economist, “With the number of migrants worldwide now reaching almost 200m, their productivity and earnings are a powerful force for poverty reduction.”  The report says, as well as increased immigration and higher incomes, the rise in remittances reflected changes in the financial services industries that have made it easier to transfer money, and better measurement.

The Bank said, wage levels in rich countries are typically five times those of poor countries in similar occupations “adjusting for local purchasing power.“  The report said, “Essentially migrants can earn salaries that reflect industrial-country prices and spend the money in developing countries.”  The Bank called for policies to improve the access of poor people to financial services to send and receive remittances “including expanding banking networks and credit unions and allowing developing country banks to open branches in rich countries.  Major international banks tend to focus on large-value remittance services rather than on services for migrants. Expanding access to financial services in poor countries would have development benefits beyond the impact on remittance flows, the Bank said.  It also called for policies to improve competition in the market for remittance transfers to lower fees.