DHAKA, June 20, 2019 (BSS) – Rights group and social watchdog Prottasha
2021 Forum today proposed allocation of at least two percent of budgetary
allocations for ultra poor or extremely marginalized people so they could get
out of poverty clutches.
“I hope that the Prime Minister will definitely . . . increase the
allocation to create a poverty-free Bangladesh ahead of the Father of the
Nation’s birth centenary,” prominent jurist and former minister Barrister
Amir-ul Islam told a press conference appearing as the Forum’s spokesperson.
Islam, who was a member of the country’s Constitution Drafting Committee as
a lawmaker and minister of the post-independence government, recalled
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s passionate campaign to free the poor from
the clutches of poverty to pursue his dream for a Sonar Bangla.
He read a written statement of the Forum that contained 16 points at the
press conference titled- “Marginalized people supporting budget should be
ensured for reducing discrimination, human dignity and social justice”.
The suggestions sought the government to lay priority to improve extreme
poor’s living condition, formulate union-based poverty reduction plan and
initiatives, expand loan facilities for marginalised people, increase women
participation in different professions and promote further their
entrepreneurship and expand facilities for ethnic minority communities.
Prottasha 2021 Forum president SM Azad Hossen chaired the press conference
while its member secretary Ruhi Das, Vice-President Samsun Nahar Aziz Lina,
youth coordinator of Hunger Free World Gazi Anika Aslam and Editor of Somoyer
Dabi Rezaul Karim Hashmi also addressed the programme.
The Forum leaders feared that sustainable poverty alleviation and
establishing human dignity would not be possible without removing corruption
that would bar the country in achieving a double digit GDP growth rate.
Barrister Amir-Ul-Islam also emphasized on creating conducive atmosphere to
pave ways for a humanist society through balanced distribution of wealth,
training for all classes of people for their access to employment quoting
article 19 and 20 of the Constitution.
The seminar was preceded by a human chain demonstration in front of the
National Press Club as part of its efforts to draw supports for their 16-
point proposal to make the country free from poverty by 2021.