[Microcredit] 'Over 3cr ultra-poor have no access to microcredit’

from The Daily Star

Staff Correspondent

More than three crore people of the country are ultra-poor who are not eligible to receive any microcredit as they have no capacity to return it.

This was stated by former cabinet secretary Dr Saadat Hussain at a workshop on the role of PRSP, Brac Programme for the ultra-poor and other NGOs at Brac Inn Centre in the city.

"There should be grant for them which they do not need to pay back, but will use in income generating projects to come to the level of the poor segment of the society," he said.

Dr Saadat, now advisor to Advocacy and Human Rights Unit of Brac, said once the ultra-poor are provided with a minimum amount of grant, they can take up any project that will take two to three years for turnover.

Foreign aid or local resources can be used for this programme, he added.

"This programme however should be strictly monitored either by the NGOs or the government. Only then we can see that the ultra-poor have come to a level when they can be eligible for microcredit and use it to slowly change their status," he said.

Dr Saadat identified nepotism at the local governance level and leakage at the service delivery system as major setbacks in developing the status of the ultra-poor.

There are some people having close connections with the local government representatives who eat up the relief or other assistance allocated for the ultra-poor under different government programme, he added.

"This is how the ultra-poor have been deprived of their access development," he said.

Rahnuma Salam Khan, senior assistant chief of general economics division of the Planning Commission, also identified lack of good governance or leakage in the public delivery system as major setbacks to the development of the ultra-poor.

In her presentation on the role of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) in addressing the ultra-poor she said there are safety net programmes for ultra- poor and vulnerable groups of the society, but those always do not reach the right people.

There is also lack of proper co-ordination among different government ministries and lack of monitoring or re-assessment of the programmes on their success or failures, which is also holding back the development process, she pointed out.

Emphasising on increasing budgetary allocation she said there are many aspects of poverty alleviation including health, education and income generation and therefore an 'integrated national policy' should be formulated specifically for the ultra-poor.

According to World Bank and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics the people who consume less than 2122 kilo calories daily are poor while the poor who consume less than 1805 kilo calories are the ultra-poor.

Brac that has taken up a programme titled 'Challenging the Frontiers of Poverty Reduction - Targeting The Ultra-Poor' in 2002, which is now covering 70,000 ultra-poor to change their fate says the people who depend on work at other's house or beg are also ultra-poor.

The other features of the ultra-poor are they have land less than 10 decimals, no income earning male member, children who are supposed to go to school go for work for earning and have no capital that can be the base for production.

M Tazul Islam, director of Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh, and Sheikh Muzibul Haque of Brac also spoke at the workshop moderated by Afsan Chowdhury, director of Advocacy and Human Rights Unit of Brac.