NGO pressure for loan installments a cruel joke with Sidr victims

from The New Nation

Cyclone Sidr victims who lost almost everything to the disaster that befell them are now facing pressure from Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) for repayment of micro-credit repayment installments. The pressure is so intense that some of the credit recipients are selling out the relief materials they have received from different sources to meet the demands, or are hiding themselves from NGO supervisors to escape harassment.

Such a pressure for loan recovery by the NGOs including the large ones like BRAC, ASA and even the semi-government Grameen Bank has shocked the conscious section of the people. How those families which have lost almost everything to the cyclone and are just maintaining their existence in extreme hardships can be expected to repay their loan installments now?

According to reports reaching Dhaka from the cyclone-battered districts of Barguna, Patuakhali and Bagerhat, NGO field workers are busy fulfilling their obligations to their respective organisations with a view to remaining in jobs and earning promotions. Are then, their micro-credit activities all about disbursement and realisation of loans, regardless of concern about the conditions of their clients who actually keep them in the job?

Do the NGOs then view micro-credit as an end in itself, just to show loan disbursement and realisation efficiency with cumulative interest rates of as high as 22 per cent a year, not improvement of the conditions of the poor not covered by the conventional banking system?

Critics say that it is precisely because of such a faulty approach that the NGO activities in most cases have led to creation of luxurious jobs for their organisers and executives, and hardly helped the eradication of poverty. Recipients of micro-credit have remained in the cycle of poverty and would continue to remain there till such approaches are not changed.

Asking for loan installments at this hour of tragedy can only be termed a cruel joke. Bangladesh has been termed the most important hearth on the globe for NGOs. Some estimates place the number of NGOs in Bangladesh in excess of 20,000. There are many types of NGOs in the country, but most, by their own declaration, focus on development or poverty alleviation. Bangladesh is often seen as the birthplace of the microcredit, fostered by the Grameen Bank.

According to official statistics, out of more than 1500 NGOs registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau, about 800 are mentioned by NGO apex bodies, and more than 120 of those are foreign NGOs. There are at least 16 foreign NGOs which are extensions of some donor governments and operate with allocations from their respective governments.

Shafiqul Huq Chowdhury, President, Association for Social Advancement (ASA) has said to the news media that his NGOs had decided to write off micro-credit of 50,000 worst affected micro-credit recipients. A former adviser of the caretaker government, he said field workers who would be found not complying with the decision would be punished. Field workers of his NGO, however, said that they came to know about such announcements through the news media, but were yet to get anything in black and white.

A senior BRAC official has said that the micro-credit activities in the cyclone-affected areas have been suspended, but he could not say for how long. Clearly, this shows the growth of bureaucracy within the NGOs which are supposed to have operational dynamism and efficiency in its absence. Some NGO workers told the news media that they were under pressure to complete the accounts for the year ending this month. Thus realisation of micro-credit is very important on their agenda.

It is often asserted that Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries, is the home to the largest NGOs of the world. Some big NGOs have assets like empires. Their executives lead most luxurious lives, living in the posh areas of the metropolis and using the latest model cars. Their salary and emoluments can be compared only with those working in international organisations.

Their failure to rise to the occasion surely makes a case for a thorough inquiry into their activities by a task force of the government with a view to ascertaining how far they have been transparent, accountable and helpful to the poor.

There are many allegations about the ways micro-credit programmes are being run. Many believe that micro-credit system of the NGOs is much more helpful for making others rich while poor people remain in the debt trap.