Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed

Social justice means a socio-economic order in which all are given equal rights and opportunities. This presupposes an egalitarian society. Every child in a democratic state is entitled to rights and opportunities that would guarantee his food, shelter and education. Birth and heredity should not determine an individual’s status. Modern state is a welfare state in which the state looks after the development of every individual of the state. Modern state is socialistic – it is committed to the welfare of the citizens. It not only maintains law and order, it also looks after the health, education, food and habitations of the people.

Economic growth means an increase in production over the long run at a pace faster than population so that the general level of living can rise. In the underdeveloped countries progress must depend on the achievement of gross production. But in developing countries like Bangladesh, better education and health facilities, safe highways and cultural opportunities are to be provided to the people for ensuring good quality of life. It is a pity that in India, villages still lack drinking water, blackboards and health centers. Drop-outs and stagnation vitiate the primary education system. We need doctors, medical workers and teachers if we want to provide basic medical aid and education to the rural masses. There are policies, and programmers, commissions and committees, but the problems remain unsolved. Bureaucratic red-tapism and corruptions at the higher levels hamper the implementation of policies. Despite government rules and regulations, there is still concentration of wealth through tax-evasion, black money, speculation and corrupt practices. Politicians and bureaucrats are the greatest enemies of social progress. Industries are plagued with strikes and lockouts, go-slow tactics. Trade unionism has become irresponsible; workers are unwilling to increase production. There is a need to adopt measures for checking all these and create an atmosphere of discipline and control so that productivity is stepped up and wastage is reduced, and corruptions checked. Schemes of profit-sharing and joint management may be introduced to encourage incentives to workers. Political parties should rise above party interests and refrain from appeasing big business houses for collecting funds for the parties. A ban should be imposed on company donations to party funds for electioneering.

The Bangladesh economy is experiencing significant structural charges over the present decade. It is possible for good governance, rule of law, liberty and progressive political commitment. But here the very topic economic growth and social justice needs to be highly focused.  In the present decade, Bangladesh has experienced sustained economic expansion, especially the expansion in the RMG industry. RMG is a big contributor to the growth and employment generation in Bangladesh. For growth and employment creations sectors very poor we switch over to new policy making actions and reformations. We take new projects but all policies, projects and budgetary allocation need to address issues of education and skill development for facilitating capacities and capabilities in which Bangladesh is lacking. Bangladesh’s progress trend is upward and in positive line. Our country belongs to lower middle income country. Many countries in the world took a long time to move to upper middle income country. Bangladesh is moving forward. It means that it has to diversify its export and move towards high value products. In competitive market cheeper products will tode away. The way to remain competitive is to manufacture technology based high value products, without making growth broad based and inclusive, sustainability of growth cannot be ensured. This is to be pursued through the creation of livelihood opportunity for all and social protection for less privileged society must be strengthened.

The challenge of domestic resource mobilization & starts from 2015. The target growth for February 2015 was revised downward from 24% to 12% and the actual growth was 1.2% higher than the revised target. But the budget for 2016 has once again overestimated revenue collection effort. The target for, FY 2016 set at 29% will be challenging at its current pace. From July to September 2015, revenue grew by 9.6% indicating that during the rest of FY 2016. The revenue collection has to be invigorated at the rate of 34%. In the short term, the global economic outlook for 2016 did not look promoting. Major economics are struggling to recover from shocks while a few others are facing the threat of deflation. Therefore, the main boost for Bangladesh economy has to come from within the country. Fiscal procedence and revitalizing investmet will be critically important for achieving the growth targets. Institutional reforms, transparency accountability are the tasks to materialize and realize the potential of the economy and fulfill the aspirations of accelerating and sustaining growth prosperity and justice as well.

Our country competes with other developed countries in the large scale production of consumer goods like cars, locomotives, televisions, satellite channels, rockets, electronic goods. But economic growth with social justice can become a reality if we achieve full employment, free primary education for all children, abolition of poverty, health services to all. The distinction between the urban elite and rural population must be reduced by eliminating cultural and economic disparities. Regional imbalances in economic and cultural life of the people must be removed to avert discontent and unrest and to ensure equitable distribution of facilities to all as practicable. The wide gulf that exists now between the VIPs and the common men should be narrowed down.

Deputy Director General & Commandant (PRL)

Bangladesh Ansar VDP Academy, Shafipur, Gazipur