Applying lessons from 1971 to fight poverty

1971 was a trigger for many streams of ideas and activities, including interest in social work.  Some thought it was going to be in the political space where the new country was going to be built but a few focused on the social space as well. Immediately after the war, a huge quantum of energy was released and the desire to work for others at a scale not seen before is one of the great gifts of 1971.

Of those who joined this war against poverty, injustice and denial, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed is one. He turns eighty this April, and it has been a long walk, but his life is a history of how the poor of Bangladesh have taken charge of so much of their own life so well. It's a triumph of the great struggle against some of the greatest obstacles people have faced in history.  And it's a song of not just survival but success of many dimensions.

People who participate in development work are the poor and the very poor. The difficulty of the elite middle class in relating to the role of the poor and their struggle is that they don't belong to the same history.  In the establishment of the formal and structural institutions in our world, the leaders mostly came from the upper to middle class and were often produced by their collaboration with colonialism. But the poor peasant who suffered so much under British rule didn't collaborate. The peasant resisted and fought back and though they failed, their history was created, distinctly different from that of the Bengali that later came to dominate our culture and thinking.

In East Bengal which later became Bangladesh, the Bengali Muslim middle class emerged out of the middlemen role they played in the zamindary system. Once they emerged politically, particularly in what is now Bangladesh, the peasantry was eclipsed politically and in the 50s and the 60s it's this middle class "jotedar" culture which dominated.  But the peasantry became a factor again in 1971 when history depended on what they did or did not do.  The peasantry delivered and it was from the bowels of the poverty stricken rice fields of East Bengal that Bangladesh emerged. Their historical role painted the colors of liberation that birthed Bangladesh.  But of course few bothered to recognize let alone remember.

The 1970s exploded with a surge to participate in building Bangladesh. But the political and the social spaces differed in approach and attitude.  The crisis in the political space was high and events at regular intervals show that it remains deeply unresolved.  But if politics has caused much stumbles and shocks, the social development has progressed much more. Our success in escaping the term "bottomless basket" refers to the success in agriculture and rural economy and later to the readymade garments (RMG) and external employment sector. These initiatives are largely the result of the social and private sector reflecting their growing strength. If the public sectors have a less than enviable record of success, the social and private sectors do not. But what is lacking in the RMG and external employment sector is the concept of partnership between classes. Hence over time, they have become exploitative in character and are now even in decline.

It has been work done in partnership with the poor that Bangladesh has achieved the most success. In the social service sector such as child health, the Immunization programme has been called a "near miracle". This has happened as the GOB was in partnership with agencies like BRAC and other social services delivery organizations, but most importantly with the common people, particularly the rural poor. It works best when one applies this model, which is rooted in the historical experiences of 1971.

But it's not only immunization but also other sectors where high achievements are noted.  One that has been globally recognized is the reduction of extreme poverty through direct transfer of resources to the very poor. Although considered impossible to resolve by some, the high numbers of extreme poor have faded away and it has become a global model and applied in several countries. BRAC and other organizations have been part of this successful challenge to high poverty.

What made the initiative successful was the critical partnership between the socio-economic development agencies, the villagers ranging from all classes, and sub-national governmental agencies. Thus support to help alleviate extreme poverty were often most effectively by the rural elite who even formed "Gram Daridro Bimochon Committee" (Rural Poverty Alleviation Committee) to ensure protection of the acquired resources of the poor. Thus two partnerships were at work, one between the agencies and the extreme poor and the second one between the extreme poor and the rural elite. Together they achieved success. It was a triumph of partnership.

It's also remarkable that the extreme poor families were all headed by females. They turned their socio-economic life around because the space in which they worked was positive, and helped prove the weak woman of the east myth to be false. It was the most successful display of working together and this partnership between elite and agencies, between the poor and the extreme and less poor, between women and men was rooted in the idea of working together. It showed that in Bangladesh, such economic miracles are possible and the least resourced can also participate in it. This was the model of 1971 and this is the model that the leadership and the national elite ignore. Bangladesh's strength is displayed again and again by the very people who get the least opportunities.

Many people have been active in keeping the spirit of 1971 alive, and will remain so come what may. Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, a veteran activist of 1971, and the organisation he founded – BRAC – have succeeded because it followed the lessons of the liberation war. A lesson many powerful individual groups and entities forget. Working together works particularly well when the partner is the ordinary Bangladeshi.