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India land of abject poverty

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well guys we should appceriate i dune for writting thesis and completing PHD on
poverty in India.being BD he loves India so much. From now on we will call him Dr. I-dune.. also request Indian govt to make him agriculture minister...so that he can stop farmers suiside also request Dr.I-dune to bring some billion dolars from Bangladesh to help Indian poor ....

that was hilarious,,
fell from my chair while laughing..
:rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl:
:rofl::rofl:
 
India's poverty: Help the poor help themselves

Kirsty Hughes
Published: Monday, May 9, 2005

NEW DELHI — While India's growth makes it an economic and political player to watch in the next decades, the country remains desperately poor. Almost a quarter of India's 1.1 billion people live on less than $1 a day; 700 million more live on less than $2 a day.

Can India ever overcome its huge poverty problem? It depends on what strategy the country takes.

Today, India appears to have four broad approaches to tackling poverty. The first is essentially to abolish the poor, rather than poverty. This was graphically illustrated in Mumbai this year when slum neighborhoods were razed, making 400,000 people homeless. The Mumbai police followed up by beating protesters whose shacks had been demolished.

The second approach is often termed the trickle-down model, but perhaps better described as "ignore the poor." A favorite of many Indian economists, it argues that in the next two to three decades poverty will disappear as market forces go to work.

But even if prosperity does eventually trickle down, sitting back and doing nothing about poverty for yet another generation is a human and economic waste.

India's government is backing a third, developmental approach that aims to improve the social and physical conditions of the rural and urban poor. This means more and better roads, improvements in water supplies and rural electrification; it also means big steps forward in education and health, together with efforts at microfinance.

The fourth and most ambitious approach seeks to exploit the unused entrepreneurial abilities of the poor.

In the state of Kerala, near India's southern tip, bureaucrats work with the poorest women in a program called Kudumbashree, or Family Prosperity. The aim is to identify the women's needs - from literacy and training to housing, health care and jobs - and to put them in charge of managing their own development.

The women set up self-help savings groups, move on to microfinance and loans, and then establish their own micro-enterprises; the government helps them identify opportunities and gives them training in areas like information technology and marketing.

Thousands of enterprises have been established, from a data-processing company that has grown in two years to employ 20 people, to businesses offering beauty products, plumbing services, catering and garbage collection.

Further north, in Gujurat, even more ambitious schemes are being led by the Self-Employed Women's Association, a trade union, development organization and women's movement rolled up in one. The association runs a bank catering to the poorest women, champions the rights of the poorest workers, offers literacy classes and computer classes for teenagers, sponsors doctors in rural areas and organizes agricultural and textile cooperatives.

It too has recognized that it has to do more to develop the entrepreneurial skills of the poorest. In the face of global competition, the association sees that helping market its members' textiles is not enough. To protect jobs, it has to analyze global trends in fashion and then train and manage its members.

And in Mumbai, a millionaire property developer, Mukesh Mehta, is the brains behind plans to transform Asia's largest slum, Dharavi. The goal is to build better housing through public-private partnerships and to upgrade the skills and equipment of the workers in Dharavi's cottage industries, from potters to leather workers, and to give them advice.

The bold plan also aims to bring the rich into Dharavi without driving out the poor. The goal is to attract leading designers, doctors, cultural institutes and top schools, which in return for providing cheap or free services to the poor can use the facilities that are being built to provide much more expensive services to the rich.

If India can harness the vision and innovativeness of these curious bedfellows - from bureaucrats to women's trade union to millionaire property developer - then it may find a way to tackle poverty today, not in 20 years.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/opinion/08iht-edhughes.html


1$ is enough for people to have 3 meal per day ... one meal can cost upto 30 cents(approx Rs15)(any poor can have 4-5 chapati with Rs 15 in a road side shop).
I think the author is trying to say that our 30% of poor indians are not able to eat Chicken biryani, tandoori roti,kabab every day(he is worried about that)..
 
Ziad Hamid might be in complex.
he can start a show "Grass Tacks" in Bangladesh about farming in India

:rofl::rofl:

that was a good one.. there are only few people in this world who can compete with Zaid hamid.. Dr Idune is one of them...:hang2:
 
IDUNE MUST BE KEEPING HIS CHIN HIGH AFTER READING THIS ARTICLE...NAD PAKISTANI FRIENDS TOO...



Bangladeshi labourers suffering hell in Pakistan
Author: Muzaffer Hussain
Publication: Mumbai Tarun Bharat (Marathi daily)
Date: May 23, 2003


Bangladesh is one of the top countries which caters to the need of world of manual labourers. The work which an Indian or Pakistani worker will not do for Rs.100/-, is done by a Bangladeshi worker for Rs. 30 or 40/-. Hence, from the Gulf to the Western countries, Bangladeshi worker is the cheapest. Some days back, 4,500 prostitutes had gone from Pakistan to Iraq and among them the number of Bangladeshi prostitutes was the highest. Rich people in the Gulf arrange Camel Races. For them, Bangladeshi children are mostly used. These children are tied on the back of the camels with ropes Because of the pains caused to them during the race, these children scream extremely. The camels start running with a greater speed due to their screams. Half of the children on the camels die because of the fear or are seriously hurt. Their end is very heart-rending. For camel races, every year about 700 children are imported on an average.

At the time of creation of Bangladesh, there were 2 crores of Bangladeshis living in Pakistan. Many of them left after Bangladesh got freedom. Still there are about 1.25 crores Bangladeshis living in Pakistan illegally. Every year about 20,000 Bangladeshis go to Pakistan. Of course their entry is illegal. Some illegal agencies in Karachi and Rawalpindi bring these Bangladeshis quietly. Some days back, a gang bringing these people via Sea route was caught at Chitgaon. First, Bangladeshis enter India and enter Pakistan from Bihar, U.P. Punjab or Rajasthan borders. They include children, women and people from all age-groups. The unemployment problem in Bangladesh is so severe that the parents are willing to sell their children. Unemployment in Pakistan is also not less. In Pakistan., according to some people, unemployment is 17%. Those who are educated, enter Western countries by bribing. For a visa in Western country, Rs.40 lakhs have to be paid. But nobody touches Pakistani rupee. All transactions are in US dollars.

Question arises, if there is unemployment in Pakistan, what these Bangladeshis do there? The truth is the few rich people in Pakistan need these people for house work or work on farms. In Sindh and Punjab, tradition of Jamindars is still in existence. It is nothing if some of them have lands to the extent of more than 100 acres. Gulam Mustafa Jitoi who was the Prime Minister during the time of General Zia, has so much land that for a railway to pass over his land takes 6 hours. In Sindh, these Jamindars are called 'Woodera'. The workers working for them are called 'Haari'. Hindu workers were working for these Jamindars in Singh right from the first. But since Hindus are being converted speedily, the number of Hindu workers is diminishing very fast. These Wooderas tie up their workers in chains and get all sorts of work done by them. They are imprisoned in a room and in the morning they are again brought to the work. Poor bread is thrown to them. their wives and children are also the slaves of the owner. Young women are always prey to rapes and even the children are used to satisfy their desires.

Now Bangladeshis are used for doing all these dirty jobs. The illegal agencies operating in Pakistan and Bangladesh are very prompt in satisfying such demands. The rate is 50,000 Taka (about Rs.25,000/-) for a young woman, 70,000 Taka for men and 30,000 Taka for a child. Children are in high demand because firstly, they can work for more years and their efficiency is also more. In the Clifton area of Karachi alone, there are about 7,000 Bengali children working for households.

In India, Child labour is highest in Bihar. Children from it are sent to large cities for work. In Delhi, one finds Assamese children whereas in Calcutta and Mumbai, Bihari children are more. In Pakistan it is said, just as the owner's soul is locked with his wife, the wife's soul is locked in her servant. Without servants, their life is incomplete and full of toils. In Pakistan, Bangladeshi servants are found in the wealthy families. All cleaning, cooking and any other work is to be done by them. Their day starts at 5 a.m. But if some children have to go to the school or colleges, their day will start at 4 a.m. No time limit for ending the day's work is fixed. When all members of the family go to sleep, then only their work gets over. When they throw their tired bodies on a torn chaddar somewhere in a corner of the kitchen, they are sound asleep as if they are dead.

Throughout the day, they have also to endure abuses and thrashing. In exchange, they get food two times and cloth just sufficient to cover the body. They cannot send any money to their parents if they wish. Since they themselves are living in Pakistan illegally, they are threatened that if they do something like that, Police will arrest them. If any servant insists on doing so, he is immediately handed over to the Police as an illegal citizen. The poor servant goes from one prison to another.

With the fear that some friend or a neighbour will 'eye' their Bangladeshi servant, whenever there are guests in the house, these servants are not allowed in their presence. In cities like Karachi, Rawalpindi, Shikarpur, Sindh, Hyderabad, Lahore and Siyalkot, kidnapping of servants is always taking place. As nobody can afford to lose his trained servants, they are hidden from the eyesight of others.

The government of Bangladesh is aware of all this. They have written reports about the atrocities done in Pakistan on their citizens. Yet, Government of Bangladesh does not do a thing. Because, it does not have the capacity to feed these starved people. If the treatment given to Bangladeshi servants in Pakistan is witnessed by the Human Rights Commissions, they will be shocked. These Bangladeshi servants arrive in Pakistani prisons alive, but their release from it is definite only after their death. The Human Rights Commission in Pakistan is silent on this matter. Because of the cheap labour, the number of Bangladeshi workers is increasing day by day. Looking at them, one remembers the days of the horrible slavery in human history
 
ANOTHER PROUD MOMENT FOR IDUNE.....:rofl::hitwall:


Malnutrition is a Great Concern in Bangladesh
Posted: Apr 3rd, 2009

Bangladesh is one of the poorest country in the world.Due to economic distress condition Bangladesh people specially children are badly effected by malnutrition.

Yesterday UNICEF and WFT has completed a research about nutrition crisis in Bangladesh rural area. According the report two million children are suffering from acute malnutrition in Bangladesh where one quarter of all households are hungry.

Nearly 60 per cent of the households surveyed said they had insufficient food over the past 12 months, with real household income plunging 12 per cent between 2005 and 2008. At the end of last year, nearly two-thirds of income was spent on food, 10 per cent higher than the 2005 average. Many are in debt, coping with higher food prices, the survey said.

“The situation of child malnutrition in this country is a silent emergency,” said UNICEF Representative Carel de Rooy.

I am congratulating and agree with Carel de Rooy's comments about malnutrition in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi people has been suffering malnutrition problem since the British period. This is not new something about nutrition.

From the British period until now many Government has come and gone but no government has taken any proper step to remove the poverty. That's why people specially village people have been facing this malnutrition problem seriously.

Recently it is heard that local and International NGO has contributed a lot to remove poverty from Bangladesh. Already one NGO owner has received a novel peace price from novel society for grameen economic development. But after UN report it creating us a new question to conscious Bangladeshi citizen in home and abroad.

NGO has protected villagers from certain death of lac of food. But they have done nothing to change overall financial economic condition in village area. They have received a lot then giving to the poor. So, we can see high rising luxurious building for NGO owners at Dhaka city in Bangladesh. On the other hand people are almost going to die or giving birth a thin and narrow baby because of lac of proper food.

This should be great shame to our NGO owners, Government and opposition leader. What they will answer of this UNICEF report about malnutrition. What they have done for country and what they given to the poor villagers in Bangladesh?
“Even if the prices of food are now falling, the crisis is far from being over,” said John Aylieff, WFP Representative in Bangladesh, warning of the impact that the current global financial crisis will have on the poor.

Present Government should think seriously about Aylieff's warning. Economic recession is going on all over the world. In this regard Bangladesh should prepare themselves to protect this horrible wave in rural area.

"Almost half of all children between the ages of 6 months and 2 years – a critical age for development – were found to be not receiving the minimum meal frequency, with two-thirds of them not meeting the minimum dietary diversity of at least four food groups daily" the report said.

Yes it is true People has no money to buy food how they will follow the minimum dietary diversity of food. Most of the village people are hands to mouth. Only harvesting time they get opportunity to earn money another season they have to pass very hard days.

This is not new. Silently for years this silent and hidden germ has been attacking in Bangladesh. If you come in Malaysia it will be cleared. 15-40 years all young man has come here to work. When they gather with other nationalities in a certain area it shows Bangladeshi people are facing malnutrition problem.

The major cause of this malnutrition in Bangladesh is job problem. They do not have working facilities all the year. Only industrialization can assure the job facilities in Bangladesh. But Industrialization in Bangladesh is in miserable condition.

This country is fully dependent on China and Indian product. It should be great shame for Bangladesh's leader that still now we have to import very easy and simple product like nidle from China.

So, after all Government should take immediate long term base industrialization policy like Automobile and electronics industry establishment. Surrounding a automobile industry many other assistant factories will be built up which will assure the job vacancy all over the country.

Government should take proper step to demolish business and importing attitude from our society. Too much Dependent on importation is enough to destroy a country's overall economic situation. Present malnutrition UNICEF report is bright example of that. Government should think it seriously. To build up proper and prosperous Bangladesh there is no substitute of Industrialization.

When people will have money they will be able to buy nutritious food and malnutrition will be removed from this country totally.
 
Immigrant Dream Shattered in Karachi
By Aamir Latif, IOL Correspondent

KARACHI — Sana came to Karachi two years ago with a dream of a better future for herself and her family back home in Bangladesh.
She was promised a good job, allowing her to feed her aging parents and five sisters and brothers. But her dream turned into a nightmare after she was raped and then used as bonded laborer in different places here.
"I don't want to remember those days. It seemed as if I was living in hell," Sana, 29, told IslamOnline.net at Ansar Burni Welfare Trust, an NGO providing legal assistance to illegal immigrants.
In June 2005, she was smuggled from Khulna city in Bangladesh along with 19 other women, belonging to different parts of the country.
"They (human smugglers) used to rape me frequently. Then they put me in a house, where I used to work 16 to 18 hours a day without any salary," Sana recalled with tear-soaked eyes.
She added that her salary was already paid to the agents who brought her to Karachi.
Sana believes the other women who came with her were either smuggled to the Gulf or put on bonded labor in Karachi, which has become a major transit point in human trafficking, particularly of women.
According to Ansar Burni Welfare Trust, over 5000 Bengali and Burmese women are working as maids or prostitutes in Karachi, most of them are illegal immigrants.
The number of such women in the Gulf is estimated at nearly 10,000, according to the NGO.

Fancy Dream
The prospects of better economic opportunities abroad throws many Bengalis and Burmese, particularly women, into the nest of human traffickers.
"Most of the women fall into traffickers' clutches because of poor socio-economic conditions," Ansar Burni, the founder and chairman of Ansar Burni Welfare Trust, told IOL.
"A large number of the young girls smuggled internally – in close collusion with the local police - are forced into domestic labor or prostitution."
Some pimps and smugglers sitting in Karachi deal exclusively in Burmese and Bangladeshi women, according to Burni.
"They bring women into Pakistan after passing them off as their wives and the victims are then smuggled abroad.
"In some cases, parents, guardians or husbands sell women to human traffickers, while others are deceived into illegal cross-border migration," added the activist.
"I was wooed by my neighbors, whose two women had been working in Dubai as maids, and sending a good money every month back home," Sana remembers.
"They introduced me to an agent who demanded 10,000 Takka (160 US dollars) as travel expenses."
Having no money to pay in advance, Sana promised to pay off after getting a job.
The women group was first smuggled to India and then brought to Pakistan via Rajhistan, the southeastern state that borders Pakistan's Sindh province.
"I was promised to have a good job here. But the second day after our arrival three people raped me," a visibly moved Sana recalled.
"I kept on begging for mercy, but they didn't stop. Later, it became an order of the day. I was kept in a small house, where I would either be raped or work as slave."
After six months, Sana was put in a house un the Defense Housing Authority, a posh Karachi neighborhood, on a one-year contract.
The salary was cashed by the agents who brought her to the household.
"I worked there for a year. Though, the family members were not too rude, I was so scared and could not tell them even a word about me," she said.
"I was threatened by them (agents) if I disclosed anything, I will be sent to the jail straightaway by Pakistani authorities," Sana added.
"After a year, I was sent to another house in the same locality. My new employer was a retired army colonel, who had served in Bangladesh in 1960s. He knew much about Bangladesh and his behavior was much better. One day, I told him everything."
Her employer contacted Ansar Burni Welfare Trust, which took her in and contacted the Bangladeshi consulate in Karachi.

Business


Burni believes that such a large-scale and organized human trafficking is not possible without the collaboration of security agencies.
According to officials of Pakistan's Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) human cargo is being smuggled into the Gulf and further west across the Iranian border.
Once there, they are often forced into prostitution or virtual slavery to pay off their smuggling debts.
Other victims of human trafficking are lured into marriage under false pretences or sold by their families to agents and then smuggled abroad.
Ansar Burni, the founder and chairman of Ansar Burni Welfare Trust, says traffickers use the land route via Mandh Billoh in Iran and send human cargo as far as Europe.
"Indians as well as Pakistani women are being smuggled out of Karachi," he said, adding that one of the methods used by the traffickers is to pass the women off as their wives.
Mr. Burni believes that such large-scale and organized human trafficking is not possible without the collaboration of security agencies, particularly the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
However, FIA officials deny this charge.
"Some of our low-ranked officials may be involved in this heinous crime, but whenever and wherever they have been pointed out we have taken strict action against them as per law," FIA Deputy Director Abdul Malik told IOL.
"Human smuggling is such a big racket and no country has so far contained that completely. We are also trying our level best but cannot do miracles with the given strength and facilities," he added.
Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao recently told the National Assembly that during the last three years 27 high and low-ranking FIA officials have been dismissed or sent on forced retirement on charges of human trafficking.
Zia Ahmed Awan, president of Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid (LHRLA), thinks that women smuggling is taking place on a large scale and only a few incidents reach public attention.
Citing a recent case that came up before the Supreme Court, he pointed out that law-enforcing agencies arrested 40 women who had been smuggled into Pakistan from India, and were to be later trafficked to Gulf countries through Lahore.
"There is a dire need for laws to curtail the trafficking of women and children, which is real human trafficking," Awan told IOL.
He said the FIA arrests usually focus on economic migrants and serve as a mere eye-wash.
"Pakistan is a hub for the smuggling of Afghan, Bangladeshi and Burmese women. The practice could not flourish without the involvement of law enforcement agencies," he insists.
"When we visit to interview victims, we are followed by personnel of the area police and asked to state the purpose of our visit."
Awan pointed out that the threat of police harassment prevents many women from giving information.
He believes that some families are involved in the practice.
"Some families are aware of their girls' fate. The residents of about 35 houses in the Burmese Colony and Landhi's Shareef Colony are involved in either selling their own girls into prostitution abroad or keeping other girls for the purpose," he claimed.
Sana, the young Bangladeshi, is waiting for some legal documentation to fly back home.
"I am counting the days desperately. I want to be at my home as soon as possible," he said.
"I want to tell my women not to risk their lives. There is nothing in Pakistan or the Gulf for them. They either have to work as bonded laborers or as prostitutes.":what::woot:

Immigrant Dream Shattered in Karachi - IslamOnline.net - News
 
Beggar in India is a millionaire in Bangladesh
Kshitiz Gaur, TNN 21 July 2008, 12:03am IST

AJMER: For Mohammed Jakir, an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh, begging may have begun as a compulsion but through his ingenuity he turned it into

a career option.

The 42-year-old amputee, who begged in Indian cities for more than two decades, is today known to be a rich man in Bangladesh.

Indian intelligence sleuths, who nabbed Jakir after learning about his all-too-frequent visits to Bangladesh, claim that his wealth in that country could be around Rs 75 lakh!

Jakir crossed over to India illegally in 1986 at the Benapura Indo-Bangladesh border. Without hands to work with, he realised begging was his only option and he did so for years on streets near Gateway of India, Mumbai. The money he made not only supported his family in Mumbai but also helped him save.

"I earned a lot in Mumbai. Indians have sympathy for the handicapped. One man even donated Rs 1,100 to me," revealed Jakir during interrogation by the cops in Ajmer, who arrested him on Saturday night. It's learnt that Jakir, son of Mohammed Ali, is from Mohammedpura district, Bangladesh.

"My earning was so good that I could marry Naseema, a teenage girl, and buy a house at Murtinagar and raise a family with her," he says. They had five children, four of them girls.

Naseema eventually left for Delhi with her kids. "Somehow, the hearts of people changed; their sympathy faded. Two years ago, I left Mumbai and arrived at Ajmer for 'Urs'. It proved to be the right decision

Beggar in India is a millionaire in Bangladesh - India - NEWS - The Times of India

(PROUD MOMENT FOR IDUNE)
 
Indian minister hands cyclone aid to Bangladesh 01 Dec 2007 06:47:07 GMT
Source: Reuters


DHAKA, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee arrived in Bangladesh on Saturday for a short visit to see areas devastated by a cyclone two weeks ago, and meet government leaders.

At Dhaka airport, Mukherjee said India would export half a million tonnes of rice to Bangladesh to meet post-cyclone emergencies, waiving a ban by India on rice exports.

Indian officials in Dhaka said Mukherjee would express India's solidarity with Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr struck on Nov. 15, killing around 3,500 people, leaving millions homeless and thousands injured or missing.

It was the worst natural disaster to hit impoverished Bangladesh since 1991, when a cyclone killed 143,000 people.

Cyclone Sidr destroyed crops, livestock and fisheries, which officials said would be hard to restore.

The country's army-backed interim government has asked the international community for half a million tonnes in emergency food aid by next March.

Mukherjee handed over Indian relief goods, including milk powder, blankets, water filters, food and medicine to Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, foreign affairs adviser to the Bangladesh government, at the airport on Saturday.

"India offered to join efforts for rehabilitation of ten severely affected coastal villages," Mukherjee said.

The Indian minister will meet the head of the caretaker government, Fakhruddin Ahmed, and other key government leaders before flying back to New Delhi later on Saturday.

UNICEF, the U.N. children's fund, said on Friday it was teaming up with other U.N. agencies including the World Food Programme to provide food aid to Bangladeshi children under the age of 3, as well as pregnant and lactating women in the country's worst-affected areas.

UNICEF said an estimated 300,000 children under five are living in makeshift camps with their families throughout the disaster zone, surviving meager amounts of food and water.

"They do not have proper shelter or access to basic amenities, leaving them at risk of diarrhoea, acute respiratory infection and other cold-related diseases," UNICEF said. (Reporting by Masud Karim and Ruma Paul; writing by Anis Ahmed; editing by Bill Tarrant


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DHA23750.htm:hang2:
 
INTERNATIONAL BEGGERS

Bangladesh : France offers $600,000 as aid to Bangladesh cyclone victims

French humanitarian aid to Bangladesh in the wake of Cyclone Sidr The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Bernard Kouchner, offers his profound condolences to the government and people of Bangladesh in the wake of Cyclone Sidr which struck across the country causing over a thousand victims and destroying countless homes.

The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs hails the remarkable mobilization of the Bangladeshi authorities which permitted large numbers of threatened people to be evacuated, thereby avoiding an even heavier human toll.

The Minister of Foreign and European affairs expresses his sympathy to the victims’ families and loved ones, and his solidarity with the government of Bangladesh at this painful time.

Affirming its utmost solidarity with Bangladesh, France is also setting in place humanitarian aid:

Our aid now amounts to €600,000. It is divided between approximately €300,000 in food aid and €300,000 in emergency aid. Emergency aid credits have been allocated by our embassy in Dacca to a French-Bangladeshi NGO, “Friendship,” which specializes in providing a humanitarian response to crises (medical aid, drinking water, food aid, aid in rebuilding homes, the reconstitution of means of subsistence).

France is also contributing through a European aid package of €6.5 million that has just been decided upon; it is the second-largest contributor, accounting for 16 percent of the total, or more than a million euros.

The minister of Foreign and European affairs remains in continuous contact with NGOs (Médecins du Monde, Première Urgence, Solidarités, Handicap International) and with the French Red Cross, which are mobilizing in response to the cyclone.

Statement issued by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Paris, November 17, 2007: "The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Bernard Kouchner, offers his profound condolences to the government and people of Bangladesh in the wake of Cyclone Sidr which struck across the country causing over a thousand victims and destroying countless homes.

"The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs hails the remarkable mobilization of the Bangladeshi authorities which permitted large numbers of threatened people to be evacuated, thereby avoiding an even heavier human toll.

"The Minister of Foreign and European affairs expresses his sympathy to the victims’ families and loved ones, and his solidarity with the government of Bangladesh at this painful time."

France is also setting in place humanitarian aid in the amount of 500,000 euros, two-thirds of it for food aid which is in the process of being delivered.
 
Year On, Bangladeshis Still Waiting Help


IslamOnline.net & News Agencies

One year after cyclone Sidr, thousands of Bangladeshis are still waiting for the promised help to come

PADMA, Bangladesh — One year after the killer Sidr cyclone washed away his home and two young kids, Jafar Khan is still waiting for the promised help to come.
"They keep promising but nothing has changed," Khan, a laborer, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Khan's seven- and three-year-old sons were killed when the cyclone smashed into Bangladesh's southern coastal last year.

After the disaster, Khan moved along his family to a refugee shelter two kilometers away.

"I'm still living in the same flimsy hut I built after the storm. Now, they're building a cyclone shelter a few hundred meters away.

"It's too late for my sons though -- they were never given the chance to survive."

The cyclone has killed more than 3,400 people and displaced millions, mostly poor residents.

The World Bank estimates damage caused to property, livestock and crops at 1.7 billion dollars.

Oxfam said earlier this week that over one million Bangladeshis are still struggling without proper homes and at greater risk of disease one year after the cyclone.

"What's difficult is getting funding for the relief and rehabilitation on a longer-term basis because it does go out of people's minds," said Heather Blackwell, head of Oxfam in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh appealed for 2.2 billion dollars in international aid for the cyclone-hit areas, but a finance ministry official said less than a quarter -- half a billion dollars -- had been received.

Miserable Life

Monowara Begum lives with her family in a hut made from salvaged wood and plastic sheeting in the coastal district of Barguna.

"We're living hand to mouth," said Monowara, a 45-year-old mother of four.

"We used to sell milk but now we have no other way to earn a living."

When the cyclone hit, Monowara and her husband lost their home and livelihood when the couple's 13 cows were washed away in the storm.

Nearly 1,345 people were killed by the tropical storm in Barguna alone.

Although 60 new shelters have been built in the region in the past year, two thirds of people who lost their homes in Barguna are still living in the same conditions as immediately after the storm.

Morowara is now collecting mud for building roads in her village as a way to feed her family.

"I'm digging soil from the river for the roads in our village," she said, as rivulets of mud ran down her tiny wrists towards her elbows.

"I don't want to do this job but it's the only way we can get food."

Year On, Bangladeshis Still Waiting Help - IslamOnline.net - News
 
Bangladeshi labourers suffering hell in Pakistan
Author: Muzaffer Hussain
Publication: Mumbai Tarun Bharat (Marathi daily)
Date: May 23, 2003

[...]

Beggar in India is a millionaire in Bangladesh
Kshitiz Gaur, TNN 21 July 2008, 12:03am IST

The Times of India

"Incredible India" media at work again.... :rofl:
 
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