Health related problems are the main obstacles to the income of coastal residents, eventually causing them to lead their whole lives in extreme poverty, resulting in school dropouts, and keeping 80% of the households completely excluded from education, a survey has found.
Waterborne diseases are common as safe drinking water sources are scarce in coasta, while every month at least one member of a family falls ill in 35% households of three coastal villages of Khulna’s Dacope upazila, where the survey was conducted by Management and Resources Development Initiative (MRDI).
The survey – carried out to assess the impact of how banks use their CSR funds – found that the income of the locals get reduced as they have no choice but to spend their working hours collecting drinkable water from safe sources.
Another survey that covered Char Patila in Bhola found that 62.5% people of the locality were ultra-poor, 25% were poor, 7.5% in the low-income group, and 5% were middle-income category.
Such rates of extreme poverty were by no means acceptable, said the governor of Bangladesh Bank, Atiur Rahman, at the “Dissemination and Report Handover Ceremony of CSR Findings” held at the central bank yesterday.
It was shameful that 62% people of a locality were living in a state of extreme poverty at a time when the country was on its way to being upgraded to a middle-income country, he said.
The governor urged banks and corporate houses to come forward with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to pull these people out from extreme poverty.
The MRDI survey also found almost 80% of the household heads were completely illiterate, 17% of them had attended primary school and only a few had studied up to higher secondary levels.
According to the assessment of CSR fund usage, the overall expenditure of the fund increased to Tk510 crore in the year 2014 from Tk22 crore in 2007.
The study team found that 60% CSR interventions resulted in more income, in 20% cases environment changed in positive direction, and in 10% cases more jobs were created.
Of the total expenditure 92% are being met by private banks and only 3% came from state-run banks in 2014.
