The government would soon conduct a survey on beggars in Dhaka city to prepare a database with photographs of people who live on alms.
The ministry of social welfare has meanwhile formulated a guideline for the survey?the first of its kind?to be conducted by some ten NGOs under the guidance of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, a senior official told media.
The beggars?? photographs would be taken to avoid duplicity and ensure proper rehabilitation of the down-and-out people in different parts of country, said Gazi Mohammad Nurul Kabir, Director general of the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons.
He said most of the disabled beggars would be relocated at government supported rehabilitation centre while able-bodied one would be provided with opportunities for self-employment, preferably in their own district of origin.

The authorities would divide Dhaka into ten zones and carry out the survey on a single day to prepare the database to ascertain the exact number of beggars and their origins and reasons for begging.

The database is essential for rehabilitation of the beggars whose number is growing at a fast rate throughout the country, specially in capital Dhaka, the NFDDP chief said.
Finance ministry officials said Tk 12.47crore has already been allocated for the project titled ??Beggars Rehabilitation Programme??. Half of the project fund would be spent on survey while rest on rehabilitation.

Although there is no specific data on number of beggars in the capital and others major cities, different government agencies estimate it would be one million countrywide.
The number of beggars in the capital would be around 600,000 who are always found seeking alms at bus stands, railway stations, markets and at traffic signals.

The survey on beggars in Dhaka city would be followed by similar surveys different divisional headquarters, said officials.

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What does an economy look like ? and what does it look like when it malfunctions It,s easy enough to say what an economy is, the production of financial value. Expressing that in visual terms is nowhere near as easy. On the one hand, you have the quantitative description of an economy: all that torrent of data from stock exchanges and bureaus of labor statistics and such. On the other, you have the torrent,s roots: offices and factories and sweating brows. At the intersection of description and toil, you have an economy.
Inevitably, Crisis and Opportunity: Documenting the Global Recession comes down on the side of toil. It,s about the human cost of economic forces not just beyond the control of any group of people but also beyond the awareness of any of the people pictured here: Polish miners, inhabitants of a Japanese slum, Bangladeshi laborers, a Florida retiree on a fixed income. The show, which runs through Aug. 8 at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, was organized last year by Social Documentary.net, which solicited projects from photographers worldwide. A panel of judges selected a winner and three runners-up. It??s their work that??s at the PRC.

The show consists of 32 photographs. That??s an awfully narrow base to support such an expansive subject, the most important event of the century so far. In fact, the show??s title is misleading. The people we see endure plights that predate the global recession and will long outlast it. Photographs of Timothy Geithner looking perplexed or vacation homes on the Costa del Sol looking uninhabited are about the global recession. Khaled Hasan??s image of a man sifting stones, work that will bring him less than $7 a day, is as timeless as the wind and the rain.

Hasan??s striking black-and-white photographs confront head on the vicissitudes of hard labor in northeastern Bangladesh. Shiho Fukada, whose work is in many ways the most interesting in the show, takes a more oblique approach. She records aspects of life in Kamagaaki, an impoverished section of Osaka. An elderly man stares up at the pachinko machine he??s playing. The way his head??s tilted, he could be staring at heaven. The way the machine??s glow lights the space, he could be staring at hell. In another photo, Fukada offers a tight shot of a dirt-covered hand wrapped around a glass of sake. Most startling of all is the image of a set of storage lockers containing the remains of men who died without kin. The door of each locker has a photograph of the dead man, an effect that??s both touching and unnerving.

Michael McElroy calls his photo essay ??An American Nightmare.??? His approach isn??t so much direct as full frontal. We see Howard Mallinger, a Florida retiree in his 60s, sitting by the bedside of his wife as she receives chemotherapy; carrying a box of donated food; entering his foreclosed condo; weeping on its balcony; in a doctor??s examining room; reciting prayers by his wife??s gravesite; and holding an umbrella in the rain. McElroy??s sympathy for Mallinger isn??t in doubt. But neither is the sense of a beleaguered man being presented as a vehicle for moral instruction. Its good intentions make the workings of that instruction no less disquieting.

??Hades???? is what Tomasz Tomaszewski, the winner of the competition, calls his photo essay about the Polish mining and industrial region of Upper Silesia. The question mark indicates a degree of social complexity the photos bear out. There is considerable hellishness in the sight of someone (in this case, a woman) working a piece of massive excavating machinery in a coal mine called, of all things, ??Peace.??? Yet there is also something magnificent, both technologically and visually. Tomaszewski scants neither the awfulness nor monumentality. In other photographs ? men raising pigeons, for example, or workers tending garden plots on the grounds of the factory where they work ? he gives a sense of a life that??s varied and unexpected, if also limited and little privileged, in a place few of us know. Yet we all do, since Tomaszewski lets us see how much we have in common as fellow human beings.

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Chittagong, Bangladesh (Sources) — Rizwana Hasan is a divisive figure in Bangladesh. Heralded by some as an eco-pioneer, a labor rights campaigner and a “take no prisoners” lawyer, she also is characterized as being on a mission to destroy an industry that employs thousands.

Her works focuses on the effects of the ship-breaking industry in Chittagong. Each year hundreds of massive tankers, ferries and cargo ships from around the world are driven onto the mud flats in Chittagong, and then literally attacked by hundreds of men armed with little more than hammers, cutters and brute-force.

They strip the ships for their scrap metal, salvaging what they can, discarding what they can’t. Rizwana is the executive director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) and has been fighting the industry for decades. BELA has launched numerous legal challenges against the shipyards, which it claims don’t care about the environment or the safety of their employees.

“All these ships contain very hazardous materials like asbestos, PCBs, and they are in-built in the system, so in a country like Bangladesh we do not have technologies to deal with this sort of hazardous substance,” Rizwana Hasan told CNN.

“There is a huge amount of waste oil and water that are eventually released into our coastal environments. In the process our soil gets contaminated, the fishery gets contaminated, the air gets polluted. And we are all inhaling it without knowing the effect of it,” she said.
The issue of worker safety also is a concern.

The casualties of the trade are easy to find — Mohammed Murad worked in ship-breaking for 10 years until a 20-ton slab of metal fell on his leg last year. He says that, with Rizwana’s help, he got some compensation, but the company had originally refused to pay anything after he lost his leg.

“It’s too dangerous, too dangerous. The company doesn’t give us any security,” Murad said. “They tell us to do it quickly, to cut quickly, If you die in the field, no problem, but you have to work quickly.”

There are 78 ship-breaking yards scattered along the Chittagong coast. As we found out when we traveled there, most are hidden from the road, often unmarked at the end of small lanes from the highway. The staff was unwilling to let us film inside or talk to the owners.

Last year, Rizwana says some 160 ships were dismantled in the yards — a process described as ship recycling by the International Maritime Organization, a U.N. agency responsible for maritime safety and preventing pollution from ships. Rizwana calls it an “old boys club” for the industry.

Rizwana grew up in a politically active family and after completing her masters at age 24 she joined BELA, rising to become one of the country’s leading lawyers and the association’s director. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental prize.

Rebuffing accusations from critics, she insists she does not want the ship-breaking industry to shut down. She realizes its importance as a source of employment, money and its potential as a good recycling initiative.

But she is determined that it should operate responsibly and within the law. She says ships containing hazardous material, such as asbestos, need to have these substances removed before they arrive in Bangladesh. She says the country simply doesn’t have the facilities to deal with them. In March 2009 Bangladesh’s Supreme Court ruled that ships entering the country for decommissioning must be “pre-cleaned” in line with The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, known more simply as the Basel Convention.

The international treaty was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations. Under the treaty, a country must not allow the export of a ship containing hazardous materials if it suspects that the waste will not be properly dealt with by the ship-breaking country.

Dr. Nikos Mikelis from the International Maritime Organization agrees that the ship-breaking industry needs better regulation but says it performs a vital role in Bangladesh, providing valuable jobs.

“It’s a benefit to the country, all that is missing is order and order can brought by suitable regulation and enforcement. I believe it can be done. You don’t close down the industry because it’s not doing correctly now, you adjust it,” Mikelis said.

According to Rizwana, the problem is that in countries like Bangladesh, rules such as the Basel Convention are not always observed and not applied to the ships themselves, only to their cargo. She maintains that ships often are re-registered in “flag of convenience” countries before being sent to Chittagong, with few checks about what hazardous substances are contained within the equipment and superstructure of the vessel.

While Rizwana has won a number of key legal battles, she says many of the shipyards’ bad practices continue, with new yards opening each year. Her opponents at the yards themselves remain acutely angry with her — so much so that she feels it would be unsafe for her to even travel to Chittagong. But Rizwana says simply shining a spotlight on the industry is an achievement in itself.

“We have been able to give a bad name to the industry, and the industry deserves a bad name,” she said.

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It is the first time officers have been jailed for suspected extrajudicial killing in Bangladesh. Human rights organisations accuse law enforcement agencies of killing at least 200 people in custody since January 2009.
DHAKA,A Bangladesh court jailed 11 policemen on Sunday on suspicion of carrying out an extrajudicial killing two years ago, court officials said, after an outcry from human rights groups.

It was the first time officers were jailed for a suspected extrajudicial killing in Bangladesh after calls from human rights organisations who accuse law enforcement agencies of killing at least 200 people in custody since January 2009.

The policemen surrendered following a summons over the killing which took place in July, 2008.

The officers will be formally charged on July 27, said a court official at Natore, 230 km (144 miles) northwest of the capital Dhaka.

??We are happy that the suspects were sent to jail. We hope to get justice,?? lawyer Zahir Azad told reporters.

The bullet-riddled body of the suspect was found at a remote area near Natore four days after he had been arrested by police.

Police said he had been killed in crossfire during a raid on a gangster hideout, but his family said he was killed in custody.

Hardly a day passes in Bangladesh without somebody being shot and killed in crossfire between criminals and law enforcement officers, newspapers and officials say.

One suspect died in police custody in eastern Brahmanbaria, 100 km (52 miles) from Dhaka, after being arrested on Saturday.

Police said he died of a heart attack, but his family said officers had tortured him to death. -Reuters

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Meraj (Night Ascension): Isra and Miraj (Night Journey), Shab-e-Meraj, Lailat-ul-Miraj, Miraj-un-Nabi.

On 27th Rajab, all the Muslim ?celebrate this as a grand day of Meraj as “Grand Eid” and all the Muslims should be proud to have such a prophet like Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny (Ahlul Bayt), to whom Almighty Allah (swt) was also proud and had invited him to visit and talked with very nearer distance as mentioned in the Glorious Qur’an (Qhaba Qhausain 53:9).

Also note that, the Meraj of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny has taken place more than once. However, it should be mentioned that Meraj in which the daily Salat was made incumbent, without doubt, occurred before the death of Hazrat Abu Talib, who passed away in the 10th year of Besat. Unmistakably, from the Ahadith and books of history, it is mentioned that on the night of Meraj, Allah (swt) gave the order of the five daily Salat as being mandatory upon the Islamic Nation.

The darkness of the night had spread across the horizon and silence reigned over the face of nature. The time had arrived when the living creatures take rest and sleep so that they might recuperate from their activities of the previous day. Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), was also not an exception to this law of nature and he wished to take rest after offering his prayers (Salat) in the house of “Umm-e-Hani”, the daughter of his uncle and sister of Amir al-Mominin Ali (pbuh) in the blessed city of Makkah. However, suddenly he heard a voice; it was the voice of the Archangel Jibreel (pbuh) who said to him:

“This night you have to perform a very unique journey and I have been ordered to remain with you. You will have to traverse different parts of the world mounted on an animal named al-Buraq.”

Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny began his historical night journey, along with the trusted protector of the revelation, the Angel Jibreel (pbuh) from the house of “Umm-e-Hani”, with the aide of his steed al-Buraq.

“After some time, Angel Jibreel (pbuh) stopped Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) and said to perform the Salat. Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) dismounted from al-Buraq and performed Salat. Jibreel (pbuh) said, ‘Do you know where you just prayed?’ Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) replied to him in negative. Jibreel (pbuh) said, ‘In Taibah (Madinah), that place where your travelers will go.’ After this, Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) got back onto al-Buraq and continued the journey.”

“Once again, Angel Jibreel (pbuh) stopped Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) and said, ‘Perform the Salat.’ Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny once again dismounted al-Buraq, and performed Salat there. Jibreel (pbuh) asked Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), ‘Do you know where you just prayed?’ It is the Mountain of Sinai – the place where Prophet Musa / Moses (pbuh) spoke to Allah (swt).”

“Once again, Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny ascended al-Buraq and continued. Shortly afterwards, Angel Jibreel (pbuh) said, ‘Get down and perform the Salat.’ Then again Jibreel (pbuh) questioned, ‘Do you know where you just prayed?’ Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) replied in negative, to which he answered, In Bait al-Laham (Bethlehem) – the place which is near to Baitul Maqdis and this is the place where Prophet Isa al-Masih (pbuh) was born.”

Then they reached Baitul Maqdis, which is located in today’s Zionist occupied Jerusalem and is also known as Masjid al-Aqsa (the Furthest Mosque) and Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), proceeded to tie the reins of al-Buraq to the same ring that the great Prophets (before him) used to tie their animal to. After this Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny entered the Masjid and it was here that he met Ibrahim, Musa, Isa and the rest of the Prophets (pbut). They all gathered around him and they all proceeded to get ready for Salat. Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny had no doubt that the Salat would be lead by Angel Jibreel (pbuh), however when the lines for the Salat were being formed, Angel Jibreel (pbuh) placed his hand on the shoulder of Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) and pushed forward. Angel Jibreel (pbuh) also took part in the Salat behind him along with the various Prophets (pbut).

On the second part of his journey, he proceeded from this spot to the skies (heavens). Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), then observed the stars and the systems of the world and conversed with the souls of the previous prophets, and also with the angels of the heavens, peace and blessing be upon them all. Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) saw the centre of the tortures and the blessings (hell and heaven) and became fully aware of the secrets of creation, the extent of the universe and the signs of the Omnipotent Allah (swt).

Then Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny, continued his journey and reached Sidrat ul Muntaha (Beyond this point nobody has access including Angel Jibreel (pbuh)). There he found it fully covered with splendor, magnificence and grandeur, and then he returned back by the way he had traveled. Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw), first came to Baitul Maqdis and then to Makkah. It was daybreak when he dismounted at the house of Umm-e-Hani from al-Buraq which had taken him into space. Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny related this matter to Umm-e-Hani and the following night, he made it known to the assemblies of Quraysh as well. The word of his travels spread from mouth to mouth amongst all the groups, and now more than ever, the Quraysh were upset (with him).

According to an old tradition, the Quraysh asked the account of its structure, and Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny, not only described the physical particularities of Baitul Maqdis, rather, he even informed them of the event that took place between Baitul Maqdis and Makkah. Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) said to them that he met the caravan of such and such tribe who lost their camel and he asked them to give him water and Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) drank water from their container. So they asked about the Quraysh caravan and he replied to them that he saw them at Taim. So Quraysh became very excited and it was not long after that the travelers (of that caravan) reported the exact events (as had occurred).

Proof of Isra and Miraj (Shab-e-Meraj, Lailat-ul-Miraj) in the Glorious Qur’an:

The Heavenly Journey of Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny has been straight forwardly explained in two Surahs of the Glorious Qur’an.

In the Surah al-Isra (Surah 17 – also known as Bani Isra’il), it is mentioned: Glory be to Him Who made His servant (Prophet Muhammad) to go on a night from the Sacred Mosque (Masjid al-Haram) to the Farthest Mosque (Masjid al-Aqsa) of which We have blessed the precincts, so that We may show to him some of Our signs; surely He is the Hearing, the Seeing. (Glorious Qur’an, 17:1)

From this verse, we come to the conclusion that Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny traveled with his physical body (servant) through the worlds of Ascension. Further, by the greatness of the Hidden Power, Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) was able to complete this journey in a very short span of time.

Allah (swt) starts His speech with the phrase (Subhan) which denotes the fact that Allah (swt) is free from all deficiencies – but He does not stop here. Rather, He makes the ascension the reason for His greatness by saying ‘made to travel’ (Isra) so that others do not imagine that the means of this journey was through causes of the natural world and with normal, ordinary means of transportation. This would have made his journey something that could have been denied. Rather, this journey was accomplished by relying upon the power of Allah (swt) and His specific and special blessings.

Although this verse states that the start of the journey was from Masjid al-Haram and ended at Masjid al-Aqsa, this does not contradict the fact that Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny in addition to this trip, also had other trips towards the higher world, since another part of the journey of Ascension of Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) is explained in verses of Surah an-Najm.

From the time Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny told the Quraysh, ‘I saw the angel of revelation (when he received the first revelation) in his original and pure state,’ all the Quraysh raised up to mock him. Glorious Qur’an, in response to the thoughts of the ignorant people replies: “Will you then argue with him about what he saw? He certainly saw him (Jibreel) during his other ascent to the Lote-tree (in the seven heavens) near which is Paradise. When the tree was covered with a covering, (Muhammad’s) eyes did not deceive him, nor did they lead him to falsehood. He certainly saw the greatest (signs) of the existence of his Lord.” (Glorious Qur’an, 53:12-18)

The object of this grand journey was to make known to Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny the various aspects of the existence of the great universe.

A person asked our 4th Imam, Imam Ali bin Hussain (as): “Is there a particular place for Allah (swt)?”

Imam Ali bin Hussain (as) replied: “no.”

The man said: “Then why did He make his Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny, journey through the skies?”

Imam Ali bin Hussain (as), replied: “He made him ascend so that he might become aware of the expanse of the universe and see and hear wonderful things, the like of which had not been seen and heard by the eyes and ears before.”

Meraj (Night Ascension) or Miraj-un-Nabi and Modern Science:

It has been an on going discussion and debate for hundreds of years concerning the method of travel of Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny during the Meraj. Many things have been said regarding this journey and its being physical or only spiritual even though from the Glorious Qur’an and the Ahadith there is no doubt that it was a physical ascension.

However, one problem from the point of view of science prevented some people in believing the reality and thus, the Meraj of Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) was recorded as being simply spiritual. Another group went a step further and believed that this complete event was simply a dream and that Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw) experienced the Meraj during his sleep!

The heavenly journey went against the scientific and natural laws of today such as: the law of gravity of the earth; its speed of travel of 25,000 miles per hour; the weightlessness of an object that is outside of the airspace of earth; the fact that it is not possible to breathe the air that is outside our atmosphere; the various cosmic rays; meteorites and air pressure; and the speed of light that goes at the speed of approximately 300,000 kilometers a second; and other such examples.

Fortunately however, it must be known that through scientific research and investigation, the space scientists of the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. The world’s first artificial satellite was about the size of a basketball, weighed only 183 pounds, and took about 98 minutes to orbit the Earth on its elliptical path, on October 4, 1957. They were able to demonstrate to mankind with ease, that they could overcome such problems as the gravitational pull, cosmic rays, problems with breathing in space, and others, through various technologically designed and built equipment and instruments.

Even today, the space science research is ever increasing and the scientists and researchers are confident that in a matter of time, they will be able to place life on one of the planets in our solar system; just as today, they have opened up the exploration to the moon and the planet Mars.

These scientific progresses and advancements in technology and industry are a clear proof that such a celestial travel (that of Holy Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessing be upon him and his progeny on the night of Meraj) is possible and can not be classified as something that was impossible.

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Maximum infrustucture of Bangladesh development has lack of plan.We should concious on our execution plan for future food security. Agriculture researchers in Bangladesh have released a new report on climate change. They predict that if nothing is done, rice production will dramatically decline by 2050, just as the nation??s population is peaking. As a hot, low-lying, agricultural nation, Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to climate change.

Because of Bangladesh??s low elevation, small rises in sea level leach salt into farmers?? fields. Changing weather patterns damage crops. Rice ? the staple food of Bangladesh ? is especially at risk. Rice production is expected to fall by 3.9% a year. By 2050, in combination with population growth, that reduction will have a serious impact on food security.

According to the article on AlertNet, ??Increasing climate variability is already costing Bangladesh’s economy $3 billion a year, and the financial toll could hit $121 billion for the 2005 to 2050 period.??

The government of Bangladesh has started to focus on adjusting to the change. On the resource end, this will require better water resource planning and new lower-use types of irrigation. It will also mean changing what kind of crops are grown and new varieties of older crops.

The problems confronting Bangladesh are a microcosm of what the entire planet is going to face. Its climate and low elevation mean that climate change will take its toll on Bangladesh sooner than other countries. We can learn from what works for Bangladesh to help prepare the rest of the world for the destruction brought by climate change.

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It is happening the positive . Goverment are now concious to procure the woman human resource .?who are our 50% manpower. Industries Minister Dilip Barua on Tuesday said the present government is pledged-bound to strengthen participation of women in mainstream business and commerce besides ensuring women empowerment.

The government expects that every woman in the country would contribute to the socio-economic development through their own capacity, he said while addressing as the chief guest the inaugural session of National Entrepreneurship Conference at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel here on Tuesday.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman and Whip of the Jatiya Sangsad Shagufta Yasmin MP addressed the function as special guests. Industries Ministry under its SMESDP Project organized the conference with Industries Secretary Dewan Zakir Hussain in the chair.

The minister said the government since its assumption to power has been putting emphasis on a women-friendly policy and for this women entrepreneurs have made significant progress. For ensuring women development in all development activities including in the rural areas and rural economy, various measures have already been undertaken, he said adding these measures include creating women entrepreneurs, providing soft loans, changing attitude of banks and financial institutes, presenting women- friendly budget.

The government is working with positive attitudes about allotting plots to women entrepreneurs on priority basis at the existing BSCIC industrial areas, allotting plots separately to women entrepreneurs at new BSCIC areas, establishing separate SME bank and other measures.

He said the government has taken special measure for providing trainings to women entrepreneurs and for this a special programme has been undertaken under BITAK for giving training to 10,000 women and men in five years. Pointing to Small and Medium Enterprises Development Programme (SMEDP) under the Industries Ministry, he said, programmes have been undertaken for the development of women entrepreneurs. Directives have been given to the scheduled banks for disbursing at least 10 percent of the SME loans to women entrepreneurs, he said adding directives have also been given from Bangladesh Bank to provide loans to women entrepreneurs at maximum 10 percent interest from Small Enterprise Fund (SEF), he said.

Bangladesh Bank Governor said the central bank has taken steps to overcome the problems in the SME sector, especially for removing obstacles for women entrepreneurs in getting loans. He said minimum 15 percent of the Bangladesh Bank’s refinancing scheme has been preserved for disbursing loans to women entrepreneurs and the interest rate for those loans have been fixed at 10 percent interest rate.

Steps were taken so that women entrepreneurs can avail a maximum Taka 50 lakh loans against personal guarantee and every bank has been asked for setting up Women Entrepreneurs Dedicated Desk, he said. He said a total of Taka 120 crore was allocated for financing women entrepreneurs under the refinancing scheme comprising Bangladesh Bank, IDA Fund and ADB Fund and so far 668 projects have been allocated Taka 49.23 crore loans (42 percent of total fund), which indicate that maximum fund for women has remained unutilized.

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To avoid getting sick from waterborne diseases?chronic diarrhea, hookworm, dysentery, typhoid, cholera?in their monsoon ponds, the people of West Bengal, India, and of Bangladesh have been turning to tube wells. But a different death awaits from well water?cancers of the skin, bladder, and lung, among others. Thankfully, there are solutions.

According to a new study in the medical journal The Lancet, between 33 and 77 million people in Bangladesh have been exposed to arsenic in the drinking water. The World Health Organization calls it the largest mass poisoning in history.

The findings:

??One in five deaths in Bangladesh (population: 125 million) is associated with exposure to water from wells with arsenic concentrations greater than 10 micrograms per liter.
??Arsenic exposure is with increased mortality due to heart disease and other chronic diseases in addition to the more familiar medical consequences of arsenic exposure: skin lesions, cancers of the skin, bladder and lung.
??An increase of nearly 70 percent in all-cause mortality was found among those exposed to the highest concentration of arsenic in water (150 to 864 micrograms/liter).
??Researchers also found a dose-related effect that included increased mortaility even at relatively low levels of exposure, including the Bangladesh safety standard (50 micrograms/liter) and the WHO recommended standard (10 micrograms/liter).
The poisoning is the result of well-intentioned efforts on the part of aid and development agencies in the 1970s when 10 million tube wells were built to combat waterborne diseases. While the new wells reduced exposure to some diseases, they also yielded water contamined with arsenic, which occurs naturally in the region.

The arsenic can be avoided by digging deeper wells?an approach already yielding safer drinking water for roughly 100,000 people in Bangladesh?and by deploying filtering systems

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Sources :Garment factories in some parts of Bangladesh have closed for an indefinite period following three days of violent protests by thousands of workers calling for an increase in the national minimum wage.

Local news reports say demonstrations have centred on the Ashulia manufacturing zone near Dhaka, where owners have been forced to shut all 250 garment factories after workers clashed with security forces.

At least 30 people were injured after security officials fired tear gas and rubber bullets to try to break up the crowds.

Labour unrest is also said to have taken place at another apparel hub in Kanchpur where export-oriented factories are located – although the BBC reports that factories in the Export Processing Zone are still working.

Pay and working conditions in factories in Bangladesh have long been a source of concern, with protestors calling for basic pay to be raised to BDT5,000 (US$72) a month to enable workers to meet their living needs including food, shelter, clothes, education, health care and transport.

Currently, most workers earn just BDT1,662 (US$24) per month – the national minimum wage set by the government back in 2006.

But for many, the situation is thought to be even more desperate. Not only have workers had to face rising inflation over the past four years, but factories have cut wages by 20-30% in a bid to compete for orders with countries such as Vietnam, China and India.

And unskilled workers in the garment sector are even worse off, receiving just BDT800 (US$11.5) a month and often forced to work 14-16 hours a day.

Labour groups also claim that in many cases salaries are not paid on time, with delays of up to two months to receive their pay cheques.

Bangladesh has also been criticised for in the most recent annual survey of trade union rights by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

“The lifting of the state of emergency raised hopes of an improvement in the situation for the Bangladesh trade union movement and better economic conditions for workers, but nothing has changed in practice,” the report says.

It adds: “Six garment workers were killed in attacks by the police or company security guards during strikes or protests linked to wage demands.”

Officials from the country’s Ministry of Labour and Employment and Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in April told just-style they were ironing out a deal to increase worker wages – although no details were given about the scale of the rise or when it would be introduced.

Pressure for change is also coming from global retailers, including Walmart, Gap Inc and H&M, who in February urged the Bangladeshi Prime Minister to take “swift action” over low garment worker wages which they fear could taint their reputations as socially responsible companies.

Garments are Bangladesh’s biggest export, with some 4,000 garment factories employing 2m people and accounting for more than 80% of annual export earnings worth $15bn.

But Amin Haque, president of the National Garment Workers’ Federation (NGWF), predicts that further labour unrest is inevitable unless the government takes action to raise the national minimum wage to levels that ensure decent standards of living for workers.

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emocracy is the most perfect policy ,It has established with confirmation. to reach the heal of democracy we must have to enter the real democracy.MOST of the democracy-loving people are divided among one political camp or the other. There are, however, others who do not follow any particular party, but during elections they vote for the candidate they think would be able to deliver best for their consistency.

But apart from their choice of a candidate, be that from partisan or personal considerations, the very opportunity of the electorate to exercise its franchise in a free and fair manner is what constitutes democracy. From that point of view, can we then claim that the just held mayoral election in Chittagong bore the hallmark of a thriving democracy in Bangladesh?

And since, unlike most other elections held earlier — whether parliamentary or local government — the Chittagong poll was conspicuous by the absence of violence, can we not also say that our democracy is also getting more mature by the day?

Whomever the credit for the just held impartial election may go to — the Election Commission’s competence, the ruling party’s respect for democracy or the winning candidate’s popularity with the constituents — the result of the election has definitely gone to enhance the nation’s image in a big way.

But before rushing to such conclusions, one needs also to think in retrospect. What really has happened only about two months after the Bhola by-election that all the parties involved in the Chittagong mayoral poll have buried their differences and the electorate could be weaned from their attachment to their parties overnight?

It cannot be gainsaid that in Bangladesh, elections are highly partisan, though the advocates of the different political camps would like to call it political. And the voters’ choice for their candidates is determined more by their blind partisan allegiance than by any critical judgement of their party programs or the candidate’s merit. And the supporters’ allegiance to their party is comparable with the bond between the members of a clan and its guardians.

As a result, the leaders and activists of the different parties, especially of the most influential one’s such as Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), consider their sway over their supporters for granted. That is more so because it is the personal charisma of the top leadership of the contesting parties that outweighs other considerations in the choice of their candidates.

Even then, if there is ever any exception to this tradition and if that becomes evident from the party activists’ assessment of the pulse of the people in a constituency, then the likelihood of violence in that constituency gets higher. The power of muscle and money then prevails over that of logic and persuasion.

Now if one reflects on the result of the Chittagong mayoral poll, it may appear that some established notion about the voters’ loyalty to their favourite party or the leadership might have gone through a sea change. Otherwise, why this exception in the electorates’ behaviour as manifested through the outcome of the election in question?

Oddly enough, so far, neither of the major political parties throwing their weight behind their candidates has brought any allegation of rigging against the other. Even the prime minister and supreme leader of the ruling Awami League has congratulated the mayor elect from the second biggest city Chittagong. And the victor from the major opposition has even sought the cooperation of the defeated mayoral candidate from the ruling party in running his office once he takes charge.

Have then all the earlier calculations on the result of the election been proved wrong, or is it that we are witnessing a major shift in the pattern of the voters’ loyalty to their parties? At least, the winning party in the election would like to evaluate the polls outcome in such light.

One may recall here the parliamentary by-election in Bhola was held in the fourth week of April. The behaviour of the contending parties and their candidates was predictably different in that election as it was marked by serious instances of violence and charges and counter-charges of rigging and all kinds of criminality levelled against one another by the contending Awami League and the BNP.

One explanation may be that widespread violence and charges of rigging that dominated the electoral scene during and after Bhola election were due mainly to the fact that it was a parliamentary one and that it was a prestige constituency for both the ruling and the opposition party.

It would be worthwhile to point out what one of the prominent leaders of the ruling Awami League, Obaidul Kader, said in his post-election reaction when he warned the opposition saying that they should not go overboard with this election result simply because it was concerned with a local government and hence it had no political significance.

At the same time, he advised the opposition party to remember a similar victory that their just-defeated mayor had won during the four-party alliance government between 2001 and 2006. In the same breath, he also suggested that the defeat of their mayoral candidate in Chittagong was something that they themselves wanted to happen.

The ruling party leader’s view of the election result cannot be dismissed out of hand either. In fact, a strange combination of factors, including the disillusionment of a section of the electorate with the erstwhile Chittagong mayor, together militated against him to influence the polls result.

Despite the strangeness of the factors playing their part, it cannot be denied that, after all, the electoral result reflected the people’s choice. But then, such uniqueness of circumstance does also come into play in the case of national elections! Had it not been so, all the election results would become predictable.

So, once the parties, both in power and in opposition, started to reflect on this uniqueness of every election, they would not behave so violently to manipulate the results of various other elections. And they should already be wiser by now, if they consider the results of the previous national elections, notwithstanding all their efforts to influence those

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