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BANGLADESH is known as a land of climatic moderation. But even then, the winter can be a time of distresses for the poor specially if it is not mild. The bite of the winter is not yet fully felt in the country but there is no knowing whether the present winter will be severe or not.
The usually mild winter of the country habituated poor people not to keep good stocks of warm clothes and, thus, when an winter proves to be exceptionally cold, they go through great sufferings as they have hardly the means to afford winter clothes. Official assistance to the poor to cope with the situation has been meager so far or remain limited to tokenism. Surely, there is a pressing need to engage in a countrywide incorruptibly administered official programme to distribute warm clothes to the poor. Furthermore, the poor should have access to assistance to improve their homes to save themselves from the cold. It is not a formidable task but a rather manageable one for an official body to count the number of homeless in the cities who dwell on pavements and provide temporary shelter and warm clothes to them.
In the longer run, winter-related disasters should be taken into consideration and policies adopted to face up to them. As it is, flood, drought and cyclones are considered as natural disasters, but not bad or hard winter. Thus, disaster planning should also include plans to cope with hard winter. The planning should also include the growing of seedlings that can withstand any severe winter.
Even private charities on a large scale -- at the heart of which should be distribution of warm clothes and cash handouts to the poor -- would be counted as very useful. However, over the long run, assistance to the poor would be best channelled perhaps through organised institutional charities. In meeting the winter-related distresses of the people, the first step would be taking a count of the number in acute need of such help. The government administration can be very effective in taking this count. Secondly, the types of assistance required should be identified. Thirdly, government should make its contribution towards meeting the needs of assistance and call on private charities to donate in cash and kind to a fund run by it. Fourthly, it should distribute the charities efficiently without corruption. Besides, the government can also ask private charitable organisations to engage in similar relief and rehabilitation efforts -- but systematically -- going by the list of the distressed ones on area or regional basis.
Shafique Ahmed
New Eskaton
Dhaka
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