When economic growth benefits the few

On 23 December 2023, renowned Economist Professor Rehman Sobhan delivered a public speech titled 'The continuing War of Liberation' at Bangla Academy where he mentioned that we may have gained independence, but not freedom. 

Over half a century has passed since our independence, but the struggle for economic emancipation continues. Democracy, good governance, equity of resources, justice did not see progress as expected. 

Although Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dreamt of building an equal society, in reality, inequality in the society has increased manifold. We witness significant income and wealth-based inequality. 

Nobel laureate and Economist Joseph E Stiglitz rightly pointed out in his book 'The Great Divide' that inequality is the root cause of division in a society. 

He also presented an in-depth analysis of the multi-dimensionality and impact of inequality in American society. Using Oxfam's 2016 data, he pointed out that one percent of the world's richest own half of the world's wealth and 99 percent own the other half. 

Indeed, wealth and income divides are increasing worldwide and as we can see the world's resources are gradually being owned by giant corporations. 

According to experts, Bangladesh follows the normative principles of neoliberal development where the interest of common folk gets less priority. 

Authors Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan and Mohammad Sajjaddur Rahman, in their book titled 'Neoliberal Development in Bangladesh', talked about the neoliberal development in Bangladesh. 

Their analysis showed how the Bangladeshi society turned from 'welfarism' to 'marketisation/commoditisation'…wherein the logic of profit and competition determines economic prosperity. 

Prominent economist Anu Muhammad remarked in his book 'Development Re-examined: Construction and Consequences of Neoliberal Bangladesh' that law and the state become crude instruments for capital accumulation. Demo(n)cracy, instead of democracy, rises. Therefore, (mal) development and demo(n)cracy grow together.

Equality is not something that we are merely demanding; the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh also mentions the pledge to build a just and balanced society. The eighth Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and Vision 2041 have also highlighted the aspirations of building a smart Bangladesh where inequality will not be prevalent.  

Despite such policy structures, wealth ownership and income inequality are not decreasing in the country. These policies seem to be more effective in protecting the interests of individuals than that of the people. 

Thus, we see the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer. While one section of the society is amassing abundant wealth, the other section is struggling to meet basic needs.  

Although equal rights are acknowledged in public documents, reality contradicts them. Overall progress of the society is being hampered because of this.  

Joseph E Stiglitz pointed out in his book that in American society, poor children are deprived of their right to education and health due to the wealth and income inequality. And that is evident in our country where the primary and secondary school dropout rates are high. 

Stiglitz furthermore argued that inequality is a choice and that although policymakers talk about equality, ineffective policies are failing to establish it. 

During the budget speech for Fiscal Year 2022-2023, the finance minister mentioned that the per capita income in Bangladesh was $2,765. It was a decrease from the Fiscal Year 2021-2022 when per capita income was $2,793. Moreover, per capita income does not reflect the true development in an economy because of unequal distribution of wealth. 

Therefore, big data and numbers should not always be celebrated. 

The inequalities in wealth and income in our society was perhaps more crudely reflected during the declaration of income and assets of the members of parliament before the 2024 national elections. 

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), income inequality in the country has been increasing in the last few years. 

For example, the income-related Gini coefficient (measures the dispersion of income or distribution of wealth among the members of a population. The lower the coefficient between 0 and 1, the higher the inequality) was 0.499 in 2022. It was 0.482 in 2016 and 0.458 in 2010. 

Inequality leads to unrest and deprivation among citizens. In fact, it promotes further inequality. To build a humane and dignified society- inequality must be addressed. We have forgotten that building an egalitarian society was the pledge of our Liberation War.

Khan Md Rabiul Alam is a communication expert.