Arrange shelter, education for all children:Daily Sun

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks at the National Social Services Day programme at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city on Saturday. BSS Photo Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday directed the Social Welfare Ministry to take steps to ensure shelter and education for the country’s all children, including orphans and street urchins. “I don’t want to see any child passing days in a miserable
condition living alongside streets without going to school…we’ll have to ensure a better life for them all,” she said. The Prime Minister was speaking at a programme marking the National Social Services Day 2015 and inauguration of the Social Services Week 2015 at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city. Sheikh Hasina said her government is implementing many programmes for the welfare of the ultra poor, physically-challenged people, windows, abandoned women and shelter-less people as it believes in the welfare of commoners. She said if these people get some money in their hands the social status of these people will improve a lot. Hasina also mentioned that the government has taken programmes for the welfare of marginalised people, hijra (transgender), dalit (untouchable) and bede (nomadic) communities of the country as they are usually neglected socially and economically. She said it would not take too long to fulfill people’s basic rights—food, cloths, shelter, medicare and education—as the government has taken numerous programmes to this end. “We want to make sure that the country’s people will enjoy their five basic rights…some of those have been already been achieved…we’ll be able to attain more, we’ll be able to achieve the rest of the target, it’ll not take that much time to reach the target,” Hasina said. Observing that the country’s poverty rate now stands at 24 percent, Hasina reiterated that this has to be brought down by 10 percent further before her government’s current term ends. “We’re planning our programmes keeping this target in mind….I believe this can be done,” the PM said directing the officials and employees of the Social Welfare Ministry to play a greater role in achieving the target. Social Welfare Ministry organised the programme with its minister Syed Mohsin Ali in the chair. Speaking on the occasion, Mohsin Ali came down heavily on the country’ s businesspeople saying that they are always driven by profit motive, not humanity. Talking about farmers’ woes, the minister said potato price had marked a sharp fall last year, depriving the farmers even of their production cost. “At that time, the price of potato in Sri Lanka was Tk 40,” he said adding that Bangladesh could have exported potato to Sri Lanka, and requested the Prime Minister to look into the matter. — UNB