I think the exchanges in this thread are becoming pointless because - under a supposed cover of 'pseudo-intellectualism' the Hindutva fanatics are trying to disprove the factual point of this thread, which is that Bangladesh is a more progressive, secular and liberal country. This intent is the sole driving force for posts by Indians (other than Jamahir).
This is an issue for them because it runs counter to their continuing propaganda that Bangladesh 'should be' a Jihadi Islamic terrorist sh*thole.
Well guess what? The fact that Bangladesh is as progressive, secular and liberal a country in comparison to India (if not more) has been proven over and over again by UN agencies by highlighting hard data such as,
1. Higher Rate of Immunization for many diseases including Polio (which
@iajdani mentioned)
2. Rate of Fertility lower than India per woman (connected to lower population growth compared to India)
3. Literacy rates for Women (roughly equal to India)
3. Life Expectancy (higher than India)
4. Sanitation and Hygiene factors including latrine usage (higher than India)
The above is important because India led South Asia in these HDI factors ten years ago - with noted exception of Sri Lanka, the leader in these comparisons. Sri Lanka is in another league, partly because of their small population.
These things were all achieved as part of Bangladesh' UNDP Millennium goals (of which women's empowerment is a large part). The YouTube video which had a discussion with Amartya Sen (which I posted earlier) also talked about this. That should have been sufficient but I think either no Indian clicked on it because they were too lazy to go through it or that Internet bandwidth is too expensive in India.
Here are some UNDP-recorded Highlights from last year,
- 55,000 urban poor families received cash transfers to start micro-businesses.
- Slums in 29 towns mapped enabling government to make informed decisions for the poor.
- 3 million people, especially women and children have better living conditions and livelihood opportunities.
- 150,000 households have improved access to sanitation and water.
- 230,000 households have improved access to footpaths.
HDI rank (HDI) Value Life expectancy Yrs of schooling (GNI) per capita (HDI) Value Change in rank, 2013
India 0.586 66.4 4.4 5,150 0.583 0
Bangladesh_0.558 70.7 5.1 2,713 0.554 1
Source:
Table 1: Human Development Index and its components | Human Development Reports
Essentially, we can see that Bangladesh exceeded India in most human development indicators in spite of half the Gross national income (GNI) per capita (2011 PPP $), 2013. The story basically is that India more or less continues to ignore its poor, as it always has.
Amartya Sen said something in that video that really struck a cord in me. He said that India won't tax imported Gold, which makes it lose some humongous amount of money. That money alone could improve primary level education to parity with developed countries. The situation as it happens currently is that fourth graders in India cannot multiply (basic 'Ganeet+Ganana' principles). This could have been averted with investment in primary education, which is the building block of an economy. This is not a priority in India.
India has the world's best institutions (IIT,IIM etc.) but paradoxically cannot provide basic education to its poor citizens.
