How to eradicate poverty

By Dr. Maboob Hossain Niigata University of Pharmacy, Niigata, Japan
24 December 2004, 18:00 PM
In her letter Suraiya Zafar (December 14) suggested that a new family planning law should be enforced to eradicate poverty. That new law would ensure that the citizens do not take more than two children. I thank her for her concern but at the same time I humbly disagree with her because enforcement of such law is almost impossible in our society for many reasons. Education for all and women empowerment are the most effective and proven steps to eradicate poverty. It is statistically proved that women who work outside usually do not take more than two children. On the other hand by and large uneducated people take more children than educated people do.

Unfortunately, poor and uneducated people employ their children instead of giving them education and use them as a source of earning money, which I cannot support. It is impossible to eradicate poverty without education. If I had the power I would have close all the academic institutions for six months and sent all the teachers and students to make all the illiterate people literate in such a way so that they can read books and newspapers. It is possible and it happened in Sri Lanka. Let us remove the curse of illiteracy in order to establish social justice.