I dream of a world without poverty. I know it is a very common contemplation. I mean a lot of people think like this. Even Sustainable Development Goals start with the ‘No Poverty’ issue. Then again, what differentiates my thoughts from others will be the story behind it.
I grew up in a small town named Pabna. People live a simple and happy life there. I thought that lives are like these everywhere. But my anticipation was wrong. When I was 21, my family moved to Dhaka, which is one of the megacities in South Asia. People came here from every corner of the country to earn a little more, to seek a better life. But sometimes life becomes so hard to go on.
It’s been 12 years since I live in this city. I was so many things that could change anyone’s perception of poverty, hunger, and so on. A few days back, I had encountered such an event. Let me share it with you.
One sunny morning I went for a walk. The time was around 8 am. When I was entering the park, I saw a tragic view beside the road. A mother chained her mentally challenged child with a truck beside her working place while she is crashing bricks for a living. She has no one to take care of her baby while she is working!
Her husband left her with the child forever. That was not a sight that one can forget so easily. I couldn’t sleep well that night thinking of a permanent solution to these kinds of events. You can not just help one family to solve this crisis. I kept thinking. I have found that, if a daily wager’s children become a daily wager too, then we don’t have any hope to solve poverty. It becomes a vicious cycle. But, If we can provide opportunities that can give them a chance to change their lives, then It could make an impact.
Feeding poor people will not solve anything. How long can we feed them? While allowing their child to invest in the future by developing any skill with quality education may have a chance to change the scenario.
Quality education and skill development can reduce the curse of poverty around the world. Free food or free credits won’t make any long term solution, but free education will.