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With more than 50 million Bangladeshi people still living in extreme poverty, several research groups are going to undertake a new project to study and better understand long-term effects of anti-poverty interventions.
   Microfinance, new agricultural technologies, and food or cash transfers for education are three major interventions that would be assessed in terms of their long-term impacts on the livelihoods of the poor, said a news release on Saturday.
   The project will also compare the cost effectiveness and implementation of each of these interventions and see whether they have contributed to the success or failure at household, community and national levels.
    Government officials, academics, and civil society representatives are scheduled to meet in Dhaka on Tuesday [April 8] to launch the project styled ‘What Development Interventions Work? The Long-Term Impact and Cost Effectiveness of Anti-Poverty Interventions in Bangladesh’.
   International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre will lead the research in partnership with the Data Analysis and Technical Assistance (DATA) Ltd. It is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development and the Economic and Social Research Council.
   The study findings are intended to enable policymakers, donors and lenders, and other stakeholders to contribute towards the design of future anti-poverty programmes in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries, said the news release.
   ‘This research is innovative and unique among evaluation and poverty reduction studies in Ban-gladesh.’ said Bob Baulch, coordinator for the poverty dynamics and economic mobility theme at the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, and co-leader of the project.
   He explained that by integrating and sequencing quantitative and qualitative methods, the project would provide a unique perspective on the impact of these interventions from the individual to the community level.
   The project builds on IFPRI data collected during the 1990s on the impact of the three interventions on 1,787 households in rural Bangladesh and resurvey them to analyse and compare long-term impacts, said the release. Personal stories of the household members — how these interventions affected their lives and whether they were able to move out of poverty — are also part of the research.
   ‘Returning to these villages ten years later, it is clear that many people have experienced vast improvements in their livelihoods,’ said Agnes Quisumbing, IFPRI senior research fellow and lead researcher of the project. ‘This new research will help identify the role of anti-poverty interventions in achieving this progress.’
   During the past ten years, Bangladesh has experienced impressive reductions in poverty. The percentage of the population living in poverty fell from 51 percent in 1995 to 40 percent in 2005, and there have been substantial improvements in the nutritional status and school enrolment levels of the poor.
   However, poverty remains a challenge with more than 50 million people currently living in extreme poverty.

Bangladesh Mahila Parishad on Saturday called on all democratic people, political parties and professional organisations to play a role for a total emancipation of women.
   ‘I call on all people, political parties and professional bodies to play a role for a total emancipation of women and to build a secular, democratic and humanistic country,’ the Mahila Parisahd president, Ayesha Khanam, said at a discussion in Dhaka organised marking the 38th founding anniversary of the organisation.
   She demanded punishment of the persons and organisations opposing the latest National Women Development Policy although the policy was consistent with the national constitution.
   She criticised the government for sending three advisers of the caretaker government to the Baitul Mukarram khatib for consultation on the National Women Development Policy. ‘The government must consult with the representatives of major political parties and women’s organisations, not the Islamist bigots, if it wants to update or review the policy,’ she said.
   She denounced the Islamist extremists, including Jamaat-e-Islami leaders Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, for waging protests against the women development policy. ‘They are taking the chance of frail political leadership,’ she said.
   Ayesha, also a freedom fighter, said war criminals must seek mercy to the nation even 38 years after independence.
   Referring to the Qur’an, the Hadith and Islamic judicial history, retired Justice Golam Rabbani said the National Women Development Policy was not contradictory to the Qur’an and the Hadith.
   He criticised the religious bigots saying a members of such groups were opposing the women development policy even without reading and understanding it.
   The constitution of Bangladesh guarantees, at the legal level, women’s equal rights and opportunities with men, but structured inequality inherent in the capitalist system stands in the way of the realisation of the equality, argued the New Age editor, Nurul Kabir.
   He then said the women’s movements for democratic emancipation should aim at both mainstreaming women’s cause and fighting against the economic system that help to perpetuate the privileges of the dominant sections of society, particularly the privileged male.
   Professor Sonia Nishat Amin said the National Women Development Policy 2008 was not contradictory to the national constitution.
   Referring to the disruptions in the democratic process in the past, the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad general secretary, Maleka Banu, said holding free, fair and credible national
   elections was essential for maintaining the pace of women emancipation.
   The meeting adopted an eight-point resolution which includes implementation of the latest National Women Development Policy, restoration of the 1972 national constitution, holding the trial of war criminals, holding credible national elections and containing prices of essential goods.
   Several hundred women from different districts participated in the programme.

Flash flood in river Jamuna has submerged standing boro paddy fields of several hundred acres in char and low lying areas along the river.
   Farmers were seen on Saturday cutting the half ripen boro paddy in the affected areas of Islampur, Dewanganj and Sarishabari upazila.
   The Islampur upazila agriculture officer, Prodip Kumar Shaha, returning from some of the affected areas said at least 300 acres have gone under water in Kulkandi, Sapdhari, Belgachha and Noarpara unions. ‘As water level is rising the farmers are cutting half ripen boro paddy,’ he said.
   Similar situation was reported from Jigatala, Barul, Munnia, Charshishua, Chengania, Bhangbari and Projapati of Islampur, Chukaibari, Halkar Char of Dewanganj and
   Aona, Pingna, Pogaldigha and Satpoa union of Sarishabari upazila.
   The Kulkandi UP chairman, Jubaidur Rahman Dulal, and the Chukaibari UP chairman, Manzurul Islam, said flash flood in this time of the year is quite unusual. Water is increasing for the last two days submerging the boro lands in low lying areas along the river and in char areas.
   Boro production was very good but unfortunate farmers are compelled to bring home the half ripen paddy, they said.

A union level BNP leader was hacked to death and four members of his family were injured in an attack by miscreants at Patlashi village under Gafargaon upazila in the district early Saturday.
   The deceased was identified as Nurul Haque Khan, 60, former vice-president of BNP Niguari Union.
   The police and local people said a group of miscreants allegedly led by Kamrul alias Hatkata Kamrul entered the house of Nurul at about 12:15am and dragged him out of his house. They later stabbed him indiscriminately, leaving him injured critically. Nurul died from his injuries on way to Dhaka, the police said.
   As other members of his family tried to save Nurul from the attack, the miscreants also attacked them with weapons, leaving his two sons Swapon and Ripon and their wives Mursheda Begum and Mansura Begum injured critically.
   Swapon was admitted to Pangu Hospital while Ripon, Mursheda and Mansura were admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
   The police suspected that the incident might have occurred over previous enmity.
   The police arrested two persons — Rashed, 22 and Sultan, 24 — for their suspected involvement in the killing. Victim’s son Sharif Uddin filed a case with the Gafargaon police station in this regard.

The police in a raid recovered arms and ammunition including an AK-47 rifle from a house at Bongram village in Khoksha upazila here on Saturday.
   Police said they conducted the raid on a house at Bongram village on information that some gangsters of ‘Razzaq Bahini’ had gathered there. Sensing police presence, the goons fled the scene, leaving behind their arms,’ a police official said. The seized weapons are one AK-47 rifle, one .22-bore rifle, a single-barrel gun and 66 rounds of bullets.

Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, student wing of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, on Saturday brought a silent procession on the Rajshahi University campus, demanding release of detained former prime
   ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina by April 14.
   At a rally in front of the Central Library, JCD leaders also demanded immediate release of Khaleda Zia’s sons Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman.
   They demanded holding of the national elections and handover of power to an elected government.