INADEQUATE budgetary allocation for social protection that a recent World Bank research has reported indicates the government鈥檚 exclusionary development policy. The report says that the social protection expenditure in Bangladesh is the lowest in South Asia. Bangladesh spends 2 per cent of its gross domestic product on social protection, which includes social assistance, public service pension and subsidies. With pension and other forms of social assistance being excluded, the amount that vulnerable people receive would be 1.5鈥�1.7 per cent of the gross domestic product. It also observes that most of the social assistance programmes have limited coverage and do not often reach the intended. The spending on pension accounts for a sizeable amount of the allocation, but it serves a small, better-off section of the work force. In 2022, the South Asian Network on Economic Modelling reported that 35 per cent of the population was covered by some 100 large and small schemes, but the average transfer amount was Tk 595.
In 2015, Bangladesh adopted the National Social Security Strategy, considered a watershed moment, as it materialised a policy shift from need-based social protection to life cycle-based schemes. The strategy recognised differences in risks in different stages of the life cycle and included provisions to increase the average value of the financial assistance, lower the risks that the poor and the vulnerable faced. It has been almost a decade since the strategy was adopted, but the social protection system is still composed of small programmes with exclusion errors. About 50鈥�60 per cent of people, who are vulnerable, have no access to any social security scheme. The distribution of subsidised food items and financial aid also do not reach them because of corruption. Allegations are rife that vested interests involving food officers, the police and dealers, often steal the stock allocated for people in economic distress.
At a time when the country has witnessed unprecedented food inflation and a growing income inequality, the government must expedite the social security strategy implementation. It must immediately expand the schemes鈥� reach to include the most vulnerable, allocate enough financial resources to bridge the gap between the need and the allocation. It is, however, not enough to increase the budget allocation for social safety net without addressing rampant corruption. A successful implementation also requires an effective oversight to prevent theft.
