Economic inequality biggest threat to security: Kailash
Economic inequality and income gap are the biggest global threat to security and social peace, said Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi at a session of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) here today.
“Income gap is widening gradually..... Only eight people own wealth amount of half of the total population of the world,” he said while presenting a key-note paper on “Redressing Inequalities: Delivering on Dignity and Well-Being for all” at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).
Bangladesh Parliament Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, President of the Forum of Women Parliamentarians of the IPU Margaret Mensah-Williams and President of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians of the IPU Saeed Aloremeithi, among others, addressed the session.
Several hundreds of parliamentarians, delegates and officials from different countries joined the session while IPU President Saber Hossain Chowdhury was present. Referring to a report, Kailash said, “In USA, few decades ago, ratio of income gap between CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and an employee was 1:20 meaning a CEO was getting salary 20 times higher than an employee. Now ratio of income gap between CEO and a general worker is 1:200.”
“We should first reduce income inequality to build a peaceful planet, where all children, all women of all corners of the world will get same facilities,” he added.
Huge inequality exists in society as 270 million children are not attending in the schools, Kailash said adding, “100 million children have become victims of trafficking, slavery and different other forms of valences while 100 million youths want to change the world.”
Narrating vulnerable picture of children around the world, the Nobel peace laureate said, “I asked children living in some African and South Asian countries. What is their dreams... They could not tell me any dream. These children are growing up without dream. I think society cannot tolerate this vulnerability of these children.”
Scenario of children and women living war-conflicted countries are extremely worst, Kailash said, “They (children and women) are tortured, raped and faced other form of violence. In many cases, both children and women are killed in those countries.”
“Corporate leaders are powerful. But you (parliament members) are more powerful than any forces of society,” he said calling upon the parliament members around the world to take action to remove all sorts of inequality particularly economic disparity.
Addressing the session, Dr Shirin Sahramin Chaudhury said that social and economic inequalities exist in almost all countries in the world. “Education is the best tool to remove all sorts of inequality. So, we have to bring all children into schools.”
She urged all IPU member countries to take affirmative policy action to provide education facilities of underprivileged groups of society for building a peaceful world.
Bangladesh has made a remarkable progress in expansion of education as the country is implementing many affirmative programmes including stipend and distribution of free textbooks, she added.
Women participation must in all spheres of society including politics, financial services to eliminate inequality as they make up half of total population in the world, Dr Shirin added. Describing womenfolk as driving forces of development, Margaret Mensah-Williams said, “We have to ensure economic empowerment of women for their access to politics, decision making process and other fields of development.”
Gender equality in politics is crucial to democracy and to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she said adding, “If we want to achieve SDGs by 2030, we must promote women empowerment efforts through establishing equal rights of women.” The global average of the women in national parliament is 23.3 percent, up from 22.6 percent a year ago, an IPU study said adding at this pace it would take another 50 years to reach gender parity in parliament.
It added sexism, harassment and violence against women MPs are global problems that impede gender equality and undermine the foundations of democracy.
The study revealed that 81.8 per cent of survey participants have experienced some form of psychological violence.
Among them, some 44 per cent said they had received threats of death, rape, beatings or abduction during their parliamentary terms, including threats to kidnap or kill their children.
The 136th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly that kicked off in the city yesterday, ‘would create a unique opportunity for Bangladesh to showcase the country’s ongoing economic progress and its potentialities before the international communities’.
Bangladesh is hosting the assembly of IPU, the century-old organisation of world’s legislators, for the first time after joining the forum in 1972.
Earlier, the IPU President Saber Hossain Chowdhury said a total of 1,348 delegates including 53 speakers, deputy speakers and 209 women parliamentarians of 131 countries have been joining the assembly.
Source: BSS
