Strive to become a welfare state, Prof Breman asks government
Professor Emeritus at University of Amsterdam sheds light on empowering the labour force.
KARACHI:
With the poor becoming poorer, the financially-strained sector is being marginalised from the rest of the world - but the governments of Pakistan and India prefer to ignore the issue instead of dealing with it.
These views were expressed by Dr Jan Breman, Professor Emeritus at the University of Amsterdam and Fellow of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research.
“In European countries and United States, the governments come to you [the people] while in India and Pakistan, the governments have to be begged to meet your needs,” said Breman in his lecture on Friday in Karachi, organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research.
Beginning his conversation with views on capitalism, Breman said that although it was a “cruel” concept about 150 years back, the situation gradually became better - governments provided people social security and even the poor were treated as citizens. “Welfare state was a very big achievement but it was limited to Europe and then it only reached America.”
During his speech, Breman repeatedly stressed the importance of social security for the poor. “Peasants have lost their jobs in villages which were the main source for their livelihood,” he said. Karachi, according to him, has become one of the largest cities in the world in term of migrants who left their houses and came to the city. Now, majority of Sindh’s economy comes from urban resources.
“Education is the way to end poverty - we are all aware of this and so is the man who works in a brick furnace but has to take his child with him to work as he needs all the help to provide food for the next day,” he said.
According to him, poverty is spreading all across the globe and one third of the children in Netherlands are growing up in financially-challenged households.
Sharing his experience with the labourers in Indian state Gujarat, who he met during his research, the professor said that it was one of the fastest growing states in India. “It has made developments in sugarcane cultivation,” he explained.
“While its farmers have become rich, the labour force has lost their jobs as people from outside have been brought in for the harvesting.”
He recommended that the government should be “pro-poor” if they want to help them, and the civil society also needs to step up in eliminating this problem from their country.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2012.
With the poor becoming poorer, the financially-strained sector is being marginalised from the rest of the world - but the governments of Pakistan and India prefer to ignore the issue instead of dealing with it.
These views were expressed by Dr Jan Breman, Professor Emeritus at the University of Amsterdam and Fellow of the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research.
“In European countries and United States, the governments come to you [the people] while in India and Pakistan, the governments have to be begged to meet your needs,” said Breman in his lecture on Friday in Karachi, organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research.
Beginning his conversation with views on capitalism, Breman said that although it was a “cruel” concept about 150 years back, the situation gradually became better - governments provided people social security and even the poor were treated as citizens. “Welfare state was a very big achievement but it was limited to Europe and then it only reached America.”
During his speech, Breman repeatedly stressed the importance of social security for the poor. “Peasants have lost their jobs in villages which were the main source for their livelihood,” he said. Karachi, according to him, has become one of the largest cities in the world in term of migrants who left their houses and came to the city. Now, majority of Sindh’s economy comes from urban resources.
“Education is the way to end poverty - we are all aware of this and so is the man who works in a brick furnace but has to take his child with him to work as he needs all the help to provide food for the next day,” he said.
According to him, poverty is spreading all across the globe and one third of the children in Netherlands are growing up in financially-challenged households.
Sharing his experience with the labourers in Indian state Gujarat, who he met during his research, the professor said that it was one of the fastest growing states in India. “It has made developments in sugarcane cultivation,” he explained.
“While its farmers have become rich, the labour force has lost their jobs as people from outside have been brought in for the harvesting.”
He recommended that the government should be “pro-poor” if they want to help them, and the civil society also needs to step up in eliminating this problem from their country.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2012.