বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্রঃ তৃতীয় পত্র
The per capita income is only $56. Its industrialization is rudimentary, its monetization limited, and its financial superstructure inadequate. On top of it there is a economic shortage of food which has been aggravated by the cyclone of 1970 and by the present genocidal war with unparalleled brutalities unleashed on Bangladesh by the West Pakistani military rulers.
The real Bangladesh lies in these villages, more than 65,000 villages. Our people are condemned to an unimaginable alyss of poverty due to the criminal negligence of the government to agriculture and the pursuit of a capitalist economy which has the effect of transforming the purchasing power of the community to the members of the 22 families. Our lands are the most fertile ones in the world and yet our people are the poorest. But the present liberation struggle which also involves a mighty social revolution has awakened our people to an unprecedented degree. The people are wide awake today. They are no longer the passive objects of policy but its main driving force. Acutely anxious inquiry has moved from the questions “who are the poor?” to the fundamental question “why are they poor?” There is no getting away from answering this fundamental question. The problem of poverty is not a problem of industrial character and its waywardness, but a problem of economic and industrial policy and organization. The issue has to be tackled first at its source, and only secondly in its manifestation.
The villages, as already stated, are the appropriate centers to put into effect the socialist economic order based on democratic values. The task of bringing about a social and economic revolution through democratic process must begin in the villages where more than 94.8 per cent of the people live. The Community Development and National Extension Projects are the effective means of bringing about the social and economic transformation of the village communities. The Community Development Projects have, therefore, a place of capital significance in these sectors of our national life, which bear most closely upon the welfare of the rural population.
The Community Development Projects have three important aspects. First, the community development projects and the national extension services are intended to be the areas of intensive effort in which development agencies of the government work together as a team in programmers which are planned and co-ordinated in advance. The activities comprised within the community development and national extension projects must be regarded as an integral part of the programme for improving all aspects of rural life. Second, the essence of the programme is that the villagers who are acutely conscious of their miseries come together for bringing about Social changes, that is, building a new life for themselves and participate with increasing awareness and responsibility in the planning and implementation of projects, which are material to their well-being. The programmes provide them with new opportunities, and in turn, through their active participation in planning and execution, they give them a distinctive quality and enlarge their scope and influence. Self-help and co-operation are the basic principles on which the movement rests. Its main purpose is to provide opportunities for leadership to grow from within. In essence it is a movement for social development, which will embrace all sections of the rural communities. Third, the movement should bring within its scope the entire rural communities and enable them to take their place in the co-operative
