We must reap benefits of the demographic dividend

Bangladesh is passing through a time of demographic dividend for the time being. Every nation witnesses this demographic dividend situation only once. Some opine that a nation witnesses a demographic dividend situation once every thousand years. The nations that can utilize the demographic dividend in a planned way, they are the ones who reach the peak of economic and social development. Demographic dividend refers to a situation where a country’s total population’s two-third or more is of the age between 18 and 60 years. That means the working age population’s ratio is higher, and this situation is called demographic dividend; it can also be referred to as the number of working age people being higher than that of children and elderly in a population.

Bangladesh has been enjoying this situation for last several years. Our population’s major portion is working age now. They are creating employment in various ways. Demographic Dividend does not sustain for long. The average age of the people in our country is increasing. Child mortality rate is declining. The number of elderly people will increase in the coming days. In that situation, we will lose the demographic dividend situation. Thus, we need to utilize this situation in a planned way.

Japan utilized their demographic dividend and achieved economic acceleration; but the number of elderly people in Japan is higher. Thus, their development activities have decelerated somewhat. Japan had sustained its place in the world economy as the second greatest economic might for 44 years. However, they conceded their position to China a few years ago, dropping to the third position. Currently, China holds the second position in world economy after the US; but China too has arrived at the verge of its demographic dividend. Number of elderly people is also increasing in China. As a country, Japan holds an important place in the global economy. They don’t have any natural resources. Their main strength is technology. Japan does not have oil or gas. They have remained at the height of global economics through their technological progress. However, technological resources get transitioned easily. It can transition from one hand to another quite easily. In fact, there can be counterfeit of the actual technology too. The development that Japan had earned through technology, and that technology has been transitioned to other countries.

Various countries acquired the Japanese technology and used it for their own development. China is ahead of others in this case. There is no technology that China is not inventing. They are also replicating the technology of other countries too. China produces the same product for a variety of consumer categories. Thus, every level of profession and consumers are able to use Chinese made products. Japan’s key resource was human resource. They were advanced in education, but with time, other nations have also advanced in education, science and technology. Thus, Japan’s significance has declined to a great extent. Japan has sent its citizens abroad and got them educated in modern education. However, no matter how much a country’s citizens are educated, without natural resources, where are they supposed to use that modern technology and education? As Japan lags in natural resources, it is falling behind in competition. Various discrepancies are being witnessed in Japan’s population.

Recently, Japanese have become used to a new trend. It is called minimalism. It means being satisfied with the small amount that one has. It means that Japanese now want to be satisfied with whatever small amount they have. Like us, when we get money in hand, we tend to spend it for consumption, Japanese are completely opposite of it. They are not interested to use money for luxurious indulgence no matter how much they get of it. The minimalist idea has become quite popular among the Japanese youth. They believe the less they consume in life the better. They consume only as much as it necessary for living. When consumption declines in an economy, its witnesses decline in economic growth. Economy is shrinking. Japan’s economic growth is declined compared to that in the past.

In Bangladesh, we are observing the opposite trend of that in Japan. The people of our country are more engaged in luxurious indulging than ever before. We observe that families are regularly going out to eat with their families in the luxurious hotels and restaurants of Bangladesh. Our country’s economy is progressing rapidly, but distribution remains an issue. Rich are getting richer. Poor are getting poorer. In a statistics a few years ago, it was mentioned that the percentage of middle income families in Bangladesh will increase from 12 to 20 percent. Those newly entering the middle income level are more indulging and spend more.

Although Bangladesh is enjoying demographic dividend, there is a lack of awareness about it among us. Many of us are not properly aware of the demographic dividend situation. We have to utilize our demographic dividend in the right and planned way, as this opportunity will not come again. Thus, we will regret in the future if we don’t utilize the demographic dividend and take economic development to its peak. In order to fully utilize the demographic dividend we must train our human resources with the right skills and technology so that they can become self-dependent. In a country like ours, it is not possible for eradicating unemployment by giving everyone government jobs. So we have to focus on self-employment.

A large portion of our workforce is unemployed. They are not doing anything. They live their lives depending on the income of someone else in their families. This is unacceptable. Every working age member of family has to be engaged in some kind of work. The government is trying to educate the youth in self-employment oriented education. There are questions about the quality of our conventional education system. We have not been able to convert our higher education into employable skill education. That means, someone who is higher educated does not have the certainty of employment ahead of him. Our education system is more about creating unemployed people. If the education system is not conducive to employment then the problem of unemployment cannot be resolved. We have to design our education system in a way that one educated in higher education can create certainty for one’s self-employment. Our investment in personnel has slowed down for various reasons. Thus, it is not possible to offer an appropriate employment to someone consummate to his or her higher education. We have to use the right training and education for youth’s self-employment.

The initiatives of the government in this regard are not sufficient. More has to be done. A properly trained worker can never remain unemployed for long. He can arrange for employment on his own. After completing their secondary level, many students are getting enrolled in professional training courses. Thus, many seats in the universities remain vacant. A section of our youth is engaged in outsourcing and earning income. It is a commendable initiative. Of all the outsourcers in the world, 14% are Bangladeshis. This will increase in the future. I have several students in my class that earn 50-60 thousand a month from outsourcing. Many students used to tutor in the past. Now they do outsourcing. Outsourcing is of higher stature than doing private tuitions. There are many students in the class that are not that attentive. They stay awake in the night and do outsourcing. There are many that have not joined any employment after completing their education and bear the livelihood expenses through income from outsourcing.

More than a million Bangladeshis have gone abroad for employment in the last year. The nature of work who are going abroad is also changing. Before, those going abroad from Bangladesh for work used to go as workers. Now, many are going abroad and opening up business firms that employ Bangladeshis. This is increasing the number of entrepreneurs in Bangladesh as well as increasing employment opportunities for Bangladeshis abroad. There are many Bangladeshi business firms seen in the Middle East. That means, all those who go abroad from Bangladesh are not just workers. Many are now employers. Those who are young and trained in the appropriate skills, they will always find ways of self-employment. Those undergoing higher education, they understand that this conventional education will not be of any use in their employment career in the future. Thus, they have to learn self-employment conducive skills and have to arrange for employment of their own initiatives. I believe that Bangladesh will create a similar revolution with outsourcing as it has done with the RMG sector.

Bangladesh is passing through a demographic dividend situation. We have to expand employable education rather than the conventional education to utilize the benefits offered by this situation. We have to remember that demographic dividends do not come along all the time. Thus, it is unacceptable to show any kind of apathy in trying to utilize this situation. We have facilitate conducive environment for those who have the capacity to become entrepreneurs.

Author: Academician and former VC, Jagannath University.

Transcribe: M A Khaleque