More than 1100 dead, many others coping with temporary or permanent disabilities, and people still missing. The 24 April 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse – Bangladesh's worst ever industrial disaster – has left the country reeling and Bangladeshi rights groups working overtime to help affected families.
Nearly two months after the building collapsed, the World Bank (WB) published its ten-year progress report looking at poverty trends in Bangladesh, titled Bangladesh Poverty Assessment: Assessing a Decade of Progress in Reducing Poverty, 2000-2010. "These are impressive achievements!" the report exclaimed while describing the country's success in reducing poverty, and Bangladesh surely deserves some credit. But while the report looked at a wide variety of economic indicators in making its assessment, it failed to address the critical links between poverty and human rights, especially in three areas: disability, labour protections, and gender-based violence.
Disabling environments
The report's 262-pages make no mention of the connection between poverty and disability. Although the report's discussion of safety nets includes a brief description of Bangladesh's cash-transfer scheme for people with disabilities, it does not present data on poverty rates among these individuals and their families. This omission is particularly stark coming close on the heels of the Rana Plaza disaster. A May 2013 estimate from an international NGO stated that 189 survivors of the collapse may develop long-term disabilities; at least 17 people have already undergone amputations.
Estimates vary, but according to the Centre for Disability in Development, a local NGO, approximately 16 million people with disabilities live in Bangladesh today. Disability and poverty are often mutually reinforcing. Many disability rights groups – both local and international – say that people with disabilities are overrepresented among those living in absolute poverty, by one WB estimate accounting for 1 in 5 of the poorest people.