Negative attitude and practices of a section of service providers discourage the country’s marginalised people from using existing accountability mechanisms to seek services and remedy, a TIB study suggests.
It says linguistic, financial and technical predicaments and capabilities of marginalised groups are not often taken into account.
In such a situation, the civil society organisation has recommended the enactment of an anti-discrimination law soon to eliminate barriers to inclusion of the marginalised people in various public services and thus ensure non-discriminatory and accountable services.
Bangladesh is home to at least 30 million marginalised people in view of race, religious identity, caste, ethnicity, occupation, and different trait-based identity, the study report released on Thursday mentioned.
The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) report pointed out that the marginalised people ‘do not often get the expected results by filing complaints but instead face adverse reactions’. It added that they are unable to file lawsuits due to the absence of anti-discrimination law.
“Unless the accountability system is strengthened to ensure equal access to basic services and entitlements of the marginalised people, it will be difficult to achieve the pledge of 'leaving no one behind' under the Sustainable Development Goals,” read the study on ‘Access of Marginalised Communities to Public Services: An Assessment of Accountability Mechanisms’.
It also observed that a lack of precise data on marginalised people, as well as their lack of knowledge about accessibility and inclusion, is a major obstacle to providing public access.
Social exclusion, weakness in inclusion, and stigmatisation are among the issues that are referred to as marginalisation.
The study, conducted between October 2020 and September 2021, was aimed at assessing the state of access to and exercise of the existing institutional accountability system by the marginalised people in receiving various public services.
TIB’s 2017 National Household Survey 2017 found that corruption is an added burden on the poor, low-income, less educated, and backward communities.
The impact of bribery and unlawful exchange of money on the marginalised population is said to be relatively high.