29-03-2018

NEWS
THURSDAY,
MARCH 29, 2018
2
Bangabandhu Sena Parishad organized a press conference at DRU yesterday.
Photo : Star Mail
Countries in Asia, Pacific must invest
to achieve SDGs by 2030: report
DHAKA : Countries in Asia and the
Pacific must build resilience to
natural hazards and invest in social
protection systems if the region is to
achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) by
2030, according to a joint report of
ESCAP and UNDP.
The United Nations Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and
the Pacific (ESCAP), the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), and the
UN Development Programme
(UNDP) launched the report
yesterday at a forum in Bangkok,
said a media release.
The report, titled 'Transformation
towards sustainable and resilient
societies in Asia and the Pacific,' has
highlighted that to build resilience
against recurrent shocks such as
flooding, pollution, and commodity
price volatility, societies need to
focus on four types of resilience
capacities-anticipatory, absorptive,
adaptive, and transformative.
The report said that many
countries are already beginning to
build resilience capacities against
various shocks through, for
example, setting up early warning
systems to anticipate natural
disasters, mainstreaming climate
change in national planning, and
investing in social protection
systems to promote income and
health security. However, much
more needs to be done to identify
and implement policy responses
that will help strengthen countries'
resilience and transform vulnerable
human systems into more
sustainable ones.
"Building effective resilience
frameworks for the future must be
backed by anticipatory, absorptive,
adaptive, and transformative
capacities to deal with the multiple
risks we face," said UN Under-
Secretary-General and Executive
Secretary of ESCAP Dr. Shamshad
Akhtar.
"Effectively implemented, this
strategic approach will strengthen
prevention mechanisms, increase
mitigation solutions, and offer
opportunities for human systems to
bounce back," Shamshad Akhtar
added.
Asia and the Pacific has gone
through a rapid transformation over
the last few decades, with issues like
aging, urbanization, increasing
demand for natural resources,
globalization, and technological
progress continuing to reshape the
region, it said. However, the impacts
of these trends often fall
disproportionately on the most
marginalized groups and
communities, according to the
report, exacerbated by the fact that
Asia and the Pacific is considered
one of the most vulnerable regions
in the world to various
environmental and financial shocks.
For example, over 40 million
people in Bangladesh, India, and
Nepal were affected by intense
monsoon rains in August 2017.
Effects of air pollution, meanwhile,
have cost the sub regions of South
Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific
an estimated 7.5 percent of regional
gross domestic product, while oil
price slumps in 2014 brought about
severe economic and financial
consequences in Central Asia, with
Azerbaijan alone experiencing a 3
percent drop in economic growth.
"There is a challenge everywhere
we look, but there are also
opportunities that can help us make
progress on the SDGs," said ADB
Vice-President for Knowledge
Management and Sustainable
Development Bambang Susantono.
"We are committed to supporting
countries to mobilize the diverse
sources of financing they will need
to achieve the SDGs. We have
pledged to scale up our financing for
climate action to $6 billion a year by
2020, and double climate finance to
Pacific developing member
countries to $500 million between
2017 and 2020," said Bambang
Susantono.
"At UNDP, we believe that
innovation will power dramatic
change that can break through the
toughest development challenges in
the Asia-Pacific region, and
transform societies," said Haoliang
Xu, UN Assistant Secretary General
and Director of UNDP's Regional
Bureau for Asia and the Pacific.
"Such innovations will engage
communities in building resilience
against risks and promoting
sustainability, so that we can end
poverty and hunger, and achieve
our goal of leaving no one behind,"
Haoliang Xu added.
ESCAP, ADB, and UNDP
launched the report at the 5th Asia-
Pacific Forum on Sustainable
Development (APFSD) held in
Bangkok from March 28-30 as part
of their joint efforts to track SDG
progress and support countries in
the region to achieve the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable
Development.
The conclusions and
recommendations from the forum
will inform global-level discussions
of the High-level Political Forum on
Sustainable Development to be held
in New York in July 2018.
PM to visit
Thakurgaon
Thursday
THAKURGAON : Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina
will visit Thakurgaon
district on Thursday to
inaugurate and lay the
foundation stones of some
68 development projects,
reports UNB.
The Prime Minister will
arrive here at noon. A
helicopter carrying her
will land at Thakurgaon
Border Guard Bangladesh
helipad at 12 pm, said
Deputy Commissioner of
the district M
Akhtaruzzaman.
The Prime Minister will
address a public rally to be
organised by local Awami
League at Govt Boys'
School ground at 3pm
from where she will
inaugurate 35 projects and
lay the foundation stones
of 33 others.
There is a lot of
enthusiasm among the
local people over the
Prime Minister's visit as
she is coming here after 16
years and six months.
Sheikh Hasina last
visited Thakurgaon on
September 18, 2001.
District Awami League
general secretary and Zila
Parishad chairman
Muhammad Sadek
Quraishi said they have
already put forward a 58-
point demand to the Prime
Minister.
The demands include
establishing a public
university, a medical
college and an export
processing zone, opening
the closed airport and
introducing intercity train
service in the district.
Struggling life of a
Jamalpur eunuch
JAMALPUR : Although they reside within the boundaries of
society, they seem to be social outcasts given their identities as
the third gender, Hijra, according to the president of Shiri
Shomaj Kolyan Shangstha, Arifa Yeasmin Moyuri, reports
UNB.
Shunned and ignored, most of them are living under a
blanket of their own kind, as the common people do not pay
attention to their needs or rights.
Born in June 1989 in the district's Dapunia village, Moyuri
was born to late Abdur Razzak and Fatema Khatun.
They had no idea about how things would turn out for
Moyuri, who was born as a boy, Alif.
Alif first started to show signs of a budding eunuch when he
was six-year old, when his parents had taken him out for Eid
shopping and he forcibly chose a girl's frock over boy's clothing.
Bowing down to his stubborn decision, they brought him
that frock, which would prove to be a turning point in young
Alif's life.
Ever since then, he started experiencing fascination for
acting like a girl, as his friends and neighbours had mercilessly
teased him for dressing up like a girl.
Undaunted, he started to yearn towards eunuch groups in
the city, drifting off to them whenever he used to get an
opportunity.
He was grounded for a long period of time so that he could
not come under their influence, but he ran away from home
when he was 12, finally cutting his ties with his family, and off
to the hijra community.
Once he transformed into Moyuri, what she did not
anticipate was the daily routine of mockery, ignorance,
ostracizing and not to mention sexual discrimination at the
hands of unruly members of society.
Relentless in her pursuit of acceptance from society, she
strived to complete her primary and secondary education,
eventually earning a diploma in electric trade from
Mymensingh Polytechnic Institute.
Despite passing with good marks, she was deemed ineligible
for attending a viva interview for a position at Power
Development Board just because she was a eunuch.
Similar outcome awaited her for a recruitment test at
Mymensingh Judge Court.
Moyuri believed that a person can be enriched not only
professionally, but also culturally, which is why she enrolled at
the local Bohubrihi organisation for dance lessons and became
a skilled dancer.
She was recruited at a local NGO organisation, Bondhu, as a
dance teacher, but undue advances of supervisor towards her
ultimately forced her to leave the institution.
This societal ignorance taught her to become self-sufficient in
order to succeed in life, and so she formed Shiri Shomaj Kolyan
Shangstha at Jamalpur's Mukundabari, where over 50
eunuchs are now members, with 20 of them actively involved
in the handicraft trade.
Organizations, working against repression of women organized a press conference at National Press
Club yesterday.
Photo : Star Mail
Pallabi water-tank
blast victim dies at
DMCH
DHAKA : A minor girl, who along with
four other people sustained burn injuries
after an underground reservoir of a house
exploded and caught fire in the city's
Pallabi area on Tuesday, died at Dhaka
Medical College Hospital (DMCH) early
Wednesday, reports UNB.
Ruhi, 3, succumbed to her injuries at the
DMCH burn unit around 1am, said subinspector
Bachchu Miah of the DMCH
police camp.
Five people, including Ruhi and her
mother Yeasmin, 27, suffered burn
injuries as a fire broke out following the
explosion of the water tank of the sixstorey
building around 11:30am on
Tuesday.
The blast occurred when worker Hasan
lit a candle inside the water tank while
cleaning it.
All the victims were taken to the DMCH
burn unit. The other victims are building
owner Yeakub Ali, 70, his wife Hasinara
Khanam, 60, and Hasan, 32.
Of them, Hasinara suffered 95 percent
burns while Hasan 85 percent, Yeasmin 41
percent and Yeakub 25 percent, said the
police officer.
3 to die for murder
in Chandpur
CHANDPUR : A court here on Wednesday
sentenced three people to death for
killing a young man.
The condemned convicts are-Sufian
Ahmed alias Shibir, son of Shajahan
Shikder of Shahbazkandi village, Saiful
Islam alias Sujon, son of Shafiqul Islam
and Sharif Hossain, son of Mosharraf
Sarder of Dakkhin Fatehpur village in
Matlab North upazila.
The court also fined the convicts Tk
one lakh each, reports UNB.
According to the prosecution, Masud
Rana, son of Moon Bepari of Dakkhin
Fatehpur village, was killed following
enmity with the convicts over selling a
gold chain at his shop on February 27,
2009. A case was filed in this connection.
Police submitted chargesheet against
them on May 30, 2009.
After examining the records and witnesses,
Chandpur Additional District
and Session Judge Mamunur Rashid
handed down the verdict.
Abdul Malek
donates Tk 10
lac to AMCGH
Former Additional Engr of
Housing and Public Works
Department, Adbul Malek
donated TK 10 lac to
Ahsania Mission Cancer
Hospital Construction
(AMCGH) Fund.
Adbul Malek handed over
the cheque to the President
of DAM Kazi Rafiqul Alam
recently at Dhanmondi
Head office of Dhaka
Ahsania Mission (DAM). At
that time Deputy Director of
DAM Mohammad Abdul
Hye was present. Through
this donation, he became a
life time member of DAM.
DAM President Kazi Rafiqul
Alam informed to Adbul
Malek about development of
Cancer hospital.
Abdul Malek welcomed
the Dhaka Ahsania Mission
for such kind initiative for
constructing international
standard hospital.
Class-X student
stabbed dead in
Manikganj
MANIKGANJ : A Class-X
student was stabbed to
death allegedly by a young
man at Pouli village in
Manikganj municipality
area on Tuesday night,
reports UNB.
The deceased was
identified as Rakib, 17, a
student of Manikganj
Technical School and
College.
Locals said Mithu, son of
Monnaf of Kandapouli
village, called Rakib out of
his house around 9pm and
took him to a maize field
where he stabbed the boy
indiscriminately, leaving
him critically injured.
GD-467/18 (5 x 4)
GD-472/18 (6 x 3)