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Professor
Amartya Sen
has inaugurated the
Pratichi
(Bangladesh) Trust
in Dhaka on December 15, 2000.
The Trust has been created from
the Nobel Award received by Professor
Amartya Sen for his contribution
to the discipline of Economics.
The Trust has been established
by Prof Sen. The Centre
for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised
the inaugural ceremony which was
attended by MPs, academics, economists
and leading members of Bangladesh
civil society.
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CPD's
Executive Director Dr
Debapriya Bhattacharya
delivered the address
of welcome at the inaugural
ceremony which was presided
over by Mr Fazle Hasan
Abed, founding Director
of BRAC and a member of
the Trust.
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Professor
Rehman Sobhan, Chairman,
CPD, is the Chairman of
the Trust. Professor
Sobhan, a close friend
of Professor Sen,
unfortunately could not
attend the function as he
had to go abroad to attend
an urgent family matter.
Other members of the Trust
are Mr Fazle Hasan Abed,
Dr Kamal Hossain, Prof Meghna
Guhathakurta and Advocate
Sultana Kamal.
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"Activities
of the Trust will reflect the
belief and ideals of Prof Sen's
life" Dr Debpriya informed
the audience. He said that the
Trust money would be used to promote
education, health services and
emergency medical treatment and
shall give priority to the disadvantaged
groups, specially women.
In
his inaugural speech Prof Sen
said that food self-sufficiency
and availability of food for everyone
are not the same thing. The latter
has a direct relation with buyers
affordability to be backed by
purchasing power. Prof Sen in
his speech dwelt on the improved
gender issue in Bangladesh saying
that the empowerment of women
here was moving faster than that
in the other South Asian countries.
He said that fertility had a direct
link with women's participation
in decision making. As they advance
towards progress their propensity
to have more children only declines.
He concluded his speech saying
not only political will but also
its concrete execution was required
to remove inequality and enhance
the role of women in the society.
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