How Will the Muslims of South Asia Escape the Poverty Trap?

Most of the predominantly Buddhist and Hindu countries of East Asia have much stronger economies than they had 30 years ago. Japan has been an economic power since the 1960s, and the Chinese have experienced strong growth ever since they abandoned Maoism in the late 1970s. As we saw last month, the high caste Hindu peoples are developing India’s economy very rapidly.

For the Muslim peoples of south Asia, the future does not look so rosy. The only Muslim countries that have strong economies are those that have vast oil reserves, and even then, the wealth may dry up as soon as China and the West find other sources of energy. It seems that Muslim peoples in south Asia haven’t yet found their niche in today’s world. In general terms, the Buddhist countries have excelled in manufacturing consumer goods, and Hindu India is using its Information Technology (IT) know how to improve their economy. Muslim peoples in south Asia are especially vulnerable.

This vulnerability is especially severe in much of India. Here the 2006 government-published Sachar Report tells us that Muslims in that country have even a higher rate of unemployment than Hindu untouchables. Government reports also indicate that Muslims, especially women, have a lower literacy rate than the other five major religious communities in India: the Hindus, the Christians, the Sikhs, the Buddhists, and the Jains.

Good News and Bad News From Muslim Bangladesh

Just to the east of India is Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country of 135 million souls. Though Bangladesh has been noted for her high poverty rate ever since she became an independent nation in 1971, the poverty rate decreased by nine percent during the 1990s. A report by the World Bank Group credits Bangladesh’s improvements to a higher gross national product (GNP), slower population growth, more involvement by the Bangladesh government to increase the literacy rate, and a provision for more medical care and safety nets to this ecologically vulnerable nation.

Lying at a low elevation, mainly on a giant estuary where rivers run into the Indian Ocean, Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to flooding. These disasters destroy much of Bangladesh’s arable land on a regular basis. Having a high population density, Bangladesh can be economically ruined with a single flood. Floods can cause a mix between the fresh water coming from the rivers, and the salt water coming from the Indian Ocean. The salt water destroys rice crops, and leaves the land uncultivatable. When this happens, poor farmers must either leave the land for the cities, or borrow from moneylenders, pushing them deeper into poverty. According to a February 21, 2007 article in the “Los Angeles Times,” global warming has the strong potential to permanently raise the water levels in Bangladesh, making less of the land cultivatable, and destroying the livelihood of their rural majority.

The Maldives, a string of low-lying islands to the south of India, are vulnerable for the same reason. The Maldivians are entirely Muslim, with a heavy dose of Animistic beliefs blended in with Islam.

The World Bank posted a report on the Internet entitled, “Poverty in Bangladesh: Building on Progress.” This report said that, “Poor people in Bangladesh tend to have low levels of education and limited access to land and hold low-paying, physically-demanding, and socially unattractive occupations, such as casual wage labor. In both urban and rural areas, the poor lack access to modern amenities and services, and they also tend to live in houses of inferior quality.”

Ideally, each nation state should be self-reliant in food production and have something to export that will bring in wealth. Bangladesh has very little that is in demand on the world market. Japan was in a similar state after WWII. However, the Japanese enjoyed a high literacy rate, a factor that consistently helps countries to overcome poverty. Bangladesh is moving in the right direction; those who completed the fifth grade rose from 44 to 56 percent between 1991 and 2000. Yet they have a long way to go.

In his April 2003 abstract entitled, “Inequality in the Access to Education and Poverty in Bangladesh,” Alia Ahmad summarized why lack of education keeps people in poverty. “The relationship between education and poverty is a circular one: the lack of secondary-level education may force poor households to engage in low-productivity activities, and results in poverty. On the other hand, poverty leads to low investment in education.”

Incomplete Answers to Poverty

Islam offers some ideas regarding how to fight poverty. The most well known is the “zekat,” mandatory alms given to the destitute poor. In some ways this resembles the modern welfare state in that it taxes the “haves” to help those without adequate means. This is left up to the individual, except in Saudi Arabia where Sharia (Islamic) law is enforced by the state. Then there is this more permanent approach, described in the Koran. “A man approached the Holy Prophet seeking for his generosity. The Holy Prophet instead asked him to bring whatever he had from his home. The man returned with an old copper mug. The Holy Prophet then asked his companions seated with him if any of them would buy the mug. One of the companions offered to pay one dirham. The Holy Prophet then asked if anyone would offer two dirhams, and one of them did. He then gave one dirham to the man to buy food for the day and asked him to buy an axe with the other dirham. When he came back with the axe, the Holy Prophet personally fixed a wooden handle to the axe and asked him to get firewood to sell at the market. A few days later, the man met the Holy Prophet and told him he has been getting some 15 dirhams selling firewood within the last few days.”

Though you see few such examples coming from the Islamic world today, there is one notable example that began in the 1970s. Dr. Hohammed Yunus, an economics professor at the University of Chittagong became aware of poverty in the Bangladeshi village of Jobra. The villagers told him that if they had a small amount of money they could invest in a cow or some chickens. Banks would not lend to them, so Dr. Yunis started loaning money from his own pocket. It took much effort on his part to get sponsorship from the central bank in Bangladesh and support from the commercial banks to extend these small, no-interest loans to such poor people. This grew into what became known in 1983 as the Grameen Bank (Village Bank). Last year, Dr. Yunis won the Nobel Peace Prize for establishing the Grameen Bank, which now helps perhaps hundreds of thousands to inch their way above the poverty line.

Micro loans have helped the poor start poultry farms, sell eggs, begin to make money with dairy cows, start fisheries, and even rent out cell phones. Hundreds of thousands in Bangladesh and beyond have benefited from them. Muslim and Christian organizations both offer similar programs. Micro loan programs have been criticized because they don’t help the desperately poor, but they obviously make a difference in the lives of those who are closer to leaving a life of poverty.

New technology has also helped the poor in Bangladesh. The cell phones that poor women rent out through the Village Phone Program are used by farmers who can find out how to receive a fair market price for their goods, according to a February 19th, 2007 article in “BBC News.” Eleven days later, “BBC News” published another article describing a system whereby farmland in Bangladesh can be made to float when the floods come, thus preventing the loss of crops. Aid organizations are backing these fledgling programs. Mumbai, India is a computer-oriented city with plenty of cyber-cafes where people can pay to go online. Middle class Muslim communities groups like the Memons and Bohras can use these computers to get a basic education at a distance.

These are all good things, and each of them help alleviate poverty in a particular location. But poverty is still widespread in South Asia, especially among the Muslim communities. In order for widespread change to happen, be it in a Muslim community, or any other for that matter, there must be a change of heart in the community. “The Kingdom of God is within,” Jesus said to Pilate. The Roman official knew just what he meant. Change must come from within the human heart. That change must come from the Holy Spirit. Though Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs can do good things for their communities, they are not empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring about lasting change. Only those who are willing to accept the lordship of Christ, and allow the Holy Spirit to indwell them and direct them can find a way out of the human predicament of poverty.

# Pray for the Holy Spirit to move in Muslim communities of South Asia, convicting them of sin, and directing them to Christ.