Staff Reporter :
Dr. AK Azad Khan, president, Bangladesh Diabetic Association on Wednesday said that universal health care is a basic right and can be introduced in the country at minimal costs. Referring to the coverage of 10,000 garment workers under such a healthcare programme he said that the cost comes to about Taka 500 per person a year.
He praised a newly launched microcredit programme that is interest collateral-free and takes no service charge. Quoting from a Persian poem he said after deaths people can carry nothing with them nor can they bribe the angel of death to live in this world indefinitely, and underlined the need for charity to serve the suffering humanity.
Dr. Khan was speaking as the chief at a discussion organised by helpotherbd.com at the National Press Club. Presided over by Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty, executive directortor of Sakkhar, a foundation of education and research, the programme was also addressed by Prof. Abdul Latif Masum, former VC of the Patuakhali University of Science and Technology and Mostafa Kamal Majumder, editor in-charge, The New Nation as special guests. Prof. Rashed Mahmud Titumir of Dhaka University was the keynote speaker while senior journalist Rafiq Hasan presented the keynote paper.
Under the interest and collateral-free microcredit system loans are extended for three months. Clients repay loan and take fresh loan for the same tenure. The programme is being run on a pilot basis is three areas of Pirojpur, Narayanganj and Dhaka. The loan recovery rate is 95 percent. Organisers of the programme welcome participation of well-to-do people to help needy people meet their emergency credit needs.
