Understanding severe and persistent poverty in rural Bangladesh

Bangladesh made important advances in poverty reduction during the 1990s. In the same decade, however, inequality rose and many of the country’s poorest people stayed trapped in poverty. In rural areas, what factors contribute to severe and persistent poverty?
Research from the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, in the UK, examines poverty dynamics in rural Bangladesh. It presents findings from a survey of 64 villages carried out from April to July 2005. The survey explores participants’ perceptions of their poverty status and the reasons for any decline or improvement in their wellbeing.
Understanding how and why people – particularly those from the poorest groups – fall into, stay in and move out of poverty is important for designing strategies to improve their wellbeing.
The researchers examine the poverty impact of certain household characteristics including: household size, members’ ages, their level of schooling and employment status, their health status and access to healthcare, the household’s land and other assets, and access to credit, safe drinking water and sanitation.
The researchers also look at the impact of various shocks including: natural disasters such as floods, crop failure, heavy rains, tornados and river erosion, and other crises such as serious illness or the death of family member.
The researchers also examine the poverty impact of a range of other factors, including access to various government services (for example, roads, electricity and pensions) and attitudes to social and political issues (for example, girls’ education and corruption).
The research shows that people in rural areas do move into and out of poverty. It also shows that most people living in extreme poverty get trapped in that situation for generations.
Key findings of the research include:
Lack of assets, limited job opportunities, fewer earners in the family and limited access to credit are linked with households falling into severe and long-term poverty.
Shocks also impact on household poverty; the poorest households are most affected by illness and the death of a family member.
Community-level factors (for example, lack of access to services such as electricity) also impact on household poverty.
Employment and access to credit are important for climbing out of poverty.
Poor families have lower access to education and worse health status than non-poor families.
Arsenic contamination was found to affect 16 percent of tube-wells tested, making drinking water unsafe for many households.
The findings reveal the factors that keep some of the poorest people in rural Bangladesh trapped in poverty, often for generations. Designing effective interventions to help people move out of poverty will be essential.
The researchers conclude that:
unequal access to education, health, credit, infrastructure and other services should be addressed
policies to help households cope with crises (such as health insurance) should be introduced
policies designed to boost employment and incomes in rural areas are needed
government services in healthcare, social protection and agricultural extension need to be improved
arsenic contamination of groundwater should be rectified.


Source(s):‘Rural Poverty Dynamics 2005/2006: Evidence from 64-Village Census Plus’, Programme for Research on Chronic Poverty in Bangladesh (PRCPB) Working Paper No. 17, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies: Dhaka and Chronic Poverty Research Centre: Manchester, by Zulfiqar Ali, Sharifa Begum, Quazi Shahabuddin and Marium Khan, 2006 (PDF) Full document.Further details about this research project on the Research for Development Portal Full document.
Funded by: UK Department for International Development
id21 Research Highlight: 1 April 2009
Further Information:Zulfiqar Ali and Sharifa BegumBangladesh Institute of Development StudiesE-17, Agargaon, Sher-e-Bangla NagarGPO Box 3854, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh
Tel: +880 2 9138662Fax: +880 2 8113023Contact the contributor: moni@sdnbd.org, sharifa@sdnbd.org
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies
Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC)Institute for Development Policy and ManagementSchool of Environment and DevelopmentUniversity of ManchesterHumanities Bridgeford StreetManchester, M13 9PLUK.
Tel: +44 161 2752810Fax: +44 161 2738829Contact the contributor: p.reyes@odi.org.uk
Chronic Poverty Research Centre, IDPM, UK

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