THE rate of extreme poverty has increased in at least twenty four districts of Bangladesh during the pandemic period, a joint study conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and a UK university shows. The study report, released at a programme in the capital on Thursday, claims that inequalities in income, expenditure, government investment and social security allocations are creating new pockets of poverty in the northern, western and southwestern districts of the country. The number of extremely poor people was 1.7 crore before the beginning of the pandemic, which was 10 percent of the population. But this number has increased due to the pandemic.
Experts however suggested increasing the scope of social security programmes and creating jobs in areas that have been identified as poor for decades, as well as in areas where poverty rate has increased recently. In this context, they said we have to come out of the practice of including rich people in social security programmes and excluding the poor from the list. An accurate database is needed to do this. Moreover, some social security programmes should be implemented among all the people, as their helplessness has increased in recent times because their expenditure in the non-food sector has almost doubled.
According to the report, about 54 per cent of the people of Kurigram, the most impoverished district, are extremely poor. Poverty rate there has increased by 22.7 per cent in six years. The rate has increased by 28.7 per cent in Bandarban, 23.7 per cent in Dinajpur and 16.7 per cent in Kishoreganj. The idea of complete eradication of extreme poverty in a low-income country like Bangladesh would be one of disbelief, but it has already achieved many seemingly unachievable goals – in reducing child mortality, sending girls to school and reducing population growth. Consolidating efforts in short, medium and long terms might help increase the country’s growth with equity.
