BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

RURAL POVERTY IN BANGLADESH: TRENDS, DETERMINANTS AND POLICY ISSUES

Author: Md Abu Raihan

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2010v31n2a5

ABSTRACT

This paper reveals the scenario of rural poverty in Bangladesh and explores its underlying causes. Italso analyses the ongoing government strategies to combat rural poverty and suggestsseveral measures to produce much more success in the field. Needless to mention,Bangladesh has been experiencing large scale absolute poverty since her independence. The incidence of poverty is more acute in the rural area than in the urban area. More than 75 percent population lives in the rural area. Still now 43.8 percent rural people are absolute poor and 29.3 percent are hard-core poor. Rapid population growth, defective land ownership, overdependence on agriculture and inequality in income distribution are the main causesof rural poverty. The government of Bangladesh has been striving to eradicate poverty through a number of strategies including strengthening economic growth and human development, expanding credit facilities to targeted groups and building up of social safety nets. As an outcome of these strategies, rural poverty has registered a declining trend. However, the impact of these strategies on the reduction of rural poverty has, so far, not been strongly felt. Therefore, along with the ongoing poverty reduction strategies, the paper suggests certain measuresto reform land tenure system and develop non-crop agriculture, informal sector and handloom sector in order to accelerate the pace of rural poverty reduction.