Poverty in Bangladesh in the 2010s-Progress, Drivers, and Vulnerabilities: An Introduction

Abstract

Bangladesh has come a long way since it became independent in 1971. The most dramatic expression of its progress is, perhaps, revealed in impressive poverty reduction recorded over the last nearly 50 years of Independence. In 1973/74, about 71.3 per cent of rural population lived in absolute poverty (as defined by the Cost-of-Basic-Needs approach); the matched figure has gone down to just 24.3 per cent in 2016.4 Bangladesh’s development experience during this long period can be summarised as the time of the ascent of the poor and the poorest measured by both income and non-income indicators. From the employment point of view, it was an ascent underpinned primarily by the rise of the relatively unskilled labour through technology-intensive agricultural growth, rural non-farm sector development, export led industrialisation, and international migration of workers; the last two having important effects on the rapid pace of urbanisation since 2000. Bangladesh’s long-term progress is also vindicated by the recent data. In 2016, about 1 in 4 Bangladeshi were poor. The country has halved poverty rates in a decade and a half, lifting more than 25 million people out of poverty. Between 2010 and 2016, about 8 million Bangladeshi were lifted out of poverty. Bangladesh is not only a one of the top performers in poverty reduction in the South Asia region, it is equally a top performer in improving non-monetary dimensions of welfare. This special issue of the Bangladesh Development Studies on poverty includes a series of papers that explore various dimensions of poverty in Bangladesh in the 2010s highlighting progress in poverty reduction as well as pre-existing vulnerabilities. Both the strengths and weaknesses of the poverty reduction process have been highlighted by the nine papers included in this volume.