Friday, November 05, 2010

Poverty

Conceptual Issues:
           Different terms, which have used in the study, are briefly described as under.

         Poverty:
           Poverty is commonly understood in terms of inadequate consumption, education, health and other indicators of human welfare, however poverty is also associated with insecurity and fear for the future - insecurity that stems from inability to cope with risk, which is the dimension where social protection policy plays a direct role. Risks, best understood as the probability of shocks occurring that can adversely affect well being, can be unanticipated, like illness or a drought, or anticipated, like seasonal downturns in farm income (where security but not timing is in doubt).

         Trend of poverty:
           Broadly speaking, poverty refers to farms of economic, social and psychological deprivation occurring among people lacking sufficient ownership, control or access to resources for minimum required level of living. The low level of human resource development in Bangladesh is a serious constraint on the development process of the country. According to the Human Development Index (HDI), UNDP, 1996, out of 174 countries Bangladesh ranked 143rd in 1993. It gives a value/score of 0.365 for Bangladesh. For some of our neighboring countries the scores are 0.698 for Srilanka, 0.442 for Pakistan, 0.436 for India, 0.451 for Myanmar, 0.332 for Nepal and 0.307 for Bhutan. Thus among the neighboring countries the HDI for Bangladesh is slightly better than Nepal and Bhutan. 

         Causes of poverty:
           The major causes of poverty in Bangladesh are low economic growth, inequitable distribution of income, unequal distribution of productive assets, unemployment and under-employment, high rate of population growth, low level of human resources development, natural disasters and limited access to public services.

         Poverty Alleviation:
           The Dhaka Declaration for poverty Eradication under the thirteenth SAARC summit meeting of the Heads of state/Government of SAARC countries held in November, 2005, stipulated that each SAARC country would prepare a pro-poor plan and an action programme for implementing it for eradicating hard-core poverty.

           In the light of Dhaka Declaration (2005), a Task Force for preparation of a National pro-poor plan and action programme was set up by the Government of Bangladesh.

           The Task Force started its work with the following directions embodied in the Dhaka Declaration:

         a.     Each SAARC country should produce a national poverty eradication plan to eradicate poverty in the country.

         b.     The main agenda of action under the national poverty eradication are:
                i) The strategy of social mobilization involving the organisation of the poor and their empowerment through appropriate national support mechanism;
                ii) A policy of decentralized agriculture development and sharply focused household level food security for meeting the basic nutritional needs;
                iii) A policy of human development directed towards the enhancement of social role and status of the poor women, protection of children, provision of universal primary education and primary health care and shelter for the poor.
           c.   The above endeavors are to be supported by adequate financial resources.
           d.   Finally, the national pro-poor plan has to be harmonized with the open economy and structural adjustment strategies.
            Besides Government programmes, a large number of NGOs are also engaged in activities for socio-economics upliftment of the rural poor. Some of these NGOs, in terms of both beneficiary coverage as well as investment, have the ability to reach the poor and address the issues of poverty alleviation effectively. Among the NGOs major ones are Grameen Bank, BRAC, PROSHIKA, ASA, GSS, RDRS, DAM, etc. A number of commercial banks ( Sonali bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank) have also participated in poverty alleviation programmes through providing micro credit to the landless and small farmers.

Introduction

Introduction:
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries of the world where about 85% of the total population live in the rural areas. About 49% of the rural population lives below the poverty line (GOB, FIFTY FIVE YEAR PLAN, 1997-2002, P-13). The poverty in rural Bangladesh is mainly discussed with reference to the growing number of landless households which has not been matched by rise in employment opportunities (R.W. Timm CSC). The number of laborers, Share cropper and unemployed are calculated only in term of men, keeping the rural women out of the focus from the often devastating impact of poverty. Their lives depend on men due to lake of education, training and job opportunities. The prevailing social custom also acts against their participation in poverty alleviation activities. Now a days poverty often forces women to work outside their homes, which is unusual in the context of social set up of rural Bangladesh (Westergard, 1983). The higher crude activity rate compared to the growth rate of population is contributed mostly by increasing female participation rate in labor force. The crude female activity rate, which was only 6.4% in 1985-86 increased to 40.2% in 1989. This was possible due to Government's policy on female employment in the public sector, introduction of special food for works programme for women and the high growth rate of garment industries in the private sector during the early eighties, which employ mostly female workers (Planning commission 1990).
The rural population increased by about 50% during 1960 to 1977, but the number of farm households increased by only 1.9% during the same period. So rural development is the core focus of our national economic development programme. In order to eradicate the dismal poverty and massive unemployment the question of help comes from a very poor financial background and the shortage of finance is the main hindrance in the persuasion of their respective trade.


BY:

Md. Akbor Ali
Assistant Professor
Department of Accounting
Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah College
Sakhipur, Satkhira.