Bangladesh is the third poorest country in South Asia after war-torn Afghanistan and India, says a recent poverty estimation study by Oxford University, UK.
It placed Afghanistan as the poorest country in South Asia, with 66% (based on 2010-11 data) of its people being poor MPI, followed by India with 54% (2005-06), Bangladesh (2011) with 51%, Pakistan (2012-13) and Nepal (2011) at 44%, Bhutan at 27%, and Sri Lanka and the Maldives at 5%, according to the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2014, a tool used by Oxford researchers to measure poverty.
Using the MPI tool, the researchers classified the “destitute” as those who experience extreme deprivation such as having lost two children or more, having someone severely malnourished in the households, or having no asset at all.
In South Asia, Afghanistan had the highest level of destitution at 38%, followed by India 28.5%, Pakistan 20.7% and Bangladesh 17.2%.
The report mentioned Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Khulna, Sylhet and Brisal as the poorest region in Bangladesh.
In a positive, among south Asian countries, Bangladesh performed well in reducing poverty rates after Nepal that had the fastest progress in poverty reduction.
The study says overall, the situation has improved for the world’s poor due to poverty reduction programmes and economic growth; however, there is still a formidable core of extremely poor people. The largest numbers of destitutes, 420 million, were found in South Asia.
In 2014, the global MPI covered 108 countries which are home to 78% of the world’s population.
The MPI has been widely updated and expanded, including substantial new analyses of rural-urban poverty, inequality among the poor, destitution and changes to poverty over time, said an Oxford release.
According to UNDP’s MPI of five South Asian countries released in mid-2010, Bangladesh scored better than India and Nepal. The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of Oxford University and the Human Development Report Office of UNDP jointly prepared the MPI.
Among 104 countries, Bangladesh ranked 73. India ranked 74, Nepal 82, Pakistan 70, Sri Lanka 32 in the MPI.
The 10 indicators in MPI are grouped into three equally weighted dimensions –health (child mortality and nutrition), education (years of schooling and child enrolment), and standard of living (electricity, drinking water, sanitation, flooring, cooking fuel, and assets).