Rangpur division has the highest poverty rate despite the government efforts to eliminate monga (famine-like situation) from the country’s northern region over years, says a new study.
The average poverty rate in the division is 42% followed by Barisal with a poverty rate of 38.3%, Khulna 31.9%, Dhaka 30.5%, Rajshahi 27.4%, Chittagong 26.1% and Sylhet 25.1%, according to the Bangladesh Poverty Maps 2010 released yesterday.
This is the third generation of poverty map in Bangladesh which is an important statistical instrument for estimating the poverty incidence up to sub-district (upazila) levels. The maps display poverty condition of people in 544 upazilas of 64 districts under the seven divisions.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the World Bank and the United Nations World Food Programme jointly developed the maps by applying a small area estimation technique on data from the household income and expenditure survey 2010 and the population census 2011.
State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan launched the Bangladesh Poverty Maps 2010 at a city hotel yesterday.
In terms of districts, Kurigram has the highest poverty rate of 63.7% followed by Barisal 54.8%, Shariatpur 52%, Chandpur 51%, Satkhira 46.3%, Sirajganj 38.7% and Sunamganj 26%, according to the study.
The lowest poverty rate was recorded in Kushtia at 3.6%, Noakhali at 9.6%, Dhaka at 15.7%, Bogra at 16.6%, Barguna at 19%, Sylhet at 24.1% and Panchagarh at 26.7%.
Experts said recognising the geographical and regional variations and inequality in growth and poverty allows for more effective targeting of policy interventions based on local conditions.
Poverty maps can become an important instrument for prioritisation of policy interventions and resource allocations, they said.
“With these latest poverty maps, we have responded to demand from policymakers, researchers and development partners. It will also facilitate the ongoing efforts to prepare the database of the poor people from across the country,” said Md Nojibur Rahman, secretary of Statistics and Informatics Division.
BBS Director General Golam Mostafa Kamal explained that the latest poverty maps provided disaggregated poverty estimates to better understand the geographical variations in poverty incidence.
Mannan said the poverty map is an essential planning tool that provides powerful visuals to identify poor areas with greater accuracy. “The poverty map 2010 will also provide inputs for the seventh five-year plan keeping in view the targets proposed under Vision 2021.”
While Bangladesh has made an impressive economic and social gains over the past decade, poverty levels continue to be a challenge with around 32% of people living below the poverty line in 2010, says the World Bank.
These maps show that poverty rates vary considerably according to location, with pronounced inequalities at division, district (zila) and sub-district (upazila) levels.
“Comparing poverty maps with maps of social and other indicators that are correlated with poverty helps identify key impediments and bottlenecks that poor people face,” said Salman Zaidi, lead economist of the World Bank. “I hope the government will find the poverty maps helpful to plan better targeted interventions.”
The maps show that the northern and southern districts, apart from Barisal, have a high prevalence of poverty and low primary school completion rates.
Similarly, poverty appears to be high in chronic disaster-prone areas such as the districts along the Jamuna River where the communities are repeatedly affected by river erosion and flooding and in the south-west which is prone to cyclones, tidal surges, salt water intrusion and water-logging.
“These poverty maps also provide a good indication where the most food insecure areas of the country are. In Bangladesh, with well-functioning markets, people’s purchasing power remains the most important factor in their access to food,” said Christa Räder, WFP Representative.
The government officials claimed that starvation in the monga-hit northern region has now come down to 3% from 45% mainly due to the government’s economic activities in the area.
“Monga has already gone to the museum. The overall economic activities in the area has brought drastic changes in the life of people,” said an official.
