| Author | Ullah, AKM Ahsan |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.RD-02-17 |
| Subject(s) | Rural poor Bangladesh
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The poverty situation of Bangladesh remained almost unchanged since 1971.
Between 1989 and 1996 the number of population below poverty line reduced to only by
less than one percent. The issue of poverty has become a matter of grave concern of the
government, NGOs and the donor agencies as well. The NGOs hand in hand with the
government have been implementing a wide range of development activities with a major
goal of alleviating rural poverty.
The purpose of the study is to analyze the current poverty situation and trend of
pove1iy, poverty alleviation efforts of two NGOs (BRAC and Proshika) with emphasis on
the impacts of their activities in two villages in Barisal district. These two biggest NGOs in
Bangladesh adopt a holistic approach in their operations to bring about the improvement in
economic, social and institutional well being of the rural poor. Data were collected for this
study through household survey during the early 2002. A variety of secondary data and
information are also used.
The findings of the study show that the economic condition of the poor in the study
area has not improved when judged against some indicators namely, income, food and
non-food expenditure, productive and non-productive asset, food security, and employment
opportunities. The Foster Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) index shows that the majority of the
beneficiaries remained below the poverty line in terms of income and the overwhelming
majority of them remained below the underemployment line (less than 260 days of work in
a year). The regression analysis shows that the income of the households is determined by
landholding size, family labour, days suffered from morbidities and the employment
opportunity. This finding is also strongly endorsed by the perception of beneficiary
members on the causes of poverty.
Improvement in the social well being of the household members by almost all
indicators is evident. Improvement in housing condition is visible, which is supported by
the key informants' interviews and observation. Knowledge on hygiene, access to safe
drinking water, and sanitary latrine use have improved. Access to qualified doctors is
limited. Most of them visit traditional healers such as, kabiraj and religious healers.
Women are socially empowered by all indicators (developed by Hashemi, 1998). At the
same time household violence on the women was found prevalent in the area.
The data further shows that all the beneficiary members have access to institutional
credit in the post NGO period and thus reduced dependency on the traditional
moneylenders significantly. But most of the members could not use the loan money in a
productive investment and they dive1ied the money for other purposes. Data shows that
only very few beneficiaries of the area received skill building training revealing the
shortcomings in institutional performance of the NGOs. Importantly, emphasis should be
placed on the improvement of the beneficiary's capital base, marketable and useful skill
development and opportunity for employment. |
| Year | 2002 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Regional and Rural Development Planning (RD) |
| Chairperson(s) | Routray, Jayant Kumar |
| Examination Committee(s) | Dale, Reidar;Soparth Pongquan |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) |
| Degree | Thesis (M. Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002 |