The Chronically Poor in Rural Bangladesh: Livelihood Constraints and Capabilities

This book examines rural poverty in Bangladesh. Based on detailed empirical research and surveys of households in Bangladesh, it provides an accurate portrait of the everyday situations faced by the rural poor in Bangladesh today, covering all aspects of household behaviour. All of the key issues are explored, including health, nutrition, housing conditions, human capital, household asset and liabilities, gender issues, livelihood strategies, distribution of household income and expenditure, social capital, intergenerational mobility of the chronically poor, women’s mobility, shocks and coping strategies, and vulnerability to poverty. The book focuses in particular on the poorest of the poor households, the chronically poor, seen by many in the development community to be the core of the problem of poverty. It shows that the basic characteristics of the chronically poor households in rural Bangladesh are: more heavily female-headed households, higher dependency ratio of children in demographic composition, and dominated by lower levels of assets, shorter years of schooling and limited employment opportunity. Throughout, it draws precise conclusions on the basis of quantitative data, which makes this book an important resource for policy-makers and development practitioners, as well as students and researchers.

Pk. Md. Motiur Rahman is currently Professor of Applied Statistics at the Institute of Statistical Research and Training, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is the author of several books which include Poverty Issues in Rural Bangladesh (1994), and Development Policies and Poverty Alleviation in Bangladesh (2005).

Noriatsu Matsui is Professor at the Department of Research on University Evaluation, National Institution for Academic Degrees and University Evaluation (NIAD-UE), Japan. He has edited and authored several books including Development and Poverty in Asia: Capability, Empowerment of Women, and the Quality of Life (2006).

Yukio Ikemoto is Professor of Pan-Asian Economic Studies at the Institute of Oriental Culture (IOC), University of Tokyo, Japan. His major publications include Development and Poverty in Asia: Capability, Women’s Empowerment and Quality of Life (co-edited and authored with N. Matsui) (2006) and Income Distribution in Thailand: Its Change, Causes and Structure (1992).