UNDP report
More than 41m Bangladeshis in extreme poverty
Two-thirds of the world's poor live in middle-income countries
83.7 per cent of the poor live in villages
More than half of the community in poverty is aged below 18
Some 41.7 million people in Bangladesh live in extreme poverty. Of them, 6.5 per cent are vulnerable. This came up in a report titled ‘2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)’ published jointly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative of the Oxford University on Thursday.
The study was conducted on 6.3 billion people in 112 countries. The study analysed information for more than a decade till 2022-23. The study considered deprivations include a lack of adequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.
According to the MPI, some 1.1 billion people of the world are living in extreme poverty. Almost half of them are people from war-torn countries. More than 83 per cent of them are from Africa and South Asian countries. In South Asia, some 272 million people live in families where at least one member is suffering from malnutrition.
The Global MPI-2024 shows low living standards are contributing the most to overall multidimensional poverty (45.1 per cent). It is followed by deprivations of education (37.6 per cent) and health (17.3 per cent).
As per the latest updates of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), some 18.7 per cent people of Bangladesh live below the poverty line. Some 5.6 per cent of them live in extreme poverty.
According to the latest census, the country’s population now stands at more than 169.8 million. As such, more than 31.7 million people live in poverty.
Speaking to Prothom Alo regarding this, former director general of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), KAS Murshid, said, “The method used in the UNDP survey to measure poverty in Bangladesh should not be compared to the methods used by the BBS or any other agencies in the country.”
“Through this survey we finally get a clear picture of the actual poverty situation in the country at last. In the past few years, the poverty situation has worsened due to the dollar crisis and various financial problems in Bangladesh. There was a reflection of that in the MPI survey. Now there is scope to adopt an action plan based on the actual situation.”
Children are the biggest victims
The index shows the number of poor is the highest in India with some 234 million people living in extreme poverty in the country. Pakistan is second in the list with 93 million people living in extreme poverty. Ethiopia, Nigeria and Democratic Republic of Congo are in the third, fourth and fifth place of the list respectively. Almost half of the world's people living in extreme poverty are from these five countries.
The UNDP MPI further shows that the children are the biggest victims of poverty. Nearly 584 million people living in extreme poverty are below 18. The number is 27.9 per cent of children population of the world. The number of adults living in extreme poverty is 13.5 per cent as compared to the children.
According to the UNDP poverty index, some 455 million of the poor are living in conflict and violence. The infant mortality rate in the countries at war is 8 per cent while the rate is only 1.1 per cent in advanced countries. People in war-torn countries are severely deprived of nutrition, electricity, water and sanitation facilities.