'Highest concentration of poor in Rangpur'

Once the pocket of seasonal famine called monga, northern district of Kurigram is still home to the highest percentage of the poor in Bangladesh.

Seventy one out 100 people in Kurigram live in poor conditions, according Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The rate of poverty is up to 77 per cent in some places of the district while the lowest rate there is 64 per cent.

These are the people who cannot buy food regularly for their families, let alone meeting other basic needs such as clothing, medicare and education, said BBS in its latest household income and expenditure survey (HIES) conducted in 2016, released on Tuesday.

Despite decline in rate of poverty in recent decades, the survey found poverty concentration is still high in 10 districts and five of them are in Rangpur.

Apart from Kurigram, four other poverty-ridden Rangpur districts are Dinajpur with a poverty rate of 64.3 per cent, Gaibandha with 46.7 per cent, Rangpur with 43.8 per cent and Lalmonirhat with 42 per cent.

Five other poverty-prone districts are Bandarban, Khagrachhari, Jamalpur, Kishoreganj and Magura.

The country's northern region, particularly greater Rangpur, came to the limelight in the media reporting on poverty since the 1970s. The people had to starve even when there was off season for harvesting.

This is for the first time a district-wise picture of poverty has been reflected in the BBS survey, project director of the survey Dipankar Roy told Prothom Alo.

"We've tried to see poverty at the regional level. Poverty in some regions is very high. It will help the government take special measures to address the situation," he added.

The lowest concentration of poverty is in Narayanganj where the rate is only 2.6 per cent, revealed the survey. Seven of the 10 most affluent districts are in Dhaka division.

The rate of poverty is 3.1 per cent in Munshiganj, 3.7 per cent in Madaripur, 6.9 per cent in Gazipur, 7.7 per cent in Faridpur, 10 per cent in Dhaka and 10.5 per cent in Narsingdi, said the survey.

Besides, Brahmanbaria district has a poverty rate of 10.3 per cent, Moulvibazar 11 per cent and Sylhet 13 per cent.

The country's overall poverty rate has come down to 24.3 per cent from 31 per cent in six years, showed the preliminary report of the HIES 2016.

Also, the extreme poverty rate declined to 12.9 per cent at the national level in 2016.

BBS put the country's population at 162 million. Accordingly, the number of poor people is 3.93 million and the extreme poor 2.8 million.

*This report, originally published in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Rabiul Islam.