"Community-based targeting (in various safety net programmes) is biased on political affiliation," said Erin Lentz, a PhD student in applied Economics and Management at Cornell University of the United States, at a seminar yesterday.

The Fulbright seminar was organised by the American Centre of the US Embassy in Dhaka.

The study titled 'The spectre of dependency in food aid programming in rural Bangladesh', which was conducted in northern Bangladesh, looked at various food aid programmes, including vulnerable group development (VGD), vulnerable group feeding (VGF) and food for work (FFW).

"Many households pay their council members (Union Parishad) to be included on FFW roll," she said, adding that many households who understand how to 'beat the system' get double coverage.

Due to leakages in the programmes, local elites' pockets appear to be high, while local governments appear to be much more dependent on aid than their constituents, she noted.

As a result, Erin Lentz said many other households, including landless labourers, who should be targeted, are left out of such safety net programmes.

In another study on low-income housing for garment workers, Fulbright student Kristin Boekhoff said there is a great need for a structured development system tailored specifically to the requirements of the underserved female garment workers.

Most of the female garment workers, who have minimum income, live in a shabby housing with limited cooking, toilet and ventilation facilities, she said.

A Bangladeshi origin American Fulbright Nabil Ahmed of Johns Hopkins University in his research presentation on male involvement in reproductive health said males should be involved more in reducing the birth rate and improving reproductive health.

Indian origin American Fulbright Sugata Tuni Chatterji presented her mid-way research on 'Bhatiyali: The river music of Bengal'.