Poverty and vision-2021

Photo: Nazrul Islam / Driknews

Our population is predominantly rural, with about 85 per cent of the 135 million people living in rural areas. For their livelihoods rural people depend mainly on the land, which is both fertile and extremely vulnerable. Most of the country is made up of flood plain, and while the alluvial soil provides good arable land, large areas are at risk because of frequent floods and cyclones, which take lives and destroy crops, livestock and property.
Estimates of rural poverty rates now stand between 53 and 43.6 per cent. In general the depth and severity of poverty has been reduced more successfully in rural zones than in urban areas, although rural zones still lag far behind urban areas in terms of development. About 20 per cent of rural households live in extreme poverty. Chronically poor people suffer from persistent food insecurity, own no cultivable land or assets, and are often illiterate. Another 29 per cent of the rural population is considered moderately poor. They may own a small plot of land and some livestock, but while they generally have enough to eat, their diets lack protein and other nutritional elements. This segment of the rural population is at risk of sliding deeper into poverty as a result of health problems or natural disasters.
We hope that our government will take some effective measures to mitigate rural poverty and then we may reach Vision-2021.