Bangladesh's 24.05 per cent or nearly one-fourth of people are multi-dimensionally poor as they are deprived from some 11 dimensions, said a government report.
In 2019, 24.05 per cent of the population was identified as multi-dimensionally poor, meaning that around 39.77 million people are deprived in at least one-third of the 11 weighted indicators, the National Multidimensional Poverty Index for Bangladesh report said.
The intensity of poverty among the poor, which reflects the average share of deprivations each poor person experiences, is 44.17 per cent, the National MPI of the General Economics Division (GED) said.
The General Economics Division (GED) of the Planning Commission has prepared the report analysing the data of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2019 of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Although this MPI is unveiled formally for the first time in Bangladesh, the GED published the report on Thursday at a function where journalists were not invited or not briefed.
Earlier in 2021, the GED drafted the MPI based on the MICS 2019 data where it reported that Bangladesh's multi-dimensional poverty was 36.1 per cent. The report was later not made public by the ousted Sheikh Hasina government.
The GED's MPI 2019 report on Thursday showed that the average intensity of poverty is 44.17 per cent. Each poor person is, on average, deprived in nearly half of the weighted indicators. This is the equivalent of one full dimension (33.33 per cent) plus any one deprivation in the health or education dimensions, or three deprivations from the dimension of living standards.
According to the GED report, the National MPI 2019, the product of the percentage of poor people and the intensity of their poverty, stands at 0.106.
This indicates that poor people in Bangladesh experience 10.6 per cent of the possible deprivations that a society would experience if all people were multi-dimensionally poor and deprived in all indicators.
The results of the regional analyses reveal that the proportion of people identified as poor in urban areas ((13.48 per cent) is significantly lower than in rural areas (26.96 per cent).
Across divisions, the poverty rates range from 15.22 per cent in Khulna (with an intensity of 42.06 per cent) to 37.70 per cent in Sylhet (with an intensity of 46.86 per cent), revealing important regional differences in multidimensional poverty.
There is even greater variation across the 64 districts, with multidimensional poverty affecting 8.66 per cent people in Jhenaidah and 65.36 per cent people in Bandarban.
Across age groups, the poverty is the highest among children, who are over 35.55 per cent of the total population (under 18 years of age).
According to the 2019 national MPI, 28.64 per cent of children aged between 0 to 9 and 28.83 per cent of the children aged between 10 to 17 are multi-dimensionally poor, as compared to 21.44 per cent of adults (older than 17).
Reduction of deprivation across the 11 indicators should be targeted, as reducing deprivation in any indicator leads to a reduction in multidimensional poverty.
A highly visible deprivation is revealed in the housing indicator those households without improved floors/roofs/walls. Around 21.34 per cent are multi-dimensionally poor and deprived in housing.
However, child school attendance has the highest weighted contribution to the National MPI, followed by years of schooling, nutrition, and housing.
Profiles of poverty by indicator vary across divisions and districts. The censored headcount ratios (the percentage of people who are multi-dimensionally poor and are deprived in specific indicators) of three indicators (housing, internet access, and sanitation) are high across all areas.
Over 20 per cent of the people are multi-dimensionally poor and deprived in each of these indicators.