The country's poverty threshold needs to be reviewed and redefined in line with the growth scenario as well as the updated global index of poverty measurement, economists said on Sunday.
They said political leaders do not want to change the threshold as the old poverty indices go well with current growth scenario and give a rosier picture about impoverishment and inequality.
But the experts said there is no constant way of measuring poverty. It changes over time and varies from one country to another. When a country develops, the indices also develop.
They view came at a session on "Alleviating Poverty and Inequality" at Dhaka University at a two-day international conference.
The Bureau of Economic Research (BER) of Dhaka University (DU) organised the international conference for economists on "Inclusive Growth for Sustainable Development."
Speaking as the session chair, Policy Research Institute (PRI) Executive Director Dr Ahsan H Mansur said extreme poverty has come down significantly in the country.
"We should not be complacent that poverty rate has come down based on the existing standard practice," he said.
Today's best practice will not be the same after 10 years, he said, adding poverty in Bangladesh and that of the USA is not similar.
"In the global context, we are still far away from winning over it," he said.
"We have been doing the poverty exercise in the Five Year Plan but we know that Bangladesh's measure falls very short of the World Bank's two-dollar- a-day measure," he said.
He said, "We need to upgrade our measure, of course, poverty rate will increase, that's why, politicians do not want to do that. They want to show progress every year based on the same measure that was used in the 70s."
He said the absolute poverty will disappear from the country by 2030 as per the government's target.
"But that doesn't mean there will be no poverty, yes there will not be abject poverty, but there will be poverty on our standard," he said.
He said it is the job of the public sector to create skilled professionals, the industry cannot do that.
He said Bangladesh loses four to five billion US dollars every year by hiring foreign professionals.
Speaking as a discussant, Bangladesh Institute of Development studies senior research fellow Dr. SM Zulfiqar Ali said Bangladesh needs to redefine its own poverty measurement.
He said the existing poverty measurement is based on consumption basket and the country's national income has risen and consumption pattern has changed, now the poverty measurement needs a review.
He said poverty is not measured globally now on income and expenditure alone.
He said poverty is multidimensional; it now includes education, health, food values etc.
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