Developing human resource in rural areas

In 1971, Bangladesh, in terms of viability, was considered an 'economic cripple'. It was attributed to its overpopulation, poor natural resource base, vulnerability to natural disasters and an undiversified agriculture producing mainly two commodities (rice and jute). The population density was frighteningly over 500 per km and growing at 3.0 per cent annually. The cultivated land frontier was exhausted with two-thirds of the total land area already brought under cultivation. The physical infrastructure - such as power, transport and irrigation - was rudimentary to support the growth of directly productive activities. More importantly perhaps, an indigenous entrepreneurial class of Bangladeshi origin was yet to emerge.
On the other hand, as far as agricultural development is concerned, several in-depth rural studies in the 1970s had observed that the agrarian structure would constrain development of productive forces in Bangladesh - a hypothesis that warranted empirical testing.
However, despite all initial adverse conditions, Bangladesh has managed to feed its growing population in a regime of declining cultivated land area. The country has rejected the Malthusian reasoning of a doomsday. The country could also substantially curtail population growth and achieve moderate progress in economic growth and poverty reduction during the last four decades. More importantly, despite low level of per capita income, advancement on social indicators such as infant and maternal mortality, sanitation, women empowerment, gender equality in basic education etc. is well appreciated by the international community. The literature is full of studies on experience of Bangladesh with a positive note on growth, structural transformation, income distribution and poverty.
However, credible information on the transformation of rural economy is lacking due to lack of rural-urban breakdown of official statistics.
A notable feature of social progress in Bangladesh is substantial reduction in the growth of population over a short period of time despite her low levels of economic development. The 2001 population census recorded a growth of population of 1.5 per cent per year in the 1990s compared to 2.4 per cent in the 1980s. The growth in rural population has fallen faster due to rapid rural-urban migration.
The information obtained from our surveys is consistent with the above macro-level observation. The panel data show that 71 per cent of the households enumerated in 1988 remained intact in 2000. Eighteen per cent had broken due to formation of new households by married children. The remaining 11 per cent migrated out.
The number of households increased at 1.3 per cent per year during 1988-2000, but the population increased by only 0.4 per cent per year due to reduction in the size of the household from 5.86 in 1988 to 5.38 in 2000. The number of households grew even at a slower rate of 0.6 per cent during 2000-2008, and the population remained almost stagnant due to further reduction in household size to 4.94 in 2008. The child-woman ratio (children 0-4 years of age per women in the age group 15-49), which is an indicator of current fertility, declined from 67 per 1000 in 1988 to 41 in 2000, and further to 39 in 2008.
Such rapid decline in fertility had important implications on the availability of human capital for supporting economic activities. The number of children (age 15 and below) has declined from 45 per cent of total population to 33 per cent during 1988-2008. In contrast, the population in the working age group (16-59) has increased from 48 to 58 per cent. While the average size of households has declined, the number of working members remained unchanged at 2.6 per household.
Human resource is the most abundant resource in Bangladesh. The quality of the human resource is, however, very poor. According to the reports of population censuses taken earlier, the literacy rate was only 26 per cent in 1981, and increased marginally to 32 per cent by 1991. Also, there was a huge disparity in literacy levels between the male and female population.  
The 2001 population census reported substantial progress in literacy rates, particularly for the female population. During 1991-2001, the literacy rate increased 39 to 49 per cent for men and from 25 to 41 per cent for women.
Information obtained from the repeat surveys also reveals substantial progress in adult literacy and school participation rates over 1988-2008. The participation of 6-10 year age group in primary schools has increased from about 63 to 91 per cent for boys and from 55 to about 94 per cent for girls.  For the 11 to 17 age group (secondary school age population), the participation in schools for boys has increased from 58 to 75 per cent, and for girls from 46 to 83 per cent. The gender disparity in participation in primary schools has disappeared, and has turned in favour of girls for secondary education. The higher participation of girls in secondary schools compared to boys may be in response to the policy of the government to provide free tuition and scholarship to girls attending secondary schools.
It will take some time for the spread of education to have effect on the quality of labour. But some improvement has already taken place. Among the adult population (age 16 and over), the proportion with no formal schooling has reduced from 61 to 41 per cent within 1988-2000, while that with secondary level education and above has increased from 20 to 38 per cent. The average year of schooling for the earning members of the household has increased from 3.4 in 1988 to 4.7 in 2008.
Indeed, the human capital content of rural labour has improved across all landownership groups. The average years of schooling for earning members have increased from 1.6 to 3.0 for the landless and marginal landowners and from 4.6 to 7.4 for medium and large landowners.
The educational attainment of workers shows that the better-educated are employed in services while the least-educated are engaged as wage-labourers. The average years of schooling are lower for workers providing agricultural wage-labour than for those who are engaged in rural transport, construction and processing activities. Households earning their livelihood from services have the highest level of education for their workers, followed by those dependent on trade, business and farming. The least educated depend on wage-labour as the principal source of livelihood.
The writer is Professor                         of Economics at                   Jahangirnagar University.  address:[email protected]