Rural-urban gap in lifestyle still persists

Inequality still prevails in the lifestyle between rural and urban households (HHs) in Bangladesh despite having some positive results of latest human and social development indicators, experts close to a survey have said.
They, however, concluded that although Bangladesh has made certain progress in various development indicators like reduction in total fertility rate (TFR), maternal and infant mortality rate, increase in life expectancy at birth and literacy rate, more things are still required to be done to attain certain development goals.
They came up with the observations at a report launching ceremony on 'Sample Vital Registration System (SVRS) 2013', prepared by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) under Monitoring the Situation of Vital Statistics of Bangladesh (MVSB) Project, at BBS auditorium in the city on Tuesday.
Statistics and Informatics Division (SID) secretary Kaniz Fatema attended the dissemination programme as the chief guest while SID additional secretaries M Shafiqul Islam and MA Mannan Howlader and deputy director general (DDG) of BBS Baitul Amin Bhuiyan as the special guests.
BBS director general Mohammad Abdul Wazed chaired the programme while MVSB project director AKM Ashraful Haque presented the key survey findings.
BBS collected data to monitor 11 indicators, including population fertility, mortality, life expectancy at birth, nuptiality, migration rate, contraceptive use, disability, HIV/AIDS, household (HH) characteristics, literacy and religious composition.
 The present report is based on the data collected in 2013 in the sample vital registration area in 1,500 PSUs covering a total of 158,829 HHs.
The latest report showed that Bangladeshi women are still dominated by the males, which has been reflected in a high male household (HH) headship rate of over 88 per cent against the female-headed household of about 12 per cent. The trend is on the rise as it was over 87 per cent in 2009 with a slight decline in 2011 at 86.7 per cent and 85.5 per cent in 2012.
On the other hand, the ratio of female dominated HH was about 13 per cent in 2009, 13.3 per cent in 2011 and 14.5 per cent in 2012.
The migratory behaviour of the population in the SVRS area demonstrates a balancing scenario. The overall in-migration rate was estimated to be 40.4 per 1000 population as against an out-migration rate of 39.9.
Urban in-migration rate (70.4 per cent) compared to rural migration (31.7 per cent) was significantly higher. This is also true for out-migration rate (68.1 per cent and 31.7 per cent).
Adult literacy rate showed a modest increase from 56.7 per cent in 2009 to 60 per cent in 2013. The survey findings reveal that urban residents are 30 per cent more likely to be literate than their rural counterparts.  
Kaniz Fatema in her speech said still inequality prevails between urban and rural lifestyle, although the sample vital statistics report presents an overall positive scenario. "We have got a lot, but still need lot more to do," she added.
Ms Fatema said the data of 2014 has been collected which will hopefully be released after Eid.   
Life expectancy of the people in the country increased in 2013 to 70.1 years from 69.4 years in 2012, according to the findings of the Sample Vital Registration System 2009-2013 revealed on Sunday.
The life expectancy rate of women was higher at 71.4 in 2013 from 70.7 years in 2012, 70.3 in 2011, 68.8 in 2010 and 68.7 in 2009. For men, the life expectancy increased to 68.8 years in 2013 from 68.2 in 2012, 67.9 in 2011, 66.6 in 2010 and 66.1 in 2009.
Abdul Wazed said Bangladesh was rapidly making progress in certain areas especially in human development and in terms of achieving millennium development goals (MDGs).
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