Bangladesh has long been celebrated as one of development economics' most commendable success stories. Between 2010 and 2022, real GDP grew by 6.6 per cent annually, nearly doubling GDP per capita and reducing extreme poverty from 12.2 to 5.6 per cent, while multidimensional poverty declined from 46.8 to 21.3 per cent alongside improvements in health, education, sanitation, and electricity access. These are not trivial gains. They represent millions of lives changed.
And yet, the story Bangladesh must now tell itself is a more uncomfortable one. Growth has been real, but so has been the growing gap between those who benefit from it and those who do not. The question before policymakers, businesses, and citizens alike is no longer how to grow - but for whom, and on what terms.
The headline numbers on poverty mask a troubling undercurrent. After 2016, Bangladesh's economic growth pattern shifted, becoming less inclusive, and income inequality rose as income growth benefited wealthier families more. A Power and Participation Research Centre survey found that poverty has surged over the past three years, with nearly 28 per cent of the population now poor, compared to 18.7 per cent in 2022, while extreme poverty has risen to 9.35 per cent. Expenditure inequality has also intensified, with the national Gini coefficient rising to 0.436 from 0.334 in 2022, and urban inequality surging to a striking 0.532.
Nearly 62 million people - about one-third of the population - remain vulnerable to falling back into poverty if faced with an illness, natural disaster, or other unexpected shock. In such a context, economic growth is not so much a rising tide as a selective current, pulling some forward while leaving many anchored in place.
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu argued that inequality is reproduced not only through money but through access to education, networks, and cultural resources - what he called "social and cultural capital." That insight resonates with painful clarity in Bangladesh today. Our education system has expanded enormously in enrollment, but quality remains deeply stratified. At the secondary level, the dropout rate reaches 32.85 per cent, and girls constitute just 27.50 per cent of vocational-technical enrolment, limiting economic mobility for a significant share of the population. The English-medium schools, private tutors, coaching centres are not merely amenities; they are the engines of intergenerational privilege. Research shows that intergenerational educational mobility in Bangladesh actually declined from 2005 to 2016, indicating that growth in education was not equally conducive to all social strata.
No policy vision has shaped Bangladesh's recent identity more powerfully than Digital Bangladesh. The ambitions were genuine and, in important respects, the gains are real. Mobile banking has deepened financial inclusion, digital government services have reached millions, and the country's freelancing sector has carved out a remarkable global footprint. Bangladesh is home to nearly 14 per cent of all freelancers worldwide.
But the digital dividend has been captured unevenly. Only 36.5 per cent of individuals in rural areas use the internet, compared to 71.4 per cent in urban areas - a gap that widened in the first quarter of FY2024-25, according to the BBS ICT Access and Use Survey. Nationally, 51.1 per cent of people aged five and above remain offline, and a pronounced urban-rural divide persists: 81 per cent of urban households have at least one smartphone, compared with 69 per cent in rural areas.
Crucially, access alone does not confer capability. Research by economists at the University of Dhaka found that only about 35 per cent of people with internet access have internet skills, and 31 per cent can use it effectively for basic tasks - meaning access is a necessary but not sufficient condition for participation. A smartphone in a rural household does not automatically translate into empowerment in the absence of digital literacy, relevant local content, or affordable data. Out of every Tk 100 spent on mobile data, around Tk 50 goes to the government through various charges, keeping marginalised and low-income communities digitally excluded even as online services increasingly shape access to education, healthcare, finance and government support.
The gender gap compounds this picture. Of internet users, 47 per cent are men and 34 per cent are women, with rural women facing additional barriers due to social norms imposed by families. Women's participation in the IT sector stands at only 12 to 13 per cent - a statistic that speaks not only of economic exclusion but of the limits of a digital transformation that has not adequately reckoned with gender.
Bangladesh's labour market is undergoing a structural shift that its legal frameworks have not yet absorbed. The gig economy - ride-sharing, food delivery, freelancing, e-commerce - has become a significant employment absorber, particularly for young people. Industry insiders estimate that about 200,000 drivers work in ride-sharing, 400,000 in deliveries, and another 500,000 in freelancing. The ride-sharing industry alone is estimated to be worth $259 million and is expected to grow to $1 billion within five to seven years.
Yet growth in gig employment is not the same as security. The British sociologist Guy Standing coined the term "precariat" for a class defined not only by low income but by structural instability - no contracts, no benefits, no clear social identity. That description fits a large share of Bangladesh's digital workforce with uncomfortable precision. Gig workers remain outside the protections of formal employment: they have no service benefits, insurance, or compensation in case of accidents, damaged goods, or income loss during disruptions. The vulnerability became clear during Bangladesh's 10-day internet shutdown in July 2024 amid political unrest.
Bangladesh's Labour Act 2006 does not acknowledge platform-based labour. Gig workers have no recourse to labour courts, no right to unionise, and no protection under the minimum wage board. More than 90 per cent of ride-sharing drivers run rented vehicles, handing over nearly half their income to owners. Meanwhile, for freelancers, nearly half - 48.1 per cent - earn less than BDT 25,000 per month, an income that is precarious and not always a reliable substitute for stable, formal employment.
Inequality in Bangladesh does not operate along a single axis. It is compounded by geography, gender, and climate. Men earn 36 per cent more than women in Bangladesh, particularly in agriculture, and women over 65 earn 70 per cent less than their male counterparts. Women's labour force participation stands at 32 per cent, less than half of that for men, and only 7.5 per cent of rural enterprises are owned by women.
The spatial dimension is equally stark. Rural Bangladesh saw faster poverty reduction over the past decade. However, poverty is still six points higher than in urban areas, while urban inequality widened and structural challenges persisted, including congestion, weak job creation, and poor service quality. Cities like Dhaka attract migrants seeking opportunity but deliver to many only informal settlements, precarious work, and exclusion from quality services.
Climate vulnerability overlays all of this. Bangladesh is among the countries most exposed to flooding, cyclone damage, and sea-level rise, and these hazards fall hardest on those with the least capacity to adapt or relocate. Environmental shocks are not merely humanitarian crises; they are engines of inequality, erasing assets and reversing progress accumulated over the years.
The Bangladesh economy faces a conjuncture of pressures: growth slowed to 4.0 per cent in FY25, and poverty at the international $3.0 line is projected to rise to 8.9 per cent, with nearly 1.2 million more people at risk of falling into poverty. Labour market conditions weakened as the employment ratio fell to 56.7 per cent in 2024. These numbers do not erase past progress, but they do warn against complacency.
The policy agenda that follows from this analysis is demanding but not mysterious. It requires, first, a genuine broadening of how inequality is measured - beyond income alone, to encompass education quality, digital capability, and social inclusion, disaggregated by region, gender, and social group. Second, investment in human capital must shift from expanding access to improving quality and equity; the 32.85 per cent secondary dropout rate is not an administrative footnote but a structural wound. Third, the governance of digital technologies must be strengthened - citizens need the right to understand and challenge algorithmic decisions that increasingly determine access to government services, credit, and employment. Fourth, social protection must be redesigned for an economy where informal and platform-based work is the norm for tens of millions, not an exception. And fifth, a specific legal framework for platform labour is urgently needed, one that guarantees minimum income transparency, occupational safety, and the right to organise without destroying the flexibility that makes gig work attractive.
Bangladesh stands at an inflexion point. The achievements of the past decades are genuine, hard-won, and worth defending. But the development model that produced them is showing its limits. The World Bank's latest poverty assessment finds that by adopting innovative policies - improving connectivity, creating quality urban jobs, facilitating pro-poor value chains in agriculture, and making social protection more effective - Bangladesh can restore and accelerate the pace of reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity.
The question is whether there is the political will to act on what the data already tell us. A nation that graduates 200,000 students into unemployment each year, that leaves half its population offline, and that offers its gig workers neither a contract nor a safety net is not building a just society - regardless of what its GDP growth rate says. The measure of Bangladesh's success will ultimately be not the aggregate of its output, but the distribution of its opportunities.
Dr. Matiur Rahman is a researcher and
development professional.
matiurrahman588@gmail.com