Gender issues in poverty alleviation: a case study of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. In 1988‐89, 48 per cent of rural and 44 per cent of urban households had a daily per capita consumption of less than 2,122 calories ‐ the cut‐off point for absolute poverty in Bangladesh. Although poverty is prevalent amongst men as well as women, far more women suffer from poverty due to their low socio‐economic status. Social customs and religious beliefs play a dominant role in shaping a society’s attitudes towards women. At the household level, their status significantly varies between educated and uneducated, between employed and unemployed, and between rural and urban women. If one excludes the very small numbers of successful women who are educated and/or active in the workforce, most women have an inferior status to that of men. They are economically dependent on men even for the basic necessities of life such as food, shelter, clothing and medicine. They are bound by various social customs made by men and every facet of life including decision making is determined by men. The central purpose of this paper is to examine the issues relating to the poverty of women in Bangladesh: to analyse the dimensions of poverty in Bangladesh; to evaluate the steps taken by various governmental and non‐governmental agencies to alleviate the poverty of women; and to examine the impact of such steps on the changing status of women in Bangladesh.