Abstract:
Poverty remains an overarching problem for policy makers in
Bangladesh since its independence in 1971. Though the country has
experimented different socialist as well as open market policies to
alleviate poverty, still more than 40 per cent of its population remain
below the national poverty line. This paper attempts a critical
evaluation of the contemporary poverty reduction policies
implemented in Bangladesh and argues why such policies have failed
to succeed at the given socio-economic structure of Bangladesh. A
framework of analysis has been developed to delineate these
arguments graphically. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates why the
development of Rural Non-Farm Economy (RNFE) would be a better
policy option to alleviate poverty under the current socio-economic
context of Bangladesh, and presents a statistical model that can be
used as an alternative framework for poverty reduction through
RNFE development in Bangladesh. Similar models may also be
adopted in other developing countries of Asia.
