50% of total poor in urban areas are new: BIDS

Fifty percent of the total number of poor people in 2022 were new as the coronavirus pandemic laid a major impact on the country, according to a survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

The percentage of poor increased for only three months during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it declined shortly after.

Poverty decreased by 4.3 percentage points in the post-Covid period compared to the pre-Covid period. 

At the time, private research firm SANEM conducted a survey titled 'Covid-19 Pandemic Impact on Poverty and Livelihoods in Bangladesh: Findings of SANEM's Nationwide Survey' and said the poor have almost doubled due to the impact of coronavirus.

"Poverty declined in Dhaka. The overall poverty headcount has decreased between 2019 and 2022 by 4.3 percentage points. This is a considerable progress in poverty reduction under the duress of Covid-19," said Dr Binayak Sen, director general at the BIDS, while presenting the keynote paper at the opening session of BIDS Research ALMANAC 2023 on Wednesday (17 May). 

The key drivers are shifts towards self-employment income, transfer receipts, access to mobile financial services and financial dissaving. Casualisation of urban labour did not play a major role here. Urban remittance also did not directly work as a poverty reducing tool for the poor during this period, he added.

He said the number of poor people increased during April-June 2020. From June onwards, problems surrounding coronavirus started to dial down. The main reason for declining poverty back then was safe employment.

During the pandemic, self-employment increased from 41.54% to 45.65% in the case of overall poverty, from 33.60% to 38.56% for the poor, and from 15.47% to 33.21% for the extremely poor.

Also present on the occasion, Planning Minister MA Mannan said, "If we can understand our mothers' and sisters' contribution at home, we can find out the picture of another parallel economy. There should be research for this because their work needs recognition. They need to know what they are contributing to the economy."

He said, "We may not be able to include it in GDP now, but we will get the real picture of the economy then. This is something that America does every year."

The minister also emphasised the need for research on enhancing agricultural resources.