RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Socioeconomic Profiles of WFP Operational Areas and Beneficiaries
Each of the four classes of households is profiled below.
Table 5: Socioeconomic Class Profiles
Indicator / Household by Class Category Non-
Vulnerable
28
On-the-
Edge
Vulnerable Invisible
Poor
% of Households 16 37 32 15
% of Female-headed Households in category 11 18 27 43
Dependency Ratio (%) 61 66 76 87
Literacy Rate (%) 78 52 33 25
Functional Landlessness (% of landless HHs) 13 48 75 91
Average land size of households with land 3.5 acres 1.2 acres 69 decimals 56 decimals
% of households with homestead land 97 92 88 73
Average size of homestead land (in decimals) 34 13 7 6
% of households with cattle 60 45 28 14
% of households with poultry 87 78 67 58
% of households with bicycle(s) 55 25 14 3
% of households dependent on manual labour 15 36 57 70
% of households cultivating on own land 80 60 36 14
Per capita expenditures (in taka) 2157 1089 775 674
Household Savings (in taka) 8205 3291 1557 1347
% of expenditures spent on food 30 47 55 57
% of households in organisation(s) 65 49 40 34
% of households living in one-room house 15 38 58 69
% of households with electricity 48 26 11 6
% of households with latrines 92 78 63 44
% of households food secure year-round 93 71 27 3
% of households consuming 3 meals per day 99 97 81 24
% of households with diverse diet (> 8 items) 100 80 31 7
Coping Strategies Index (CSI) score 12 21 21 33
1.2.3 Invisible Poor Households
Approximately 15 percent of the surveyed households severely suffer from food and
livelihood insecurity and lack access to even minimum levels of physical, human, financial
and social capital. The invisible poor have slipped through the targeting of the two major
safety net programmes in Bangladesh – the Road Maintenance Program (RMP) and
Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) Programme – and are effectively excluded from
many NGO activities and even social events such as festivals. Hence we refer to this
category of households as the ‘Invisible Poor.’ Many studies in Bangladesh refer to these
types of households as the ‘Ultra Poor’ or the ‘Hard-core Poor.’
Approximately 43 percent of female-headed households fall under this category. Households
tend to have a high age dependency ratio (87). Household heads do not typically read and
write (75 percent). The invisible poor appear to be growing poorer: about three-quarters of
the households have remained poor at least for the last 10 years and approximately one-fifth
of the households slid further into poverty.