RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Socioeconomic Profile Findings
categories participated in this safety nets programme; invisible poor participation in RMP
was limited to 2.6 percent. A relatively larger proportion of male-headed households
participated in RMP (5.4 percent) compared to 3.4 percent of female-headed households.
In response to the question, ‘Why don’t you participate in the Rural Road Maintenance
Programme’, more than 40 percent of invisible poor households mentioned that they did not
know about the programme and almost half (48 percent) of households reported that they
tried but failed to get into the programme. Approximately three-quarters of non-vulnerable
households said that they did not need to participate in the programme.
Throughout the study area, 16 percent of all households participated in the GoB’s Food for
Education Programme. Analysis by household socioeconomic status reveals the similar
pattern of participation outlined above: households in the two mid-level socioeconomic
categories participated to a greater extent than did the invisible poor (17 percent each versus
15.5 percent). This is not surprising because FFE participation depended on school
attendance. A larger proportion of male-headed households participated in FFE (17 percent)
compared to female-headed households (10 percent).
Why weren’t households participating in FFE in larger numbers?
♦ Approximately half of vulnerable households said that nobody in their household
qualified for the Food for Education Programme;
♦ Another 29 percent of households mentioned the absence of the programme in the
schools attended by their children,
♦ Almost 10 percent of the households did not know about the programme; and
♦ Children in nine percent of the households failed to meet the attendance or results
qualification standards.
Approximately three-quarters of all households participate in community festivals, which
represent important aspects of social capital and social cohesion. However, even community
festivals are bypassing the extreme poor in rural Bangladesh, where substantially fewer than
half (44 percent) of invisible poor households participate in community festivals, whereas
more than nine out of every 10 non-vulnerable households (92 percent) participate in
festivals. Among the most common reasons for not participating in community festivals,
almost half of vulnerable households mentioned that they are never invited to participate;
almost half of the households lack sufficient resources to participate.
Figure 21: Aspects of Social Capital by Household Socioeconomic Status
% of households
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Participation in
community festival
Aspects of Social Capital
Participation in Rural
Road Maintenance
Program
61
Participation in Food Access to community
for Education Program assistance
Non vulnerable 2 3 Most vulnerable