Income Distribution, Poverty and Living Standard

It has been claimed that the accelerated growth in Bangladesh since 1990 has significantly reduced poverty and improved indicators of living standard. Some of the evidence in favor of these claims is well known. Since 1991/92 the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and the World Bank have collaborated in measuring the incidence of poverty.1 They have shown a steady decline in the proportion of population in poverty especially since the year 2000. There has been impressive reduction in infant mortality, increase in life expectancy, improvement in the status of women and increase in educational enrolment, especially at the primary and secondary levels. In many of these indicators Bangladesh has overtaken India, a country with nearly twice the per capita income at comparable purchasing power, inviting bemused admiration from numerous analysts.2