SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC CORRELATES OF RURAL POVERTY IN BANGLADESH: A CASE STUDY OF GAIBANDHA SADAR AND TANORE UPAZILAS 1

The main objective of this paper is to explore the relationship between poverty variables and eight sociodemographic correlates like location, gender, age, household size, marital status, occupation, land ownership and house ownership in one of the poorest regions of Bangladesh. Poverty is defined and measured by ten indicators, which incorporate multi-dimensionality of poverty - food, income, assets, consumption, capability and well-being. Data for this study come from an UNDP-assisted survey of two Upazilas of Bangladesh, Gaibandha Sadar and Tanore in Gaibandha and Rajshahi districts respectively, carried during April-May 2002 by Bangladesh Rural Development Board under Community Empowerment Project-2. A total of 5,180 heads of household, 3,158 in Gaibandha Sadar and 2,022 in Tanore, are surveyed through a multi-stage stratified sampling. Chi-square measure of association and Pearson’s correlation is used to ascertain the degree and direction of relationship between poverty variables and factors of poverty. It is found that the incidence of rural poverty ranges between 46 per cent to 67 per cent and that income, capacity and well-being poverty is greater than food poverty. Furthermore, it is found that land ownership and occupation are the crucial correlates of poverty followed by marital status, age, geographic location and gender. Most of them are significantly related to multi-dimensionality of poverty at the significance level of α=. 01.