THE ROLE OF NGOS IN PREVENTING UNEMPLOYMENT IN BANGLADESH

Based on personal observation, qualitative and quantitative research method, objectives of this study have been set to explore the contributions of the non-governmental organization (NGOs) in Bangladesh with the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) as the case. Two villages of the Chandpur district of Bangladesh were selected. Results indicate that the NGOs are capable of contributing in preventing unemployment in rural areas with diversified programmes. However, the involvement and interaction of NGO employees with the rural population needs to be friendly. Introduction: The non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have attached themselves with the employment generation activities regardless of male or female gender bias. They are initiating programmes for poverty alleviation through the sustainable development activities. Involvement of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with such activities has been evidenced through several academic research works (Chowdhury & Mukhopadhaya, 2011). Hundreds of such kind of organizations are in operation in Bangladesh for decades and are mainly financed by the international donor agencies. However, in many cases activities of such organizations and their presence in most rural areas of Bangladesh are very limited. This study has restricted its focus on a single large scale non-governmental organization known as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). This is the world's largest non- governmental organization (NGO) which started the activities back in 1972 having Sir Fazle Hasan Abed as the entrepreneur (Reza & Ahmmed, 2009). This organization has gradually expanded its activities in diversified sectors and mainly in the areas like employment generation and poverty alleviation through sustainable developmental initiatives. Again, this organization has been playing role to develop the socio economic status of the women through involving them with the development activities. The adoption or implementation of programmes those are designed to bring the women with the development initiatives thus have been ensuring a better livelihood that is mostly free from hard core poverty. As outlined, main objective of this study has been to explore the contributions of the non-governmental organization (NGOs) from the developing country perspective, Bangladesh as a case. This has tried to assess the current unemployment situations in Bangladesh. With this purpose, the study has critically explained typologies of the executed programmes of BRAC, in the particular area of poverty alleviation. Literature Review: 2.1 Unemployment Situation: Bangladesh Perspective: Unemployment situation has remained constant in Bangladesh for the last few decades. The recent trend denotes that there have been some improvements in the unemployment scale in recent years. However, there has been always a serious anomaly in the measurement of employment status of the country population.