Education blog

Urban slums in Bangladesh have the worst performance regarding to women and children’s well-being and access to basic services compared to rural and non-slum urban areas, an official survey revealed here Wednesday.

The results of the 2009 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) , conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on the situation of women and children, were published on Wednesday in capital Dhaka.

For the first time, according to the survey, all the 481 sub- districts of Bangladesh have been ranked according to their performance on 23 key social indicators. This rich set of data shows clearly the geographical areas which are lagging behind in achieving some of the Millennium Development Goals.

The survey points at huge disparities between districts and even between sub-districts within a given district. But it also reveals that urban slums are generally worse off than most of the low-performing rural areas.

For example, the survey reveals, the proportion of pupils who reach Grade 5 is 48 percent in urban slums against 54 percent in Kushtia district, about 183 km west of capital Dhaka, – the worst performing district for this indicator. The national average is 79. 8 percent.

The highest drop-out rate from primary school is also recorded in slum areas where it is six times higher than the national level.

“Evidence exists that mitigating socio-economic inequalities is a powerful strategy to accelerate both economic growth and poverty reduction. The survey gives us an exact picture of geographic inequalities in Bangladesh which the country needs to address”, Carel de Rooy, UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, was quoted as saying in a statement of UNICEF Wednesday.

He said, “Children who do not have access to basic services cannot get out of the vicious cycle of poverty if specific programs are not put in place to address their basic needs.”

This UNICEF-BBS survey, however, confirms the improvements made by Bangladesh in child survival and education, showing clear progress in timely initiation of breastfeeding, reduction of child and infant mortality, pre-school attendance rate and school retention rate.

A major improvement is found in birth registration with 53.6 percent of children under five being registered against 9.8 percent in 2006. It also shows some 85.2 percent of the population has access to improved sources of water.

A total of 7,683 interviewers collected data from 300,000 households from April to May 2009.

According to the UNICEF representative, the survey can serve as a very important tool for elected and administrative officials to assess and compare their performance on the human development front, and similar surveys will be conducted in 2012 and 2015 in order to assess progress.