Child Equity Atlas - BIDS

Pockets of Social Deprivation
7.1.4 The composite deprivation index (CDI)
created is strongly related to poverty from
the perspective of social deprivation, and it
can, therefore, be used for multi-sector social
targeting of the most deprived upazilas,
deprived in terms of education, housing, child
protection and sanitation. The index captures
social deprivation and the results of the index
can easily be used and understood: the higher
the number of areas with higher values of
index, the worse the situation and the more
that has to be done to achieve the MDGs with
equity in Bangladesh.
7.2 Emerging Patterns and Pockets of Social
Deprivation
7.2.1 The district level Map shows an
interesting pattern: with a few exceptions,
the whole western and southern parts of
the country fall within the ‘good’ category,
while the northern and eastern parts fall in
the more deprived regions. Thus, the Map
reveals continuous spots of the same colour
rather than a patch work of different colours
(categories). The best performing districts are
located around Khulna and Barisal divisions,
compared to Sylhet division which visibly lags
behind.
7.2.2 The upazila Map with its much greater
geographic resolution features many other
poorly performing areas indicating disparities
within districts and between upazilas, which
were obscured by district averages in the district
Map. Overall district performance is often a
combination of ‘good’ and ‘poor’ performance
at the upazila level. Data Mapping at lower
administrative levels, upazila at district and
ward at DCC, allows us to recognize important
patterns and pockets of social deprivations
for collective action to address social
inequalities or exclusion. Thus, the number of
“high deprivation” and “highest deprivation”
upazilas were 90 and 50, respectively. These
two categories, together 140 upazilas, were
recognized as the “most deprived”, providing
decision makers with a chance to target social
development programmes and budgets
more directly to these areas lagging behind
as Bangladesh seeks to attain middle income
status with equity by 2021.
7.2.3 The robust census data at the upazila
and ward levels show significant disparities
between different upazilas within and outside
districts, and between different wards of DCC.
Deprivation is particularly higher in wards with
high proportion of slums and the upazilas of
isolated districts. The CDI helps to focus on the
most deprived areas.
7.2.4 Table 7.3 presents the number of
deprived upazilas in each of the 15 most
deprived districts based on CDI. The table
shows two districts - Sunamganj and Bhola - as
the most deprived districts, as all the upazilas
of these districts were the ‘most deprived’.
The 15 districts presented in the table contain
91 out of 140 most deprived upazilas in 64
districts, a very substantial proportion. The
observed pattern shows that deprivation is
more widespread than the deprived districts
indicate. As revealed, there are many pockets
of poverty in Bangladesh, even in economically
well-off areas too. For example, Gulshan,
though one of the wealthiest areas in Dhaka
city has a few pockets of poverty gauged by
social deprivation measures.
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