Child Equity Atlas - BIDS

Summary and Conclusion
Summary and Conclusion
8.0.0 The population and housing census
undertaken every 10 years offers a reliable source
of data which, at low cost, can be ‘mined’ to
highlight progress, or lack thereof, on a number
of demographic and social parameters. With
information available at the individual levels,
socioeconomic and population based development
profiles can be created from the census, on the
deprivations faced by specific groups such as
children and youths. Based on information collected
from each resident of the country the census data
has the advantage of assessing a much lower level
of geography and administrative units like villages
in rural and wards in urban areas, which large scale
surveys cannot.
8.0.1 In line with the principles of the National
Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS)
in Bangladesh, UNICEF together with BIDS and
BBS embarked on a practical demonstration of
organizational commitment to mine data from
existing credible national sources such as the
Census, to complement population based surveys.
This document has further analyzed the available
information from the Census to assess the
situation of children and women in the country
against certain development indicators (Annex-
1A). The analysis also unpacked the existing
disparities up to upazila level where some degree
of administrative, developmental and service
delivery autonomy exist, to provide some hard
evidence to help targeting, planning and policy
formulation for more equitable national growth
and development.
8.0.2 As shown in prior chapters, this report
examined various spatial dimensions and
disparities of some indicators - population below
18 years of age, sex ratio, female teenage marriage
rate, literacy, schooling, educational attainment,
child worker, housing and sanitation, and several
composite indices of social deprivation faced by
children, youth and their families. The greatest
value of this report is the high level of geographic
resolution which enables decision makers to
identify the specific areas which are most socially
deprived; to inform equity based targeting of
relevant socioeconomic and social safety net
programmes and budgets.
8.0.3 As shown earlier, Bangladesh has
recorded significant improvement over the last
decade in the country in respect to most of the
indicators taken into consideration. Nonetheless,
socioeconomic progress has been uneven across
the country and from the perspective of children
and women’s rights; this report brings forth the
disparities that exist between parts of the country,
regions, districts and upazilas, with respect to
most of the indicators and composite measures
of deprivation. Without repeating the findings
in earlier chapters, this chapter points the way
forward for Bangladesh to invest into equitable
social services in the quest to the middle income
status by 2021.
Photo : Ibrahim Khan Moni
117