Child Equity Atlas - BIDS

Introduction
Introduction
1.0 Background of the Study
1.0.1 In 40 years of independence, Bangladesh
illustrates a country determined to achieve social
justice in its development. The Constitution of
the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1 is built
on the principles of fundamental human rights
and freedom, equality and justice and nondiscrimination.
These values clearly underlie the
inter twined objectives of the country’s Sixth
Five Year Plan such as ‘reduce income inequality’,
‘reduce regional disparities by ensuring distributive
justice’, ‘achieve sustained growth with equity
and social justice’ among others; with a shift to the
monitoring of development results.
1.0.2 Accordingly, Bangladesh Vision 2021
seeks to achieve higher per capita income in a
development scenario where citizens are expected
to enjoy a higher standard of living, better
education, better social justice, a more equitable
socioeconomic environment, and sustainability
of development through better protection
from climate change and natural disasters. The
associated political environment will be based on
democratic principles with emphasis on human
rights, freedom of expression, rule of law, equality
of citizens irrespective of race, religion and creed,
and equality of opportunities 2 .
1.0.3 Development with equity is one of the key
purposes of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC) and other international human rights
1
The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
http://bdlaws.minlaw.gov.bd/print_sections_all.php?id=367.
2
Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-15), General Economics Division,
Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government
of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh , http://napd.ac.bd/
Sixthplan.pdf
instruments. By ratifying the CRC state parties are
obliged to ensure the progressive realization of
the rights of children with equity.
1.0.4 The Bangladesh Millennium Development
Goals Progress Report 3 , 2011 shows that the
country has made remarkable progress in
primary school enrolment, gender parity in
primary and secondary education, lowering the
infant and under-five mortality rate, improving
immunization coverage and reducing incidence of
communicable diseases. For instance, Bangladesh
and the Maldives are the only two countries in
the SAARC region to have achieved the MDG of
reducing by two-thirds, the under-five mortality
rate (U5MR). Among SAARC countries with a
large population size, Bangladesh clearly stands
out with the highest Annual Rate of Reduction
of U5MR (on average a 5.3 per cent annual rate
of reduction between 1990 and 2011). These are
truly remarkable achievements.
1.0.5 But the question is: Has Bangladesh made
the progress with equity? The reality, however,
is that the progress is uneven – disparities exist
in effective coverage of basic social services by
geographic regions, rural-urban, gender, wealth,
ethnicity, and other dimensions. Various national
surveys such as the Bangladesh Demographic and
Health Survey 2011, Multiple Indicator Cluster
Survey 2009 confirm these disparities, at subnational
levels.
1.0.6 To attain a more inclusive and socially just
development, the Bangladesh Sixth Five year Plan
3
The Millennium Development Goals: Bangladesh Progress
Report, 2011 http://www.un-bd.org/pub/MDG%20
Progress%20Report%202011.pdf.
3