Child Equity Atlas - BIDS

Foreword
About a year ago, our respective institutions signed a tripartite exchange of letters, committing to use
the 2011 Bangladesh Population and Housing Census and related data to promote evidence led equity
based policy on children and women in Bangladesh. This Child Equity Atlas was undertaken principally
to achieve three broad goals. Firstly, to unpack the patterns of progress recorded by Bangladesh and
map the prevailing pockets of key social deprivations faced by children, youth and women, between
the 2001 and 2011 censuses. Secondly, analyze the pockets of social deprivations, as a call for concerted
action to close the inequities between areas and population groups in the country. Thirdly, the analysis
contained in the child equity analysis should contribute to policy dialogue to reform and refocus relevant
policies and programmes, towards more equitable socioeconomic development in Bangladesh’s quest
toward middle income status by 2021.
The major focus of this analysis is children up to 18 years of age, youth as defined by demographic
and international standards and women aged 15-49 years. Beyond demographics, social services and
facilities, the Atlas used a composite deprivation index to measure progress and produced maps to
show patterns of social development outcomes across areas and population groups, with focus on
children, youth and women. About 14 indicators were extracted or computed from the census data to
produce this Child Equity Atlas. With its graphs, tables, maps and analysis the Atlas presents important
observations about the remarkable achievements in Bangladesh while the equity focus unearths the
huge inequities still existing. The sophistication of the census analysis is demonstrated by some of the
peculiar measures such as real child labour, out of school children, female teenage marriage, youth
literacy and much more, drilled to the upazila (sub-district) level and wards in Dhaka City Corporation.
There are several advantages and dimensions to the evidence generated in the Equity Atlas. Firstly, the
census has no sampling errors by including all households, an advantage over all surveys especially at
the lower geographical level. Secondly, the Equity Atlas powerfully displays the geographical location
of the major problems. The maps provide a uniquely powerful visualization of the issues facing different
sub-national areas and populations across the country, providing a holistic picture yet revealing greater
detail to illuminate inequities by showing patterns and trends, and how children, youth and women are
able to access vital resources and opportunities, and how these patterns correlate with key socioeconomic
outcomes. Hence, the out of school children maps clearly show where policy instruments such as the
Primary Education Stipend Programme (PESP) and the Upazila Primary Education Plans should focus
more resources towards educational equity by investing in the areas with high proportion of out of
school children.
The Atlas also summarizes the census information in one Composite Deprivation Index (CDI), which
coincides with the geographical pattern of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework
(UNDAF) priority districts derived earlier from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) of the
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF (2009).
We note the limited scope of some indicators in the short questionnaire census such as the access to
water, lack of health related information, etc. Despite the limitations this Atlas shows the added value
of a meticulous analysis of the census data and the presentation of the results in a user friendly way.
This publication demonstrates the commitment of our institutions in promoting equity in the social
development sector of the national economy. It also confirms our collective resolve to implement the
National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) by tapping into the census data source with
its universal coverage, and unlimited possibilities for geographical and equity analysis.
iii