Mosammat Rowshan Ara
Sociology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna 9208, Bangladesh
Poverty, Farmer, Income, Living standard, Basic needs, Rural Bangladesh
The village Baruipara under Rampal Upazila in the Bagerhat district of Bangladesh
Socio-economic and Policy
Livelihood
The present research is based on data collected through a field survey of 50 farm households involved in crop and non- crop cultivation and it had been carried out during January to March 2009 in the village Baruipara under Rampal upazila in the Bagerhat district of Bangladesh. A methodological technique to mention here is that the calculation of household incomes may be arrived at from two different standpoints, i. e., from the household product account and the household expenditure account. Expenditure data consistently provide a higher estimate of household income in comparison to product account data, the difference being accounted for due to expenditure saving activities or simple underreporting. The current review of poverty trends was made with reference to income calculated from the expenditure data. The households were classified into six land ownership categories: a) landless (having less than .05 acres of land), b) functionally landless (with .05- .49 acres), c) marginal land owner (between .50- 1.49 acres), d) small land owner (with 1.50-2.49 acres), e) medium land owner (2.50- 4.99 acres), and f) large land owners (5.0 acres or more) (Sen, 1995).
Measurement of the variables: The poverty situation of the farmers concerned had been measured in terms of their income and living standard. The households whose income was less than Tk. 2754 (1$ per day) had been considered as below lower poverty line, and those with less than Tk.5508 (2$ per day) had belonged to upper poverty line. In order to measure their living standard i. e, - access to food, education, clothing, housing, health and sanitation, high status items, were used as indicators. Clothing means whether each adult household member could be a minimum two pieces of lungi or sharee and whether each household member possessed a piece of winter clothing and a pair of shoes per year. Health and sanitation referred to access to different types of medicare and sanitary toilet. The houses were categorized into four types i) jhupri (match box type house, made of leaves), ii) single structure, iii) semi- durable (house structure with one plus rooms), and iv) durable (house structure with one plus rooms). Here the jhupri and single structure houses were considered as lower categories. Poverty situation was also assessed through the access to high status items, such as, almirahs, radio/cassette players, television, watch, bicycle, motorbike, and ornaments. The independent variables of the study were age, education, family size, farm size, duration of work/ day, annual income, occupation, health and sanitation, clothing, housing, which were measured by using numerical scale. The households were selected purposively. The data were collected through interview schedule using a pre- designed and pretested questionnaire.
Khulna University Studies Volume 10 (1&2) : 321-330 : June-December 2010
Journal