THE call that government officials, development partners and rights activists have put out for a comprehensive social protection system covering all marginalised groups to build an equitable society is what the government should heed, especially at a time when Bangladesh, now a lower middle-income country, is set to graduate out of the bloc of least developed countries in November 2026. The call was made at the inaugural session of a three-day conference, A Journey towards an Equitable Society, that the Cabinet Division organised, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme and Australian Aid, in Dhaka on September 1. The conference is meant to work out a 10-year national social security strategy for the next 10 years. The participants say that allocations made under social safety net schemes should reach the right people at the right time and it should not only be meant for the beneficiaries to live at a subsistence level but also to have access to health, education and dignity. They also say that there are numerous safety net programmes, but many of them are fragmented, narrowly targeted and inefficiently administered. And, the proposition is compounded with a significant number of cases of ghost beneficiaries.
There has also been 鈥榓 missing middle,鈥� the families that are just above the poverty threshold, that remains highly vulnerable having been out of the purview of the social protection system, constituting a critical gap. Universal social protection, the participants say, is not only a luxury but a moral and constitutional obligation of the state that is managed by the government. The call for an effective, strong social protection system has also been in order in view of the findings of a recent multidimensional survey that the finance ministry has funded. The survey, which research and policy advocacy organisation Power and Participation Research Centre has conducted, shows that the poverty rate increased to 27.93 per cent in May 2025 from 18.7 per cent in 2022. The survey, which was made public in Dhaka on August 25, says that food alone accounts for almost 54.9 per cent of the monthly household expenditure, followed by costs for medical treatment which accounts for 7.5 per cent, education 7.29 per cent and transport 6.4 per cent. The survey observes that poverty and vulnerability because of indebtedness, chronic diseases, food insecurity and disguised employment have plagued the majority of the households. Recurring natural disasters also push thousands of people back into poverty.
The government runs 95 social protection programmes with an allocation of Tk 1,160 billion in the 2026 financial year. They need to be properly governed, widened and strengthened. The government should, therefore, introduce special packages and shore up other issues by taking up a holistic approach to stem any decline in the poverty situation.
