The national child poverty rate is 16.49 per cent with a significantly higher rate in the rural areas, according to a General Economics Division study.
Compared with the child poverty rate at 8.22 per cent in the urban areas, it is 20.15 per cent in the rural areas, the division said on Wednesday.
Rangpur has the highest child poverty rate at 29.99 per cent, followed by Mymensingh at 24.26 per cent.
Dhaka has the lowest child poverty rate at 9.45 per cent while Chattogram has the rate at 11.92 per cent.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the headcount poverty rate, based on the cost of basic needs method, was 18.7 per cent in 2022.
At a briefing at the Planning Commission in the capital鈥檚 Agargaon, GED member Monzur Hossain said that the study titled 鈥楾he urban-rural dichotomy: a comparative analysis of child poverty in Bangladesh鈥� had been done on the basis of Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2022.
The child poverty persists mainly in poor households, he said, adding that the study highlighted the significant impact of various socio-demographic factors on child poverty rates, underscoring the need for targeted policies and interventions to address these disparities.
The GED member suggested the resumption of the child budget and called on the authorities to ensure cash transfer under the social safety net programme to the poor households.
Referring to the findings, Monzur said that younger children (0-5 years) experienced the highest rate of poverty at 18.2 per cent.
This rate decreases to 16.7 per cent for those aged 6-14 years, and further to 13.2 per cent for those aged 15-17 years, he said.
For all the age groups of children, poverty is highly prevalent in the rural areas, the rate of which is 21.44 per cent for 0 to 5 years, 20.63 per cent for 6 to 14 years and 16.56 per cent for 15 to 17 years, according to the study.