Poverty Marching Towards Museums: NGOs in Bangladesh Revisited

Many people believe that Bangladesh is a land of natural calamities, poverty, and unemployment. Bangladesh is on the verge of overcoming those problems. Due to the resource and economic constraints, the government could not provide an economically solvent life to its people. The NGOs could fill up those gaps in manifolds. At present almost 25,000 NGOs are operating in Bangladesh. They have a wide range of functional coverage, namely, microcredit, empowerment/income generation, education, health and nutrition, environment, natural calamities/disaster management, human rights and legal aids, water and sanitation, poultry and livestock, agriculture, relief and rehabilitation, advocacy etc. BRAC is the largest NGO in Bangladesh. In addition, ASA, Proshika, PKSF, Caritas, TMSS, World Vision, Swanirvar Bangladesh, CARE, Shakti Foundation, RDRS are the major NGOs operating in Bangladesh. Microcredit model invented by Yunus is used by the NGOs in Bangladesh and many counties of the globe. This study carries out a longitudinal research following the observational method and multi-stage sampling with open interviews with the NGO-employees, foreign donors and the beneficiaries in the seven administrative divisions in Bangladesh with a view to finding out the answer of the following research questions: (i) is poverty wiping out from Bangladesh? (ii) what is the role of the NGOs and Grameen Bank (GB) in the socio-economic development of the people? In brief, the study could understand- though the progress is slow, the poverty level of the people gradually going down in Bangladesh. In this regard the contributions of the NGOs and the Grameen Bank cannot be ignored. A number of recommendations are chalked out. Suggestions for future researchers are presented Key Words: Poverty, NGOs, Banglades