Bangladesh Runs Its First-Ever Socioeconomic Survey of Small Ethnic Communities, Covering 50 Groups

How do the people of Bangladesh's small ethnic communities actually live, and what share of them live in poverty? To answer those questions, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) is conducting a survey of these communities for the first time in the country's history. The survey began on 1 October and will run until 25 October.

The BBS says the nationwide exercise will produce a complete list of households belonging to the small ethnic communities and collect data on their socioeconomic condition. It will reveal which communities are lagging furthest behind and which are comparatively better off.

On the basis of the data collected, the BBS plans to determine poverty rates among these groups and take the steps needed to improve their living standards. Until now, the absence of a separate, comprehensive database on these populations has meant their place in development planning rested largely on guesswork.

The survey questionnaire covers 50 small ethnic communities. The Bengali population is not included; the survey is confined to households of the small ethnic groups.

A notable feature of the exercise is that the enumerators have been recruited from within the ethnic communities themselves, including young students. BBS officials say Bengalis cannot fully grasp the language, culture and social reality of these communities, which is why people who know their own community's language, culture and social reality have been engaged to collect the information.

The work has not been smooth everywhere. According to BBS sources, enumerators faced awkward situations while collecting data in several places in Dhaka, Chattogram and Mymensingh. Many people declined to provide information or hesitated, asking why the data was being taken. In many places, people eventually came forward after discussions involving higher government authorities.

Farhana Sultana, project director of the 'Survey to Assess the Socioeconomic Condition and Poverty Situation of Small Ethnic Communities', said: 'In a few places we faced obstruction in collecting data for this survey. Later it was explained to them that the information is being gathered for their own future planning. Then they agreed to provide it.' She also appealed to the ethnic communities to cooperate by sharing their information.

The project director said the survey will build a complete picture of the socioeconomic condition of these communities. Alongside household-level data, an index to evaluate living standards will also be prepared — helping to identify which families are relatively worse off and who is falling behind in development benefits and social protection coverage.

Under the BBS plan, the survey data will be used to create a benchmark database on the small ethnic communities. The database will serve in future to observe changes in their living standards and to evaluate the progress of development programmes.

Another important aspect is the collection of disaggregated data on these communities for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It will provide the information needed to pursue the goal of 'leaving no one behind' in development, and the data can also be used in national planning, implementation and evaluation, as well as in international reporting.

The project is budgeted at 28 crore taka in total and is scheduled to end on 30 June 2028. Once data collection is complete and the results analysed, a full picture of poverty rates and living standards among the communities will emerge.

Those involved say reliable data is essential for planning the development of these communities. But the survey's ultimate usefulness will depend on how effective the development plans based on its findings turn out to be — and how far the benefits actually reach the families who are lagging behind. With fieldwork ending on 25 October, the analysis that follows will show the true condition of the country's 50 small ethnic communities.