areas. Urban poverty shows the mixture of self-employment and wage
labour. Self-employment is common as vendors, petty traders, tea-stall
owners, beggars, shoe-shine boys, garbage sifters, potters, rickshaw pullers,
and roadside hawkers. Wage employment is often on a causal basis and not
subject to minimum wage laws. Most of the people in this area largely
depends on small and medium enterprises or simply called micro enterprise
as their main occupation. A micro-enterprise is a type of small business,
often registered, having five or fewer employees and requiring seed capital,
not more than $35,000. An Australian organization, defines a micro-business
as one with five or less employees. This definition is often used in the United
States. In Europe, a business with less than 10 employees is officially
considered as micro-business. It is expected to measure the poverty line of
the study area. This paper will find out the ways to increase income and try to
bring the people out of poverty line.
Natural Resources
1. Development of sustainable livelihood improvement strategy
considering integrated char resources management (ICRM) in
Riverine Char
Mohammad Arifur Rahman,, PhD Fellow at the Institute of Water and Flood
Management, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET)
Bangladesh is mainly composed of the floodplains and delta of three
rivers, the Ganges (Padma), the Brahmaputra (Jamuna) and the Meghna. The
main focus of this study is to develop livelihood improvement strategy
considering integrated char resources management (ICRM) by assessing
economic condition of char dwellers and their livelihood practices. The
research has been conducted using interdisciplinary approach. Different
socio-technical tools have been used to analyze the problem. Local people’s
participation in the research process has been ensured by using Participatory
Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools. This study reveals that the char dwellers’
livelihood is more vulnerable in the frequently eroded chars than the
comparatively stable ones. The daily per capita income of both stable and
eroded char is below the poverty level. Different types of consequences
result in the poverty of char people, which include lack of ownership of land,
natural disaster (flood, land erosion), poor communication, lack of
educational facilities, and lack of employment opportunities. The research
paper recommends some livelihood improvement strategies, both short and
long term, considering integrated char resources management (ICRM) to
eradicate poverty in char areas.
Poverty and Development: Realities of Grassroots 19