Abstract:
Bangladesh is one of the poor and denscly populated countries in the world. About
49.8% of the populations still live below the poverty line (UNDP, 2004). The main
causes of poverty in Bangladesh include low economic growth rate, high population
growth rate, landlessness, homelessness, lack of access to the means of production
and rcsources, low literacy rate, natural disaster etc. Landlessness and homelessness
arc a great challenge I(lr Bangladesh in the area of poverty alleviation. About 14.2%
households arc landless (BBS, 2002). The Agriculture Census, 1996 revealed that
about 65.36% of rural households are effectively landless with 10.18% having
neither homestead nor agricultural land and 28.06% households having homestead
but no cultivable land. Due to vicious circle of poverty the marginal landholders
became landless and shelterless gradually. As a result, inspite of different pro poor
initiatives undertakcn by the Government, the number of landless and homeless
households inereascs day by day. But housing is a basic need and it is the
fundamental responsibility of the statc to provide sheller to its citizen. Keeping this
in mind the Government of Bangladesh has initiatcd and enacted different laws and
policies in favor of the poor, specially for the rural landless and homeless for
increasing their accessibility to land and land based services in order to reduce the
ugly face of poverty. Different rural rehabilitation programs have been initiated ,to
provide land and shelter for the landless and homeless. Asrayol1 is such kind of
project which provides land and shelter along with training and credit lur income
gcneration so that thc bcneficiarics of the project can improvc their economic and
social conditions and thus alleviate or reduce poverty.
Thc research has attempted to evaluate the performance of the project and to examine
the changes of socio-economic conditions of the beneficiaries of the project on the
basis of their views. The research also has attempted to examine as well as compare
the status of socio-economic conditions of four Asrayon villages on the basis of a
number of indicators. It has been found from the study that the economic conditions
of the beneficiaries in terms of income, expenditure, savings and investments have
improved marginally. But the social status of the beneficiaries has improved
significantly. It has been also found that among other issues the dwelling place,
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hcalthcarc facilitics, acccss to hcalth and family planning scrviccs, acccss to safc
drinking watcr and sanitary toilet and acccss to recreational facilitics playcd a vital
role to improve their living standard and quality of life. The study has examined the
status of women empowerment in the project and found that the project has played a
significant role in the empowerment of women. The research has also analyzed the
inputs provided by the project and suggested some modifications of its inputs for
bcttcr pcrf{ll"lnancc.
