Special Employment Schemes in Rural Bangladesh: Issues and Perspective

The paper aims mainly to present an overall profile of the multiplex special employment scheme that was undertaken in Bangladesh and to provide a preliminary evaluation of their impact. Evaluation of the scheme is based on such performance indicators as employment generation, promotion of skill training and entrepreneurship, income generation and distribution, multiplier effects, the local labor market, female participation and other dimensions. It also provides a sketch of the costs, funding, and general cost-effectiveness of these programmes aswell as the various demand and supply constraints confronting them. The study pays special attention to the pivotal role of credit -- its dimensions, utilization and dispensation structure — as the catalyst of employment promotion programmes.Finally, the paper discusses policy issues related to the strengthening of the strategy of special rural employment creation. While the paper showed the significance and urgency of promoting special employment schemes in rural Bangladesh, it concludes that “the strategy perhaps cannot, given its current scale and future possibilities, stand on its own as a major attack on poverty.“ The review suggests that these programmes are useful as partial measures of poverty alleviation and should be cautiously fostered.