Unmasking the inequality and child survival among urban poor in Bangladesh

Mohammad Kabir, Jahangirnagar University
Subir Saha, Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh

Despite significant improvements in child survival in recent decades, infant and under-five mortality in Bangladesh remain high with strong urban-rural difference. Nearly one in nine children dies before reaching age five. Neonatal mortality contributes to more than sixty percent of the infant mortality. Reducing poor-rich inequalities and survival of children within developing countries is a perquisite for achieving the MDG-4. However, using the data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey, 2004 and applying Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for determining the relative economic condition of the household, it is evident that children from urban poor have the worse health condition than the rural poor as well as Bangladesh National. The urban extreme poor have the highest under-five, infant and neonatal mortality rates than the rural estimates. To achieve the child survival millennium development goal in Bangladesh better pro-poor policies and child survival interventions are required to reduce the rich-poor gap in survival among urban children.