Understanding Extreme Poverty in the Words of the Poor – A Bangladesh Case Study

A key target of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is “to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere” by 2030. It is thus imperative to investigate how the poor people themselves perceive extreme poverty. In a Bangladesh context, contrasting lived experiences of the perceived poor and current dollar-based definition of extreme poverty seems to delineate different pictures. If poor people’s perceptions largely differ from the existing measure, poverty eradication in global development initiatives might become a mere statistical success. This paper argues that revisiting the existing definition in various country contexts might enhance the noble intention of poverty eradication.