Bangladesh has witnessed a parallel process of economic growth driven by, and associated
dispossession of, labour. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been lifted to a decadal
average of six percent in recent time. The country has also moved forward in the realm of social
indicators, despite a third person living below the so-called poverty line. The labour has chiefly
powered accumulation by way of low-priced-labour-centred-export, remittance from migrant
workers, tripling of food production by small-and-marginal farmers and being the bulk of
consumers in consumption-driven increments of GDP. Despite labour remaining in the heart of
such development, labourers are dispossessed by a number of ways. Against this backdrop, the
key question is: can this type of accumulation by dispossession enable the economy to a
sustainable path required to create gainful employment, reduce poverty and shrink inequality?
The development in Bangladesh is an aggregate product of multiple factors while labour remains
at the core. There is manifold increase in flow of remittance (both internal and external) over the
years, reflected in enlarged share of GDP.
Export has also amplified, especially with Bangladesh becoming the second largest exporter of
ready-made garment (RMG) in the world. The agriculture sector has witnessed a tripled growth
of cereal production, particularly owing to intensification of seed-water-fertilizer technology or
otherwise known as the so-called “green revolution.”