Baseline assessment of skills and employment of Indigenous and tribal peoples in Bangladesh

This study was conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) with the support of ILO. Based on a large sample of 10,000 households, the findings contribute significantly to the body of knowledge on the socioeconomic condition and skills of indigenous and tribal peoples in Bangladesh. They indicate that the skills and employability of these men and women in Bangladesh urgently need to be enhanced. The study shows they are primarily involved in low skill, low productive economic activities and they lag behind the rest of the rural population of Bangladesh in terms of housing conditions, sanitation facilities, access to land, etc. They are mainly employed in the informal sector and their skill levels are extremely low. Over 80 per cent of them could be described as being unskilled, with no or very limited skill-levels in evidence. This report of the study highlights the need for indigenous and tribal men and women in Bangladesh to have enhanced access to skills training opportunities in order to help them find decent work, an important step which will help lift many out of poverty.

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