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The vast majority of rural poor in Bangladesh are landless. For this reason most of them work as agricultural labour on land belonging to others. They remain unemployed during the lean seasons. The objective of the present research was to investigate how the income of the poor fluctuates with the agricultural cycle and what survival strategies they adopt during the lean season. Another objective of this research was to build the capacity of the young researchers through undertaking this venture under the guidance of a university professor. The action research project also aimed at helping the poverty groups to identify the most effective survival strategy appropriate to the situations for overcoming seasonal crisis. The researchers observed a common condition of poverty all over Bangladesh. There may be differences in socio-economic lifestyles between various areas but in case of poverty there exists a general similarity. It seems that poverty actually appears in lean season and thus lowering the quality of socio-economic lifestyle of the poor people and that causing deprivation in various dimensions. This seems to be the general trend in the country. In the context of income, consumption, employment, economic and social activities rural people lead a dual life. Some times they try to plan these two seasonal phases of their lives but in most cases they fail to do that because existence of lean season cause them to suffer a downward shift in their economic condition. This downward shift also hampers their relatively better lifestyle of peak season. In this context, positive improvement requires especial government intervention during the lean season. The researchers also found that in the less developed areas development interventions are surprisingly less. On the contrary, development interventions are relatively high in affluent areas, which seem to be a great paradox to the researchers. It is almost like carrying gold to the Newcastle! The researchers, as capacity building exercises, benefited significantly from conducting the research in raising their knowledge and skills in undertaking studies related to poverty issues.
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