Sustainable Rural Development in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Three Villages at Gopalganj District

Background: Rural development in Bangladesh is crucial for the country’s socio-economic progress, given the significant portion of its population residing in rural areas. However, achieving sustainability in rural development poses numerous challenges due to various factors such as poverty, environmental degradation, and limited access to resources. Rural development is the process of improving the quality of life and economic well-being of people living in rural areas. The term ‘rural development’ is used to describe the deliberate actions made in non- urban parts of a developing country to alleviate or eradicate poverty, increase resilience, promote ecological sustainability and build capacity to meet these and other issues. Rural development has traditionally centered on the exploitation of land, intensive natural resources such as agriculture, aquaculture and forestry. However, change in global production networks and increased urbanization have changed the characteristics of rural areas. According to World Bank estimation, rural population is 66.5% of the total population and remaining 33.5% are urban population in Bangladesh. It is quite evident that without development of the larger portion of the population of the rural area, sustained development is not possible for the country. Rural development is deeply rooted within our society and it is integrated in the way of life, livelihood and culture of the people of Bangladesh Since independence the Government of Bangladesh has been taking constant initiatives in terms of policies, strategies and programmes to promote sustainable rural development in the country. In this connection a research work has been undertaken to know the prospects and challenges for sustainable rural development entitled; “Sustainable Rural Development in Bangladesh: A Case Study of Three Villages at Gopalganj District†during 2022-2023 fiscal year. For this purpose, 03(three) villages beside BAPARD have been selected named Tarashi, Jathia and Satrakanda.