Harnessing the Demographic Dividend: Opportunities and Challenges for Bangladesh

Abstract

-The demographic dividend refers to the potential economic benefit offered by changes in the age structure of the population, when there is an increase in working-age population and an associated decline in the dependent age population. More people in the working age group and lower dependency ratio mean higher saving and investable surplus, leading to higher economic growth. The prime objective of this article is to explore how Bangladesh can be benefitted by the optimum utilization of demographic dividends; as well as the challenges Bangladesh might face if they remain unutilized. This paper gave main emphasis on secondary data. Demographic dividend is the window of opportunity that opens for a population only once. How much benefit Bangladesh will realize from this demographic dividend depends on employment opportunities in the economy. If there is little employment opportunities, a large part of the increased labor force will remain unemployed, hindering the benefit to be reaped from demographic dividend. Benefits of demographic dividend also depend on human resource development. Bangladesh has to concentrate on developing several policies for all levels of education including vocational education and training to create a skill workforce. If Bangladesh fails to grab this opportunity immediately, this young population could create a disastrous hazard for the nation.