Poverty reduction has been a priority objective of development of Bangladesh since its emergence as an independent nation in 1971. Starting from the First Five Year Plan (1973-1978) which emphasized poverty reduction through employment generation, all development plans as well as the two poverty reduction strategy papers recognized the importance of poverty reduction and developed policies and strategies for poverty reduction. Consequently, significant reduction in poverty has taken place in the last four decades – the incidence of poverty as measured by headcount rate declined from more than 80 percent in 1973-74 to 31.5 percent in 2010 (BBS, Report on the Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2010).