Social indicators

According to World Bank date, in 1960, Bangladesh and Pakistan had the exact same fertility rate of 6.725 children per woman and India had 5.9. In 2017, Bangladesh had a 2.1 fertility rate, while India had 2.2, and Pakistan had 3.6.

The dramatic drop in the fertility rate was the result of strong and persistent government commitment to innovative, multi-layered programs such as family-planning and nationwide campaigns, with the involvement of NGOs and even religious leaders. Contraceptives were widely advertised and made available at low-cost, subsidized prices.

The heart of the program consisted of 23,500 female family welfare assistants who brought health and family planning information as well as free contraceptives to women in their homes. The assistance was backed-up by clinical services. By the mid-1990s, the Ministry of Health was employing 44,000 family planning personnel, according to a report by Germany's D+C Development and Cooperation in 2014.

The number of premature death of infants has shrunk significantly. Where we would see almost 150 infant deaths per thousand in 1971, it has been reduced to 32.4 in 2017, according to Unicef.

The life expectancy has also grown to 72 for Bangladesh as of 2017, while Indians live up to 69 and Pakistanis till 67, according to the World Bank.

The Bangladesh of today is leaps and bounds from that right after independence, with the economy, industry and health all progressing at a staggering pace. At this rate, middle income country status in 2021 appears to be more inevitability than possibility.