A/HRC/5/3 page 17 Bangladesh decreased from 92 in 1991 to 53 in 2001, with a notable decrease in the rural areas from 94 per cent to 57 per cent.29 Programmes targeting community empowerment or elimination of social exclusion, such as the Rural Maintenance Programme (RMP) which aims at empowering women, particularly widows or single-headed households, and maintaining rural infrastructure, involve about 42,000 participants annually. Studies show that over 60 per cent of the phased-out RMP participants were able to maintain the standard of living they had enjoyed during their RMP period. Safety net programmes in Bangladesh have also become successful to a certain extent in alleviating human poverty. Similarly, the Vulnerable Group Development (VGD) programme, which focuses on developing life skills for women through training and motivating savings, has been successful in improving the socio-economic conditions of beneficiary women, enabling them to ameliorate their existing situation to sustain themselves and to rise above the level of extreme poverty. 36. Findings from the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) show that about 70 per cent of children aged 5 to 14 years from beneficiary households are enrolled in schools, as compared to 64 per cent of those from non-beneficiary households. The different rounds of Labour Force Surveys indicate progress in employment generation as the employed population increased from 34.8 million in 1995/96 to 39.0 million in 1999/2000 and further to 44.3 million in 2002/2003. It is estimated that during the PRSP period (FY05-FY07), 8.02 million new jobs will be created, of which 5.39 million in rural areas and 2.63 million in urban areas. In Viet Nam, the statistics of the Ministry of Labour demonstrate a consistent increase in job creation over the last five years, with 1.5 million jobs created in 2004. The proportion of unemployed labour in rural areas has declined from 6.42 per cent in 2000 to 5.6 per cent in 2004.30 37. States and Governments are recognized and accepted as the principal providers of social services in Asian developing countries. With regard to basic education, public schools account for the bulk of primary school enrolment in the region (89 per cent), and their share of overall education expenditure is 79 per cent. Improvements in the public education systems are thus of primary importance. In Bangladesh, the implementation of stipend programmes, such as the Primary Education Stipend Project and the Female Secondary School Assistance Programmes, have contributed to an increase in literacy rates of the population (aged 7 years and above), from 32.40 per cent in 1991 to 47 per cent in 2004. In particular there has been a significant increase in female primary literacy from 25.15 to 42.90 per cent.31 In Cambodia, World Bank statistics 29 BBS Paper, Statistics for Monitoring Attainment of MDGs in Bangladesh, table 17. Available at: www.bbs.gov.bd/dataindex/MDGs%20in%20Bangladesh.doc. 30 Viet Nam: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Annual Progress Report, IMF Country Report No. 06/340, September 2006, at http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2006/cr06340.pdf. 31 BBS Paper, Statistics for Monitoring Attainment of MDGs in Bangladesh, table 10 and 11. Available at: www.bbs.gov.bd/dataindex/MDGs%20in%20Bangladesh.doc. Sources: Population Census 2001, Analytical Report (Provisional).