RURAL BANGLADESH - PreventionWeb

Socioeconomic Profile Findings
Lack of participation in the political process is not surprising throughout the six rural zones,
given the community opinions expressed in the focus groups that people remain poorly
represented. Conflicts among the villagers, which may be based on land disputes, access to
water rights in the Haor or Char regions, or committee decisions, are normally resolved by
community shalish, elderly people, members, chairman, or occasionally by political party
leaders in most of rural Bangladesh.
The situation is a bit different in the CHT, where two parallel systems of administration, the
Union Parishad administrative unit and the traditional council of karbaris, headmen and
circle chiefs form the basis of political and local decision-making. Villagers are more
familiar and comfortable with and express more confidence in the traditional system. Non-
Bengali CHT communities appear not to trust what they perceive as an imposed system of
governance by a perceived power structure that supports the interests of outsiders. However,
confidence in the traditional administrative system, which is predominantly hereditary and
non-democratic in nature, is by no means universal. Villagers expressed dismay with unjust
decisions, including land redistribution for influence and cases of bribe taking over land
registration.
5. LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES
5.1 AGRICULTURE
Cropland Sizes & Landlessness: Landlessness increasingly encumbers households in rural
Bangladesh. Last year, less than half of the study households (48 percent) cultivated on
farmland. Only 14 percent of the invisible poor cultivated on farmland compared to 80
percent of non-vulnerable households. Agricultural cultivation is strongly correlated with
socioeconomic class and as well with sex of household head. Approximately half of maleheaded
households were involved in farmland cultivation compared to 22 percent of femaleheaded
households. Household cultivation also varies by region. Majority of the
households in CHT (65 percent) and Northwest (56 percent) last year cultivated farmland.
In contrast, only 43 to 44 percent of households in Char, Haor, and Coastal regions
cultivated on farmland. This has to do with the land ownership pattern as stated in Table 22,
which indicates that a higher proportion of the study households own agricultural land in
CHT and Northwest.
Table 37: Household Cultivation on Farmland
% within Zone Code
Yes
No
N
Percent of Households Cultivated Farmland Last Year
Zone Code
CHT Costal Drought N/W Char Haor Total
65.0% 43.1% 48.2% 56.3% 44.1% 44.4% 48.3%
35.0% 56.9% 51.8% 43.7% 55.9% 55.6% 51.7%
448 441 442 442 444 444 2661
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