Socio-economic Baseline Survey of Chittagong Hill Tracts - chtdf

HDRCSocio-economic Baseline Survey of Chittagong Hill TractsCHAPTER IIIPARA PROFILE283.1 IntroductionThe concept of para is synonymous to theconcept of village in the plain land ofBangladesh. Though the power structure isdifferent in CHT from that in the plain land, thetraditional concept of a village in plain land canbe used to understand the nature of para inCHT. The profile of the surveyed paras has been collected. Under that profile variousindicators, such as population, composition of para in accordance with community,availability of infrastructure and institutions, distance, time and cost required to visit majorplaces have been used to construct a lucid mental picture of the paras in CHT for the readersof the accompanying study report.3.2 PopulationBox 3.1: Sample parasThe accompanying baseline survey has beenadministered in 199 paras in CHT. The distribution ofthat paras is as follows: 70 in Rangamati 68 in Khagrachari 61 in Bandarban.In the accompanying baseline survey, it has beenfound that on average, a para in CHT consists of 241people. Thus, in an average para of CHT there arearound 46 households (as in rural CHT averagehousehold size is 5.2).Box 3.2: Population & HH in a paraIn CHT: Average population/para = 241 Average number of HH/para = 463.3 Composition of Para in Accordance with CommunityThe paras in CHT can be grouped into fourcategories when a community is considered:1. Para with only one indigenous group(mono-indigenous)2. Para with only indigenous groups (multiindigenousgroups)3. Para with only Bangalee4. Para with indigenous group(s) andBangalee.The majority of the paras in CHT (57%) fallsunder the category of “para with only oneindigenous groups (mono-indigenous)”,followed by paras where only indigenouspeople of different groups live (20%). In theseparas, though people of different indigenouscommunities live, the general trend in theseparas is that in one para majority of thepopulation is from only one indigenous group.In 16% paras of CHT there live only Bangalee.Figure 3.1: Composition of para in accordance withcommunity (in %)OnlyBangalee, 16Indigenous,Bangaleemixed, 7Multiindigenous , 20Monoindigenous, 57Figure 3.2: Composition of mono-indigenous para in CHT (%)Otherindigenousgroups, 8Tanchangya, 5Khumi, 5Tripura, 7Mro, 10Bawm, 10Chakma, 27Marma, 28