Introduction:

Everyday, every individual has spent some time from different households. This helped us to find some reliability with some situation. Individual interview was helpful to find dissimilarity in classes and extraction.  So each member of our group had to talk with the villagers of Koshabhanga village personally. Also we have questioned them group wise.

Origin of the Report:

When we think about Bangladesh, the very first thing that comes into our mind is the lush green fields and the riverside villagers going to the fields for cultivations. Living in Dhaka city has deprived us from this typical picture of the real Bangladesh and kept us really unaware of how is real Bangladesh looks like. The LFE program of IUB enables its students to bridge some of the gaps and get an overall understanding of the socio-economic environment of the real Bangladesh by studying its villages. This report has been prepared as part of completing the LFE course. In this report we have analyzed the various findings during our survey period and arrange it such a manner that it gives full flavor of the study area, which for us was Koshabhanga village in Manikganj. The report consists of several sections these are;

• Village mapping
• Social Change
• Agriculture
• Economics and Gender Division of Labor
• Health & Environment
• Rural Market

Each of the part is presenting the picture of the Para we have assigned. Within 11 days each of the group members captures an overall knowledge of the above mentioned topics.

 Purpose of the Study:

Our broad objective of this study is to look and probe into the rural society, to get various socio-economic concerns of the study area. Now if we break this broad objective into more specific and detailed ones they are as follows:

• To collect quantitative data as designed in survey questionnaires from Koshabhanga village in order to measure the level of poverty and changes that is taking place there.
• To involve the local villagers in an interactive session where they show and talk about themselves and help us see the situations through their eyes by using PRA technique.
• To analyze the problem areas and look for the critical reasons behind it for recommending valid solutions in resolving those problems.

Scope of the Study:

The key parameters for the study were:

• Village Mapping and PRA transact mapping
• Social Change Process (Time Line Analysis)
• Wealth Ranking with Resource Mapping
• Seasonality Mapping for Capturing Production Cycle and Pricing of Crops
• Household and Gender Roles (Daily time use by both women and men)
• Rural Market Analysis
• Economic Analysis

All of the above resulted in outlining the scope of the report in the following manners:

1. To identify the present socioeconomic condition of the people of Koshabhanga village.
2. To provide an understanding of the day to day problems of the rural lives.
3. To suggest recommendations to the above problems.
4. Finally, highlight the rural market situations and use the various economic indicators that show us the progress of development of the rural society.

Limitation of the Study:

• Our field working hour was limited.
• The assigned working hour conflicted with the local farmers working time.
• Students were taken to the same place several times so as a result local people became unwilling to talk.
• During the haat visit too many students ask the same person the same questions which make them annoyed.
• While rapport building the respondents often ask if they are going to be benefited any way. When they get negative answer, sometime they were reluctant to provide information.
• The household were close together so during our questioner survey respondents are influenced by other people and some case they are influenced by previous respondents answer.

 Methodology

PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal)

PRA is particular form of qualitative and quantitative research used to gain and in depth in understanding of a community or a situation. Through assessment one can collect information in a few days.

PRA is a form of assessment based on the participation of a range of different people including people from the community affected by the work.

 Aim of PRA

1. To ensure that information, the community members own analysis and conclusion.
2. To give more power to the community. Meaning collect information from the people, and what analysis they give about themselves.
3. To reverse power relations and hierarchies between communities and those perceived as being development experts and planners form outside.

 Philosophy of PRA

Outsiders need to learn about situations from the insiders, and insiders can analyze their own problem and give their own solution.

So we have followed the PRA method to know about our assigned village.

Technique of PRA

• To gather people (15-20)
• To exchange whom we are, where we come from.
• To ask them for information.

10 days were assigned for doing PRA in the village, because it was a participatory and qualitative research. In our PRA we attended in the interview and discussion as multi-disciplinary students. The conversant, aged people gave their ideas. And other men and women attended with us with their ideas and views in the PRA. Villagers themselves explained their situations, changes, problems and solutions, which are given in the report.

Individual interview:

Everyday, every individual has spent some time from different households. This helped us to find some reliability with some situation. Individual interview was helpful to find dissimilarity in classes and extraction.  So each member of our group had to talk with the villagers of Koshabhanga village personally. Also we have questioned them group wise.

Village Resource Mapping and Transect:

Bangladesh is the land of greens with a very rich heritage of all that makes it complete. Bangladesh consists of sixty eight thousand villages and a less number of cities. Therefore ninety percent of the population live in the villages where agriculture makes up close to seventy two percent of the GDP and sixty percent employment.  Unfortunately this information cannot show the real picture of the village until and unless one does not go into the field and see with one’s own eyes. Our allotted village was KOSHABHANGA and our para was KOSHABHANGA-1.  Even though it was a rural area there was a significant sign of development through the NGO’s and GO’s that were present there. Illustrated below are the areas that very resourceful and we have also tried to exhibit the image of the village by drawing maps and proposing their analysis.

Objectives:

The main objective of preparing maps is to portray a mental construct of the village itself  and it also exhibits the geographical image of the village or para and also to show the available resources that are found in that particular village.

  Limitations:

Taking into consideration the fact that we are not research experts we faced some limitations while carrying out this research. The reason are listed below:

* We faced time constraint while preparing the map and also the fact that we had to draw it the very day we interacted with the respondents.

* Some of the questions from various topics where not answered properly which gave us a vague answer in the end.

Selection of the Village or Para:

Our para was allocated in KOSHABHANGA -1 which is part of the village KOSHABHANGA. Our supervisor along with members of PROSHIKA choose the village and para for each group. Along with our group another group was also assigned this particular para.

Village mapping:

Village mapping is done primarily to exhibit a geographical representation of the village.  While doing our survey we came across a Hindu local and after we requested him he drew out a village map for us.

After he drew it out on the paper we asked him to draw it out on the ground. We then asked him to label the village and identify its components.

Brief Information of the Para:

Name:

 KOSHABHANGA- 1

3.6.2. Location:

Country – Bangladesh.

Division – Dhaka.

District – Manikgonj.

Village – KOSHABHANGA

Para – KOSHABHANGA-1

3.6.3. Age:

Not more than 80 years.

Geographical Distribution:

North – Atigram                                                                     South – Katigram            West – Sonargaon                                                                              East- Kosha Bhanga-2

 Population:

Total population of our Para is 250-260 (approximate).

Number of houses:

There were a total of 40 houses present in the village.

 Other Information:

There was a combination of both Muslim and Hindu residents living in the village. However there was no mosque, school, hospital or graveyard in the para.

3.7. Resources of the Village or Para:

The resources of the village are briefly explained below:

House:

In the village most of the houses that we visited and also with the information from our survey paper suggests that they were made of tin with an earth floor. We found a minimal number of houses that had concrete floor but with tin surroundings.

 Latrine:

Now that the people of the village are more aware of their health conditions the state of their latrine as we observed are illustrated below:

• Most of the residents use ring slab
• We only found one household that had a septic tank latrine.
• There was no presence of any hanging latrine.

Tube well:

Most of the people made use of tube well and most of the household had their own personal tube well. Those people who did not have any tube well took water from other’s tube well near by. They use the tube well water for cooking and drinking purposes.

Trees and Animals:

Greenery and trees is what fills one’s eyes when you visit a village. The trees that we saw are listed below:

Mango, coconut, papaya, mehagoni, bamboo, date, jackfruit, star fruit, custard apple, blackberry etc.

There were a number of domestic animals such as oxen, cow, goat, ducks, chicken etc.. It was told to us that there are some wild animals like fox, mongoose, khatash, snake etc.

 Land:

Land was to the fullest of resource in the village and we observed that most of it was used for farming or agricultural purposes and a very minimal amount of land was used as playing ground etc.

 ponds:

We found 2 ponds in our para and these ponds were primarily used for bathing or washing items. Some villagers, particularly farmers use the ponds to wash their crops.

 Shops:

We found 2 small shops that were situated within the village. One was at the opening mouth of the village and the other was the farthest end of the village. The goods that were available in these shops were soap, chips, chocolates, tea, drinks or beverage, biscuits kerosene, etc…         

 General Information:

From the very first part of our course we were given five sets of survey questionnaires and our group consisted of five members, therefore we had to investigate twenty five households. The following tables are the analysis of the data that we have collected from our survey.

Age and Sex Distribution:

Table: 3.1. Age and Sex Distribution to Study Population

Source: Field Survey Spring 2008                                                                               Sample Size: 25 Households

According to the instruction given to us we investigated 25 households. In total there were 167 people living in that village out of which there were 78 male members and 89 female members.

 Marital Status:

Table: 3.2 Marital Statuses               

Source: Field Survey 2008                                                                                            Sample Size: 25 Households

in the midst of these 167 people 70 of them were married and 83 of them are at present unmarried and 4 people are unfortunately widowers.

Family Type:

Table: 3.3 Family Types

Source: Field Survey 2008                                                                                           Sample Size: 25 Households

From the survey we could extract the information that within these 35 households only 4 of them were joint families and the 25 remaining households were nuclear families. The number of extended families were 0.

 Primary Occupation:

Table: 3.4 Primary Occupations

Source: Field Survey 2008                                                                                            Sample Size: 25 Households

 As we surveyed the household of Koshabhanga-1, we got thirty two male who have income source. Rest of them was students and dependent. On the other hand, we conducted a research on the women of Koshabhanga-1 as well and there were twenty five percent female were housewives and rest of them were still dependent.

Family Income:

Table: 3.5 Family Incomes

Source: Field Survey 2008                                                                                            Sample Size: 25 Households

 Here we can see from above mentioned chart that different people have their different range of income. By seeing the different incomes of different households we can state that most of the families of Koshabhanga-1 were middle class. Like the families who get more than 30000 per year will fall under middle class family. We can see from the chart that around 72% of the people of Koshabhanga-1 have this range of income. In Koshabhanga-1 most of the families are middle class.

Educational Background of the members of Koshabhanga-1

Table: 3.6 Educational Backgrounds of the Villagers

Source: Field Survey 2008                                                                                            Sample Size: 25 Households

In our para we found out four graduated, three HSC passed, seven SSC passed, seven secondary and 12 primary school passed people.

Transact Map:

Transact mapping is one of the crucial part of village mapping. It is a representation, a sketch of a particular area of the village most resources were found or abundant. To draw out a transact map we had to choose a limited area and within that boundary we had to write down and describe what it is that we encountered from the very first foot step to the very last step. It shows the micro level of land use and how the people use that land.

Procedure:

The first thing to do is to choose an area from where we would begin the walk. Then we had to draw a rough sketch of the walk and the walking distance should be within 1-50 steps where one step is equal to 15 inches. while walking on the road one has to look at both sides of the road and pick the road that looks most resourceful. After choosing the road we had to observe and note down everything that we saw and we often asked the villagers if we did not understand anything. After we note down where everything is located and so on we draw out the final transact map

 Transact Walk:

The transact walk depicts the organized diagram of the outline of elements that have been observed in the study area which is inclusive of the land use , the type of soil, vegetation and so on.

 Application:

The main purpose of this kind of mapping is to exemplify the relationship between the different but important components of the village.

 Description of the Transact Map:

For our transact map we took the west side of the village. This part was, out of our observation, considered to be most resourceful than any other part of the village. Our map begum with bamboo trees followed by some free land/spaces and then some houses followed by ponds and then houses again. The rest of the land was used for cultivation purposes.

 Analysis of the Transact Map:

A transact map is very helpful because it gives a mental picture and a clear idea of the place. At a glance of the map one may paint a mental picture of the place, its surroundings and its condition. Listed below are the issues that had a major impact on our report:

Steps:

According to the instruction given, we took 250 steps for our transact map.

 Land Use:

Within the transact area most of the land was used for cultivating purposes and the rest of the land was occupied by residence, trees and ponds.

Soil Type:

The total transact area’s soil was entirely sandy loam.

Crops:

In the high land we observed that the main crop was mustard. The other crops available in the transact area were paddy, maize, tobacco and cabbage.

Trees:

Many trees could be seen along the transact road, such as coconut trees, mango trees date trees, mehegoni, jack fruit trees, papaya trees and a large number of bamboo bushes.

House Type:

We found that most of the houses were made of tin. There was only one house that had a concrete floor but was surrounded by tin.

 Pond Use:

The people of the village mainly used the ponds for washing their clothes or household items and would rarely catch fishes form those ponds.

 Problems:

The problems that the villagers faced in the area were of gas and another major problem that we found was arsenic.

Findings:

• We did not find any primary or high school in that area.
• The total Para’s soil is sandy loam.
• There was no mosque and madrasa in the Para.
• We found that the village had electricity
• The major problem found in that village was of gas and arsenic.

Social change is the evolution of culture over time. Not only we change to respond with time but also change the entire elements around us. Everything about us changes with time. For example our mindsets, beliefs, norms, attitudes and etc. As the shift in culture takes place the society or the community changes as well. It is slow and gradual in nature and it causes the modifications in people’s living patterns.  Social change takes place as humans seek improvement and quality in living standards. A number of factors influence Social Change either internal or external.

Social Change literally happens everywhere but the rate of change differs from place to place. It is possible that countries with a better access of technology and information could experience faster changes. Though Social Change is sometimes intentional but mostly it is unplanned. Like any other changes it faces controversy as well. Not everyone is willing to accept changes right away so there are barriers regarding Social Change.

We have tried to analyze and examine the Social Change factors of Kartigram village,

Koshabhanga para -1 (Manikganj) . Our main objectives of this part of our LFE were to identify

what changes  Koshabhanga para 1 went through, what socio-economic reasons are behind this

change and development, when the changes happened, what impact these changes are making in

rural Peoples’ life specially our para and how the villagers are adjusting or reacting to these

changes

Table 4.1 : Timeline analysis for Social Change:

Agriculture

TractorsTractorsTractors

PesticidesOccupation

Mostly farmersMostly

farmersMostly farmers, rickshaw

pullersFarmers, rickshaw pullers, workers, service holderFarmers, rickshaw pullers, workers, service holders, businessFarmers, rickshaw pullers, workers, service holders, businessFood      Trees

Blackberry, Neem, Moss

Health

(Toilets)Open fieldOpen fieldSanitationSanitation

Sanitation

FP (Family Planning)Sanitation

FP (Family Planning)

Education  Male

Female

Drinking water

PondPondTube-wellTube-wellTube-wellTube-wellIncome

Nutrition

Gender Mobility

Crime

House structure

Mud and clayMud and clayMud, clay and tinMud, clay, tin and brickMud, clay, tin and brickMud, clay, tin and brickFestival

Market Distance

FarFarFarCloseCloseVillage groceryWild life

Dowry

Clothing

Lungi, gamcha, sari,Lungi, gamcha, sari, paijama, panjabiLungi, gamcha, sari, paijama, panjabi,  shirts, trousers

Lungi, gamcha, sari, paijama, panjabi, shirts, trousers.Lungi, gamcha, sari, paijama, panjabi, t shirts, shirts, trousers,Lungi, gamcha, sari, paijama, panjabi, t shirts, shirts, trousers,Entertainmentsports

hadudu, danguli

hadudu, danguli

 House Hold:

During the Sheikh Mujib period, Joint families were very common. According to the villagers there were more problems in the society as the children started growing up and got married. The extended family did not always have a very good understanding. With time, things started changing in Koshabhanga. From the Ershad period the villagers witnessed the emergence of Semi Nuclear families but the majority of the family members lived nearby and probably cooked inone kitchen. Than finally they got  introduced to complete Nuclear families. We have come across many families who are living independently.

Agriculture:

From Sheikh Mujib period, the farmers of the village mostly were depended on cows for agriculture. But with the development of technology and its availability, they started using tractors more and more from Ershad period. Since then, a lot of farmers could afford buying tractors. But with time the soil quality went down. In the same land, production also reduced. The farmers even started using more and more Pesticides.

Occupation:

From the beginning the most popular occupation was that of farmers. With little education, the males had to play the role of farmers. Then as population increased and roads were build, people also started working as rickshawpullers and drivers of different vehicles during Ershad period. After that from the Khaleda Zia period, villagers also started working as workers of different factories specially garments factory and different shops. After that from the Sheikh Hasina period, the villagers for attracted to business and started running it as well. Some of them owned shops in Kartigram and others also owned grocery stores in the area.

 Food Habits:

Since the early Sheikh Mujib period, the villagers were always into fishes and vegetables. From the Ershad period, the red meat started becoming more common but they still went on eating fishes and vegetables at a large scale.

 Communication: (Transportation)

There were hardly any roads during Sheikh Mujib period so it was almost impossible to hire or ride any vehicles to travel within the village. According to the villagers, roads started building up properly from the Ershad period. Since then the village changed a lot. For better communication, factories started building up nearby so they got the opportunity to work and all the other market/business expanded. Gradually commercial vehicles like trucks and lorries could also move in the area. The villagers also claim that they first saw mobile phone in Sheikh Hasina period.

 Tree Species: 

Though there were no roads early on during the Sheikh Mujib period but there were lot of trees. For example, Blackberry, Neem, Moss could be found in almost all the houses. But with the increase of population and limited land trees kept on decreasing. Some trees like Blackberry are very rare in Koshabhanga para 1.

 Health: (Toilets)

Early on, during the during the Sheikh Mujib period, the villagers were not so much aware of sanitation. A large number of people chose open field to respond to the call of nature. From the Ershad period, they started taking sanitation seriously. It was nice to see almost all the houses have their own toilets and the ring latrine being the most common. They also got introduced about FP (Family Planning) in Sheikh Hasina period specially through NGO.

 Education:

The villagers admit that they never had any serious concerns about male education though they preferred them to start assisting their parents in farming soonest. With time male education increased but the best part was the significant increase of female education. The villagers identify that this shift in female education started back in Ershad period. There are other key issues and developments in this field which are very prominent as well. Early marriage was very common in the village and the females were the main victims. The villagers now started taking education seriously. After inquiring, we came to know they deem certain level of education and age important before getting their children married.

For Males, 60% of villagers think they should be at least 25 years old before they get married. 20% of villagers suggest age 23 while the other 20% say age 30.

In terms of education 90% of villagers feel Males should pass BA before getting married and the rest 10% suggest HSC.

For Females 80% of the villagers want them to be at least 20  years old while 10% say age 18 and the rest 10% argue for age 22.

Table 4.2: Gender Mobility

Source: Field Survey Spring 2008                                                                               Sample Size: 25 Households

One of the greatest pleasure for us during the visit was to experience the villagers wanting the Females to get educated before getting married. After we completed our survey it was found 90% of the villagers want the Females to pass HSC before getting married while the rest 10% still think SSC.

 Drinking Water:

In the first two periods of Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman, mostly the villagers used pond for drinking water but from the Ershad time, the majority is drinking water from the tube-well. And a large number of villagers have their own tube-wells.

 Income:

For this issue, the villagers responded, though income has increased but the story is not the same about their disposable income. Firstly the only source of earning for the villagers was local currency but now they are contributing in foreign exchanges. We came across certain families whose members are working abroad as labors and regularly sending money. The villagers express the first time they got the opportunity of going abroad was back in Ershad period.

 Nutrition:

Though the nutrition was on the rise for the first two periods (Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman) but it kept on declining since then.

Gender Mobility:

Till the Ershad period, the villagers were kind of conservative in letting the females move around. But since then the mobility of females are rising at a steady rate. Some of the activities that the female members of a family allowed to perform are as follows:

 Crime:

Just after the liberation, crimes were sky high as there was lack of control and no proper law enforcement. But gradually villagers came up with innovative ideas to protect themselves like

lathibahini. So overall after the liberation law and order in the village was improved specially at the time of Ershad.

 House Structure:

In the first two periods, mostly the houses were build with mud and clay. The villagers started building houses with tin from the Ershad period. And after that from the Khaleda Zia period, they are also making their houses using bricks.

Festival:

After the liberation as the population increased significantly and competition also rose, the villagers got very much engaged with work. With the price hike of essentials, they had to work harder and could not enjoy festivals like before. So the festivals kept on decreasing in every periods and are very rare now except some ‘mela’.

Market Distance:

The markets were very far before as the village lacked proper roads to move around. During the Ershad period lot of roads were build. So it was from the Khaleda Zia period that the villagers got the availability of markets nearby. And in the present time we can also see grocery stores in local areas.

Wild life:

The villagers claim it was the sound of foxes they heard every evening just after the liberation. With time the population in the village increased. Lot of roads and houses were build so wild life got affected. Throughout all the periods wild life kept on decreasing. For example wild cats, fox etc.

 Dowry:

This has always been a very unfortunate issue for the villagers. Lot of females were being tortured for dowry. Though it is a good sign, dowry has been decreasing with time throughout all the periods but the males still accept it in the form of gifts. For  Clothing:

In the first period after the liberation war, the villagers usually wore ‘lungi’, ‘gamcha’ and ‘sari’. In the second period, the ‘panjabi’ and ‘paijama’ was introduced. From the Ershad period, the villagers started wearing trousers and shirts more.

Entertainment:

The villagers stated in the first two periods of Sheikh Mujib and Ziaur Rahman, they used to entertain themselves through a lot of ways. Some of the popular events included ‘hadudu’, ‘danguli’. But the entertainment sources like the festivals kept on decreasing as well. The villagers said now the main source of entertainment for them is Radio. TV and also Satellite Channels.

The key changes that occurred in Koshabhanga para-1 of Kartigram village after the liberation are as follows:

 Positive changes

• More health conscious
• Progress in education
• Communication development
• Scientific irrigation system
• Sanitation system

Negative changes

• Unemployment
• Drug abuse
• Population increase
• Reducing social values
• Encroachment of cultivable land

Table 5.2:  Profession of income earning members      

KoshabhangaManikgang

sadorOther

DistrictsOutside The CountryAgriculture18 (54%)—Poultry Rearing25 (100%)—Cattle Rearing22 (88%)—Petty Business/Shop3 (22%)—Vendor-1 (4%)–Transport Worker-1 (4%)–Construction Worker—-Garments Factory–2 (8%)-Service-1 (4%)1 (4%)2 (8%)Industry—-Welding—-Others—-

Source: LFE Field Survey 2008

From the table we can see that the people of the village Koshabhanga are involved in almost every kind of profession from their own village to out side the country. And the number and percentages of the professions are also mentioned in the table. Other than the professional works all the households (100%) are involved in poultry rearing.

5.4.4 Borrowing Money

The People of the Koshabhanga village borrow money mostly for agricultural purposes and to renovate or build houses. And they also borrow money for arranging marriage and medical treatment etc.

 Graph5.3: response on loan

In Koshabhanga people take loans from different sources. We have found that 78% people have taken loan from various sources. The sources are like through NGOs, relative etc. 22% didn’t take any loan.

5.4.5 Sources of Loan and interest rates

The people of our village mostly take loans from the NGOs. They also take loans from the local money lenders and from their relatives.

Table 5.3:  Sources of loan

                   Source: Field Survey Spring 2008                  Sample Size: 25 Households

The NGOs that provide loans for the villagers are Proshika, BRAC, Buratangail etc. And the villagers also take loans from these NGOs. The hardly take loans from Banks. And for small amounts they take loans from their relatives and friends with no interests. The local money lenders also provide loans but they charge very high amount of interest.

5.4.5.1 Interest Rates

The interest charged by different sources is different from one another. In the following graph different interest rates charged by various sources are shown

Graph 5.4: Interest Rates on the Loans

From the table, we can see that most NGOs are charging high interest rates compared to other sources loans. Local money lenders also charge high interest rate but lower than most of the NGOs. Relatives don’t charge any interest rate, but they usually are able to provide very low amount of loan.

 Domestic Animals:

Domestic animals are also a good indicator of evaluating economic conditions of the people. Families   with   more domestic animals are considered more   economically   capable. The following table shows the number of different animals owned by different families.

Table 5.4: Domestic Animals

Source: Field Survey Spring 2008                  Sample Size: 25 Households

In our village survey of 25 households we found that almost all of them have domestic animals as we found 22 households with cows and 12 households with goats. As most of the families fall into middle class but according to their earnings they are able to afford domestic animals. And we also found that all the families have poultry birds in the village koshabhanga. Even the poor families have at least 2/3 poultry birds.

House Type:

In our village survey we saw different types of houses, which are a good indicator of the economic condition of the family. We saw that most of houses are very simple except some house of some high level income groups. We hardly found any house that is made of concrete. The following table will figure percentage of different types of houses of different income groups

Table 5.5 : House Type

Source: Field Survey Spring 2008                                                                               Sample Size: 25 Households

As can be seen from the table- , most of the roofs in koshabhanga are made of tin . This can be a sign of economic status of the society. According to the survey there is no use of wood either in roof purpose or in making the walls or flooring. Concrete is used to build only 8% of the house walls, 16% of the house flooring purpose.  The middle class families are the owner of those houses made by tin overall. Almost all the floors of the houses are made up with earth or mud. The upper class peoples’ houses are made up with concrete and tin. The walls are in concrete and the roofs are made by tin.  Only the lower income group people live in bamboo made houses.

Wealth and possessions has alway

                  Upper Class.

                  Middle Class.

                  Lower Class.

The features of these classes have been described next:

 Upper Class:

People of Koshabhanga with the income range of above TK 75,000/- yearly, we classified as the Upper Class. Different attributes of this group are given below:

Occupation: Most of the people in this segment are land owners and some are service holders works in the city or outside the country.

Amount of Land Owned: People of this segment usually have around 20 – 60 Bigha of Land.

Pattern of House: Tin-shed, Tin build houses with concrete floor are the typical of the families of this segment.

Assets: Because of their high income compared to the other households they usually own more assets than others. This class has electricity in their houses so they also own electronic goods like TV, VCR, and Cassette Player etc. They also possess dining tables, chairs, Study tables, show cases etc.

Animal and Poultry: This segment owns 2-5 Cows and 15-20 Poultry birds. The meat and eggs of the poultry birds and the milk from the cows are consumed domestically.

Toilet: Almost all the families of this segment own slab latrines or semi pacca latrine.

Savings: This particular segment has yearly savings between TK 10,000 – 25,000. Such high amount is earmarked for wedding expenditures, further investment in paddy cultivation and education of the children.

Food: People from this segment eat meat or fish everyday. They have different types of vegetables in all their meals. Besides, milk from their cows and eggs from their poultry birds are also consumed by them.

Middle Class:

The middle class families have annual family income ranging between Tk.30,000-75,000.  Different attributes of this class are given below.

Occupation: The main occupation of this segment is agriculture along with petty business. And also some service holder working in the city falls in this segment.

Amount of Land owned: People of this segment have land of 2-3 Bigha.

Pattern of House: The majority of the houses of this class are tin-shed with wall made up of tin and floors of earth.

Assets: In our village families from the middle class also have electricity in their houses. The have electric bulbs and fans but they usually don’t have TV or VCRs. As for furniture, this class of families has bed, a few chairs, tables and almira.

Toilet: Most of the families of this segment have slab latrines and a few have pit latrines Savings: This segment has yearly savings ranging between Tk.5,000-15,000. These families are mostly members of various NGOs working in the village and maintain their saving with the NGOs so that they can obtain micro-loans later on to invest in livestock and poultry.

Food: This class of people has vegetables with their meals of rice everyday. They have fish or meat twice or thrice a week.

 Lower Class:

This segment of People with their yearly income below TK 30,000/- portrays the unfold sufferings of poverty. This segment of people has somehow managed to find a small space to build their dwelling hut in this village. They cannot sustain throughout the year. Some times of the year, they only have one meal in a day. The features of this class have been unfolded below.

Occupation: The occupation of this segment of people are agri labor, who do cultivation on others lands and get a payment for that. Some of them are transportation workers and labors in the districts.

Amount of Land owned: The homestead area is less than five decimals. It would be redundant to mention that they have no arable land.

Pattern of House: The wall is made up of bamboo thatch, or tin, or both. The floor is earth and the roof is made up of bamboo thatch.

Assets: They don’t have any electricity in their houses its only because they can not afford it.  They have hardly any furniture except a bed. A few were found to have small wooden seats like tools.

Toilet: Some families of this class have pit latrines and some families have hanging latrines.

Savings: Most of them have no savings at the end of the month. Some of them maintain savings with the NGOs through weekly subscription and those are very small amounts.

Food: Their meals mainly consist of vegetables and rice. They occasionally have fish, meat and fruits.

The village of Koshabhanga, our assigned village during LFE, is a typical bangladeshi village with its economy getting shaped by the contribution of agriculture. Seventy percent of their earning solely comes from the sector of agriculture. It is true that with the improvement of technology the yield of crops from the land will also increase but the impact on environment should also be taken into account for the well-being of villagers. It has been proved that chemical fertilizers and insecticides have harmful impact on the environment and the living beings. In this 21^st century along with the economy, green accounting is also being given importance in many countries of the world. Following in the footsteps of developed communities, importance on education and health care should be given to improve the village’s economy. On the other hand, as the number of educated people grows, the tendency to migrate to the cities will also increase. This is because, agricultural  lands are being divided    among   the increasing family members from small portions  to even smaller parts and  small portions of land received  by the members are not enough  to suffice the  need of  the   members. As, a result many people are going for other options  like doing small businesses,  going to big cities and abroad  for jobs.  With the  increase  of the number of  educated   people in the village ,   the door of  new  opportunities is   being opened   and  people are trying  their luck in  different professions other   than   agriculture . Although, agriculture is loosing its effectiveness in the economy of Koshabhanga village, this sector can recover its position with the use of more modernized technology and a well planed financial support from the government.

Health and Environment

6.0 Introduction

     Health and environment are probably two of the most important sections from where we can visualize the view of the village. Health is basically dependent into environment and some basic health related condition. We know, Environments means surrounding, especially the material and spiritual influence, which affect growth, development and existence of a living being. There have two types of health, one is physical health and another is mental health. Health is much more inter related with the environment, water, sanitation, food, nutrition state, hygiene practices, socio-economic and demographic characteristics, living standard and health care facility and many other factors influence and affect the total health status. So, health and environment are interrelated to each other and increasingly central to our lives. The awareness about health and environment are increasing day by day. Like other countries, Bangladesh has a strong commitment to address the health and environment issues.

     People are become more conscious about their health. Now days, there are a lot of government, non-government organizations which really help villagers very much. They inform villagers about diseases, vaccination, and family planning etc. Most of the villages of Bangladesh do not have hospitals or clinics. As a result poor people do not get the proper services from the Govt. hospital. A few lucky persons get the better treatment from the private sector because they can effort. Some of them go to abroad to get the best health treatment.

     Sanitation can contribute a lot to preventing spread of disease through transmission of micro organism. A proper sanitation system involves arrangement to store, collect, process and deliver human wastes and other forms of wastes back to nature in a safe manner.

     Bangladesh has committed herself to improve the health and environment condition. In 1989, a new Ministry of Environment and Forest was created. In May 1992, a national environmental policy was formulated and a national environmental action plan developed. In 1995, the Bangladesh Environment Protection Ordinance was enacted. The government efforts provide protection of health and environment issues.

     Along with global initiatives, due to publicity and awareness building, there is a declining trend of health and environment problems in Bangladesh. But still there exists many such problems which impediment national progress. Same scenario is applicable for village Kosha vanga-1.

6.1 Objectives

• To know the health conditions in our studied “Kosha vanga”
• To know the health facilities the villagers usually get.
• To find out the medical facilities available in this village.
• To find out the drug abuser’s problem.
• To know the GO and NGO’s affect-activities on medical condition of this village.
• To realize the vaccination situation of the village.
• To know the health overall consciousness of the villagers.
• To know about the present environmental condition of the village.
• To know the use of insecticides and natural and chemical fertilizer and the effect of these on environment.

 6.2 Major Procedure

• By doing PRA in the first step.
• Collecting data by using questionnaire survey.
• By doing the cross check.
• Finding the inside story of health and environment condition.
• Summarizing the data.

6.3 Present Health Condition In Bangladesh

     During the nineties, considerable progress has been achieved in Bangladesh in the fields of Health. The Immunization Program, which has been acclaimed worldwide, now covers 70% of children compared to 55% in 1990-91. Primary Health-care facilities have been expanded throughout the country. Infant and maternal mortality rates have come down dramatically. Contraceptive Prevalence Rate has increased to around 50 percent, as a result of which population growth rate is now below 2 percent.

The Government is actively involved in providing primary health care facilities though Union and Thana Health Complexes, secondary health care facilities through District level hospitals, and tertiary health-care facilities through Medical College Hospitals, Post-graduate Institutes and specialized hospitals at divisional and national levels.

     Apart from Government initiatives, a good number of NGOs and private organizations are playing an important role in the health sector. Clinic facilities, health care services on immunization, MCH-FP, Nutrition, Health-education, provision of safe drinking water, sanitation, control of epidemics and endemic diseases, supply of essential drugs, etc.

6.4 The Environment As Blessing

     The environment can be easily defined. It consists of the air, water, and land around us. These elements can be considered as blessings, including ecosystem in which we can spend our lives easily and natural resources with which we can produce essentials to live in Mother Nature.

             Manufacturing units and household units use the blessings of the environment as they engage in activities of various kinds. Manufacturing units lay heavy claims on the environmental resources, but they may also make use of its creations and their characteristics for the well being of their own. As manufacturing units engage in the process of altering raw and half-finished materials into usable goods and services that will satisfy human wants, there are at least three ways found in which the environment can be disturbed and lose its beauty.

             Firstly to say, some of the environmental stocks of exhaustible properties may be reduced. These include coal, oil, gas and many mineral resources. Secondly, it is called upon for replaceable resources like timber, grassland, oxygen, nitrogen and many other natural gases. It is a matter of time but soon we will see the use of these invaluable gases around us. Thirdly and worst, it is used as a place to dispose of the wastes of the production and utilization processes— as a massive waste removal.

6.5 Present Environment Condition Of Banglades

            Environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources are often observed in Bangladesh due to poverty, over-population and lack of awareness on the subject. It is manifested by deforestation, destruction of wetlands, depletion of soil nutrients, etc. Natural calamities like floods, cyclones and tidal-bores also result in severe socio-economic and environmental damage.

     Growth rate of 4.3%, the contribution of forest resources to GDP and the agriculture sector are 2.5% and 7.55% respectively. Forestations generate employment and helps maintain environmental balance. The total forest area of the country is 2.5 million hectare, which is 19% of the total land area of Bangladesh. Out of the total forestlands, trees exist in only 45% area. A national policy has been adopted for conservation of forests and the environment. Apart from forestations, programs include planting trees on fallow lands, alongside roads and rail lines, on flood protection embankments and the coastal belt and in educational institutions.

In recent years, the government has taken some important steps towards protection of the environment, environmentally sound use of natural resources and pollution control, Adoption of National Environment Policy and formulation of National Conservation Strategy and the National Environment Management Action Plan are some of the measures undertaken by the government to integrate environment with development in a policy framework.

6.6 Effects of Population in Health and Environment

     The link between population growth and the environment, health is not simple. Population growth contributes to the depletion of natural resources and degrades environmental quality, which induces poverty and reduces human welfare. In Bangladesh, both rapid population growth and a degraded environment create serious threats to the economic development, and in health sectors. This leads to other serious problems such as poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy. On the other hand the environment is extremely vulnerable to damage and degradation as a result of factors such as increasing population outstripping the carrying capacity of the local resources. Since the majority of people in Bangladesh derive their livelihoods from the use and extraction of natural resources the living condition in Bangladesh, especially of the poor, becomes extremely vulnerable to environmental damage. Population control, migration and poverty reduction are therefore suggested to improve environmental quality. However, these measures can solve the problem only partially and temporarily as the root of these problems lies in unfavorable policies. This emphasizes the need for an integrated policy, which could control population growth, health problems and reduce poverty as well as lead to sustainable natural resource management.

     Explore the population-environment-health relationship in order to examine how environmental degradation affects the population and how the people are the agents of degradation in the context of Bangladesh.

Suggest a set of policies which will solve both population and environmental, health problems in Bangladesh

            Existing literature on population growth in Bangladesh reveals that despite the successful lowering of total fertility and growth rates over the past few years, the population has shot up from 89.9 million in 1981 to 111.45 million in 1991, growing at a rate of 2.17% per year. Accordingly, the density of population has increased from 609 in 1981 to 756 in 1991. The population projection shows that the absolute number of population will increase even if the replacement level fertility rate is achieved and that a stable growth of population in the country remains a distant goal to be achieved.

            The degraded environment in Bangladesh is being manifested mainly in land degradation, water pollution, water and sanitation problem, soil erosion, air pollution, deforestation, wetland loss, loss of biodiversity and degradation of the coastal environment. Increasing population, industrial and vehicular pollution, intensive agriculture, excessive use of chemical fertilizer and unsustainable commercial exploitation of resources coupled with market, institutional and policy failures are the major causes of environmental degradation. Poverty leads to population growth as more family members mean more labor to perform household activities, more economic opportunities and higher income. Thereby, it increases the burden of dependency, illiteracy and health problems. Population growth creates pressure on the availability of natural resources like land, forests, fisheries and natural gas. Deforestation and lack of drinking water can increase the time cost to fuel wood gathering, livestock pasturing and water logging.

6.7 The health and environment condition of Kosha Vanga

     Kosha Vanga -1 is not a very developed village though its health and environment condition is average. Though the disease caused death rate is decreasing, the average lifetime of people is also decreasing. The most surprising matter is that there is no doctor in this village.  For the medical treatment, the sick people have to go to Manikganj general hospital for better treatment. For critical treatment they usually go to Dhaka. Normally they go to the local pharmacy for treatment. Health workers come to this village. There are tables below related those topics to understand the health and environment condition of Kosha Vanga-1.

6.7.1 Sources of Water for Domestic Use

     Water is the common name for the liquid state of the hydrogen-oxygen compound H₂O. Pure water is odorless and tasteless, and at greater depths has a blue tint. For domestic use, water is needed every time. So it is important to be careful that what the sources of water for domestic use are. We surveyed Kosha Vanga village to know the sources of water for domestic use. In the table below sources of water for domestic use are shown:

Our Sample size was 25.      Purposes

Sources

 Piped WaterTube-WellWell-WaterPondOthers No.%No.%No.%No.%No.%Drinking0025100  %000000Bathing001248   %312   %1040  %00Washing001144   %312   %520   %  Cooking002496  %0014   %00Others0000000000

Source: Field Survey, January 2008

     Almost every house has its own tube well. But we have found tow family which use one tube well. The villagers use the water from the tube well for drinking and domestic purposes. Most villagers, irrespective of their social classes, educational backgrounds, occupation, gender, age, and the like use tube-well as the main source of drinking water as it has been long known and said that ground water is the purest source of drinking water. We have found that 100% of the households use tube well water for drinking, which is a very good sign for country like Bangladesh where people hardly have access to clean drinking water.

                  But the problem of arsenic pollution in Bangladesh’s ground water has turned into a crisis. Millions of people in rural Bangladesh have been exposed to the risk. But luckily our assigned para have no arsenic have no problem. The villagers appeared to be well aware of this threat, yet helpless and continued to consume the tube well water. And this inevitably leads them to slow poisoning. Proshika marked the tube-well ten years ago. One of the NGO workers told us that as it is near the river, it is free from arsenic. By drilling of thousands of tube-well both for irrigation and safe drinking, the authorities unwillingly exposed millions of rural people to the naturally occurring poisons in the ground water. Now the authorities should act decisively to save millions of people from this king of poison.

     We have seen the villagers use tree-stand bamboo filter to free the arsenic from the tube well water. For that villagers use tree-bamboo stand, up there is a “motka”, which contain water. In side the “motka” they put breaking break (Ita or Surki), “chala” and send to filter the water properly.

Toilet Facility of the House:

     The sanitation system has an important aspect on health and environment. To know about the health and environmental condition of the village, we surveyed the toilet facilities. There are typically two type’s toilet facilities in our studied Kosha Vanga village. These are safety tank and pit latrine (ring-slab). There is no hanging latrine in the village. Couples of families use septic tank facilities.

The data about the toilet facilities of Kosh Vanga village are shown below:

Table 6.2 : Toilet Facility

From the above table it is clear that only 4 % of the households use septic tank and 96% of them use ring slab or pit latrine, which means more than 98% have access to good toilet.

      The NGO’s encouraged but not mandate to install latrines in the households. During that time, the NGO supported the villagers to install the latrines with only 500/550 taka and promised to pay some amount of commissions to those who encourage the local people to install. In this way Mankganj is in a better position when it comes to the point of installation of the pit-latrines (ring-slab).

     The local NGO “PROSHIKA” helped people very much to increase there understanding about health and hygiene. They provide several free pit latrines (ring-slab). This could possible by the intense help provided by Proshika. They took all basic measures to educate people about their health and hygiene. The whole sanitary system of Kosha Vanga village is really good. People are very much aware of proper sanitation.

Cooking place:

     Cooking place should be neat and clean for better health. Irrespective of all the classes and general knowledge about health and environment, the villagers happen to have a specific place or kitchen to cook. Here the table shows the position of cooking places of this village:

The health awareness of the village people is visible from the above table as 76% of the households cook in the kitchen, 4% of the households cook outside the room, and only 2% of the households cook inside the living room, which is harmful for the environment of the living room. We asked the women about their cooking place. Most of them cook inside the kitchen. We observed that in almost every house kitchen is separate from the house, outside it. Almost in every season they cook inside the kitchen, but some time they cook outside during winter or crop harvesting season. Most of the poor lower class people are cooking in the outside of the dwellings. It is good thing that only few percentage people cook inside their living room, because the smoke is harmful for health. If most of them cook inside the living room, smokes will affect other people like children. They especially cook outside the kitchen during winter season and in rainy season they cook in front of living room called “baranda” (uthan).

Waste disposal system of Kosha Vanga -1

Waste disposal place is impotent for environment because from this place diseases can spread out. The wastes those are disposed right outside the household may pollute the near atmosphere and may result in infectious diseases around the area. In Malutia, the villagers do not have wastage, which cannot be easily disposable.  The people of Kosha Vanga -1 are also environment conscious.  Most of them dispose all of their waste in a selective place. The data about the waste disposal system are shown here

Source: Field Survey, January 2008

            The above table clearly reflects that 68% of households use a hole to dump waste, 20% of households use nearby ditch, 8% of households use a specific place to dump waste, but the fact is that 4% of households don’t use any specific place for dumping. May be they using river to dump waste.

     Villagers who are not using any specific place for dumping wastage only because are not really aware of the effect on health and environment. They also made bio fertilizer from waste to use them as fertilizer in their fields and use as a source of energy in cooking.

Fuel type of Kosha Vanga:

     The use of fuel for cooking is a very important issue for health and environment because some fuel is very dangerous for both health and environment. In a under developing country like Bangladesh, 80% of the total population lives in the villages where there are lack of natural but the people are still uses these for cooking. This is really harmful both for health and environment. In our studied (Kosha Vanga -1) village unfortunately people are not very much aware of that. The bellowed table shows the uses of different fuels in percentage:

The figures are showed in percentage. Of their use, 20.63% is firewood, 26.98%is leaves and twigs, 22.24% is straw and the rest 30.15% is cow dung.

     Most of the respondents collect fuels from natural resources like fire woods, leaves, cow dung and straw for which they do not have to spend money. As they have many trees in their village, it is easy for them to get firewood from those trees. They get leaves and twigs from those also. They store them for rainy season.

     But since they are using firewood, there would be a risk of deportation of forest. It can effect environment. .  Almost every people have “mud chullas” in their houses. So, they use firewood, leaves and twigs, straw and cow dung. They have another source of energy that produce from wood. This is known as “tush’.  In our studied 25 families we have not found any use of kerosene or gas. There is also no use of biogas plant. Using biogas is comparatively less harmful to health and environment. A biogas plant is built with simple technology and uses raw material easily available with the rural households. Government or NGO’s should take proper steps to install the bio-gas plants in the studied village. Using fire-wood., leaves and twigs, straw, cow-dung is very much hazardous to health. It causes asma, cough, eye-problems etc. various diseases to the villagers. Cooking and heating with straw, cow-dung, leaves on open fires or traditional stoves (mud stoves) results in high levels of indoor air pollution. Indoor smoke contains a range of health-damaging pollutants, such as small particles and carbon monoxide, and particulate pollution levels may be 20 times higher than accepted guideline values. Indoor cooking and heating with dung, straw, wood or coal produces high levels of indoor smoke that contains a variety of health-damaging pollutants. There is consistent evidence that exposure to indoor air pollution can lead to acute lower respiratory infections in children under five, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer in adults.

Vaccination of Children at Kosha Vanga:

     Disease prevention is the key to public health. It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it. Vaccines prevent disease in the people who receive them and protect those who come into contact with unvaccinated individuals. Vaccines help prevent infectious diseases and save lives. Vaccines can control many infectious diseases that were once common in this country, including polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, measles and tetanus. Vaccination program of the children against six major deadly diseases are highly successful in the village. Previously people were not very much conscious about their health in a sense that there are not so much diseases. But as the literacy rate is increasing the people are getting more and more aware of the situation.  Now the villagers are much concern about the health of their children. Talking with the people we found that most of the children in Kosha Vanda village were vaccinated on the time after birth. Villagers know the time and purpose to contact the health centers for vaccination. This became possible because of mass TV & Radio advertising, and for the dedicated workers of the health centers. The GO workers motivated them to vaccinate their children. Unfortunately there are some families who started the vaccination program but did not complete the whole course.

Vaccination of Children (Figures Represent only the positive Responses)

Source: Field Survey January 2008

     The table shows that the 100% of children are vaccinated in Kosha Vanga -1. This happens only because for awareness of it. For education, media awareness GO and NGO worker’s motivational activity parents become so conscious regarding immunization program in our country. Media played a great roll for awareness of vaccination. The drama encouraged families to go to and use the services for vaccination. This table shows that the government is successful in respect of immunization program.

     We surveyed around 25 families’ village “Kosha Vanga -1” in Manikganj. From the above table we can notice that 100% of children are vaccinated. Some families have no children, so we did not count them. Most of the villagers did not have ID’s (or card) as proof that they have been vaccinated.  The data 90% is given according to the information gathered. In this 90%, 99% children are fully vaccinated and some are not.

Health Care facilities:

      Health care facilities have very important role regarding the health issue of human health. It is mandatory for all human being to remove the diseases and all sort of sickness. Kosha Vanga a does not have any health care facilities because there are no hospitals in the village or nearby the village. The villagers go to public health care centre, local pharmacy, dispensary and “Hature” doctor for their treatment of Fever, cough, etc. The Government hospitals, Private hospitals and the other health care centers are situated in the Manikganj town. Whenever the villagers need any major medical treatment they go to Manikganj town which is not close to the village. Waiting hours of Manikganj Sador hospital are too long.

Table 6.8:  Distribution of the Respondents according to the category of health care center they visit.

Source: Field Survey Spring 2008                                                                               Sample Size: 25 Households

From the survey among 25 families, we have that most of the people (30%) go to the ManikganjSadorHospital when they are suffering from a major disease. They also go to the hospital to perform any test necessary for them. They go to the public Health centre only for routine checkup. About 20% people go to the public health care centre. The people do not get the expected services from ManikganjSadorHospital.

      A good number of respondents (20%) go to local pharmacy at Koitta Bazar. They prefer going there because the place is familiar to them as it is their haat. Almost every day they go there for their daily necessities.

Immunization schedule

Source: World Health Organization

It’s important to mention the additional measures taken undertaken for the era diction of polio:

Achieving high routine coverage with at least three doses of oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV3) among infants aged less than 12 months. Conducting national immunization days to interrupt widespread circulation of polio. Establishing sensitive systems for surveillance of polio cases.

Carrying out “mopping-up” campaigns to eliminate the last foci of poliovirus transmission.

During our research it has been noticed that the un-vaccination fraction mainly consists of children:

• Whose fathers are mainly in a low status occupation, like-day laborers?
• Mothers having a low educational status or illiterate.
• Careless mentality.
• Indifference/ignorance parents unaware of the factors about of these preventable diseases.

  The study proves that the govt. initiatives are totally successful in respect of immunization.

6.9 Problem related to Government Health Care Center according to respondents

            One of the most important problems in rural area is the health care facility. To identify the health and environment condition of Kosha Vanga-1 we gather information related to govt. health care center which are given below:

Problems related to government health care services

From our available finding and analysis we found that the people of the villager are not satisfy with the facility of govt. health care center.

     Maximum villager’s main problem is the distance (27%). Both Thana Health Complex and ManikganjGovernmentHospital is far away from the village.

      Most people told that the government health care center does not provide free medicine. It is because shortage of medicines as corrupts officials often steal and sell them outside instead of giving it to their patients. So, inadequate funding, inefficiency and corruption are the barrier for getting free medical services and free medicine. Most of them told us the transport facilities are not good (8%). The government health care center does not have any ambulance. So any critical situation the poor people cannot get any facility. The poor villagers cannot effort the communication cost. Some of them told us waiting hours are too long (13%).  And second one is Government Health care center don’t provide any medicine. In Government Health care center patient wait long time. Some times, villagers went there with their illness mother, sisters, and wife or daughters. It is really harmful for the women to wait there long time. There have no any sitting arrangement for the ill people. We also found that the Government Health care centers stuffs/ service providers are not friendly (11%). They (staffs) think that the Health care service is free. So if they (patients) need it, they (patient) will be waiting. They told us that they do not get privacy from the government health care center. Actually the female respondent has informed this data to us because the religious women do not like to meet with men.

6.10 Family Planning

      We found in Kosha vanga -1 most of family has 4 to 5 members. So it seems to us that they take family planning program seriously which affect the social economy also.

Poverty and Environmental Risks:

     Poverty also influences health because it largely determines an individual’s environmental risks, as well as access to resources to deal with those risks. Throughout the developing world, the greatest environmental health threats tend to be those closest to home. Many people in our villages live without adequate shelter or in unacceptable housing, many of them are in lack access to safe water, and many people have no access to adequate sanitation — all of which are essential for good hygiene. Unable to afford clean fuels, the poor rely instead on biomass fuels for cooking and heating. Inside the smoky home in rural area, air pollution is often higher than it is outdoors in the world’s most congested cities. Among the poor in rural area, certain groups are more at risk than others.

 Why poor kosha Vanga people become poorer?

     The main reasons are health why poor people become poorer. Usually rural people in our country are poor. They suffer a lot for getting crops and from that they get little amount of money. So they have to spend these amounts for maintaining their family. Even some times they get so little amount, which cannot be mentionable. So they cannot save for any unexpected situation. Income gap increases, the health gap is also likely to grow. So the poor rural people never get the wealth full life.

How its effects of Pesticides and Insecticides on Health and Environment?

     The effect of pesticides and insecticides can cause acute or chronic effects on health. Acute (or short-term) effects generally occur immediately after heavy exposure to pesticides and insecticides.    A chronic effect develops over a long period of time, and may last for several years after initial exposure. The effect may be related to long-term or repeated exposure to a pesticide at a low dosage, chronic health effects typically include cancer, disruption of the reproductive. In Kosha Vanga-1, peasants use insecticides and pesticides without aware, what will effect it on environment. During rainy seasons these insecticides and pesticides goes to near pond and ditch. Many villagers use these pond and ditch for much purpose like they wash their domestic animal and use this water for drinking to their cows, goats, etc. Another important matter is there many fishes get pestilence. But peasants have no other choice except use insecticides and pesticide to save their precious crops from the insects.

Tree Plantation at Kosha Vanga

     We found surprisingly most of the villagers are not conscious about tree plantation. They spend their time by gossiping and they are very easing loving. They mainly purchase vegetable and fruits from “Kati Gram Bazaar”. They do not use their untilled land for kitchen gardening. They cut their trees mainly for cooking purpose, which will bad for environment.

7.3 Definition of Market in a village perspective:

Bazaar: In village, villagers tell market as Bazaar. Bazaar can be defined as a rural market where the present and potential buyers and sellers meet through creating and exchanging values In order to satisfy the daily needs and wants of the villagers.

Haat: Haat is little bit different from the bazaar. In village, bazaar stands for everyday but hut stands for one or two days in a week. The concept of hut is a bit different from market. Hut is also a type of market but it is different in a sense that it is not permanent. Hut is specific place where people gather once or twice in a week to buy and sell their desired goods and services, usually in a larger quantity. Haat is located by the side of the big roads, under old trees or by the bank of the river. These places seem to be convenient for people to come. Generally price in the hut fixed through bargaining.

Table 7.1 Difference between Market and Haat

7.4 Market and Hut that we found in the village:

We were in Prashikha which is in the village called Koittagram. Our working area Katigram Bazaar was a bit far away from that area. It took usually 15 to 20 minutes to get there by Tempo. There weren’t any other markets except some general stores, so villagers have to go to Katigram to buy things. But the villagers don’t face any problem for having no market in the village. Rather, they think that there should be some particular places for particular product where those products would be available and convenient. They believe that, in this case, place plays a vital role, distance doesn’t matter.

As there were only one market and bazaar and hut were held at the same place in Katigram we didn’t have to look for another markets. We went there on Monday and Wednesday. IUB and Prashikha authority wanted to take us in that very day when hut takes place. Usually hut takes place twice a week which is on Monday and Wednesday.

 Products of the village:

What is product?

A product could be a good or service which is tangible and provides benefit to its consumers.

From our fieldwork of LFE, we found that in Katigram each and every kind of products essential and needed for life is obtainable. It’s because of easy transportation and allocation and ongoing marketing practice. We found that some products are produced within the villages which are distributed to other villages and rests of the products come from different villages or area to Katigram. We saw different kinds of products in Katigram Bazaar and hut like rice, soybean oil, lentils, tomatoes, fruits (specially grapes), fish, meat, chicken, fertilizer, different types of cloths, furnitures, watch and coffin clothes.

Services of the village:

What is Service?

Service is a benefit that a party can offer another party. It’s intangible and doesn’t  result in any ownership.

Doctor Service:

There are two drugs store at Katigram Bazar. Villagers usually buy their necessary drugs from these shops. In one drug store an M. B. B. S passed doctor offers his service to the local people all days except Monday. Visit fee for every patient is Tk. 50/-

Transportation (Van/truck):

Van is used for carrying goods from one place to another within village. The price is about Tk 7-8  to carry 14 mon on average distance and for long distance is 15-16 taka.

Truck is used for carrying goods from Dhaka and other districts of Bangladesh. The price is Tk 150  per  ‘Dhop’.

 Product Classification (Product Matrix):

There are two kinds of products we know which are:

1. Consumer Products &
2. Industrial Products

Consumer Products are the products which are used for personal consumption. Like rice, soap, foods etc. Consumer products could be classified into four categories.They are:   

• Convenience Goods
• Shopping Goods
• Specialty Goods &
• Unsought Goods

In Katigram bazaar we saw different kinds of products which falls under this classification.

Convenience Goods: Convenience goods are the goods which people buy in minimum shopping efforts. In Katigram bazaar we saw many convenience goods such as rice (irrie) (price: 34tk/kg), soybean oil (100tk/litre), lentils 80tk/kg, tomatoes (12tk/kg), lungi (40-80tk/pc) and fruits specially grapes (100tk/kg).

Shopping Goods: Shopping goods are the goods which are not frequently bought by the buyers. There were some shopping goods in Katigram bazaar. Village people don’t buy these products frequently as they are a bit expensive in price. Products are: Fish (rui) (130tk/kg), meat (150tk/kg), chicken (65tk/pc), fertilizer (1500tk/bag).

Specialty Goods: In Katigram Bazaar we saw some specialty goods which are expensive and the villagers have to put a lot of shopping efforts to buy these products. We saw some furniture shops over there which was filled with different types of furniture like beds each of those are worth of 8000tk! There were some expensive clothes as well which are expensive. We asked the seller about the reason behind it. They said they all are bought from Dhaka. The quality of cloths was really good, specially the T-Shirts (165tk/pc).

Unsought Goods: The products which are not bought usually by the consumers. At the corner of the bazaar we saw a shop where they were selling coffin cloths. Each of those was worth of 300tk/set.

Industrial Products are used for business purposes. For example:

• Capital: Deep tube well, cattle, tractor etc.
• Production items: It includes raw materials and manufactured materials and parts. The farmers of the village grow paddy, mustards and some amount of fish and vegetables etc. Paddy is one of the most important built-up products and price crops. It needs to be processed to get rice for final use. The cultivators sell paddy to the different distributors and they switch these paddy into rice.
• Services: These are the elusive products provided by people, institution, place and activities, such as carpenter, barber, rickshaw puller, doctor, day laborer, public phone booth etc.
• Operational: Pen, light, fan, and some intangible products like barber, day laborer etc. Supplies: Pen, light, fan etc fall under this category.

Product Flow:

In Katigram bazaar we saw many products which are bought from outside of the village. There were also some products which were made in the village and sold outside of the village means in different markets of different villages, even in cities like Dhaka, Chittagong etc. Thus, we classified these products into two groups. They are: Inflow of goods & outflow of goods.

There are some products which come outside of the market specially some raw materials. They fall under inflow of goods. But when the new products are produced with the help of those raw materials then it falls under outflow of goods.

Inflow of goods: Most of the products that are needed by the villagers come from Dhaka and Chittagong through middleman of the various companies. Since the distributors come to “Katigram bazaar” and provide their products to the sellers the sellers do not have to incur any transportation cost. The distributors obtain information regarding which product is selling more, from the shopkeepers. Thereby, they are able to supply more of these highly demanded products. The inward products are mainly the parts of van, tractors, power tillers, generators, water pumps, deep tubwell, tooth brush, soap, t-shirts, pangas fish, hilsha fish and sandals etc.

Outflow of goods: Foodstuffs that are produced within the village, for the most part crops and vegetables are taken to “Katigram” by the farmers themselves and from there the wholesaler buys from them and takes to different places like Comilla, Dhaka, and Chittagong. In case of rice, wholesalers sometimes take the primary product from the farmers and give them to the rice mills in order to process and bring out the final product. Rice (irri), chicken, vegetables, bamboo etc.

Here we mentioned that vegetable is outflow goods. But in Katigram Bazaar, We saw some vegetables like Indian Spice and onion which they bought it from Sylhet border in a cheaper price. Therefore it could fall under inflow of goods. On the other hand, most of the fish are cultivated in their village apart from Pangas and Hilsha fish.

Pricing:

According to Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong price is –

“The amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service.”

(Principles of Marketing, 8^th edition, Prentice. Hall of India Pvt. Ltd. 1999. Page – 302.)

Villagers understand the relation between price and demand. They also know it very well that when demand goes up price goes up. Because of it they charge high price for different seasonal vegetables. But seasonal vegetables and crops which are cultivated in off season high price is charged for those. But they said that usually they don’t do it. Villagers mentioned it clearly that for seasonal vegetables and crops they can’t charge more because there are other sellers from other villages. Villagers mentioned that if they charge little more then customers will buy from others. We found that the cultivators didn’t use a single pricing process. They applied a balance between value based and cost based pricing. Value-based pricing takes place when the middleman decides the price at which it is going to be sold and cost-based pricing take place in the sense that when they produce any crop, they measure the costing of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, labor cost and also their own effort. They also verified the supply and demand in the market. When the demand for any crop was higher than the supply, they increase the price. They also justify the customer’s preference. Like when they sold vegetables they tried to get higher price for high demand in vegetables. And any off-season vegetables cost very high in the hut because of the higher preference in the market. And the labor that did their job in the land on wage basis, they change more in the time when there were few labors in the village. The price regarding consumer products rely mainly on the consumer as the villagers are very much price sensitive and thus products cannot be sold at higher prices. The producers mainly focus on their profit maximization. But those product are imported from the others in that case pricing are not controlled by the shopkeepers such as cosmetics, toiletries product etc.

There are different ways of setting price. At Katigram different pricing techniques are used for different products. For rice the pricing is done by bargaining between farmers and piker bepari, wholesaler, retailer and end user. It also depends on the quality and the competitor’s price. Most of the time the price of rice varies from Tk.34 to Tk.40 per ‘kg’. According to the farmer the pricing of rice is all right. Onion is priced Tk.20/Kg, Tomato is priced Tk12/Kg, lentil is priced 80/Kg and fish is priced 130/kg.

 An overview of some important products and their pricing:

Value Chain Analysis:

Value chain is a major tool for identifying ways to create more purchaser value. Each section can thought of as a link in the village’s value chain. That is, each section carries out value-creating actions to intend, manufacture, advertise, convey and sustain the village’s products. The village’s achievement depends on not only on how well each department performs its work, but also on how well the activities of a range of departments are harmonized. The value chain of the rice in the village Katigram has illustrated below:

Farmers are getting most of the helps from Prashikha  by using the inputs they start the production process. In production process farmers prepare the lands, do seedlings, cultivate crops, take care to the crop fields and harvest the crops. After the processing stage the crops are distributed by own selling, “Piker Bepari”, wholesaler and retailer. To distribute those products they use different vehicles like Rickshaw, van, bicycle, tractor, truck etc. After the distribution process the end user or the consumers get the products in their hand.

 Distribution Channel:

From an outfitted standpoint, a marketing channel is the path a product or service takes as it moves from the purchaser to its end-users or consumer. The products or services can be distributed directly to the consumers or they can go via some intermediaries. These intermediaries like wholesalers and retailers play a vital role in distribution of the products. They can provide service and technical support promptly and locally. They buy in bulk and break that bulk down to the level desired by the end users.

In the village Katigram, different kinds of products like rice are distributed through different channels of distribution.

The farmers usually sell their paddy to the “Arat” or to the big wholesalers. Some times (Baparies/ retailers) come to the village and buy finished paddy from the farmers and sell that to the boiler mill. From the boiler, the paddy becomes rice. Many Aratdars or wholesalers buy this rice and sell it to the local market. From the local market, this product reaches to the end users. From the Arat rice comes to Dinajpur, Chittagong and many other places of Bangladesh.

sellers:

Case Study 1:

Name: Mohammed Forhad Ali

Age: 50

Village- Katigram

Forhad Ali, locally known as Forhad Vai. He is a peasant, have about 13 bighas of cultivable land. Around two third of his present possession of land was previously owned by his father. His father was also a peasant came from Asam, a province of India during 1952.  The erstwhile government of Pakistan gifted them nine bighas of land and Tk.100 cash, like it did to any other Muslim refugees from India. Making proper use of land, money and time Forhad Ali is now one of the successful and solvent peasants of ‘Katigram’ village.

Forhad Ali does not do any thing except cultivation. Therefore, he always tries to give hundred percent devotion to his work. He knows when to grow what, what amount of fertilizer it requires to produce good yield, when and what amount of irrigation it is necessary. Even, he knows about the specific types of pesticides for taming pests. He is interested to grow paddy than corn. Because he thinks that, by producing paddy he can at least ensure his household rice-consumption demand throughout the year. Aman and Boro are the two types of paddy he produces mostly.

In ‘Katigram’ village, chatal business (paddy processing business) is very popular. Therefore, Forhad Ali has nothing to worry about, as chatal owners usually come to his place and buy crops following the market rate. Forhad also goes to Haat to sell his crops if he feels it necessary. He uses van or auto-van (locally called vot-voty) to take his crops to “Haat”. He prefers Haat for selling goods.

Case Study 2:

Name: Abul Hussain

Age: 60

Village: Katigram

In ‘Katigram Haat’ there are people coming from different villages. They were passing a very busy day. Roaming around the ‘Haat’, we found Abul Hussain a villager of our assigned village ‘Katigram’. He came here with some bamboo to sell.

. Abul Hussain has seven bighas of cultivable land in the north-western side of the village. He cultivates paddy only, as it ensures the food demand of his three members, family throughout the year. In Amon season, he can produce tan maunds of paddy per bigha. And in Boro season it rises up to fifteen maund of paddy per bigha. He always buys seeds to get a healthy harvest. Several years back he attended a training program organized by RDA (RuralDevelopmentAcademy). So now, he knows the proper proportion of fertilizer and pesticides need to use during the cultivation period of different seasonal crops. For this agricultural works, he uses agri-labor especially during sowing and harvesting season. Abul Hussain took thirty–thousand-taka loan one year back from Krishi Bank for five years term for agricultural purpose. He thinks that this kind of agricultural loan helps farmers produce more crops.

   Besides this business, his wife and his only doughtier Dali have small poultry rearing business. Abul Hussain also have a bamboo bush by the side of his courtyard, from which he collects bamboo and sells them during ‘Haat’ day.

After selling those things, he then

Case Study 3:

Name: Jahangir Alam

Age: 40

Village: Katigram

Jahangir Alam comes in ‘Katigram Haat’ on every ‘Haat’ day, to sell the rice to the wholesaler or to know the price of the rice in the wholesale market. At first, he was a peasant, having around six bighas of cultivable land. However, as paddy-processing business (chatal business) was becoming very popular in ‘Katigram’, he also turned to do this business. Now he has two bighas of cultivable land. In addition, the rest of the land area is used for ‘chatal business’.

Jahangir Alam has 3 sons. They all are in KatigramHigh School. His monthly income is approximately 12000. He doesn’t have any problem with his income as he runs is family smoothly.

Case Study 4:

Name: Md Saidul Islam

Age: 44

Village: Katigram

Saidul Islam is a vegetable seller in ‘Katigram Hut and Bazar’.  He has only two bighas of land. In which he cultivates different kinds of seasonal vegetables throughout the year. During summer, he produces potato,  different greens, cucumber etc. In addition, in the winter, he cultivates tomato, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, bean, radish etc. He cultivates vegetable because in his point of view, he can make maximum use of time and place here, in this small piece of land. Besides, it is more profitable than paddy as chatal owners of the village tend to buy paddy at a low price.

He has only one son who helps him in his business. His wife is a housewife. His income is around 7 thousand a month.

Case Study 5:

Name: Fazlul Karim

Age:  45

Village: Katigram

Fuzlul Karim is a furniture shop owner in Katigram village. He Is in a very good condition then other sellers in Katigram hut and bazaar. His monthly income is above 20 thousand taka as the furnitures are very expensive. His father started this business. After his father’s death he started to look after this shop. He has 3 sons and a daughter. Daughters don’t do anything accept helping their mother. And all the sons study in KatigramSchool.

5 Buyers:

Case Study 1:   

Name: Jatindra Mandal

Age:  45

Village: Katigram

Jatindra Mandal is a farmer. He has a daughter only. She helps her mother in cooking. His inclome is very limited as he has not enogh land to cultivate.

He buys different daily necessary items like rice, oil, salt, pulse, kerosene etc. once in a week from ‘Katigram Haat’. As his income is very limited, he refuses to buy any luxury items except shop. He collects seeds, fertilizer and pesticides from Katigram bazaar.

Case Study 2:

Name: Khairul Islam

Age:  39

Village: Katigram

Khairul Islam is a truck driver. His work is to deliver the rice to Chittagong from Katigram. His income is 5-6 thousand taka a month. He has two sons. They are in Dhaka, studying in a high school in Malibagh.

Khairul Islam normally usually shops monthly for his family in the beginning of every month. Therefore, he does not need to buy different things throughout the month. Only some perishable products like fish, meat and vegetables, he has to buy in every ‘Haat’ day. Among the grocery items, he buys shop, toothpowder, oil, salt, sugar, flour, battery, bulb etc. from the bazar. As the expenditure is going high everywhere, he has to come up against a lot of problem to run his family.

Case Study 3:

Name: Raju Ram

Age: 44

Village: Katigram

Raju Ram is a small farmer in Katigram village. He has a very low income two run his family. Usually he buys Fish, vegetables and rice form katigram bazaar.

In the past, the family members were only five in number. Now Raju himself has four members, family. So, the expenditure has increased a lot. High product price is another reason of expenditure increase. Apart from that, there are some people migrating in to the village from another distant village for different reasons. This also pushes up the product price and forces to increase the expenditure.

Case Study 4:

Name: Amal Mandal

Age: 49

Village: Katigram

Amal Mandal buys daily necessary items like Soybean oil, kerosene, salt, sugar, pulses, spices, flour etc. He also buys soap, detergent, and battery for household purpose. Among the luxury items, he some times buys beauty shop, cream, snow, powder etc. These luxury items he buys for his only doughtier Dali. Amal Mandal is also very much dependent on “Katigram Haat” for his agricultural tools, seeds, fertilizer and insecticides.

Amal Mandal thinks that his expenditure has increased a lot as price of different products are going up. However, compared to the increase of prices of different products, his income has increased at a very negligible amount. So it is becoming very difficult to maintain a middle class life style, as before. Nevertheless, he is a hopeful man waiting for a good future.

Case Study 5:

Name: Shukumar Sarker

Age:  26

Village: Katigram

Shukumar Sarker is a small farmer in Katigram village. He often goes to Katigram Bazaar to buy the daily needs like soap, soybean oil. He often buys fish and vegetables from Katigram Bazaar. He complains that the price of fish is getting high and so are the other products in the market. So as he is a small farmer and has no educational background he has to suffer a lot for that. His father passed away since he was born. He is the only son of the family. So He thinks he has lots of responsibilities in his life. His monthly income is around 5 thousand taka.

Problems regarding markets linked with the village:

The villagers have no problem with the market. But they claimed about some problems facing regarding markets:

• Lofty price of inputs
• Low cost of the crops
• Less bargaining power of the producers
• Lack of wakefulness about product diversification and some other vital aspects
• Women don’t like to go outside
• Unlawful practice by the agricultural input sellers, “Piker Bapari”, Wholesalers, Retailers etc

Conclusion:

Our assigned village “Koshabhanga” in contrast to villages across the country is lot more urbanized. The main reason being the close vicinity to Dhaka city and the well connected transportation system. It provided a glimpse of how modern village looks like which on one side has the traditional mindset of the older generations and on the other side the youth segment and the new generations breaking all the barriers and targeting new heights by igniting their passions for the village. There are conditions of poverty, which is the reflection of majority rural area of Bangladesh. Still, despite so much disparity, there is unity among the villagers. People of the village has sometimes gone beyond religion, cast, bar, race and sex in holding hands and addressing some critical problems that they all faced.

Few families together in Koshabhanga form a household and these households together help to form the society of the village koshabhanga. With massive changes taking place over the years in different aspects which had direct impact on the life of the villagers, still within them they possess the simplicity, easy-going life style, with amiability and open-hearted attitude towards inmates as well as outsiders.

In the rural market analysis part we have seen that there are areas were the deserved one always does not get their pie of the earning. That thing need to be changed in order to improve the over all market profit situation.

All in all, the experience that we gathered during our stay at Manikganj helped us to familiarize with what makes the heart of this country. Koshabhanga is a reflection of the thousands of other villages of Bangladesh, where people do not have their spirits dampened by any shortcomings and are ready to accept challenges to face life. If they are given the opportunity, they can come out of the dark areas that they are now facing.