Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report

Spring 2011

JELE PARA, KATIGRAM;
MANIKGONJ







PREPARED BY:

NAFIZ AL RAZI
ID: 0820046

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 31
st
MARCH, 2011






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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL



March 31, 2011

Professor Haroun Er Rashid
Director
School of Environmental Science and Management
Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)
Bashundhara - Baridhara, Dhaka.

Sub: Letter of Transmittal for the assigned LFE report, Spring 2011

Sir,

I, the undersigned, would like to submit herewith the Live-in-Field
Experience (LFE) Report, Spring 2011 for your perusal. This report has been
prepared upon completion of LFE study on JELE PARA, KATIGRAM in
MANIKGANJ district from January 4, 2011 to January 16, 2011.

By using the technique called PRA, questionnaire survey, observation, and
preparing case stories, I tried my best to learn about the demography,
geography, social condition and change, economy and agriculture, the impact of
seasonality on various aspects of agriculture, health and environment, and the
market and HAT serving the needs of the village. The analysis of data gathered
from my field survey helped me in understanding the lives of the villagers.

I would be glad to clarify any matter whenever you require so.


Sincerely yours,




NAFIZ AL RAZI
ID: 0820046




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ACKNOLEDGEMENTS

I express my honest gratitude to my teachers, Mr. Saquib Shahriar, and Mrs.
Mahbuba Dewan for their restless guidance in the field. Our special thanks go to
our teachers, Professor Haroun Er Rashid and Mr. Munir Hossain for educating
us on various aspects of LFE.

I also want to give many thanks to PROSHIKA staffs. They are the most
hospitable people. My special thanks go to the researcher Mr. Idris for giving
me many valuable tips for collecting data during the field survey.

Without the constant help and guidance of my assigned LFE monitors, the study
would not have been this thorough. I am really grateful to them.

Lastly, my honest gratitude goes to the inhabitants of JELE PARA, for their
warm and hospitable attitude. Without their enthusiastic cooperation, it was not
possible to make the study successful.

















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Table of Content
Topic Page Number
Letter of Transmittal 2
Acknowledgement 3
CH 1: Introduction
Purpose of LFE 7
Objectives of LFE 7
Limitations of LFE 8
CH 2: Methodologies
2.1 Qualitative survey though PRA 9
2.2 Quantitative Survey through Questionnaire 9
2.3 Flowchart of Methodology 10
2.4 Assigned Job 11
2.5 Aims and Objectives 12

CH 3: Village Resource Mapping and Transect
3.0 Introduction 13
3.1 Objectives 14
3.2 Selection of Village 15
3.3 Location of JELE PARA 15
3.4 Area and population 15
3.5 Cultivable Land 16
3.6 Ponds and Gardens 16
3.7 Rural Institution 16
3.8 Shops and Temple 16
3.9 Transect Map 17
3.10 Problems 17
3.11 Suggestions 18
3.12 Conclusion 18
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Topic Page Number
CH 4: Social Change Process
4.0 Introduction 19
4.1 Objective 19
4.2 Methodology 19
4.3 Social Change Process 20
4.4 Conclusion 21
CH 5: Income Assessments and Gender Division of Labor
5.0 Introduction 22
5.1 Objective 22
5.2 Limitations of the study 23
5.3 Overview of Income Contribution 24
5.4 Wealth Ranking 25
5.5 Major finding 25
5.6 Gender Division 26
5.7 Activities of Male 26
5.8 Activities of Female 26
5.9 Conclusion 26
CH 6: Micro Credits and Rural Production Cycle
6.0 Introduction 27
6.1 Objectives 27
6.2 Limitations 28
6.3 Micro Credit System 28
6.4 Rural Production Cycle 29
6.5 Rural Production 29
6.6 Major Findings 30
6.7 Conclusion 30


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Topic Page Number
CH 7: Health and Family Care
7.0 Introduction 31
7.1 Objective 31
7.2 Methodology 31
7.3 Limitations 32
7.4 Health Condition 32
7.5 Vaccination of Children 32
7.6 Common Diseases Suffered by Villagers 33
7.7 Health Care Facilities 33
7.8 Conclusion 34
CH 8: RURAL MARKET ANALYSIS
8.0 Introduction 35
8.1 Objectives 35
8.2 Limitations 35
8.3Construction of Rural markets: The Hut and the Bazaar 36
8.4 The study market: Katigram Bazaar-Hut 36
8.5 Distribution Channel 37
8.6 Value chain Analysis 38
8.7 Conclusion and Recommendations 39
Bibliography 40
CASE STORIES 41 42
CH 9: CONCLUSION 44







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Chapter 1: Introduction, Objectives and Limitations of LFE


1.0 Introduction:
This report is prepared for the course of Live-in-Field Experience (LFE). It is a pre-
requisite course, which has to be completed by every students of Independent
University, Bangladesh before graduation.
LFE (Live in field Experience) is the study about predominant culture and mode of
production in rural Bangladesh. It is also the study of villages as the country has more
than sixty eight thousand villages and majority of the population still lives in the
villages. The rest of the people of urban area depend on the villagers directly or
indirectly for various purposes. Development of our country is based on our rural
areas. Therefore it is very important to know what is going on in the village. Our
politics, society, economic condition, literacy rate and health condition depend on our
village. But most urban people have a perception that the village people are poor and
illiterate. As we are not concerned about our village and villagers, thats why even
after 40 years of our independence, Bangladesh is still an underdeveloped country.
So, it is our duty to know about them and their life style.


1.1 Purpose of LFE:
This report is prepared for the course of Live-in-Field Experience (LFE). It is a
pre-requisite course, which has to be completed by every students of Independent
University, Bangladesh before graduation. It is a course of 3 credits. Students have
to stay about 12 days at a selected place to conduct a survey and research.

1.2 Objectives of LFE:
The LFE 201 course has multi dimensional objectives, the basis of which is to
familiarize the city based students (the expected policy planners and implementers of
the near future), who are otherwise unexposed, with village life. In essentially a week,
we looked into a number of key areas including:

The structural construction of the village through maps, the household and its
interactions through interviews.
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Chapter 1: Introduction, Objectives and Limitations of LFE

The health, sanitation and environmental standings of the village, along with
the level of awareness the people possess regarding such issues.
The socio-economic conditions of the households, their incomes,
expenditures, livelihood strategies, and adoption and understanding of micro
credit schemes along with their views on the subject of micro loans.
The social changes that the village has undergone since the emergence of
Bangladesh, through its different regimes till date, both the positive and
negative impacts of these changes and how the members of the village society
has equated themselves with modernity and assimilated developments plans
and projects.
And finally, I delved into the functions of a generic rural market,
understanding it constituents- the hut and the bazaar, the actors involved
therein and drawing parallels with some of the textbook marketing and
economic concepts that I know about.

1.3 Limitations of LFE:
This is common factor of a research work to face certain limitations. I also faced
many limitations while doing my survey as well as while analyzing data, plus while
preparing my report, because this technique of research methodology is a new
concept for me. However the limitations of this study are as follows

The first problem I have faced is the time limitation. I did not have
enough time to include a large number of the respondents, which I could
increase the accuracy and would help to sketch out the real picture
much more clearly. Only 12 days are not enough for the collection of raw
data in order to prepare a professional report. I still have many questions
lingering in my mind that I could not ask the villagers due to this constraint.
I had a little knowledge about this course. In addition, I did not have
preliminary experience about data collection.
Unwillingness of the villagers for cooperation is another limitation of this
study. There were some people who did not to cooperate and thus beside
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Chapter 1: Introduction, Objectives and Limitations of LFE

that, as I asked some very personal questions regarding their family and
society, there were some people who skipped answering those questions.
I did face some problems while doing the survey at JELE PARA.
I was not experienced to approach to the villagers in an appropriate way.
However, after two days of work, I started to feel more comfortable and it
became easier gradually.
Finding the right person to ask questions was another obstacle. There are
some villagers who misguided us by giving wrong information. However my
best effort was there to crosscheck that information for making to increase
the accuracy of collected data.
Sometimes, respondents were found to be unwilling to answer some specific
questions, as they thought it might create some problem for them. The
answers they gave were very much unrealistic.
As I surveyed the respective village during the working hours of the day,
most of the male were out of their houses. As a result the quantity of female
respondents is higher which may reflect in getting biased answers regarding
some questions.












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Chapter 2: Methodology

2.0 Methodology:
In the time of LFE (Live-in-Field Experience), I was asked to collect the
information of the villagers of my assigned village, JELE PARA as properly
as possible. For the purpose of getting a volume of correct information of the
villagers, I had to take the primary information from the villagers at first. Then,
again I had to verify this primary information from many other sources. I have
to use both qualitative and quantitative information in our report.

2.1 Qualitative survey though PRA:
Participatory or rural appraisal (PRA) is a way of enabling local people to analyze
their living conditions to share the outcomes and to plan their activities. It is way of
learning with and from communities in order to investigate, analyze and evaluate
constraints and opportunities for future development of the community. Thus PRA
field exercise is not only for collection of qualitative information and idea generation
but it is about analysis and learning by local people.

2.2 Quantitative Survey through Questionnaire:
Along with the PRA to crosscheck and pinpoint few terms and facts in numeric and
statistics from the questionnaire survey is done. The results are then calculated by
plotting them in tables and analyzed through pie charts and bar graphs. A lot of ratio
study is also used to interpret the findings. I was assigned with a set of questionnaire
with a sample size of 5. The respondents were selected using the following methods:
O The study area: JELE PARA was selected by PROSHIKHA.
O Approximately 140 household heads were drawn from the village.
O The respondents: Residing in the particular household was interviewed.
O Sample size: was designed so as to consist 5 household heads.



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Chapter 2: Methodology

2.3 Flowchart of Methodology:

























Data

Data Analysis and Processing
PRA
Qualitative
Quantitative
Transect Walk
Para Map
Village Map
Timeline Analysis
Social Map
Seasonal Calendar

Variables
- Demographic Condition
- Social Condition
- Economic Condition
- Environmental Condition
- Health Condition
Questionnaire Survey
Statistical Tools for Data
Analysis

Participant observation,
Personal and Group
Interviews
Report
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Chapter 2: Methodology

2.4 Assigned Job:
I was assigned to my village to perform some selected jobs. In order to perform
the jobs, I had to follow PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) method. The assigned
jobs were:

Village Mapping
Para Map
Transact Mapping
Social Change Process
Health and Family Care
Income Assessment and Gender Division of Labor
Government and Non Government Activities
Rural Production Cycle and Cash Flow Analysis
Market Analysis

2.5 Aims and Objectives:
This section will discuss about all the specific aspects of this study listing the aims
and objectives of LFE (Live-in-Field Experience) programme. The preset aims and
objectives of LFE are listed below

+ To make the students familiar with the socio-economic realities of rural life.
+ To help the student learn how to perform social research.
+ To make the students familiar with the method of quantitative and qualitative
data collection.
+ To help the students learn how to build rapport with the unknown rural people.
+ To learn about the roots of our original culture and modes of production.
+ To determine the ways of reducing the existing gap between urban and rural
societies.
+ To familiarize urban students with rural communities as almost 80% of the
total population of Bangladesh live in villages.


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STUDY AREA
JELE PARA, KATIGRAM;
ATIGRAM UNION;
MANIKGANJ







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Chapter 3: Village Resource Mapping and Transect

3.0 Introduction:
This chapter of the report focuses on the following topics describing my study area, JELE
PARA
O Village Mapping
O Para Mapping
O Transact Mapping

3.1 Objectives:
As I supposed to do a survey in a village, my first job was to know about the village
map. And as the people of Proshika and my faculty had divided my work into six
days, my first days job was to draw the village, para and transect map. In this part I
have described the physical locations of my target villages with other essential
information.

3.2 Selection of Village:
My surveyed village was Jele Para. The Proshika has selected it for me. My supervisors and
co-coordinators have also chosen this village as group wise. The size of the village is not too
big. It is about 1 square kilometer.

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Picture 3.1 Location of Manikganj

Chapter 3: Village Resource Mapping and Transect

3.3 Location of JELE PARA:
As I was given to study the village in LFE in cooperation with PROSHIKA, I in fact have
been assigned with the para called JELE PARA. The Para JELE PARA is under
Manikganj district. It is 2 km away from PROSHIKA.
3.4 Area and population:
The area of JELE PARA village is not too big. It is about 1 square kilometer. The total
population is almost 700 and among them 420 are voters. Most of them are Hindu. Number
of households at this village is around 140.
3.5 Cultivable Land:
JELE PARA is very small para where most of them are fisherman. There is no cultivable
land.
3.6 Ponds and Gardens:
There is only one pond but that is not fresh. There is a bamboo garden, a Mehagani tree
garden and some digs with bushes are available in JELE PARA.
3.7 Rural Institutions:
Manikganj

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In JELE PARA, most of the people are poor and there is no rural institution.
3.8 Shops and Temple:
There are two grocery shops, two goldsmith shops and a big temple place but nothing
there in it. They use it in occasions. Though almost everyone are Hindu, so there is no
mosque.
3.9 Transect Map:
Transect mapping provides a micro vision of the village which helps to get clear and specific
ideas about the study area. While preparing the transect map, I did collect information about
Chapter 3: Village Resource Mapping and Transect


Figure 3.2: Location of JELE PARA


Figure 3.3: JELE PARA
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Chapter 3: Village Resource Mapping and Transect
the land height, soil type, land usage, households, trees, crops, important place and problems
regarding each zone of the transect map.

3.9.1 Transect Mapping:
I started my transect walk beside a coconut tree and that took an end after walking
200 steps beside a bush. I walked from the south to the north direction and did
study the left-hand side of my walk. I did divide these 200 steps into 10 zones of
20 steps each. Figure 3.3 shows the transect map.

3.9.2 Land Height:

At most of the zones beside my transect walk, the land was about 4 to 5 ft higher
than the walking path and there were households at those high places. The
villagers said that they build their households on high lands because the lowlands
are flooded by the water from Dhaleswari in the rainy season.

3.9.3 Soil Type:
Everywhere beside our transect walk, the soil type was sandy loam which is very
fertile for different type of crops. The low lands in JELE PARA are silted due to
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the flood water during the rainy season, which offer fertile lands to the farmers
after the flood.

3.9.4 Households:
All the households beside of my transect walk were built with bamboo, bamboo
made fences, straw and tin which reflects some ideas about the wealth ranking of
different classes of people in the village.

3.10 Problems:
Few places beside my transect walk were damp and emitting bad smell. There was a pond
Chapter 3: Village Resource Mapping and Transect

shown in Figure 3.4 which is place for procreation of mosquitoes.


Figure 3.4: Pond with waste water

3.11 Suggestions:
Proper drainage system should be there.
The road should be wide and clear.
The more ponds should be dug.
Environmental awareness program should be addressed

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3.12 Conclusion:
The people of my village may not be well off, but they were simple and honest. They had
been very co-operative and friendly towards us. They were very helpful when I asked any
question they try to answer correctly.





Chapter 4: Social Change Process

4.0 Introduction:
Social change is a process by which deviation take place in the structure and function of a
social system over a period of time. Social Change is a very long and continuous process that
cannot be stopped. The process of social change starts when an innovation spread in a
society. Social changes indicate changes in thinking, attitude, culture, and life style etc and
in other words, social developing is the feedback of social changes. However, evolution,
invention of new techniques, adaptation of new ideas is all example of social change. Due to
various reasons these changes take place such as natural disasters, population pressure,
unplanned and unsustainable developments by different organizations, migration, and
pressure on economy, food, land and many more. So I had to go the village JELE PARA.

4.1 Objective:
The motive of my work on social change processes are mentioned as follows:
To find out the socio-economic changes that occurred with the course of time.
To find out what the factors behind the changes are and when and how these factors
changed the socio-economic condition and the living of the society.
To understand how one change in factor is linked with the other.
What are the consequences of the changes and what are the perceptions of the
villagers towards such changes.
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Finally to get an overall idea on the chronological changes of my assigned para (JELE
PARA) that gave an essence of human evolution at every step, thus trembling the
entire system of the society.


4.2 Methodology:
To acquire information on social change we used different tools such as questionnaire
surveys on specific topics, personal observation, focus group discussions and Participatory
Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique to gather information from rural people. I collected relevant
information on the social change process of the village located in the Manikganj district and
then organized my findings to represent them through a Map of Timeline
Analysis that was done with respect to the different ruling regimes. Thus it was
considered to be the primary ground of our topic analysis. Timeline Analysis is
Chapter 4: Social Change Process

used to represent any change with respect to time. For that reasons I talked to
different ages ranging (25 to 80) people. I talked with the most eldest person of the village to
know about the past history of the village and changes that took place over the period of time
as well as we talked to the younger people to know their perceptions on these changes.

4.3 Social Change Process:
In order to find out the social changes through time line analysis, I divided the whole time
frame into seven different regimes. The seven different regimes are:

1 Shekh Mujib Regime (1972-1975)
2 Ziaur Rahman Regime (1976-1979)
3 Ershad Regime (1981-1990)
4 Khaleda Zias First Regime (1991-1995)
5 Sheikh Hasinas Regime (1996-2001)
6 Khaleda Zias Second Regime (2001-2006) and
7 Caretaker Governments (2006-2008).
8 Sheikh Hasinas Regime (2009 to present)

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Hence we assembled information on different factors of the society which has influenced the
social change processes that would be discussed in the later section and the Social Map of the
changes that took place during the periods are shown below.












Chapter 4: Social Change Process











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Figure 4.1: Social Change Process in JELE PARA.

4.3.1 Before Liberation Period (1965-1971):

According to old villagers of this village, in this period there were farmers and fishermen.
They could do fishing as at that time the river, Dhaleswari was full of water and the water
level of this river was very high. So, the villagers could take it as an occupation. Their main
sources of Income were definitely farming and fishing. Without these, the villagers had other
sources for income also. For an example, they could sell the milk of Cows and can get money
from there. If they would have any financial problem, then they did it and tried to get rid of
that problem.

Chapter 4: Social Change Process

4.3.2 After Liberation Period:

I have found that in this time the water level of Dhaleswari River was decreasing day by day.
So, fishing was not possible in that river at that time. Besides, there was no pond in this
village. This is the reason for which they are now catching fish from other rivers and sell it.
There are a number of Positive changes after liberation with a number of negative changes.
They didnt have Education system before. But now, they can be educated if they want. Not
only that but also they get a number of facilities because of sending their children to schools.
They didnt have proper Vaccines and Medicines for diseases before liberation period. But
now because of different GOs and NGOs, they are getting Vaccines and Medicines properly.
Before, they didnt have any good Communication system. But now they do have developed
Roads. Even two / three of the villagers do have Cell Phones. The number of Early Marriage
is decreasing day by day. Also the Age of Marriage is increasing with time because of the
villagers changed thoughts. Before, they didnt have Electricity. But now they do have
Electricity and also TV, VCR and so on for their entertainment. They didnt get the help of
GOs and NGOs before. But now they do get different facilities from GOs and as well as
NGOs. These are the positives changes after liberation. But all the changes are not so
positive. There are different negative changes also like the amount of Dowry is increasing
day by day. Also, if they want to set tube-well in their houses, then they have to work with
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deep tube-well. The villagers did have Security before and there was not any Crime. But now
they dont have that much Security. Also sometimes, they have to face the events of Stolen.
Though there are a number of negative changes that occurred after liberation period, but
the villagers are happy with all the changes. They have accepted the positive changes
warmly and dont give that much importance on these negative changes.

4.4 Conclusion:

From the above discussion, I have known that how the Society has been changing in different
fields since the forming of the village. According to them, the period after liberation is better
for them.


Chapter 5: Income Assessment and Gender Division of Labor

5.0 Introduction:

Income assessment differs from one family to others. In JELE PARA, almost everyone
involve in fishing related activities. Someone catch fish, someone sell it to the markets. So,
their income assessment is different but not varies so much.

5.1 Objective:
The objectives of the study are:

- To identify the income assessment
- To Identify the professional problems
- To find out possible solution to solve the problems
- To identify the different income class groups, their source of income and % of saving


5.2 Limitations of the study:

There are about 140 household in JELE PARA but in our survey we randomly chose 25
household. So there is a possibility of accuracy error.

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5.3 Overview of Income Contribution:

Table 5.3.1 Peoples involvement in family income

Age groups Male Involvement in
family income
( Mainly)
Female Involvement in
family income (
Mainly)
0-10 1 No involvement 6 No involvement
11-15 2 Occasionally
involve
0 Occasionally
involve
16-24 3 Start in Helping
family income
0 Occasionally
involve
25-60 8 Income earning 0 House wife
occasionally help
in family income
Above 60 5 Not involve in
income
0 House wife and
no involvement in
income
total 19 6
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Chapter 5: Income Assessment and Gender Division of Labor

5.4 Wealth Ranking:

Upper class:

House Type: All the Roof & floor of house of Para are tin & mud. But changes are in wall. So we
found they live in concrete house.

Income: Yearly family income is about Tk 120000-300000; actually they are under upper income
class.

Loan: In the time of cultivate they take loan from different banks, but they do not take any
microcredit from NGO.

Domestic Animal: People of the higher income group have 6-8 cows, and about 20to 30 poultry
birds.

Luxury Products: People of this group have Motor cycle TV, VCD and 2 or 3 mobile phones as
their luxury goods.

Upper middle class:

House Type: All the Roof & floor of house of Para are tin & mud. But changes are in wall. And we
found they live in mud house.

Income: Annual income is between Tk 70000-120000.

Loan: They take loan for a better life and to expand their business. Loan is taken sometimes for
cattle fattening also.

Domestic Animal: These people have 6-8 cows and poultry birds are 10-15 in numbers
Luxury Products: Middle income group people have mobile phones, TV, and VCD as their luxury
product.
Middle class:
House Type: All the Roof & floor of house of Para are tin & mud. But changes are in wall. And we
found they live in mud house.
Income: Income is between tk 48000-72250 per year.
Loan: They take loan for a better life and to cultivate their land. Some time they take loan to pay
dowry.
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Chapter 5: Income Assessment and Gender Division of Labor

Domestic Animal: These people have 2-3 cows, 2-3 goats, 5-10 poultry birds.
Luxury Products: Middle income group people have TV, VCD, & Mobile (ONE) as their luxury
product.
Lower middle class:
House Type: All the Roof & floor of house of Para are tin & mud. But changes are in wall. And we
found they live in mud house.
Income: These groups are able to earn in a year about TK. 36500-47500
Loan: they do not take loan, as they think they will not able to pay installment.
Domestic Animal: These people have 1-2cows.
Lower Income Group:
House Type: All the Roof & floor of house of Para are tin & mud. But changes are in wall. And we
found they live in tin or sown (khorir) house.

Income: Annual incomes for these groups are about TK.1728-7200.

Loan: These groups of people do not get any loan from any NGOs.

Domestic Animal: These groups of people have a goat, and 4-5 poultry birds.


5.5 Major finding:
- Most of the villagers live in same category house.
- People who need loan most, they are not getting loan.
- All of the household have their own domestic animals, to their nutritions. Most of the
families have TV.
- Actually the size of house of lower class people is relatively very small.


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Chapter 5: Income Assessment and Gender Division of Labor

5.6 Gender Division:

Gender states the distinction between man and woman. By the gender rote we understand the
role they play separately or together in the different or same field. In my village JELE PARA
the people are very industrious. They do their own work even though some of them are very
hard. Men are doing the hard work most like working in their profession and women are mostly
doing the households work. In fact they have split their own work according their ability. Both
men and women are doing hard work all the daylong.

5.7 Activities of Male:
The Males of my village JELE PARA , their occupations is mainly fishing or fishing related
business activities.
5.8 Activities of Female:
The Women of my village JELE PARA wake up early in the morning. Then they sweep their
home yard and room as well. They prepare food for everyone and get their children ready for
school. They dont usually eat last nights left over rice. They are used of sewing dresses for the
children as well as for the elder during the gossiping time. Then again they cook dinner for
everyone.

5.9 Conclusion:
In my village JELE PARA, I had seen a great difference between male and Female. The
female of my village cant work outside. But one significant thing I found in our village is, the
girls of our village got the opportunity of education. They at least can do their primary education.



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Chapter 6: Micro Credit and Rural Production Cycle

6.0 Introduction:
NGOs are working tremendously in developing the rural society. The NGOs that are working in
the JELE PARA are ASA, PROSHIKA, BRAC, BUREAU BANGLADESH and GRAMEEN
BANK. From the very beginning there are GOs activities and they have been trying to develop
the village and also contribute rural production cycle through micro credit.

6.1 Objectives:

To identify the role of N.G.O.
How the rural people running their production cycle.
Role of micro-credit.

6.2 Limitations:
There were some limitations
g Survey only 25 people from JELE PARA.
g May be false statement given.
g Hide any information by the information giver.

6.3 Micro Credit System:
Village people are getting benefit of the Micro credit systems as they are taking money from the
NGOs for buying fishing net, domestic animals etc. Sometimes they take credits for offsprings'
marriage ceremony. From the benefits, they return the credited money to the NGOs. Sometimes,
they fail to return the credited money. As they are poor people, they take money for one reason
but spend the money for other causes. So, they are to fall in money problem again. And they are
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Chapter 6: Micro Credit and Rural Production Cycle


Figure 6.3: Loans collection

bound to return the credited money with high interest rate anyhow in the limited time. For this,
sometimes, they are to sell their own property. This is a big problem for the poor people.

6.4 Rural Production Cycle:
In JELE PARA, most of the people are fisherman or doing fishing related activities. There is no
land for cultivation or no pond for firming fish. They go to catch fish into river or doing fish
related business as middleman.
6.4.1 Effect in the Social Condition:
* Villagers also taking loan for their small business. So, that they can
continue their farming with a small business. From these, they can earn
more money and can develop their financial condition.
* The villagers can take loan for housing and can make a more developed
house. In this way, the housing type of the village is changing.
* The farmers are taking loan, investing it in cultivation and gaining more
profit.

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Chapter 6: Micro Credit and Rural Production Cycle

6.5 Rural Production:
- Fishing net making and selling in the market
- Fishing at the river.
- Fish selling.


6.6 Major Findings:

Middle class and poor people are getting loans from N.G.Os. They use that money to buy fishing
nets or in business. Sometimes they pay their loans or dowry from getting micro credit.



6.7 Conclusion:
To identify the social change process I tried our best to collect as many information as possible
through interviewing the Para people. They were very eager in responding and providing us with
valuable information and without their cooperation it would have not been possible within the
assigned period.











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Chapter 7: Health and Family Care

7.0 Introduction:
Health is a basic human right and is essential for social and economic development. Health
depends on the ability to manage successfully the interaction between the physical, spiritual,
biological and economic/social environment. Considering the health conditions in this country
especially in the village area and the infrastructure in the village areas are not sufficient. Various
Government and Non-Government Organization (NGO) work there to improve this situation.

7.1 Objective:
The sources of water used for various purposes.
What types of toilet facilities the households get.
Disposal place of waste by the Households.
How much they conscious about health and environment.
Find out the health and medical facilities available in JELE PARA.
Type of fuel used for cooking purpose.
Knowing the environment condition of the village.

7.2 Methodology:
Collecting Information.
Conducting the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) in first step.
Interviewing People.




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Chapter 7: Health and Family Care

7.3 Limitations:
There were few limitations to the study. First of all the sample size was small. The result derived
from a sample sometimes does not represent the whole population. Sometimes the villagers were
not totally sure about the information they were disclosing to us. Moreover, women sometimes
had the tendency to forget about things of the past. For example: some women forgot about the
immunization record of their children. In some cases the villagers were not willing to divulge
information. Time is also a big constraint because I only had a few days to collect the
information and there was no ways of verification. Therefore, there are always drawbacks in the
study.

7.4 Health Condition:

According to the local people of my study area JELE PARA, the recent scenario of health and
sanitation has improved a lot than before. People are now much more cautious about their life.
The change took place because of the Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and the
Government Organization (GO's) that are working in the village. Different attributes of Health
which indicate the total scenario of the village are:
Vaccination
Health Care Facilities
Sources of Water for Domestic Use
Cooking Place
Types of Fuel used for cooking
Health Affects





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Chapter 7: Health and Family Care

7.5 Vaccination of Children:

Figure 7.5: Vaccination Program

7.6 Common Diseases Suffered by Villagers:
The common diseases I have seen in JELE PARA are cold, fiver, pain on body.
7.7 Health Care Facilities:
There is a chamber for a doctor in Katigram Bazaar. So that, JELE PARAs people can go to him
for any health care.
7.7.1 Drinking:
The villagers are very health conscious about sources of water. The 100% of villagers
use tube well water for drinking and cooking purposes. And I have also found that they
dont drink water from Arsenic effective tube well. All of the House holders have tested
their tube well for Arsenic.

7.7.2 Cooking:
At JELE PARA all the villagers use tube well water for cooking purpose.




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Chapter 7: Health and Family Care


Figure 7.7.2: Tube-well
7.7.3 Cooking Place:
Cooking place is an important place in a house especially in village. Separate cooking
place indicate good effect on environment and health. Cooking place inside the living
room is very unsafe for health. Because the fume exerted by the burning of fuel affect the
breathing of any normal human being especially children.


Figure 7.7.3: Cooking Place

7.7.4 Sanitation:
The main contributors of serious diseases are unhygienic food and sanitation.
Therefore health condition of a family depends largely on the toilet facility. We found
three types of toilet facility in my JELE PARA; for example - Pit Latrine, Septic Tank
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Chapter 7: Health and Family Care

and Ring Slab Latrine.

Figure 7.7.4: Pit Latrine

7.7.5 Waste Disposal:
In JELE PARA, the villagers do not have wastage, which cannot be easily disposable.


Figure 7.7.5: Waste Disposal

7.8 Conclusion:

I can conclude our discussion after analyzing the data of health and environment condition that
the villagers are not get proper health care facility. They have vaccine their children.

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Chapter 8: RURAL MARKET ANALYSIS

8.0 Introduction
Rural markets, or in simpler term village markets, are the points of contact for the farmers, where
they sell their produce at nominal value under crumbling pressures from various middle agents
with virtually no organized-uncorrupted government support.
8.1 Objectives:
Our main objectives in analyzing the rural market were to:
Develop some idea about the market structure
Learn about the products and services provided therein
Identify the marketing chain of products
Understand the shortcomings and obstacles of the system
8.2 Limitations:
The main limitation on our investigation of the rural market was time. A single day and a single
visit remains insufficient to properly understand the invisible forces and behind the scenes
activities.
8.3 Construction of Rural markets: The Hut and the Bazaar
Generally hut and bazaar occur in the same area of a village. Huts are held on specific days
within an established village bazaar. An added number of temporary shops are set up during hut
days which last until the closing hour of the hut. More shops mean more suppliers and thus
prices for certain products like seasonal fruits, vegetables, farmers equipment, pottery etc. tend
to be lower on the hut days. There are certain characteristic differences between the hut and
bazaar, both in their construction and their workings. Some of the differences are listed in the
table below:

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Chapter 8: RURAL MARKET ANALYSIS


Table 8.4: Differences between the Hut and Bazaar.
8.4 The study market: Katigram Bazaar-Hut
According to local reports the Katigram Bazaar-Hut is being held since the British period. It has
a central establishment covering around a 1000 sq. yards.

Hut Bazaar
Working hours 6 am to 10 am (preparation)
10 am to 7 pm (hut hours)
10 pm to 5 pm
Frequency Twice a week

All week
Number of Shops Host of temporary shops on top of the
bazaar shops
More permanent and concrete shops
Type of shops Temporary Permanent
Products and services
available
Increased number of products and
services (due to more shops)
Fixed number of shops supplying similar
products and services around the week
Business type Mainly wholesale, with less retailing Mainly retailing
Buyers and sellers More buyers and sellers on hut days Usually a similar number of buyers and sellers
except for on hut days
Origin of buyers Along with the local buyers there are
buyers from far off places
Usually localized buyers
Origin of sellers Extra sellers bring in their products and
set up temporary shops
Fixed sellers in fixed shops
Middlemen More middlemen trying to buy off extra
supply
Less number of middle men than on hut day
Level of competition Higher as sellers try to sell as much as
possible during the day
Lower competition
Prices Lower due to increased supply Higher than Hut
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Chapter 8: RURAL MARKET ANALYSIS

8.4.1 Communication and transportation facilities:
The central road leading into Katigram Bazaar-hut is paved but deteriorating. The paved
entrance is about 25 feet wide with 15 feet paved in the middle. Temporary shops set up on the
both sides of the entrance on Hut day. The paved central path goes up about 100 yards into the
market and branches out to the left and the right. The right turn leads to the fish market while the
left ultimately reaches an open field. On both sides of the paved road there are permanent shops
with concrete walls and tin roofs. During Hut day temporary shops are set up at every possible
empty space.
8.4.2 Pricing at Katigram Bazaar-Hut:
It is apparent that the agents in Katigram Bazaar Hut naturally understand the basic
functions of the market i.e. demand and supply. They use profit as a motive to price their
products. Farmers, who sell their products on a one to one basis during the Hut day, aim to cover
their costs while trying to make a net take-home profit of Tk. 200 to 500.
8.4.3 Products at Katigram Bazaar-Hut:
Products as well as services can be divided into two broad categories based on
their consumer groups and the purpose of their utilization. They are:
Consumer products - Fruits, Vegetables, Sunflower Oil, etc.
Fake Products TALC, Paracitamol, Cevita-I, etc.
Brand Products Pepsodant Tooth Powder, Lux, etc.
Specialty products Ruitan, Akij Biri, etc.




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PRODUCER
LOCAL WHOLESELLER
CITY WHOLESELLER
CITY RETAILER
CITY
CONSUMER
LOCAL RETAILER
LOCAL CONSUMER
Chapter 8: RURAL MARKET ANALYSIS


Table 8.5.1: Katigram Hut- A practical scenario
8.5 Distribution Channel:








Chart 8.6: Distribution Channel
8.6 Value chain Analysis:
We identified and interviewed the departments (from farmers to retailers) in Katigram Bazaar-
Hut and established the value chain for potatoes. After covering their costs there is some addition
of price at each step which give a final addition of 25% price from the farmers to the end
consumers. This is presented in the figure below:
Retailers
Producers
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Chapter 8: RURAL MARKET ANALYSIS






















PRODUCER
(FARMER)
Production cost of
30 decimal/ 1 Pakhi
Seeds 500 taka
Ploughing 1000 taka
Fertilizer 2000 taka
Labor cost 2500 taka
Processing 1000 taka
Total 7000 taka

Selling Price 15000
taka
Per kg cost 4.0 taka
Per kg sell 7.0 taka

Profit (per kg) 3.0 taka



BEPARI

Buy 7.0 taka/kg
Sell 7.5 taka/kg

Profit 0.5 taka/kg







WHOLESELLER
(MANIKGANJ)

Buy 7.5 taka/kg
Sell 8.0 taka/kg

Profit 0.5 taka/kg



WHOLESELLER
(KAWRAN
BAZAR)
Buy 8 taka/kg
Sell 8.5 taka/kg

Profit 0.5 taka/kg



RETAILER
Buy 8.5 taka/kg
Sell 12 taka/kg

Profit 3.5 taka/kg



NATIONAL
CONSUMERS

MKT PR 12 taka/kg




LOCAL
RETAILER

Buy 7.5 taka/kg
Sell 9 taka/kg

Profit 1.5 taka/


LOCAL
CONSUMER

Price at Local Market
9 taka/kg

Chart 8.7: Value Chain of Potatoes

25% PRICE INCREASE
(FARMER to CONSUMER)

From 30 Decibel of land about
65 MON Potato is produced

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Chapter 8: RURAL MARKET ANALYSIS

8.7 Conclusion and Recommendations:
My analysis of the rural market has helped us understand how the rural people fulfill their daily
and intermittent needs. II have also gained some understanding regarding their business mind set,
which is geared more towards covering necessities and guaranteeing survival, than making
profit. I observed how it differs from the urban markets in terms of size, agents, range and
quality of products and how similar it is to the urban bazaars in terms of hygienic (or rather
unhygienic) conditions, retailer authority etc.













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Bibliography
1. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (www.bbs.gov.bd)
2. Banglapedia (www.banglapedia.com)
3. CIA World Fact book (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook)
4. H.W. Berkowitz, R.A. Kerim, S.W Hartly, W. Rudelius 4
th
edition.
5. McCarthy & Perreault, Basic Marketing, 11
th
edition.
6. Philip Kotler & Gary Armstrong, Principles of Marketing, 11
th
edition.
7. Ryan P. M. Allis, The History of the Market System, Zero to One Million,Mc Graw
Hill 2003
8. Singh, Prakash, Virendra (e.d.) 1992. Country Perspectives in Class and Society, Pp-
8-12, 34-110








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CASE STORY
Producers

Case - 1

Name: Md Akob Ali
Age: 40 + years
Occupation: Farmer
Address: Digulia Thana, Atigram, Manikganj
Interview location: Katigram Bazaar Hut
Md. Akob Ali was sitting in his temporary shop in the hut when we found him. He had a basket
full of egg-plants which were dissipating a beautiful aroma. By talking to him we found that he
had approximately 40 or 45 shotangsho cultivable land which he had inherited from his father.
He maintains the land himself, hiring day laborers or kamlas when necessary. Upon asking
him why we cultivated egg-plants, he answered that the returns were good. He plants the egg-
plants in summer and as early as winter he can start selling the egg-plants. He brings a small
portion (100 to 500) on each hut day, to set up his temporary shop; and he can manage to sell
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each kg. of egg-plants between Tk.25 and Tk.30 depending on their size. He transports them to
Katigram hut by van, 50 or 60 at a time, and each trip costs him around TK. 10. This season he
was expecting a total harvest of up to 10000 egg-plants. He uses a hired tractor to till his land
which costs him around TK 3500. Apart from this, he summed up the entire cost (over the
season) of cultivating the fruit to be around Tk.4000. He purchases the required fertilizers,
pesticides and seeds (only the first time) from the NGO BRAC, through dealers. Nowadays he
stores his own seeds. He makes a profit ranging from Tk.200 to Tk300 each hut day.
At the end of my pleasant conversation, Md. Akob Ali gifted us a few of his egg-plants as a
token of good gesture.














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Case - 2

Name: Md. Romjan Ali
Age: 52 years
Occupation: Farmer
Address: Golora gram, Dhankora Union,
Saturia Thana. Manikganj
Interview location: Katigram Bazaar Hut
Md. Romjan Ali is visiting Katigram Bazaar Hut since he was a child. He would come here with
his dad who was a farmer on Hut days. He had inherited about one pakhi of cultivable land from
his father. After 20 years of hard work he had added another half pakhi to it. He now cultivates
corn and potatoes on his 1.5 pakhi land. He plants the crops together in Kartik month. Corn
ripens in Choitro (after 6 months), while potatoes can be reaped after 4 months in Magh. The
man advantage of planting two crops he says is lower production costs. Like Akob Ali, Romjan
Ali also collects his own seeds. He purchases fertilizers and pesticides from Katigram Bazaar
which costs him around TK 3200. He hires day laborers (kamlas) to help him throughout the
season and spend upto TK 3000 on them. He hires power tiller for ploughing his land at has to
spend around TK800 to plough his entire land.
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Md. Romjan Ali told us that the costs of properly cultivating corn and potatoes per season range
between TK 15000 to 16000 while he can expect to sell his produce for TK 25000 to TK 35000.
He further added that cultivating corn was very profitable as corn was always in heavy demand
as food in chicken farms and as corns has started replacing wheat in many uses like making
biscuits etc, where corn and wheat are mixed to reduce production costs.





















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Chapter 9: CONCLUSION
9.0 CONCLUSION:

After reviewing the whole report now I understand the essence of our countryside. On one hand,
I have to know about rural norms, cultures, values, beliefs, attitudes and the activities of rural
people, not only by reading books, but through spending time with them together with participant
observation. On the other hand, living in the city we barely feel and understand the subtle facts
of village life. City dwellers like us have many misconceptions about the rural society. It is a
great experience to explore different aspects of rural society. The LFE program has been
structured in such a way that helped us understand the reality of rural existence from our visit to
the JELE PARA. After completing my visit to the there I collected all the possible information
through PRA and finally came to know about various features of the village i.e. geographical
location, social community and classes, culture and perceptions of the people and the trade and
business environment that they face. Rural Societies have gone through many changes over the
eras since the birth of Bangladesh more than three decades ago. Villagers are now conscious
about education, early marriage, family planning, tree plantation, sanitation, and hygiene and are
open to many technological, medical and communication upgrades that have appeared over the
years. Some Government Organizations along with some NGOs deserve a fair share of the
credit, as they have not only built the infrastructures but have also persuaded the people to follow
their programs.
From the chapters discussed above, it can be said that JELE PARA has developed significantly
with the flow of time. People have become more aware and pursue proper education for their
children. Women have got the more rights and are now inclined towards various activities from
which they were previously neglected and deprived and womens empowerment has increased
through various NGOs programs. Even so, there are still problems which have not been solved
till date but need to be given immediate attention. It must however be remembered that the
altogether outcome of our 11 days survey is probably not enough to clarify the complete scenario
of the village due to many limitations.
Finally, I would like to thank PROSHIKA and IUB for their support and help in my survey,
within a limited timeframe. It has given me a firsthand view of the realities of rural life in
Bangladesh.
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THE END