Journey Through the SAARC Region-Bangladesh

Our journey through the SAARC region begins from Bangladesh. Besides honouring the SAARC alphabetical order tradition, it is only fitting that we start the journey from the country where in 1985, the regional organisation SAARC was born. It is our intention to travel through all the seven member countries of SAARC in our future issues.

We hope that the journey will provide the reader an opportunity to learn more of the member countries and their peoples. And that it would be an educational experience which would enrich their knowledge of the countries of South Asia.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh, known worldwide for its famous ‘Muslin’, the handwoven gossamer fabric, is located in the north-eastern part of the South Asian subcontinent between 20o34' and 26o38' North and longitudes 88o01’and 92o41' East. It is bordered by India on the West, North and the East and by Myanmar on the Southeast. To the South lies the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh has a land area of 148,393 square kilometer. Its flat alluvial plains comprise some of the world’s most fertile agricultural lands. The land mass comprising mainly the delta of the three mighty rivers, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna, presents an enchanting vista of vast green fields bounded by low hills.

Climatic condition

The country has six marked seasons in a year of which Winter (November-February), pre-monsoon (June-September) and post-monsoon (October-November) are pre-dominant. The temperatures across the country ranges between 24 and 39oC during Summer months and between 18 and 23oC in Winter months. The annual rainfall varies from 120 cm in the western part to 250 cm in the southeastern part. The highest average rainfall of 508 cm is recorded in some northeastern districts.

The seasons have their special colours and sounds. Lightning across the horizon and the distant thunder herald the rains washing away the summer heat while Autumn comes with clear blue skies and misty mornings. The dew on grass blades ushers in the Winter while Spring adorned by a blossoming flora rounds off the local Bangla calendar.

Population and People

A densely populated country, Bangladesh has an estimated population of 109.9 million. calculates to an average density of about 740 people per square kilometer as per census of 1991. About 85 per cent of the Bangladeshis live in villages or semi-urban areas. Muslims constitute about 86.5 per cent of the population. Hindus 12.2 per cent, Buddhists 0.6 per cent, Christians 0.4 per cent and the rest belong to other faiths. There are about 1.2 million tribal people who live mostly in the hilly areas in the Southeast. Despite the religious diversities of its people, people of Bangladesh constitute a homogeneous whole and remarkable communal harmony characterise all aspect of life in the country.

Political System

Bangladesh has a multiparty democratic system with a parliamentary form of government. A sovereign Parliament (Jatio Sangsad) is elected by the people for a five-year term. It acts as the legislature and approves the annual national budget. It can amend the Constitution with the support of at least two-thirds of the 330 members in the House. A simple majority is, however, sufficient to approve laws and pass
the budget.

Three hundred Members of Parliament are elected by direct franchise while 30 seats reserved for women are filled in through indirect election by elected MPs. Parliament has to sit every two months and is summoned into session by the President. It has a tenure of five years.

The country is divided into five administrative divisions, each headed by a Divisional Commissioner. A division consists of a number of districts, each administered by a Deputy Commissioner. There are 64 such districts divided into 464 Thanas (sub-districts), 4,500 unions and over 68,000 villages.

Every union, comprising several villages, has an elected body called the Union Parishad which is the local government at the lowest tier. Between the National Government and the Union Parishad is the district level Zilla Parishad. Big cities have municipal corporations headed by an elected Mayor and other towns have municipalities headed by an elected Chairman.

The highest judiciary in the country is the Supreme Court headed by the Chief Justice. The Supreme Court comprises the Appellate Division and the High Court Division. There are also courts at the district level to try civil and criminal cases. The entire judiciary is enjoying unprecedented freedom in the dispensation of justice under the present democratic government.

Economy

The largest sector in the Bangladesh economy is agriculture. Agriculture , which accounts for about 46 per cent of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP), 65 per cent of the employment and over 75 per cent of the export earnings mainly from raw jute and jute products.

Agricultural holdings being small, scope for the use of modern methods of farming familiar in the West is rather limited. Through cooperative farming, however, use of modern machinery has been successfully introduced and is gaining popularity.

Rice and jute are the principal crops. Sugarcane, potato, pulse, tea and tobacco are also important crops. The introduction of high yielding rice has revolutionised rice production in terms of yield per acre. Wheat production has also increased substantially while cotton is making a steady headway. Tea production introduced in the last century contributes to the country’s exports.

Rice being the staple food in Bangladesh, its production is of crucial importance. Bangladesh has two principal crop production seasons annually, but the IRRI variety of rice production has been added as the third. Periodic droughts or floods are major threats to rice production. Use of chemical fertilisers has led to augmented yield. Bangladesh has abundant natural gas which is used as the basic input for factory produced fertilisers.

Power pump based irrigation and the use of fertilisers and pesticides have augmented rice production. Bumper crops were harvested in the last two years requiring the nation to depend less on food import. If this trend continues food self-sufficiency will be achieved in a few years’ time.

Industrial Growth

Recent decades have seen steady growth in the industrial sector in Bangladesh. It has a good number of large and medium sized industries based on both indigenous and imported raw materials. Among them are jute, cotton, textile, fertiliser, paper newsprint, sugar, rayon and chemicals, cement and tannery industries. Jute industry plays an important role in the economy of Bangladesh. There are 70 Jute mills, 29 jute twine mills and 7 jute carpet mills in the country. Almost the entire jute products enter into the export market. Other notable industries are engineering, shipbuilding, iron and steel, re-rolling, oil refinery, electric cable and wire, electric fan, electric lamps and flourescent tube, electronic goods, safety matches, cigarettes, vegetable oil, shrimp processing, paints and varnishes, tea, distilleries, ceramic, sanitary ware, glass sheet, refractories, plastic, soap, hosiery, leather, pharmaceuticals, etc. Among the cottage industries, handlooms, carpet weaving, etc. are important. The Garments industry which has become a major foreign exchange earner sells its products in the United States, Canada, the EEC and other European markets. Bangladesh is the home of embroidered quilt (Nakshi Kantha) with folk motifs highly coveted in the international market. Government’s liberal policy has drawn a number of foreign investors with repatriation facilities of their earnings. Signs of transformation from our 100% agro-based economy to industrialisation can be seen everywhere in Bangladesh.

Economic Policy, Finance, and Banking

Bangladesh pursues a liberal market economy. Bangladesh Bank is the central bank of the country responsible for promoting healthy growth and development of the banking system. Banks and insurance companies, both in the private and public sectors are operating freely and contributing to the economy. Foreign banks like American Express, Chartered Bank, Grindlays Bank and Indosuez Bank, etc. function in Bangladesh through their branches.

There are other specialised financial institutions like the Bangladesh Shilpa Bank (industrial bank), Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha (industrial credit organisation), Krishi (agriculture) Bank, House Building Finance Corporation, Grameen (rural) Bank and several cooperative banks. The industrial Promotion and Development Corporation (IPDC) of Bangladesh and the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) provide equity support to public limited companies in the private sector. The government has recently replaced the Controller of Capital Issues by establishing a full fledged Securities and Exchange Commission with enhanced power for the growth and development of the Securities market in Bangladesh. Liberal fiscal policy has resulted in enhanced foreign reserve, increased contribution of domestic resource to country’s development programmes and rise in the value of Bangladesh’s national currency Taka compared to other currencies.

While the Government is at the forefront of all development activities in the country, initiatives by non-governmental organizations at the grass-root level have also played a major role in bangladesh in addressing the challenge of development of the disadvantaged segments of population. The gains of the Grameen Bank in organizing the rural poor, particularly women deserve special mention. Similarly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) have also initiated a large number of programmes focused on the needs of the local communities and achieved outstanding success. The efforts of all these organizations have been replicated in many other countries of the world with significant results.

Education

The highest allocation of fund to education sector in the annual budget shows the importance attached by Bangladesh to educating its population. The goal of ‘education for all by the year 2000’ is being vigorously pursued. Compulsory primary education and free education to girls students upto class VIII in the district levels outside municipal areas have come under implementation.

Formal education is offered in Bangladesh in 5-year cycle of primary education, five years of secondary education and two years of higher secondary education. Higher education comprises a 2-year course for Bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and science, 3-year course for Bachelor (honours), 4-5 year courses for Bachelor’s degrees in professional disciplines like agriculture, engineering and medicine. Post-graduate courses leading to MA, MSS, M Phil, Ph D, etc. are available for almost all faculties, including also some specialised post-graduate studies in professional subjects. A parallel system of religious education also exists. There are some 50,314 primary schools, 25000 kindergartens, 58,124 mosque based Maktabs, 2000 junior high schools, 10,715 secondary schools, 11 Cadet colleges and 997 colleges. There are 105 institutions offering technical and engineering education of different levels, 65 for medical and 68 for teachers’ training of different categories. In addition, colleges and institutes for arts, music, textiles, leather technology, glass and ceramic and law exist in the country. Commercial institutes, vocational training centres also imparting knowledge to thousands of students.

There are eleven universities in the country located in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Savar (near Dhaka), Khulna, Mymensingh, Kushtia and Sylhet. The total enrolment in the existing universities exceeds 52,000 students. Recently an Open University has been set up and two private universities have started functioning. The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in Dhaka caters to engineering education. There are also four engineering colleges (BITs) and technical institutes. Thirteen Medical Colleges, two Dental Colleges, three non-governmental Medical Colleges have a total enrolment of over 8000 students. The Agricultural University in Mymensingh and two agricultural colleges in Dhaka and Patuakhali have a total enrolment of over 4000 students.

Transportation Network

Dhaka is connected by the national flag carrier Biman with 26 international destinations in Asia, Africa, Europe and America and all major towns within the country. Fifteen foreign airlines including British Airways, Thai Airways, Singapore Airlines, Indian Airlines, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways, Saudia, Pakistan International Airlines and Aeroflot operate flights to and from Dhaka.

There is a large network of road transports operated by the state-owned Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation as well as by private owners connecting almost every district and sub-district towns with Dhaka and other major cities.

There are 2,818 kilometres of railroad, 10,407 kilometres of paved road and 8,433 kilometres of perennial and seasonal waterways which provide the cheaper mode of transport.

The two seaports of Bangladesh are Chittagong and Mongla. There are eight river ports including Dhaka, Narayanganj, Chandpur, Barisal and Khulna.

Environment and Forest

A number of environmental problems are predominant in the country. These include natural disasters like recurrent floods, droughts, cyclones, tidal surges, early signs of desertification, salinity in rivers, erosion of river bank and continuous depletion of forest area in the last few decades. Excessive logging, consumption of fuelwood and clearing for agriculture are the main factors for depletion of forests.

For nature conservation there are 15 protected areas in the country which includes the Sundarbans in the South, the world’s largest mangrove forest. The wildlife sanctuaries in the Sundarbans established in 1977 protect rate species like the Royal Bengal Tigers.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has been created to deal with environmental challenges with a sense of urgency. The main objectives which have been fixed are prevention and control of degradation related to soil, water and air, promotion of environment friendly activities in development, preservation protection, development of natural resource bases and the strengthening of the capabilities to manage environmental concern as part of sustainable development.

The Forestry sector contributes about four per cent of the GDP and employs two per cent of the labour. There has been a continuous depletion of forest area in the last few decades due to, amongst other reasons, desertification on account of Farakka Barrage across the border. The total forest area now accounts for about 10 per cent of the land mass while the actual tree cover is 9 per cent.

Energy and Mineral Resources

Reserve of natural gas is estimated at 15 trillion cubic feet. About 580 million cubic feet of gas is being consumed daily through 1000 km long gas transmission system. For generation of electricity and production of fertiliser almost 83 per cent of the gas is used, 11 per cent of gas is consumed for commercial proposes and 6 per cent as fuel in home kitchens. Most of the district headquarters in the eastern region have been connected by the gas network.

There are about a billion tons of bituminous coal in the northwestern part of the country. A mining scheme for exploitation of coal by the state-owned Petrobangla is being drawn up.

The present generation capacity of all power plants stands at 2315 MW of which 2000 MW is in the East Zone and 315 MW is in the West Zone. About 96 per cent of the electricity in the east Zone is generated by natural gas. The peak demand is about 1600 MW. Additional electricity from the East to the West Zone is transferred through a 230 KV interconnector over the Jamuna river.

Power Development Board is the agency for power generation. The Rural Electrification Board supplies electricity to villages not covered by PDB. The REB has about 500,000 consumers who are supplied electricity through 35,000 km of distribution lines from 90 power substances. A specialised body, the Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, has been formed to manage more efficiently the increasing demand of electricity in Dhaka metropolis and its surrounding areas. The DESA buys power from the PDB and distributes it among the consumers.

About 1.6 million tons of crude oil are imported by Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation annually, which are refined in the only refinery in Chittagong. About half a million tons of refined petroleum products like diesel and kerosene are also directly imported. Three marketing companies under Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation distribute the refined petroleum products through the country. The country’s only oilfield under Petrobangla produces about 250 bbls of oil per day while about 500 bbls of condensate per day come from the gas field.

Art and Culture

Bangladesh has a rich tradition of modern painting which was pioneered by Zainul Abedin, Kamrul Hassan, Anwarul Haque, Shafiuddin Ahmed and S M Sultan. Zainul Abedin earned international fame for his sketches on Bengal famine of 1943. Bangladesh also excels in performing arts like music, dance, drama and cinema. Classical, folk, tribal traits are the prominent forms of dances in Bangladesh. Bulbul Chowdhury in dance, Runa Laila, Sabina Yasmin and Shahnaz Begum in music earned international fame. The Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy is playing an important role in the promotion of culture in the country. Many other cultural organisations are also popularising art and culture.

Drama in Bangladesh has an old tradition and is very popular. In Dhaka more than a dozen theatre groups have been regularly staging locally written plays as well as those adopted from famous writers, mainly of European origin. In Rajshahi, Khulna and Chittagong cities, too, a number of such groups stage dramas. The total number of such groups in the country exceeds fifty. Jatra depicting mythological episodes, love lores and legendary acts of heroism are also popular, particularly in the rural areas.

The country can take pride in the profusion with which poems, essays, dramas, fictions and other forms of literary works are being produced. The Bangla Academy, Nazrul Institute, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and other institutions are extending help and providing encouragement in this respect. The publishing industry is also getting a fillip from the increase in the local demand for books and journals.

Tourism

Bangladesh offers ample tourist attractions. Some of the better known tourist attractions are : Srimangal the tea capital, Mainamati, Mahasthangarh, Paharpur for archaeology, Rangamati, Kaptai, Cox’s Bazar, etc. for sight seeing, Sundarbans and Foy’s Lake for scenic beauty. For management of tourism there is an autonomous body under the government known as Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC). BPC has information centres in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Bogra, Cox’s Bazar and Rangamati. Five package tours ranging from 4 to 5 days are arranged by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation from Dhaka.

Sight seeing and excursions are made available by Parjatan offices at Dhaka, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar.

Places of Interest

Dhaka:

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. The city was founded in 1608 AD in the days of Mughal greatness. There are plenty of evidence of the past. The association of Dhaka with the Mughals is one of the city’s greatest distinctions and accounts for the very large number of mosques, many of them possessing great architectural beauty.

Sylhet and Srimangal :

Sylhet lies on a serene valley at the foot of the Khasi Hills and is adjacent to the Indian state of Assam. Its gentle slopes, rich light soil, congenial climate and abundant rainfall have made it one of the richest producers of tea in the world. These also provide Sylhet with rich tropical forests where big game tiger, panthers and boars abound. Apart from tea plantations, Sylhet is rich in natural beauty and folk culture. The famous Monipuri dance of this area has already created world interest. Srimangal is the Tea Capital of Bangladesh.

Paharpur :

The Somapuri Vihara at Paharpur is the biggest Buddhist monastery south of the Himalayas and dates from the eighth century. It was declared a protected archaeological site in 1919 although the scholar traveller Dr. Buckman Hamilton had shown interest in it as far back as 1707-12. There is a museum which contains an array of interesting objects found here during the excavation.

Mainamati :

Five miles to the est of Comilla lies a range of low hills known as the Mainamati-Lalmai ridge famous for having been an important centre of Buddhist culture. Large scale excavations disclosed valuable information concerning Buddhist rulers who flourished here as independent kings during the seventh and eighth centuries AD.

Sundarbans :

The Sundarbans is a fascinating tropical forest with deltaic swamps along the coastal fringe of the southernmost part of Bangladesh. The entire area abounds in Sundari trees and is known for honey and wildlife including the formidable Royal Bengal Tiger.

Chittagong :

Chittagong is a large and thriving city set amidst lovely natural surroundings studded with green-clad knolls, coconut, palms, mosques and minarets against the background of the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal. It is an ancient place and centuries ago merchants from China visited it. They were followed by the Arabs, the Persians and the Portuguese. The celebrated Muslim geographer Ibn-i-Batuta described Chittagong as Madinatul-Akahzar, meaning the green city.

Cox’s Bazar :

The town Cox’s Bazar, founded in 1798 by captain Hiram Cox of the East India Company, is well protected by green-clad, jungle slopes on the side and the seashore on the other. The entire hilly region of the town was once occupied by Arakanese Buddhist immigrants from Myanmar (Burma). Today Cox’s Bazar has a mixed population speaking Bangla and Burmese. The settlers from Arakan have established flourishing cottage industries where they weave colourful silk and cotton materials and make cigars. Cox’s Bazar is particularly proud of its fine sea beach, the longest unbroken stretch of sand in the world. It is about 75 miles ((120 km) long and at low tide the distance can be covered in about two hours in a motor car.

Rangamati :

Rangamati is the headquarters of one of the Chittagong Hill Tracts districts. About 50 miles (80 km) from Chittagong and connected by good metalled road, Rangamati is a favourite holiday resort with beautiful lakes, hilly landscape and tribal handicraft.