Recipe To Become Filthy Rich In Bangladesh

It appears that we have turned Bangladesh into a hermetic kingdom where we introduced rules and practices that cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Traffic lights are a pertinent example where you see vehicles crossing key roundabout while the "red" is on, pressing the need of traffic police at every traffic lights to force every vehicle to obey the rules. By the same token, Bangladesh has devised some unique ways for individuals who aspire to become filthy rich in a densely populated country where residual ash from an earthen stove and cowdung are sold and generate profit.

Below are some of the techniques frequently used by the successful summiteers and the nouveau riche:

Recipe#1: subscribe to a political party (cadre based ones are even better), look for empty govt lands, set up a slum and collect monthly rents. Perks include regular payments, surpass the total monthly rents, paid by drug sellers. Bata with its more than 1000 sales centers across Bangladesh made a profit of around Tk 50 crore last year. One single slum could make that money in one month!
Recipe#2 : subscribe to any political party (cadre based ones are even better), take huge amount of loan from banks using your political status, forget to pay them, spend some to raise media outlet or to donate cultural events or religious charities, grab abandoned industrial plot, become willful defaulter and take more loans.

Recipe#3: befriend a politician, civilian and military bureaucrat, get some permit/ license of lucrative business, boast your friendship with powerful elite, police and military in social events and social media to convince people you have high connections, exploit this link to squeeze benefits from business deals and transaction, put up a barrier to entry to your competitors, sponsor political and armed forces run events,launder your wealth abroad so that in adverse time or in any change of power your wealth and business remains untouched and be loyal and faithful to your connections.

Recipe#4: subscribe to any political party (cadre based ones are even better), set up illegal bazars on roadside, collect rents from them, in addition also collect protection money and utility bills, form an association of businessmen, become its member or president, hire some actors to behave like transgender, force them to do begging at key roundabouts, get a trade license and set up a business to whiten your extortion money.

Recipe#5: get membership of various wings of political parties (cadre based ones are even better), start doing export-import business, look for cash incentives / funds available for entrepreneurs/ exporters, swindle those funds, prepare some fake documents to misappropriate cash incentives, bring some money through your fake export partner to convince people you are really doing some export business, start producing cinemas (biopics or folklore stories are good choices to start with), spend some for generating PR about your film(tell the press a swollen figure), declare that your film made an astronomical sum of profit in the box office, and whiten part of the swindled money.

Recipe#6: get membership of any political party (cadre based ones are even better), erect a party office in local bazar, start collecting regular money from the vehicles at bus stand or tempo stand, grab some government property or land belongs to vulnerable people, construct a market complex on that land, bribe city planning officials and exceed floor limits, set up a garments factory, pay irregularly to your staff, switch side if there is a change in government, set your factory on fire and claim insurance from the companies, shut down indefinitely your company if there is unrest , fire the agitating workers, recruit fresh workforce,put blame on rivals or conspirators, ask for loan from banks to recuperate from industrial disaster and read biography of Sohel Rana, owner of Rana Plaza.

Recipe#7: set up a multi-level firm under disguise of cooperative or youth financing institution, collect deposits from members promising your company have lucrative businesses abroad,  give some of the members regular monthly payments dubbing them "profit"  so that they could bring new members, buy a piece of land in a remote part of the country and plant trees telling the members their money is in good use, set up super market and force members to  buy goods from those supermarkets, launch a media house, try to run for MP election or finance electoral campaign of a party, buy citizenship of a foreign country, dissolve your MLM company one fine morning and melt into abroad.

Recipe#8: get enlisted with any ministry or government organization as constructor/vendor, set up a construction company, take part in bidding process of government projects, bribe politicians or ministry officials involved with the projects, influence them to prolong the duration, build the infrastructure with substandard materials so that it lasts only one monsoon or quarter of its lifetime, sponsor foreign trip of project officials or investigator probing development and quality of a project, submit forged documents and siphon off project money prior to its completion, project procurement cost couple of times higher than usual by manipulating input price in connivance with input seller, donate generously to religious charities and cultural events, visit regularly posh bars scattered across bureaucratic area and political hotspots where leaders and bureaucrats of all hues throng to have a peg and discuss potential projects and course of future politics, try to be in good book of social elites and law enforcement officials and intimidate your rivals with the aid of hooligans supplied by your political backers.

Recipe#9: be close with agencies that operate eavesdropping devices, use this relationship to spy on your rival in business and politics, sponsor personal events /trip of your "man/men" in armed forces or law enforcement agencies, make some of them your shadow partner via their relatives, buy commercial plot at crucial area where everyone else is leaving because of receding business, be part of a social movement so that you radiate an aura of changemaker, launch media outlet and pay the journalists lavishly, milk promising men-in-fatigue and law enforcement officials who will adorn key positions in future so that they cannot put obstacles in your future business ventures or political ambition, aim the mega projects or projects being financed by export credit, and make good use of your deep state connections by trying to be political party's accountant for bagging commission of projects financed by export credits.

Recipe#10: get membership of a political party (cadre based ones are even better), set up a philanthropic institution / orphanage/ seminary/charity, try to get foreign funds for your charity, reach out to foreign donors, convince them and fetch as much money as possible, start building some sort of infrastructure for your charity, aim wealthy retired foreign couples who have little knowledge on your country and countrymen, send pictures of some apartment building under construction and present it as your future charity house, do not send pictures of Sangsad Bhavan or Supreme Court as your charity house because these sites are well known in the cyber world, take some pictures at an orphanage, convince your would be donors that you really take care of these poor souls, be part of some cultural movement, pay visit to the place the cultural movement originated or the artist or the legend was born, set an organization named after that movement or legend, try to find out some foreign donors who are kindred spirits, squeeze as much fund as possible from these donors, do not provide your original address, invite them to visit Bangladesh to see the progress of projects they funded, show them some hoax sites or take them to the neighboring country and introduce them to some paid guys who will convince them that you are really a philanthropist and cultural connoisseur, get some paid awards from some hoax organization ( foreign ones will add more value),publicize your charity work and cultural programs in social media and little known news sites, and go for hiding for few months if you get caught in fraudulent activities and make sure you have good connections in ministry of foreign affairs because cheated foreign donors may approach foreign ministry to lodge complaints against you.

Recipe#11: get close to ruling party, grab license for a new bank, make every family member of your family director of the new bank, take loan from other bank to invest in the new bank, manage accounts or funds of public organizations, take loans from other banks using your bank director credential, launder the money abroad and become wilful defaulter.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(23 août --- 30 août)

Selon un reportage, un dirigeant du parti en exercice a été tué par balles par les Rouhingyas à Cox's Bazaar le vendredi. Ses voisins et fidèles ont vandalisé le camp de Rouhingya. Police a tué deux tueurs présumés.

Selon un reportage, l'armée de la terre a exercé des représailles contre les groupes de CHT après un soldat avait été tué par des opérateurs présumés de l'Arakan Army. Le 23 août elle a tué deux fidèles de UPDF. Le 26 août elle a tué 3 fidèles de même organisation. Selon un autre reportage, 64 personnes, dont 29 membre de UPDF et 21 membres de JSS , ont été tués à CHT en deux ans.

Selon un reportage, un conducteur de moto-partage a été tué brutalement sur le pont routier à Khilgaon, Dhaka. Police soupçonne que le passager l'a tué.
Selon un reportage, la force frontière de Bangladesh a appréhendé 4 soldats de la force frontière birmane depuis Bandarban.

Selon un reportage, des ouvriers de l'Akij ont manifesté pour leur arriéré à Sylhet.

Selon un reportage, des ouvriers d'atelier de confection ont bloqué les rues à Gazipur après un bus avait percuté un ouvrier.

Selon un reportage, un bus a quitté la route et basculé dans le trottoir à Banglamotor en tuant une salariée de BIWTA.

Selon un reportage, une vidéo est devenue virale dans la presse où l'on voit que des gens battent un migrant bangladais chez ambassade au Brunei.

Mon laptop est en panne et ça ne marche plus.

Truth Chalantika Slum Fire Left Behind

A huge conflagration consumed part of one of Dhaka's biggest slum. Chalantika Slum, known by the place it is located, was literally empty as most of its residents went to villages on the occasion of Eid and the rest went to garment factories.  Luckily no loss of life was registered.


Initial damage estimates, surfaced on the press, insinuate that 20000 houses were gutted down by the fire. The slum was erected on the lands of National Housing Authority.

Press reports and my personal encounters with some victims revealed that damaged section of slum generated no less than Tk12000000 as rents , shared by political stalwarts.  In addition, they collected utility bills worth Tk 15000000, tiny part of which fill the coffers of utility companies. Some of the victims had been residing there  for more than a decade.

I went there to see myself the damage the fire inflicted to the slum. I noticed only part of the slum sustained damages and a huge part remained unscathed. It is almost hidden in the jungle of residential buildings, garment factories, mosques and markets. New apartment blocs are being constructed in the adjacent areas.

This slum fire also laid bare the amount of fortune a single slum generates to a certain quarter. Many of the victims are rickshaw puller, day laborer and RMG workers.

I talked to a rickshaw puller who told me about a shop keeper who lost all his savings kept in an iron chest. Another man living in adjacent residential quarter lost clandestine wealth of Tk 10 million that he had given to his maid servant to keep it in a safe place in the slum where it is difficult for the law enforcement authorities to conduct raid. Having heard of the fire, the man had a severe cardiac arrest.

I have no idea before that a slum could be used for so many different purposes.

Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) did slum surveys in 1986 , 1997 and 2014. In the last survey it was found that both num number of slum and slum dwelling household increased many times. In  1997 there were 1579 slums in Dhaka. In 2014, both the city corporations had 2394 slums in. 2014.  In 2014, 2232114 people lived in slums across Bangladesh. Obviously this number has gone up by this time. In Dhaka, number of slum dwelling population was 594 861 in 2014. This number has also increased in the last 5 years. 

Number of Slum. Red=1997, Green=2014. (Source:BBS Slum Survey 2014)
Main Occupation of Slum Population in 2014 (in percentage) (Source:BBS Slum Survey 2014)

The 2014 survey also divulged that main occupations of slum dwelling population were garment worker, rickshaw puller, micro businessman, services , construction worker, transport worker etc. Informal sector profession constitutes a large part of slum dwelling population's occupation. Evidently informal sector contributes to a great extent to the slum economy.

Another finding of this survey was that number of slums are higher in Dhaka, Chattogram and Gazipur where wages for day laborers and rickshaw pullers are much higher than other cities. Moreover, garment factories are also concentrated in these key cities.

Percentage Distribution of Households in Slum by locality in 2014. (Source:BBS Slum Survey 2014)

Now if we stick to the 2394 slums in 2014 and assume that each slum generates Tk 1 crore per month , then that number of slums alone could generate Tk 2394 crore per month! Adding clandestine trade income like narcotics business to slum rent will increase monthly revenue from each slum by manifolds. Bata with its more than 1000 sales centers across Bangladesh made a profit of only Tk 50 crore last year. Surprisingly, one single slum could alone yield that much money in one single month if we take into account narco money.

Moreover, slums also open up new alleys of revenues for this very quarter who lives off this undocumented wealth. A study conducted couple of years ago divulged that Tk 1350 crore are collected from footpaths of Dhaka every year. Many of these street vendors like construction workers and rickshaw pullers live in the slums. So part of the slum dwellers' earnings end up filling the coffers of  vested quarters. Furthermore, clandestine wealth generated by slums makes its way into the mainstream economy under the disguise of valid businesses. As bad money drives out good money, illegal wealth's entry into mainstream kills competition and consumer interests, pushes legal businesses into the corner and works as a stimulant to increase corruption and to encourage bad practices like tax evasion, forgery etc. This is how slum economy keeps alive rent seeking system that is part and parcel of anarchic politics, making our lives and livelihoods miserable and clipping the opportunities  for millions of Bangladeshis.

Keeping a close tab on this informal sector economy is quintessential to put an end to the ongoing practices. Specialized public and private organizations need to be involved in bringing slum economy into mainstream economy. A mix of existing and new financial services may be introduced to cater to the demand of slum dwellers so that they save and do transaction through these systems, lessening their dependence on existing insecure systems. Government and city corporations should step forward to provide cheap and safe accommodation to informal sector workforce. In exchange City Corporations or any specialized government body can collect the rents , much lower than the current ones. For cash strapped City Corporations this new source of revenue will scuttle its need for public fund and allow it to finance its own initiative. At the same time it will have a firm control over slum population and will regulate their activity to make the cities more livable and cohesive.

Chalantika slum fire is at the same time a wake up call for and a reminder to our policy makers and city administrators that for far too long greed and callousness of rent seekers have been hatching dangers to slum and adjacent areas. This cannot continue and time has come to mainstream the slum economy, warding off the influences of rent seekers and narco traders. Given the number of households residing in the makeshift shanties, improving living standards and livelihoods will remain an unfinished task without addressing the slum population.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(16 août --- 23 août)

Selon un reportage, un Jaguar a percuté deux Bangladais qui s'étaient abrités de la pluie dans une cabine de Police , situé dans un trottoir. Un fils de restaurateur conduisait le Jaguar. Police a appréhendé le coupable.

Selon un reportage, des fidèles du parti en exercice louaient les chambres dans le bidonville ravagé par incendie. J’ai parlé des victimes qui m’avaient dit que 700 propriétaires possédaient plus de 22000 chambres dans ce bidonville. L’incendie a détruit une seule partie de bidonville. La partie génère au minimum Tk 12000000 par mois.

Selon un reportage, 28 Rohingyas, trafiquants de drogue présumés , ont été tués par balles par Police.


Selon un reportage, un policier a été percuté par une voiture à Sylhet. Il est mort.


Selon un reportage, une étudiante d'une séminaire a été violée et tuée à la gare de Komolapur à Dhaka.

Selon un reportage, des ouvriers d'un atelier de confection sont descendus dans la rue pour manifester contre fermeture de leur atelier à Dhaka.La manifestation a asphyxié la rue de Shyamali.

Selon un reportage, deux bangladais se sont trouvé morts chez eux en Italie. Police soupçonne que un frère a tué l'autre et s'est suicidé.


Selon un reportage, les Rohingyas ont refusé à revenir à Rakhine State le 22 août. Personne n'est venue à lieu choisi pour rapatriement. Le ministre des Affaires étrangères a fait ça assez clair à l'avenir il y aura du temps dur pour les Rohingyas au Bangladesh.


J'ai assez de difficultés à mettre à jour mes sites. Tous mes gadgets sont en pannes. Mon laptop ne marche pas depuis mon dernier post «Racial Riot In Five Countries». Je me suis arrivé à faire ce poste avec l'aide de mon portable qui épuise souvent.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(09 août --- 16 août)

Selon un reportage, des ouvriers d’un atelier de confection se sont insurgés contre leur arriéré à Gazipur. Ils ont vandalisé l’atelier et bloqué la rue près dátelier.

Selon un reportage, deux dirigeants de Jana Sanghati Samity, un mouvement de groupe indigène à CHT, ont été tués par balles.

Selon un reportage, un naufrage s’est soldé par noyade d’un enfant dans le fleuve Padma.

Selon un reportage, incendie a ravagé des usines de poupet à vieux Dhaka.

Selon un reportage, incendie a ravagé un bidonville à Mirpur, Dhaka. 15 véhicules de pompiers ont été envoyées pour mettre fin au feu. Environ 22000 toits de chaume ont été détruits.

Selon un reportage, police méxicaine a arrêté des Bangladais et Sri Lankais pour être entrés au pays sans papiers.

Selon un reportage, le gouvernement et le haut commissariat pour les réfugiés de l’ONU ont préparé 500000 cartes bios d’identité pour les Rouhigyas. Selon un autre reportage, il se peut que le rapatriement de Rohingya commence le 22 août.

Racial Riot In Five Countries

Racial riots left a deep scar in this region. Four decades ago these events took place more frequently. Though less frequent , they crop up on many occasions whenever vested quarter adds fuel to situation getting worse. This week I took a look at the racial riots in the South East Asia and Bangladesh and tried to do a correspondence analysis between type of racial riots and 5 countries of the region. I was more interested in Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia,Indonesia and Myanmar. I willfully discarded the events in Indian Subcontinents as there are no short of such events and to make the analysis concise.

For this analysis, I picked up 12 such events for Bangladesh, 6 events each for Myanmar and Singapore, 3 for Malaysia and 2 for Singapore.Citations or documentations of the events are the criteria for picking up these events. There are many such riots however I picked up the ones mentioned in Wikipedia. They all occurred between 1950 and 2017.

I further split the riots into three types: political, military and racial. Political events are those riots influenced or caused by political decision or as a fallout of a policy or judgment. Politically motivated riots  fall in this category. Riots occurred in military administered area or shaped and influenced by military are dubbed as Military. Racial riots are those happened as a consequence to an accident or mob violence.

Correspondence analysis captures the similarities between the categories of the variables and association between the variables. In the present case, country is the the row variable ranked in terms of strength of the economy and Singapore tops the rank followed by Malaysia. Riot is the column variable.

I am more interested to see which type of riot is more tied to each of five countries.

Unfortunately , Pearson’s chi-squared test has a significance level P = 0.1475 that requires to accept the null hypothesis that there is no association between row and column variables. So there is no point to go beyond this. The following discussion is useless. However, this discussion could continue as a matter of interesting exercise . As correspondence analysis intends to present low dimensional representation describing how the row and column categories contribute to the inertia in a table , two dimensions----dimension1 86.06% and  dimension2 13.04% ---appear to account for 100% of the inertia.

The biplot reveals that horizontal dimension differentiates between regimented group backed riot and accidental or mob led riot. Since orientations from origin to Military and from origin to Myanmar are so close , it can lead to say that regimented group backed riots are more frequent in Myanmar. By the same token, it can be said that politically motivated riots are more common in Bangladesh.

Please note that Pearson test of independence finds no association between country and type of riots, making our above discussion redundant.

La Semaine Derniére A Mes Yeux

(02 août --- 09 août)

Selon un reportage, le rapport préalable sur inondation 2019 fait par le gouvernement s’est dit que l’inondation avait ciblé 6867 villages, tué 114 personnes, détruit 60000 maisons, et cause dégâts à 153194 hectare de champs de riz et 5,13121 de bouvins. Les eaux ont commencé à se retirer.

Selon un reportage, le plateforme des groupes indigènes , Adivasi Forum, a tenu une conférence de presse à Press Club en demandant à respecter l’accord de CHT, signé en 1997 et à mettre fin à la persécution contre les groupes indigènes au Bangladesh. Le 9 août est la journée des groupes indigènes.

Selon un reportage, Dengue a péri 7 vies en 24 heures. Environ 2065 sont inscrits aux hôpitaux.

Selon un reportage , un gardien d’un GAB a été tué à Gazipur pendant un cambriolage à Gazipur au début du mercredi.

Selon un reportage, des ouvriers d’atelier de confection ont manifesté pour leur arriéré à Narayanganj et à Gazipur. Police a tiré les balles en caoutchouc et gaz lacrymozènes vers les militants ouvriers.

Selon un reportage,la société irlandaise Primark a arrêté procurer des vêtements depuis trois confections d’atelier afin de licencier des ouvriers qui avaient participé à une grande manifestation en janvier cette année.

Adivasi Divas: Failure To Keep Promises

Bangladesh is still reeling from the influx of Rohingya escaping persecution in Rakhine, neighboring state of Myanmar. World is vociferous against the discrimination and tortures meted out to the hapless Rohingyas. Many rebuke the Myanmar government for dillydallying, as a sign of total disregard to the bilateral agreements signed between the two countries. This year's World Indigenous Day, or Adivasi Divas, bears a different connotation to millions of indigenous people living under constant persecution in a country that recently annulled the public service quotas  reserved for them. It is a day that reminds them how a country willfully negates their rights to this land, hurts them as government fails  to keep its promises and haunts them as persecution and land grabbing continue unabated.

Bangladesh's recent treatment to Santals and Biharis bears the testament how it looks down upon its own citizens who subscribed to different creed and race. In addition, failure to implement the Chittagong Peace Accord, signed in 1997, to bring an end to the conflict in CHT puts under scanner the commitment of Bangladesh to the legitimate rights of vulnerable groups who face real risk of marginalization in their own lands.

 In 2016, an eviction drive at a Sugar Mill land, belongs to Santals who live there decades after decades, left three Santals dead and scores injured. Ruling party stalwarts and police played an instrumental role in that drive. Party stalwarts used them as pawns before local elections. That drive rendered thousands of Santal families homeless.Last month Police pressed charge against ninety people but dropped the names of then ruling party MP and some police personnel. However, Santals are yet to be rehabilitated and now spend their days in makeshift dwellings.

Not only the Santals even the Urdu-speaking minority Muslim group Biharis also face persistent persecution in the country. Recently, Kalshi camp dwellers held a hunger strike in protest against a road expansion project that made homeless scores of families. This same camp was subject of a clash between adjacent slum dwellers and Biharis resulting in burning alive nine Biharis in 2014. In Mohammadpur another camp of Biharis faced repeated drives from law enforcement forces--- one in the pretext of anti narcotics drive and another against unauthorized construction of two-storey houses in spite of the fact that the camp was built under Geneva convention. Earlier all the electricity connections to Bihari camps scattered across Bangladesh had been cut off. In many cases, for instance in Kalshi and Mirpur 10, eviction of Bihari families continues in complete disregard to stay order of High Court. What is interesting many housing projects are going on surrounding the camps. Since Biharis are politically marginalized and many do not like role of  some of the Biharis in 1971,this persecuted group does not manage to gather enough support from the local population for their cause.

But this land grabbing of the real Adivasis is also happening in other parts of Bangladesh as well. Chittagong Hill Tracts(CHT) that witnessed country's longest running insurgency is still a zone of brewing tensions between Bengali settlers and ethnic groups like Chakma, Marma .Some macabre violence took place in this region claiming lives of hundreds of ethnic people. In 1981, a communal violence between Chakma and Bengali resulted in deaths of 500 people, most of whom are Chakmas.Often this violence is aggravated by controversial role of state machinery.  On June 2 2017, another round of communal attack burned to ashes 237 homes, killing 1 person and injuring 3 more. A Peace Accord was signed in 1997 but Bangladesh government failed to comply crucial clauses of that accord. Last year series of shooting incidents wiped out leaders of two factions of the separatist  movement. Kapaeeng Foundation that keeps tracks of and documents incidents of attacks and discrimination against indigenous people in CHT and plain lands brings out annual reports on human rights violations in indigenous people inhabitated region. In its report for 2017, Kapaeeng Foundation finds that amount of land under grabbing or in the process of acquisition increased manifold within a year. The 2017 report also reports increasing number of arson attack, surge in torture of indigenous people and growing number of cases filed against them in a bid to harass and intimidate them. In addition, indiscriminate house searches have also grown in 2017. An aura of peace prevails but elements of tensions between communities are still there. Government does not feel any urge to dispel the sore points.

Perhaps the blunt mockery to Adivasi rights took palce in 2018 when at one fell swoop government revoked the Adivasi quotas in government jobs. Despite repeated assurance, we have not seen any concrete step towards undoing the government decision. Government's decision is tantamount to create privileges for dominant group, as the Bhumiputre policy did in Malaysia, corroding severely plural identity of a country. So when we point fingers to others across borders for failing to live upto the negotiated terms,  we  at home turned a blind eye to the rights and demands of true son of the lands.  It is appalling that voiceless and marginalized community inside the country is not being treated as equal and is not provided a safe and secure space. They are so weak that we do not see any local and international coverage about their sufferings and plights. Unless Santals, Biharis, Chakmas, Garos and other minor communities get the equal status of a Bangladeshi, Bangladesh cannot complete the circle of a true success story.Let the next  Adivasi Divas be a reason for optimism and for having trust in this country, not just be a day to air grievances.

La Semaine Dernière A Mes Yeux

(26 juillet --- 2 août)

Selon un reportage, un Bangladais a été appréhendé par Police américaine pour avoir tenté dáller au Pakistan afin de joindre les Talibans en Afghanistan.

Selon un reportage, le nombre de personne infectée par la Dengue et inscrite a l’hôpital est parvenu 10000. Un nouveau virus de la Dengue se propage à Dacca. De plus, les moustiques vecteurs de la Dengue ont ciblé 10 villes , en causant mort de deux universitaires et un médecin. Le bureau de la santé a fixé le seuil de frais pour détecter la Dengue à Tk 500.

Selon un reportage, Police a préparé un procès verbal contre 90 suspects pour avoir assisté un assaut incendiaire contre Santal, un groupe indigène très persécuté ici. Cependant, on ne trouve pas les noms d’ancien député et policiers.

Selon une page de Facebook, un groupe urduphone aussi connu comme les Biharis ont fait une grève de la faim devant les camps de Biharis à Mirpur en signe de protestation contre évincement sous pétexte d'aggrandir une rue.

Selon un reportage, le ministre de la Santé a causé de polémique pour avoir fait une visite familiale en Malaisie quand la Dengue se propage à travers tout le Bangladesh.

Selon un reportage, Bangladesh a transmit une liste de 25000 Rohingyas à l’autorité birmane pour vérifier leur identité afin de faciliter le rapatriement. Selon un reportage, le ministre des Affaires étrangères s’est dit que le ministre des Affaires étrangères du Japon qui était en visite officielle dans les camps de Rohingya à Cox’s Bazaar avait exprimé désir de médier entre Bangladesh et Birmanie pour resoudre le problème de rapatriement.

Heed Post Flood Efforts

Swelling of major rivers due to incessant rains caused floods in 28 districts. Press reports citing health ministry suggest that flood perished 114 lives and made hundreds of thousands of people homeless between Jul10 and July 26. Initial damage is still being assessed. Government has definitely plans to come up with relief efforts to tackle with post flood challenges.

Challenges span from creating jobs/cash benefits till the next harvest period to provide agricultural credit to farmers affected by flood. This is no easy task and Bangladesh did this kind of job quite well in the past. Flood literally affected the whole Bangladesh as the 28 districts scattered through all the divisions including the districts of CHTs. But Barishal, Rangpur, Mymensingh and Rajshahi divisions where agriculture plays a key role in the livelihoods of rural people also sustained damages to crops.

I recently come across “Report on Agricultural and Rural Statistics 2018(RARS 2018)”published by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics(BBS). According to RARS 2018, agriculture accounts for 53.90 % of annual household income in Rangpur division, only division where agricultural sources dominate over non agricultural sources in determining the annual household income.In Dhaka, non agriculture constitutes 71.19% of annual household income. After Rangpur, agricultural activities are also reported to play a significant role in deciding annual household income in Mymensingh(47.98%), Khulna(46.99%) and Rajshahi (44.88%) divisions. Worst flood-hit districts like Niphamari, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram,Jamalpur, Sherpur and Netrokona lie in Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions. Taking a closer look at the monthly income reveals that monthly household income is lowest in Mymensingh (Tk 14009.83) divison, followed by Rangpur(Tk 14304.42) division. Meanwhile the highest monthly household income is registered in Chattogram(Tk19306.92), followed by Dhaka(Tk 19180.50).It is worthwhile to mention that in the informal sector of Dhaka, a Rickshaw puller and a construction helper draw a monthly salary between Tk 10,170 and Tk 11, 151 throughout the year.

Agricultural activity does not last throughout the year and non agricultural activity does not bring in everyone on board, so there is always the left outs. Wages without food for agricultural labor in all the divisions are pretty high. It somehow buttresses the claim that during the harvesting season even Tk 500/ day does not fetch a worker. However, working days per week are below 5.5 days in the rural areas. Please note that wages without food per day are Tk 360 in Rangpur division, Tk 355 in Rajshahi division and Tk 419 in Mymensigh division. Average working days per week are 4.95 days in Rangpur, 5.01 days in Rajshahi and 4.87 days in Mymensingh. Meanwhile a rickshaw puller gets on average wages of Tk 371 per day in all the working days in Dhaka. Consequently,, income gap and lack of opportunities during the post harvest season lead the rural workers to big cities like Dhaka. It is anticipated that this influx will be more severe in coming months unless well designed post flood relief efforts are taken in flood hit areas particularly in Rangpur and Mymensingh divisions.

Unnayan Onneshan, a not for profit organization, did a field survey among the slum dwellers engaged in informal sector in Agargaon and adjacent areas for a study titled “Accumulation And Alienation: State Of Labor Force in Bangladesh 2013”. In that survey, majority of the respondents (62.7%) said they took up jobs in informal sector due to job crisis in formal sector.

The RARS 2018 tells us that investment cost for transport vehicles and equipment is the highest in Rangpur division. RARS survey also reveals that NGOs appear to be major source of agricultural credit followed by banks. The recent flood without doubt compounded the debt problem of the farmers in the flood hit areas. Affected farmers deserve government’s assistance to attenuate their credit burden through cash benefits or access to interest free credit. The BBS survey highlights that both Aus and Aman crop registered post harvest losses of 8.93% and of 7.70% respectively out of total production in 2018. And the losses are mostly attributed to price volatility in the sales and to reasons associated with processing transportation and storage.

Clearly, pre flood post harvest losses have already pushed the farmers who are now poised to deal with post flood situation to a vulnerable position. Flood damages only augment their worries. In addition BBS rural data shows heavy reliance of rural households on rearing livestock and poultry. The reliance is heavy in flood hit divisions like Rangpur. It is evident that flood will cause significant damage to livestock and poultry. Media report suggests that in many areas cattle and cows are being sold at prices far below than the market prices , causing severe losses to livestock rearing families. Prices of feed and fodder may also go up in the post flood period if proper supply is not ensured.

In the wake of this severe Monsoon calamity, government strategies should focus on two tasks: 1. rejuvenate agricultural activities by providing agricultural credit at concessional rate and agricultural inputs at subsidized cost so that the farmers in flood hit areas can get back to the pre flood situation as soon as possible; 2. initiate programs in collaboration with NGOs to boost non agricultural income generating opportunities in flood hit areas so that rural workforce does not need to worry about lack of job opportunities and rural-urban migration flow does not turn worse.