Changing Pattern of Socioeconomic Development Programs in Bangladesh : A Study on Tanore Upazilla in Rajshahi District

Abstract

The thesis titled "Changing Pattern of Socioeconomic Development Programs in Bangladesh: A Study on Tanore Upazilla in Rajshahi District" is an attempt of evaluating the performance of government sponsored socioeconomic development programs in Bangladesh in general, and in rural areas in particular. According to the rank of under development, Tanore is the second poorest Upazilla of Rajshahi District. It has diverse communities and occupations. It also has similarities with most of the other Upazillas of Bangladesh. It is also easily accessible by public transports from Rajshahi University campus. Many undergraduate students of this Upazilla are also studying in Rajshahi University. The researcher was introduced to them by his teachers while he was participating in the course works of the institute. All these were the considerations for selecting Tanore Upazilla as a study area. Bangladesh emerged as an independent country in 1971 after a severe war of nine months with Pakistani colonial army. Huge development activities were undertaken to rebuild the war torn economy. Side by side, many socioeconomic development programs were undertaken to meet the growing demand of the people, and to alleviate poverty and illiteracy. Both poverty and illiteracy are the age-old problems of Bangladesh. Poverty invites other problems like health hazards, malnutrition, illness, poor housing, and tendency to bear more children, debt liabilities etc. Government's efforts become necessary to minimize these problems by implementing different socioeconomic development programs, which help increasing the capacity building of the poor segment of the population. The goal of the socioeconomic development program is to identify the impediments of the poor and to reduce the level of poverty so that the poor can participate in the production process and can avail adequate remuneration for their survivals. All the post-liberation governments and regimes (1971-2001), Implemented different socioeconomic development programs to reduce poverty, illiteracy and other problems. But different studies show that the results are not very satisfactory. To what extent the programs were successful were not very clear to the academicians, executives and to the donors. So this study was undertaken to fill up the existing knowledge gap. The general objectives of the study is to analyze the growth trends and changing patterns of socioeconomic development programs sponsored by the Government of Bangladesh; and to evaluate their performance with a view to measure the success and causes of failure, and suggest the remedies for improvements. The specific objectives are: (1) to analyze the needs of socioeconomic development programs; (2) to analyze the growth trends and changing patterns of socioeconomic development programs in Bangladesh; (3) to analyze and evaluate the performance of these programs; (4) to find out the main obstacles to the way of implementation of the programs; and (5) to suggest remedial measures for the promotion of socioeconomic development programs in Bangladesh. Both the documentary analysis and survey methods were employed to collect necessary data for this study. Besides, case study, observation and participation methods were also used at limited scale to understand the operations of the programs. Population growth rate, expanding needs of the people, demonstration effects due to media watch, competition among people, mobility of the people and development of the communications, etc. contributed to the increase in demand for socioeconomic development programs in Bangladesh in general, and in rural areas in particular. The decentralization process of local government system and the creation of Upazilla system also helped the increase of demand for socioeconomic development programs. Above all, a large segment of population being illiterate and poor, their demands for socioeconomic development programs is bound to increase. The constitution of Bangladesh, the major religions and the social customs have prov1s10ns for undertaking socioeconomic development and welfare programs for the poor, disadvantaged and handicapped people. A subsection 15(d) of part-II of the Bangladesh constitution narrates that the state will ensure that unemployed, sick, handicapped, widow, orphan, old aged, poor and all other people in need of help due to similar circumstances shall be eligible to get support from the Government. Many other sections of the constitution have such provisions. In Islam 'Zakat' and 'Fitra' are the two religious instruments which motivate the Muslims to carry on different socioeconomic development and welfare programs. Other religions also have similar provisions. After independence in 1971, many socioeconomic development programs like education services, health services, micro-credit programs, agricultural extension programs, poverty alleviation programs, family planning and population control programs, youth development programs, housing program, etc. were undertaken by the Government of Bangladesh for the upliftment of the people in general, and for the poor segment of population in particular. The programs were expanded and their growth patterns changed during the past three decades. The beneficiaries (sample: 538 heads of households) of socioeconomic development programs in Tanore Upazilla of Rajshahi District evaluated these programs according to their own judgment and ability. About 67% respondents received health services from different public health organizations. Over 64% of the respondents state that their children were benefited from government education services. Nearly 27% of the respondents received microcredits from public organizations for income and employment raising small activities like livestock rearing, small business and farming. Around 25% respondents say that they received agricultural extension services from BADC, BRDB, Barendra project, agricultural department, forest department and other public organizations. About 20% of the respondents received different types of housing services from the public organizations. These include small tin roofed houses for the homeless people, relief and grants for house building and loans for house building. Nearly 18% of the respondents received different types of social welfare benefits from different public departments. The benefits include vocational training, old age pension, relief, food supports etc. The organizations are social welfare directorate, women and child welfare department, youth welfare department, Upazilla administration, etc. Over 63% of the respondents believe that the programs are helpful for their socioeconomic development. Others could not understand whether those were helpful or not. While evaluating the performance of different sectors' services, the majority of the respondents say that health services were at average level; education services were at low level during 1972-75 period but at average level after that period; housing services were at low level during 1972-75 but at the average level after that period; social security services were at very low level during 1972-75 period but at low level after that period. However about one third of the respondents report that the performance of health and education sectors was at high level during 1991-2001. Other aspects of socioeconomic development programs are left out for other researchers who will do research in future. The implementations of socioeconomic development programs face various types of problems. Financial stringency of the government and local governments, corruption of the officials, bureaucrats and public representatives, lack of transports and communications, illiteracy and low level of education of the beneficiaries are some of the major problems that hinder the implementation and expansion of socioeconomic development programs of the government of Bangladesh. Decentralization of local governments and increasing of their financial power, increasing budgetary allocation in the social sector, emphasizing primary and technical education (to meet the job demands), improvements in health care and social welfare services, increasing the supply of micro credits, formulation and implementation of a country wide housing plan, reduction of corruption at all levels and in all sectors, and ensuring good governance are some of the important measures for better implementation of and promotion of socioeconomic development programs. lnspite of some major problems, the socioeconomic development programs of the government of Bangladesh and those of the NGO's succeeded in bringing down the level of poverty (from 70% of population in the 1970s to 53% in, 1990s); increasing adult literacy rate from around 26% in the 1970s to 51 % in the 1990s; raising per capita income from Tk. 3,677 in 1975 to Tk. 6,166 in 2000 (at constant price of 1984 /85); reducing growth rate of population from around 3% in 1970s to 1.8% in l 990s; and increasing life expectancy from 4 7 years in 1970s to 60 years in 1990s. All these social indicators show the positive performance and success of the socioeconomic development programs. For further speeding up of the programs and their activities, the country needs short term, medium term and long term planning with clear objectives, vision and commitment for their implementation.