Urban social stratification of Bangladesh
Bangladesh, a south-east Asian country, is one of those countries who have a clear and unique social system in the world. Social stratification of Bangladesh is changed over times but these main themes are still could be found in the social system of Bangladesh. We all know the country is mainly divided into two types of social system-Urban and Rural.80% of Bangladesh is village still now. But the left 20%, which are the urban areas, has unique system of social stratification which is visibly different from the rural areas. Here the main topic of discussion is the urban social stratification of Bangladesh.
The role of urban society can hardly be over-emphasized in determining the sociopolitical, cultural and economic history of a country. Bangladesh is no exception to it. The urban society in Bangladesh played a significant role in the struggle for her independence. Once the independence was achieved, it continued to exert it influence in charting the direction of country’s sociopolitical, cultural and economic development.
What is social stratification: social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of large social groups based on their control over basic resources. According to sociologist Anthony Giddens-“social stratification is the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards.” Sociologist F.R Khan, in his pioneering book Sociology of Pakistan said that – “social stratification is the division of society into groups or categories linked with each other by the relationships of superiority and subordination.”
From the above quotations we can find a clear definition of social stratification where we can see that it is all about gradual positions of social classes. The division of society into classes or strata which form a hierarchy of prestige and power is an almost universal feature of social structure which has throughout history, attracted the attention of philosophers and social theorists.
Society of Bangladesh: Unlike other south-east Asian countries, Bangladeshi society is still much more family oriented. Here we can see a clear view of sharing and unity which is the main base of the society. Where the western world’s society system is getting more and more individualistic. In Bangladesh, divorce, living alone, single parenthood and free sex are not seen very much. Religious believes and the social education provided by the families is liable for this. Parents and children are still maintaining the traditional way of respect, taking care of each other and friendliness. Another very important tie is the unity among relatives. Extending families can be found in the society, but the urban citizens are now come across the idea of nuclear families. The bondage among other society members like neighbours, co-workers, religious authority and even many social organizations are playing the vital roles of a united society. So in one sense, social system of Bangladesh deserves praises.
Types of social stratification of Bangladesh: We know basically there are two types of social systems in Bangladesh-●Urban society and
●Rural society.
Urban society of Bangladesh has basically six types of stratification. They are:-
Urban society
|
|
Uproouprooted Lower lower- class Lower lower middle class
class Middl middle class Highe higher middle class Higherhigher class
Urban areas of Bangladesh: In order to define an urban area, we have employed the same definition as the one employed by the census authority. the census commission has defined an urban area as that which includes:(1)municipality, civil lines, cantonment and any other continuous collection of houses inhabited by not less than 5,000 persons. In addition, areas irrespective of population size have been treated as urban provided they met the following conditions :a)areas have been town committees)concentrations of population in a continuous collections of houses where the community maintains public utilities such as roads, tree lightings, water supply, sanitary arrengemens,etc;c)centers having population characterized by high literacy rate.
Urban Dhaka
Bangladesh can be divided into six major regions on the basis of geographical and administrative set-up. They are Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajhahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet.They are called administrative divisions.
Map of Bangladesh.
Dhaka: Dhaka Division is an administrative division within Bangladesh. The capital and largest city is Dhaka. The division covers an area of 31,119.97 km², and has a population of 38,678,000 (2000).
Dhaka Division bounds the Indian state of Meghalaya to the north, Barisal and Chittagong Divisions on the south, Sylhet Division to the east, Rajshahi and Khulna Divisions to the west.
Map of Dhaka
Chittagong: Chittagong division is one of the six administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It covers the most southern areas of the country and is also the second largest one.
Map of Chittagong
Rajshahi: Rajshahi Division is one of the six administrative divisions of Bangladesh. Rajshahi division is in the north western corner of Bangladesh. The famous river Padma borders Rajshahi division on the south and another famous river, Jamuna, lies across the eastern border. In the North and West, Rajshahi division shares a border with India.
Map of Rajshahi
Khulna: Khulna Division is one of the six divisions of Bangladesh and is located in the south-west of the country. It has a population of almost 30 million. Its headquarters is Khulna city in Khulna District.
map of Khulna division
Barisal: Barisāl is located in south-central Bangladesh. Formerly a district called Bakerganj, it is now one of the 6 divisions of Bangladesh. The town lies in the Ganges (Padma) River delta on an offshoot of the Arial Khan River (Kirtonkhola).
Map of barisal
Sylhet: Sylhet is the Northeastern division of Bangladesh, named after its main city, Sylhet. It is bounded by Meghalaya State of India on the north, Tripura State on the south, Assam State of India on the east and Dhaka and Chittagong divisions on the west.
Map of Sylhet division
History of urbanization of Bangladesh: The growth of the urban population in Bangladesh prior to the 20the century cannot be termed urbanization in the truest sense because the change in rural life concomitant with urbanization was not evident. The growth of the urban population in Bangladesh since 1901 is depicted through the following periods. In 1901 only 2.43% of the country’s population lived in urban centers. During the next two decades the urban population remained almost static. Between 1911 and 1921 there was only an 8.8% increase in the urban population. Plagues caused large scale depopulation in many urban centers during this period. Since 1921 there has been slow but steady growth - except when thousands left the cities out of fear during World War II. But a famine which ensued soon pushed millions from rural areas back into urban areas.
In Bangladesh the first significant phase of urbanization started in 1947. During the 1951-61 decade there was a 45.11% increase in the urban population, more than twice the previous decade’s 18.4%. The factors causing this were many, some political, others socio-economic. Large scale migration of Muslims from India in 1947 and afterwards was a major factor. The emigration of a large Hindu population from Bangladesh to India was mostly from rural areas, while the immigrants from India, mostly concentrated in the urban areas of Bangladesh, thus outnumbering the emigrants from the urban areas. Moreover, there was substantial development of new centers of trade, commerce, industry and administration in Bangladesh after it attained a new political status in 1947.
Despite the growth in the urban population, the nature and characteristics of urbanization has remained similar to the pattern during the British period. During the Pakistan period, the West Pakistani rulers treated East Pakistan (Bangladesh) as their colony. There was no significant industrialization in this part during the first half of Pakistani rule. During the 1960’s there was some industrial development which was not significant. The most phenomenal urban population growth in Bangladesh occurred during the 1961-74 inter-census period. Over 6 million people were living in urban areas constituting roughly 8.0% of the total population. Thus the percentage increase of the urban population during the 13 years was striking. That accelerated growth is to a great extent the result of the very recent influx from rural villages. The growth rate of the urban Population was 5.4% during the 1981-1991. The total urban population increased to 28.6 million by 2001. There was a general decline of urban population in Bangladesh after the British took over in the mid 18th century and there were no urban centers left with populations of over 100,000 until 1891. In 1901 there were only 2 and that did not change up to 1951. There were no other urban centers in the range of 25,000 - 49,999 (population) up to 1911, but by 1921 there were. Then there were 5 in 1921. Most urban centers fell in the range of 10,000-24,999 population. They were 14 in 1872 and this increased to 23 in 1911, then decreased to 20 and remained so up to 1951. Urban centers within the range of 5,000-9,999 population size increased from 5 in 1872 to 19 in 1941. The total number of urban centers increased from 22 in 1872 to 59 in 1941, an increase of
There was a general decline of urban population in Bangladesh after the British took over in the mid 18th century and there were no urban centers left with populations of over 100,000 until 1891. In 1901 there were only 2 and that did not change up to 1951. There were no other urban centers in the range of 25,000 - 49,999 (population) up to 1911, but by 1921 there were. Then there were 5 in 1921. Most urban centers fell in the range of 10,000-24,999 population. They were 14 in 1872 and this increased to 23 in 1911, then decreased to 20 and remained so up to 1951. Urban centers within the range of 5,000-9,999 population size increased from 5 in 1872 to 19 in 1941. The total number of urban centers increased from 22 in 1872 to 59 in 1941, an increase of 168% during a span of nearly 70 years. Thus urban growth was rather slow throughout the period of 1872-1947.
Ancient Dhaka
After the partition of India in 1947 Dhaka City became the provincial capital of East Pakistan and the growth of the urban population began to increase substantially. In 1951, Dhaka City had a population of 411,279 which increased to 718,766 in 1961. Then there was a rapid growth of urban centers followed by an explosive growth of big cities after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. After the liberation of Bangladesh, there was an explosive growth of big cities. Cities with a population of 100,000 increased from 4 in 1961 to 6 in 1974, 13 in 1981 to 23 in 1991. This shows an increase of about 383% during 1961-91. And the total number of urban centers increased from 78 in 1961 to 492 in 1991, an increase of over 647% during a span of 30 years. The growth of urban centers by size/class indicates that there is a strong association between city size and city growth rates, that is the large and medium sized cities are increasing more rapidly simply because of the graduation of cities occurring in that class. Cities with a population between 25,000 and 49,999 increased from 15 in 1961 to 45 in 1981, an increase of 300%. During the same period cities with a population of 5,000 to 9,999 increased from 21 in 1961 to 129 in 1981 and those with a population less than 5,000 increased from 10 to 168.
Here is a graph of population growth in Bangladesh in urban areas from 1901-2001.the hundred years date shows us how fast the urbanization process in Bangladesh.
Population growth in Bangladesh (1901-2001)
Census National population Urban population
Number (million) Growth rate (% annual) Number (million) Share (% of total Population) Decadal increase of urban population (%) Growth rate
(% of annual)
1901 28.2 0.70 2.43 - - -
1911 31.65 0.94 0.80 2.54 14.96 1.39
1921 33.25 0.60 0.87 2.61 8.85 0.84
1931 35.60 0.74 1.07 3.01 22.20 2.00
1941 41.99 1.66 1.54 3.67 43.20 3.71
1951 44.17 0.51 1.83 4.14 18.38 1.74
1961 55.22 2.26 2.64 4.78 45.11 3.74
1974 76.37 2.53 6.00 7.86 137.57 6.52
1981 89.91 2.56 13.56 15.08 110.68 10.97
1991 111.45 2.17 22.45 20.15 69.75 5.43
2001 129.25 1.54 28.60 23.1 37.05 3.15
Here is also a graph of the Ranking of major urban centers in Bangladesh (1901-2001) Ranking of major urban centers in Bangladesh (1901-2001)
Urban centres 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1974 1981 1991 2001
Dhaka 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Chittagong 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Sirajgonj 3 3 5 4 6 - 10 - - - -
Rajshahi 4 4 8 7 7 8 7 6 4 4 4
Bramanbaria 5 8 9 9 9 - - - - - -
Comilla 6 6 4 5 5 5 8 9 6 9 -
Barisal 7 7 3 3 3 3 5 7 7 7 7
Pabna 8 - - - - - - - - - -
Jamalpur 9 9 10 10 - - - - - - -
Madaripur 11 - 6 8 - - - - - - -
Nawabganj - 5 - - - - - - - - -
Mymensing - 10 7 6 4 6 9 5 5 6 8
Chandpur - - - - 8 - - - - - -
Rangpur - - - - 10 - - - 9 5 6
Saidpur - - - - - 4 6 8 - - -
Khulna - - - - - 7 4 3 3 3 3
Dinajpur - - - - - 10 - - - 10 10
Narayangonj - - - - - - 3 4 - - -
Jessore - - - - - - - 10 10 8 9
Sylhet - - - - - - - - 8 - 5
Lifestyle, income patterns and activities of urban people of Bangladesh:
The urban social stratification is beset with important regional variation. While most district towns are still small and backward, a few are relatively advanced. Three cities, Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna, incorporate large industrial and commercial units along with a vibrant service sector. Cosmopolitanism has come to shape the nature of social stratification of the community living in those large cities. Modern classes like corporate executives, civil bureaucrats, professionals, intellectuals, art workers, industrialists and businessmen emerged in the urban areas. A large labor force engaged in both formal and informal sectors also characterized the urban population. Wealth and education largely determine urban social status. The traditional factor like lineage background has reduced to a level of minimum significance. Urban lifestyles, dresses, etiquette etc vary along class lines as well as the recreational activities. There are differences in the lifestyles of the different groups of people living in big cities of Bangladesh. For example, the rich spend pastime in restaurants, clubs and shopping centers, while the middle class people watch television, visit parks and zoos or watch sports in stadiums, and the poor often go to cinema halls, take drugs, or drink country liquor. The rich and the middle wear relatively expensive urban fashionable dresses. They speak refined Bengali and English. Taking part by the middle class people in different performing arts has now become the symbol of status in urban society.
A modern super shop
Despite the fact that poor industrialization, illiteracy and poverty mark the socio-economic condition of Bangladesh society, processes have been taking place rapidly towards a transition from traditional to modern social structure.
Factors affecting regional variations in urbanization: The regional differentials in levels of urbanaization and in the rate of urban growth tend to be related to regional variations in the economic development. The northern region of Bangladesh is the least developed region in Banglades.most of the inhabitants of central region is engaged in non agricultural works. The east and south occupied the next position. This is also reflected in the finding of regional variations in industrialization measured by number and size of industries. The central region is industrially the most developed, followed by the eastern, southern and northern regions. Public sectors industries are mainly located in urban areas. Government industries are situated in all over the countries. There are some reasons for the industrial variations from region to region. Some of them are given below-
# Capital city Dhaka’s domination over other cities.
#port city Chittagong’s facilities for industrialization
#the rate of education among the city dwellers
#modern technology
#the population of the cities
#communication facilities
#government and foreign offices locations
#climate. Etc.
Components of urban growth: there are some specific reasons for the process of urban growth. They are-
Natural increases or decrease, reflecting the balance between birth and death: Now days the ratio of birth and death is huge in difference. For the development of medical technology and education among urban people, the rate of death is lower than any other time. With the blessings of science, people are now live longer and can fight against diseases but also the birth rate is not decreasing as well. This is a component of the rapid growth of urbanization.
Net migration: it’s resulting from the balance between the total movements in and out of the urban areas. For a better life and work people from all over the country migrated to the urban areas mainly in Dhaka city everyday. There is no data available to compare the migration rate, but we can identified who are migrates-
*) they are disproportionately selected in adult ages. (20-30)
*) the migrants are more educated than the non migrants in the rural areas.
*) the male migrants are disproportionately single and they mostly originate from families having large family size.
*) the migrants are originating from mainly two distinct economic classes-the economically richest and economically poorest families of the rural areas
Rural urban difference: As a level of urbanization of a country goes up, it’s likely to produce a separate lifestyle in the urban areas to be different from those in the rural areas. There are some characteristics to identify the differences. Some of them are given below-
●Marital status: the males and females at every age-group in the urban areas tend to marry later than their rural counterparts. The rural area’s girls and boys are getting married earlier than they are in urban areas. Where the rural areas girl’s average rate of marriage is below 19, the urban girls are normally get married after 20.the age difference between bride and groom is also seen in rural and urban areas. Age difference is not to be counted a major part in married but in urban areas it is an important issue. The married couple of rural areas are not educated as the urban couple so the birth rate of villages are sill high than the cities. Marriage in the rural areas is found to be more stable than the urban areas where there is a higher divorce rate than the rural areas.
• Education: literacy rate is higher in urban areas than it is in the rural areas. In Bangladesh the overall literacy rate (7 years and above) is about 44.3 per cent (1995), where the female literacy rate is 28.5 percent and the male literacy rate is 50.4 percent. The gap of literacy rate between the urban and rural areas is very wide - 36.6 percent in rural and 63.0 percent in urban areas.
• Income: Bangladesh belongs to the poorest group of countries in the world; during the last 3 decades its GDP per capita income barely increased from US$203 in 1975 to US$348 per capita in 1998. The World Bank's World Development Indicators puts Bangladesh in 170th place (out of 207 countries) in the global ranking of gross national income per capita. Despite considerable international assistance, Bangladesh has been unable to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger. There is a huge disparity between standards of living in urban and rural areas of the country. The urban areas, especially the capital Dhaka, and major industrial cities such as Chittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi, enjoy a better quality of living, with electricity, gas, and clean water supplies. Still, even in the major cities a significant proportion of Bangladeshis live in squalor in dwellings that fall apart during the monsoon season and have no regular electricity. These Bang-ladeshis have limited access to health care and to clean drinking water. The rural population, meanwhile, often lives in traditional houses in villages with no facilities associated with even the most modest standards of living.
Disparities encompass 3 dimensions that define considerable differences: geographic, educational, and gender. There is still considerable inequality in the distribution of income between rural and urban populations. In general, the urban population, in the areas around Dhaka, Chittagong, and other large cities, has long been involved in small- and medium-sized businesses or employed in various industries. They benefited from the recent growth and have higher incomes. Meanwhile, the rural population experience chronic shortages of land and regular floods and cyclones, which often a within matter of hours sweep away the results of months of hard work.
Incidence of poverty in selected urban areas in Bangladesh (CBN method)
Urban areas Upper poverty line
(%) Lower poverty line
(%)
1995-96 2000 1995-96 2000
Dhaka
Chittagong
Khulna
Rajshahi 51.0
40.2
52.4
55.0
61.8 49.8
44.8
47.7
51.4
61.0 34.4
27.8
28.6
36.4
46.9 33.7
32.0
25.0
35.4
46.7
• Employment: another difference found in rural and urban stratification is the employment. We all know Bangladesh is a poor country where most of the people living under the poverty line. It is extreme in rural areas of Bangladesh. Urban areas are far better from the rural but poverty due to unemployment also streaked here. Migrants from rural areas, population explosion are some basic reasons for unemployment. In urban areas, poverty is mainly related to the issue of finding a job. This is not an easy matter since the rural in this context; self-employment and cottage industries remain the only solution to generate migrants looking for employment opportunities competing with the new entrants on the labor market resulting from the natural growth of the urban population. Consequently, the rate of unemployment and underemployment remains high. In the meantime, the opportunities in the public service and in the medium and large companies, which provide stable and well-paid jobs, are scarce. The 1995-9621 LFS22 shows that the working age population - 10 years and over, i.e. the labor force age population - is 20.1 million in urban areas, and the economically active population, which does not include housewives and students, disabled and retired persons,etc., is 10.2 million. Since the public service, the state-owned enterprises, the industrial private sector do not create enough opportunities to absorb the labor force annual increase, the rate of unemployment and underemployment remains at respectively 5% and 20%. This is even the case for the educated youths among which 8% is unemployed. Data reveals that the average number of economically active persons per household stands around 2, with a distribution between men and women of 1.45 and 0.55 respectively. Therefore, in half of the households, the spouse is only devoted to the house activities and the household’s head is assisted by an other man23. Out of these 2 persons only 0.6 receive wages or are salaried
Urbanization and Development: Urbanization is an inevitable and unavoidable feature in the process of development. This has been experienced globally as a historical fact. According to the United Nations Center for Human Settlements, over 50 percent of GNP of developing countries is generated by towns and cities . The figure is likely to increase further with the passage of time. The World Commission on Environment and Development believes that a well developed urban system provides the backbone for national development through its flows of information, energy, capital, commerce and people. It is acknowledged that industrial growth accelerates with urbanization and this is, in turn, leads to economic growth. In the backdrop of the accelerating urbanization in Bangladesh it is expected that the urban sector will play a significant role in the country's economic development. 23.39 percent of the population of Bangladesh lived in more than 500 urban areas in 2001. In absolute term, this amounts to about 30 million. More than half of the urban population (52 percent) live in four metropolitan areas, about one-third in the municipal towns numbering 250 and the rest, about 15 percent live in the small non-municipal urban centers. Urbanization in Bangladesh has contributed to the development of the world's 22nd largest mega city, Dhaka, home to about 10 million people in 2001. By the year 2015, Dhaka is expected to rank as 5th largest city with about 19 million people. The importance of the traditional rural sector in the national economy has declined, whilst that of the urban sector has increased. Despite the fact that agriculture is still the largest single contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Its significance in the economy has gradually declined over the years. Bangladesh has substantially reduced its dependency on agriculture due to the relatively higher growth of other non-agricultural activities. The share of agriculture sector of Bangladesh to the National GDP was 60.10 percent in 1972-73. But as per the Statistical Pocket Book of Bangladesh - 2000, the share of this sector has come down to 19.49 percent in 1999-2000. However, the sector is still very large in terms of providing employment. The rapid urbanization has contributed to the growing share of the urban sector to overall economic growth. Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh Resident Mission, Dhaka Report of August 2002, says over 40 percent of the countries GDP is now derived from the urban sector. This share was 25 percent in early 1970s. Fifth Five Year Plan (1997-2002) has projected the growth of urban sector GDP at around 14 percent. This is more than twice the growth target for the national GDP. Urbanization process contributes positively to the national economy is a well-established fact.
Dhaka Sheraton Hotel
It also contributes significantly to enhancing individual household income. As per the Task Force Reports of 2001, average household income in the urban areas was found to be nearly double that of the rural areas in 1999 (on an average Tk.6256.00 in the urban areas and Tk.3855.00 in the rural areas). However, it is also true that, while the average income in the urban areas is higher than rural income, inequality is also higher in the urban areas. Over the years such inequality has accentuated itself in the urban areas compared to the rural areas. On a regional basis, it is apparent that regions (former greater districts) with higher levels of urbanization or with the presence of a major metropolitan center enjoy higher average household incomes. The report also says that Dhaka, the most urbanized region, had the highest average household income (Tk.7952.00 month) followed by Chittagong (Tk.6460.00) in 1999 when the Bangladesh average was Tk.4813.00. Lower average incomes were generally found in the less urbanized regions like Faridpur, Patuakhali, Jamalpur and Bogra The twenty first century is deemed to be a period of globalization associated with the move towards free market economy. Its impact is also evident in the case of urban Bangladesh. Metropolitan areas in Bangladesh serve as peripheries of metropolitan centers or global cities of the developed world. The products of industries that are set up in our cities will be exported to the developed world. This may serve to enhance employment opportunities and eventually national income. However, negative social consequences such as growing inequality, crime etc. in our urban society may provide the downside of the urbanization. Above all, the fast growing urban centers are growing more rapidly due to globalization
The bad affects of urbanaizations: there are also some bad affects of rapid urbanization in Bangladesh. First of all, there are population explosions in the cities. For this there is shortage of accommodation. Also basic citizen welfare services are also couldn’t be enjoyed by most of the city dwellers. There is shortage of roads, educational institutions and also people couldn’t’ find works to afford themselves.
Slums of urban Dhaka
Over population causes environmental pollution which is an acute problem in the urban areas now. The municipalities and government are now in a suffocated situation to ensure the basic needs for the city dwellers. Another problem of urbanization is that the shifting of labor force from rural areas to urban areas. For this the rural areas are now in a crisis of eligible labor power. It is harm to the national economy.
Conclusion: it is clear that the process of urbanization in Bangladesh is getting faster day by day. But the process has lots of lacks. Too much urbanization could cause harm to national economy. But without urbanization, a country couldn’t’ prosper. So for the development of our country, we need a safe flow of urbanization which couldn’t cause any harm to our traditional rural society. For the actual development we need both our urban people and our rural people. We can hope that our government will ensure us about the both sectors development. Thus our country could really be prospered in near future.
Bangladesh, a south-east Asian country, is one of those countries who have a clear and unique social system in the world. Social stratification of Bangladesh is changed over times but these main themes are still could be found in the social system of Bangladesh. We all know the country is mainly divided into two types of social system-Urban and Rural.80% of Bangladesh is village still now. But the left 20%, which are the urban areas, has unique system of social stratification which is visibly different from the rural areas. Here the main topic of discussion is the urban social stratification of Bangladesh.
The role of urban society can hardly be over-emphasized in determining the sociopolitical, cultural and economic history of a country. Bangladesh is no exception to it. The urban society in Bangladesh played a significant role in the struggle for her independence. Once the independence was achieved, it continued to exert it influence in charting the direction of country’s sociopolitical, cultural and economic development.
What is social stratification: social stratification is the hierarchical arrangement of large social groups based on their control over basic resources. According to sociologist Anthony Giddens-“social stratification is the existence of structured inequalities between groups in society, in terms of their access to material or symbolic rewards.” Sociologist F.R Khan, in his pioneering book Sociology of Pakistan said that – “social stratification is the division of society into groups or categories linked with each other by the relationships of superiority and subordination.”
From the above quotations we can find a clear definition of social stratification where we can see that it is all about gradual positions of social classes. The division of society into classes or strata which form a hierarchy of prestige and power is an almost universal feature of social structure which has throughout history, attracted the attention of philosophers and social theorists.
Society of Bangladesh: Unlike other south-east Asian countries, Bangladeshi society is still much more family oriented. Here we can see a clear view of sharing and unity which is the main base of the society. Where the western world’s society system is getting more and more individualistic. In Bangladesh, divorce, living alone, single parenthood and free sex are not seen very much. Religious believes and the social education provided by the families is liable for this. Parents and children are still maintaining the traditional way of respect, taking care of each other and friendliness. Another very important tie is the unity among relatives. Extending families can be found in the society, but the urban citizens are now come across the idea of nuclear families. The bondage among other society members like neighbours, co-workers, religious authority and even many social organizations are playing the vital roles of a united society. So in one sense, social system of Bangladesh deserves praises.
Types of social stratification of Bangladesh: We know basically there are two types of social systems in Bangladesh-●Urban society and
●Rural society.
Urban society of Bangladesh has basically six types of stratification. They are:-
Urban society
|
|
Uproouprooted Lower lower- class Lower lower middle class
class Middl middle class Highe higher middle class Higherhigher class
Urban areas of Bangladesh: In order to define an urban area, we have employed the same definition as the one employed by the census authority. the census commission has defined an urban area as that which includes:(1)municipality, civil lines, cantonment and any other continuous collection of houses inhabited by not less than 5,000 persons. In addition, areas irrespective of population size have been treated as urban provided they met the following conditions :a)areas have been town committees)concentrations of population in a continuous collections of houses where the community maintains public utilities such as roads, tree lightings, water supply, sanitary arrengemens,etc;c)centers having population characterized by high literacy rate.
Urban Dhaka
Bangladesh can be divided into six major regions on the basis of geographical and administrative set-up. They are Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajhahi, Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet.They are called administrative divisions.
Map of Bangladesh.
Dhaka: Dhaka Division is an administrative division within Bangladesh. The capital and largest city is Dhaka. The division covers an area of 31,119.97 km², and has a population of 38,678,000 (2000).
Dhaka Division bounds the Indian state of Meghalaya to the north, Barisal and Chittagong Divisions on the south, Sylhet Division to the east, Rajshahi and Khulna Divisions to the west.
Map of Dhaka
Chittagong: Chittagong division is one of the six administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It covers the most southern areas of the country and is also the second largest one.
Map of Chittagong
Rajshahi: Rajshahi Division is one of the six administrative divisions of Bangladesh. Rajshahi division is in the north western corner of Bangladesh. The famous river Padma borders Rajshahi division on the south and another famous river, Jamuna, lies across the eastern border. In the North and West, Rajshahi division shares a border with India.
Map of Rajshahi
Khulna: Khulna Division is one of the six divisions of Bangladesh and is located in the south-west of the country. It has a population of almost 30 million. Its headquarters is Khulna city in Khulna District.
map of Khulna division
Barisal: Barisāl is located in south-central Bangladesh. Formerly a district called Bakerganj, it is now one of the 6 divisions of Bangladesh. The town lies in the Ganges (Padma) River delta on an offshoot of the Arial Khan River (Kirtonkhola).
Map of barisal
Sylhet: Sylhet is the Northeastern division of Bangladesh, named after its main city, Sylhet. It is bounded by Meghalaya State of India on the north, Tripura State on the south, Assam State of India on the east and Dhaka and Chittagong divisions on the west.
Map of Sylhet division
History of urbanization of Bangladesh: The growth of the urban population in Bangladesh prior to the 20the century cannot be termed urbanization in the truest sense because the change in rural life concomitant with urbanization was not evident. The growth of the urban population in Bangladesh since 1901 is depicted through the following periods. In 1901 only 2.43% of the country’s population lived in urban centers. During the next two decades the urban population remained almost static. Between 1911 and 1921 there was only an 8.8% increase in the urban population. Plagues caused large scale depopulation in many urban centers during this period. Since 1921 there has been slow but steady growth - except when thousands left the cities out of fear during World War II. But a famine which ensued soon pushed millions from rural areas back into urban areas.
In Bangladesh the first significant phase of urbanization started in 1947. During the 1951-61 decade there was a 45.11% increase in the urban population, more than twice the previous decade’s 18.4%. The factors causing this were many, some political, others socio-economic. Large scale migration of Muslims from India in 1947 and afterwards was a major factor. The emigration of a large Hindu population from Bangladesh to India was mostly from rural areas, while the immigrants from India, mostly concentrated in the urban areas of Bangladesh, thus outnumbering the emigrants from the urban areas. Moreover, there was substantial development of new centers of trade, commerce, industry and administration in Bangladesh after it attained a new political status in 1947.
Despite the growth in the urban population, the nature and characteristics of urbanization has remained similar to the pattern during the British period. During the Pakistan period, the West Pakistani rulers treated East Pakistan (Bangladesh) as their colony. There was no significant industrialization in this part during the first half of Pakistani rule. During the 1960’s there was some industrial development which was not significant. The most phenomenal urban population growth in Bangladesh occurred during the 1961-74 inter-census period. Over 6 million people were living in urban areas constituting roughly 8.0% of the total population. Thus the percentage increase of the urban population during the 13 years was striking. That accelerated growth is to a great extent the result of the very recent influx from rural villages. The growth rate of the urban Population was 5.4% during the 1981-1991. The total urban population increased to 28.6 million by 2001. There was a general decline of urban population in Bangladesh after the British took over in the mid 18th century and there were no urban centers left with populations of over 100,000 until 1891. In 1901 there were only 2 and that did not change up to 1951. There were no other urban centers in the range of 25,000 - 49,999 (population) up to 1911, but by 1921 there were. Then there were 5 in 1921. Most urban centers fell in the range of 10,000-24,999 population. They were 14 in 1872 and this increased to 23 in 1911, then decreased to 20 and remained so up to 1951. Urban centers within the range of 5,000-9,999 population size increased from 5 in 1872 to 19 in 1941. The total number of urban centers increased from 22 in 1872 to 59 in 1941, an increase of
There was a general decline of urban population in Bangladesh after the British took over in the mid 18th century and there were no urban centers left with populations of over 100,000 until 1891. In 1901 there were only 2 and that did not change up to 1951. There were no other urban centers in the range of 25,000 - 49,999 (population) up to 1911, but by 1921 there were. Then there were 5 in 1921. Most urban centers fell in the range of 10,000-24,999 population. They were 14 in 1872 and this increased to 23 in 1911, then decreased to 20 and remained so up to 1951. Urban centers within the range of 5,000-9,999 population size increased from 5 in 1872 to 19 in 1941. The total number of urban centers increased from 22 in 1872 to 59 in 1941, an increase of 168% during a span of nearly 70 years. Thus urban growth was rather slow throughout the period of 1872-1947.
Ancient Dhaka
After the partition of India in 1947 Dhaka City became the provincial capital of East Pakistan and the growth of the urban population began to increase substantially. In 1951, Dhaka City had a population of 411,279 which increased to 718,766 in 1961. Then there was a rapid growth of urban centers followed by an explosive growth of big cities after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. After the liberation of Bangladesh, there was an explosive growth of big cities. Cities with a population of 100,000 increased from 4 in 1961 to 6 in 1974, 13 in 1981 to 23 in 1991. This shows an increase of about 383% during 1961-91. And the total number of urban centers increased from 78 in 1961 to 492 in 1991, an increase of over 647% during a span of 30 years. The growth of urban centers by size/class indicates that there is a strong association between city size and city growth rates, that is the large and medium sized cities are increasing more rapidly simply because of the graduation of cities occurring in that class. Cities with a population between 25,000 and 49,999 increased from 15 in 1961 to 45 in 1981, an increase of 300%. During the same period cities with a population of 5,000 to 9,999 increased from 21 in 1961 to 129 in 1981 and those with a population less than 5,000 increased from 10 to 168.
Here is a graph of population growth in Bangladesh in urban areas from 1901-2001.the hundred years date shows us how fast the urbanization process in Bangladesh.
Population growth in Bangladesh (1901-2001)
Census National population Urban population
Number (million) Growth rate (% annual) Number (million) Share (% of total Population) Decadal increase of urban population (%) Growth rate
(% of annual)
1901 28.2 0.70 2.43 - - -
1911 31.65 0.94 0.80 2.54 14.96 1.39
1921 33.25 0.60 0.87 2.61 8.85 0.84
1931 35.60 0.74 1.07 3.01 22.20 2.00
1941 41.99 1.66 1.54 3.67 43.20 3.71
1951 44.17 0.51 1.83 4.14 18.38 1.74
1961 55.22 2.26 2.64 4.78 45.11 3.74
1974 76.37 2.53 6.00 7.86 137.57 6.52
1981 89.91 2.56 13.56 15.08 110.68 10.97
1991 111.45 2.17 22.45 20.15 69.75 5.43
2001 129.25 1.54 28.60 23.1 37.05 3.15
Here is also a graph of the Ranking of major urban centers in Bangladesh (1901-2001) Ranking of major urban centers in Bangladesh (1901-2001)
Urban centres 1901 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1974 1981 1991 2001
Dhaka 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Chittagong 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
Sirajgonj 3 3 5 4 6 - 10 - - - -
Rajshahi 4 4 8 7 7 8 7 6 4 4 4
Bramanbaria 5 8 9 9 9 - - - - - -
Comilla 6 6 4 5 5 5 8 9 6 9 -
Barisal 7 7 3 3 3 3 5 7 7 7 7
Pabna 8 - - - - - - - - - -
Jamalpur 9 9 10 10 - - - - - - -
Madaripur 11 - 6 8 - - - - - - -
Nawabganj - 5 - - - - - - - - -
Mymensing - 10 7 6 4 6 9 5 5 6 8
Chandpur - - - - 8 - - - - - -
Rangpur - - - - 10 - - - 9 5 6
Saidpur - - - - - 4 6 8 - - -
Khulna - - - - - 7 4 3 3 3 3
Dinajpur - - - - - 10 - - - 10 10
Narayangonj - - - - - - 3 4 - - -
Jessore - - - - - - - 10 10 8 9
Sylhet - - - - - - - - 8 - 5
Lifestyle, income patterns and activities of urban people of Bangladesh:
The urban social stratification is beset with important regional variation. While most district towns are still small and backward, a few are relatively advanced. Three cities, Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna, incorporate large industrial and commercial units along with a vibrant service sector. Cosmopolitanism has come to shape the nature of social stratification of the community living in those large cities. Modern classes like corporate executives, civil bureaucrats, professionals, intellectuals, art workers, industrialists and businessmen emerged in the urban areas. A large labor force engaged in both formal and informal sectors also characterized the urban population. Wealth and education largely determine urban social status. The traditional factor like lineage background has reduced to a level of minimum significance. Urban lifestyles, dresses, etiquette etc vary along class lines as well as the recreational activities. There are differences in the lifestyles of the different groups of people living in big cities of Bangladesh. For example, the rich spend pastime in restaurants, clubs and shopping centers, while the middle class people watch television, visit parks and zoos or watch sports in stadiums, and the poor often go to cinema halls, take drugs, or drink country liquor. The rich and the middle wear relatively expensive urban fashionable dresses. They speak refined Bengali and English. Taking part by the middle class people in different performing arts has now become the symbol of status in urban society.
A modern super shop
Despite the fact that poor industrialization, illiteracy and poverty mark the socio-economic condition of Bangladesh society, processes have been taking place rapidly towards a transition from traditional to modern social structure.
Factors affecting regional variations in urbanization: The regional differentials in levels of urbanaization and in the rate of urban growth tend to be related to regional variations in the economic development. The northern region of Bangladesh is the least developed region in Banglades.most of the inhabitants of central region is engaged in non agricultural works. The east and south occupied the next position. This is also reflected in the finding of regional variations in industrialization measured by number and size of industries. The central region is industrially the most developed, followed by the eastern, southern and northern regions. Public sectors industries are mainly located in urban areas. Government industries are situated in all over the countries. There are some reasons for the industrial variations from region to region. Some of them are given below-
# Capital city Dhaka’s domination over other cities.
#port city Chittagong’s facilities for industrialization
#the rate of education among the city dwellers
#modern technology
#the population of the cities
#communication facilities
#government and foreign offices locations
#climate. Etc.
Components of urban growth: there are some specific reasons for the process of urban growth. They are-
Natural increases or decrease, reflecting the balance between birth and death: Now days the ratio of birth and death is huge in difference. For the development of medical technology and education among urban people, the rate of death is lower than any other time. With the blessings of science, people are now live longer and can fight against diseases but also the birth rate is not decreasing as well. This is a component of the rapid growth of urbanization.
Net migration: it’s resulting from the balance between the total movements in and out of the urban areas. For a better life and work people from all over the country migrated to the urban areas mainly in Dhaka city everyday. There is no data available to compare the migration rate, but we can identified who are migrates-
*) they are disproportionately selected in adult ages. (20-30)
*) the migrants are more educated than the non migrants in the rural areas.
*) the male migrants are disproportionately single and they mostly originate from families having large family size.
*) the migrants are originating from mainly two distinct economic classes-the economically richest and economically poorest families of the rural areas
Rural urban difference: As a level of urbanization of a country goes up, it’s likely to produce a separate lifestyle in the urban areas to be different from those in the rural areas. There are some characteristics to identify the differences. Some of them are given below-
●Marital status: the males and females at every age-group in the urban areas tend to marry later than their rural counterparts. The rural area’s girls and boys are getting married earlier than they are in urban areas. Where the rural areas girl’s average rate of marriage is below 19, the urban girls are normally get married after 20.the age difference between bride and groom is also seen in rural and urban areas. Age difference is not to be counted a major part in married but in urban areas it is an important issue. The married couple of rural areas are not educated as the urban couple so the birth rate of villages are sill high than the cities. Marriage in the rural areas is found to be more stable than the urban areas where there is a higher divorce rate than the rural areas.
• Education: literacy rate is higher in urban areas than it is in the rural areas. In Bangladesh the overall literacy rate (7 years and above) is about 44.3 per cent (1995), where the female literacy rate is 28.5 percent and the male literacy rate is 50.4 percent. The gap of literacy rate between the urban and rural areas is very wide - 36.6 percent in rural and 63.0 percent in urban areas.
• Income: Bangladesh belongs to the poorest group of countries in the world; during the last 3 decades its GDP per capita income barely increased from US$203 in 1975 to US$348 per capita in 1998. The World Bank's World Development Indicators puts Bangladesh in 170th place (out of 207 countries) in the global ranking of gross national income per capita. Despite considerable international assistance, Bangladesh has been unable to eliminate extreme poverty and hunger. There is a huge disparity between standards of living in urban and rural areas of the country. The urban areas, especially the capital Dhaka, and major industrial cities such as Chittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi, enjoy a better quality of living, with electricity, gas, and clean water supplies. Still, even in the major cities a significant proportion of Bangladeshis live in squalor in dwellings that fall apart during the monsoon season and have no regular electricity. These Bang-ladeshis have limited access to health care and to clean drinking water. The rural population, meanwhile, often lives in traditional houses in villages with no facilities associated with even the most modest standards of living.
Disparities encompass 3 dimensions that define considerable differences: geographic, educational, and gender. There is still considerable inequality in the distribution of income between rural and urban populations. In general, the urban population, in the areas around Dhaka, Chittagong, and other large cities, has long been involved in small- and medium-sized businesses or employed in various industries. They benefited from the recent growth and have higher incomes. Meanwhile, the rural population experience chronic shortages of land and regular floods and cyclones, which often a within matter of hours sweep away the results of months of hard work.
Incidence of poverty in selected urban areas in Bangladesh (CBN method)
Urban areas Upper poverty line
(%) Lower poverty line
(%)
1995-96 2000 1995-96 2000
Dhaka
Chittagong
Khulna
Rajshahi 51.0
40.2
52.4
55.0
61.8 49.8
44.8
47.7
51.4
61.0 34.4
27.8
28.6
36.4
46.9 33.7
32.0
25.0
35.4
46.7
• Employment: another difference found in rural and urban stratification is the employment. We all know Bangladesh is a poor country where most of the people living under the poverty line. It is extreme in rural areas of Bangladesh. Urban areas are far better from the rural but poverty due to unemployment also streaked here. Migrants from rural areas, population explosion are some basic reasons for unemployment. In urban areas, poverty is mainly related to the issue of finding a job. This is not an easy matter since the rural in this context; self-employment and cottage industries remain the only solution to generate migrants looking for employment opportunities competing with the new entrants on the labor market resulting from the natural growth of the urban population. Consequently, the rate of unemployment and underemployment remains high. In the meantime, the opportunities in the public service and in the medium and large companies, which provide stable and well-paid jobs, are scarce. The 1995-9621 LFS22 shows that the working age population - 10 years and over, i.e. the labor force age population - is 20.1 million in urban areas, and the economically active population, which does not include housewives and students, disabled and retired persons,etc., is 10.2 million. Since the public service, the state-owned enterprises, the industrial private sector do not create enough opportunities to absorb the labor force annual increase, the rate of unemployment and underemployment remains at respectively 5% and 20%. This is even the case for the educated youths among which 8% is unemployed. Data reveals that the average number of economically active persons per household stands around 2, with a distribution between men and women of 1.45 and 0.55 respectively. Therefore, in half of the households, the spouse is only devoted to the house activities and the household’s head is assisted by an other man23. Out of these 2 persons only 0.6 receive wages or are salaried
Urbanization and Development: Urbanization is an inevitable and unavoidable feature in the process of development. This has been experienced globally as a historical fact. According to the United Nations Center for Human Settlements, over 50 percent of GNP of developing countries is generated by towns and cities . The figure is likely to increase further with the passage of time. The World Commission on Environment and Development believes that a well developed urban system provides the backbone for national development through its flows of information, energy, capital, commerce and people. It is acknowledged that industrial growth accelerates with urbanization and this is, in turn, leads to economic growth. In the backdrop of the accelerating urbanization in Bangladesh it is expected that the urban sector will play a significant role in the country's economic development. 23.39 percent of the population of Bangladesh lived in more than 500 urban areas in 2001. In absolute term, this amounts to about 30 million. More than half of the urban population (52 percent) live in four metropolitan areas, about one-third in the municipal towns numbering 250 and the rest, about 15 percent live in the small non-municipal urban centers. Urbanization in Bangladesh has contributed to the development of the world's 22nd largest mega city, Dhaka, home to about 10 million people in 2001. By the year 2015, Dhaka is expected to rank as 5th largest city with about 19 million people. The importance of the traditional rural sector in the national economy has declined, whilst that of the urban sector has increased. Despite the fact that agriculture is still the largest single contributor to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Its significance in the economy has gradually declined over the years. Bangladesh has substantially reduced its dependency on agriculture due to the relatively higher growth of other non-agricultural activities. The share of agriculture sector of Bangladesh to the National GDP was 60.10 percent in 1972-73. But as per the Statistical Pocket Book of Bangladesh - 2000, the share of this sector has come down to 19.49 percent in 1999-2000. However, the sector is still very large in terms of providing employment. The rapid urbanization has contributed to the growing share of the urban sector to overall economic growth. Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh Resident Mission, Dhaka Report of August 2002, says over 40 percent of the countries GDP is now derived from the urban sector. This share was 25 percent in early 1970s. Fifth Five Year Plan (1997-2002) has projected the growth of urban sector GDP at around 14 percent. This is more than twice the growth target for the national GDP. Urbanization process contributes positively to the national economy is a well-established fact.
Dhaka Sheraton Hotel
It also contributes significantly to enhancing individual household income. As per the Task Force Reports of 2001, average household income in the urban areas was found to be nearly double that of the rural areas in 1999 (on an average Tk.6256.00 in the urban areas and Tk.3855.00 in the rural areas). However, it is also true that, while the average income in the urban areas is higher than rural income, inequality is also higher in the urban areas. Over the years such inequality has accentuated itself in the urban areas compared to the rural areas. On a regional basis, it is apparent that regions (former greater districts) with higher levels of urbanization or with the presence of a major metropolitan center enjoy higher average household incomes. The report also says that Dhaka, the most urbanized region, had the highest average household income (Tk.7952.00 month) followed by Chittagong (Tk.6460.00) in 1999 when the Bangladesh average was Tk.4813.00. Lower average incomes were generally found in the less urbanized regions like Faridpur, Patuakhali, Jamalpur and Bogra The twenty first century is deemed to be a period of globalization associated with the move towards free market economy. Its impact is also evident in the case of urban Bangladesh. Metropolitan areas in Bangladesh serve as peripheries of metropolitan centers or global cities of the developed world. The products of industries that are set up in our cities will be exported to the developed world. This may serve to enhance employment opportunities and eventually national income. However, negative social consequences such as growing inequality, crime etc. in our urban society may provide the downside of the urbanization. Above all, the fast growing urban centers are growing more rapidly due to globalization
The bad affects of urbanaizations: there are also some bad affects of rapid urbanization in Bangladesh. First of all, there are population explosions in the cities. For this there is shortage of accommodation. Also basic citizen welfare services are also couldn’t be enjoyed by most of the city dwellers. There is shortage of roads, educational institutions and also people couldn’t’ find works to afford themselves.
Slums of urban Dhaka
Over population causes environmental pollution which is an acute problem in the urban areas now. The municipalities and government are now in a suffocated situation to ensure the basic needs for the city dwellers. Another problem of urbanization is that the shifting of labor force from rural areas to urban areas. For this the rural areas are now in a crisis of eligible labor power. It is harm to the national economy.
Conclusion: it is clear that the process of urbanization in Bangladesh is getting faster day by day. But the process has lots of lacks. Too much urbanization could cause harm to national economy. But without urbanization, a country couldn’t’ prosper. So for the development of our country, we need a safe flow of urbanization which couldn’t cause any harm to our traditional rural society. For the actual development we need both our urban people and our rural people. We can hope that our government will ensure us about the both sectors development. Thus our country could really be prospered in near future.
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