LFE 2019 in BLC, Mymensingh

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 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

May 20, 2019

Dr. Tawhid Monzur

Lecturer, Department of Environmental Management.
Independent University, Bangladesh
Bashundhara R/A, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Subject: Letter of Transmittal for the LFE Report.

Dear Sir,

With due respect, it is my pleasure to present this LFE report on the study conducted during
2019 in BLC, Mymensingh organized by Independent University, Bangladesh.

I was survey in Char Kalibari Modda Para. I have tried to learn about the demography,
geography, economy and agriculture, Education, health and sanitation, and rural market
analysis of the village through questionnaire survey and observation. Also visited 3 paras to
know about this village. It was a tough task to communicate with rural people but I have
enjoyed LFE with my group member and other students. I believe that I learn many things
practically through this course. I hope that the enclosed information will be helpful to get a
clear idea about Modda para.

I therefore, look forward to you that my report will be able to achieve your approval. If you
need any assistance for further clarification of the report, we will be pleased to meet any
queries.

Sincerely,

Naznin Nahar Nipa

ID#1430249

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I want to say, we are very delightful to have a special program (Live in a Live in
Field Experience), which is a very interesting, thoughtful and unique course in Independent
University, Bangladesh (IUB). We are very grateful to IUB for giving as such a practical
experience of the rural life of Bangladesh through the LFE. I really appreciate the host
organization BLC, Mymensingh for giving us such an opportunity to explore the area and for
helping and guiding us throughout the course and to for the support of accommodation, food
facilities, and security.

My special regard goes to Dr.Tawhid monzur (SESM), MS. Kashfia Ameen (SB), MS.
Bushra Sanjana (SB)- who have supported us and helped us all the way through and took care
of all the problems faced by us during the program .Special thanks go to the LFE monitors as
they were also very cooperative and helpful. All of them have guided us throughout the
course session to achieve our success in collecting the data.

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Contents

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.............................................................................................................1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.....................................................................................................................3
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................5
Venue BLC, Mymensingh.....................................................................................................................6
LFE Objectives:.....................................................................................................................................8
Limitations:...........................................................................................................................................9
Survey area brief discerption:..........................................................................................................10
Educational Institution, Madrasa:....................................................................................................11
Communication and Transportation:...............................................................................................12
Agriculture and Cultivation:............................................................................................................13
Market Analysis:.............................................................................................................................14
Value Chain.....................................................................................................................................15
Types of Consumer products:..........................................................................................................16
Fake Products..................................................................................................................................17
Product price Comparison...............................................................................................................18
Sanitation:........................................................................................................................................19
Health Care:.....................................................................................................................................20
Trees and plants:..............................................................................................................................21
Women rights:.................................................................................................................................22
Employment and Income Sources:..................................................................................................23
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................25
Reference:........................................................................................................................................26

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Introduction:

The LFE journey commenced on 23april 2019. The purposes of the course is to adopt with
the external environment and rural people. village survey is a practical experience to
communicate with rural people and conduct a study to accumulate all the information
regarding the life style of the rural population. This course gives us some idea about the
living pattern and rural lifestyle of Bangladesh. Through this course we gathered knowledge
and visualize of the rural picture of Bangladesh. LFE gives us the opportunity to see village
scenario and perform surveys to find out what problems are there in the village. LFE program
is a great way to understand the socio-economic conditions of rural Bangladesh.

Most of the people in our country live in rural area. Every rural area or village has a
individual culture. It has varied and diverse culture. The people represent their culture by Art,
symbols and survival strategy. We had the opportunity to talk with the villagers and build
rapport. We get a opportunity to spend time with rural people. We had to delve into their
daily busy life and cream out the relevant data to fill our knowledge.

IUB offers LFE twice every year and sends students to villages all around. This semester IUB
organized LFE in nine different venues around Bangladesh for LFE. I am in section four. we
enjoyed with each other and passed a great time with them make some memories. We also
share our knowledge among us that helps us to gather more knowledge.

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Venue BLC, Mymensingh

Our venue was in BRAC Learning Centre (BLC), Char Kalibari, Mymensingh. BRAC, an
international development organization based in Bangladesh, is the largest nongovernmental
development organization in the world, measured by the number of employees and the
number of people it has helped. BRAC concentrated on community development through
village development programs that included agriculture, fisheries, cooperatives, rural crafts,
adult literacy, health and family planning, vocational training for women and construction of
community centre. Considering favorable adult learning and other training related facilities as
the preconditions for making training effective, BLD offers the ideal learning centers with:

 Trainees’ hostel,Cafeteria
 Adequate number of Class Room
 Air Conditioned Class Room
 Computer and Language Lab
 Library Facility
 Auditorium, Internet Facility
 Multi Purpose Hall Room
 Multi Media ( Audio Visual, Computer, Microphone, Overhead Projector)
 Big play Ground, Beautiful Garden
 Quality Cooking
 Full time (24 hours) Security
 All Time power Supply
 Comfortable Bed Room with Attached Bathrooms
 Indoor and Outdoor Games

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This place is so beautiful and peoples who are working in this organization are very friendly
and helpful. . The atmosphere of BLC is very temperate. In this training center BRAC
provide foods for all people in the organization. They maintain time very strictly. Some
people live here and receive education. BRAC's education program provides non-formal
primary education to those left out of the formal education system, especially poor, rural, or
disadvantaged children, and drop-outs. They help women to educate herself and make her a
self reliant lady. It provides loans to mostly poor, landless, rural women.

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LFE Objectives:
 Adopting with the village environment, surroundings and peoples
 Knowing about rural people lifestyle, rural culture, ritual and customs
 Learning about agricultural system
 To know the rural economy
 To know about rural financial and micro credit system
 To know about historical site
 Building relationship among friends
 To know about rural geography and climate change
 Rural market analysis

METHODOLOGY
The report more or less followed an anthropological approach of investigating the
information from the field and thus the amount of qualitative data is higher. We collected
data from two sources;

 Primary Source.
 Secondary Source.

Primary Data: Through observation and interviews with the villagers we collected
information to prepare out report. Structured questionnaire, unstructured interview,
observation, participant observation etc are primary sources of data collection.

Secondary Data: We collected our secondary data from BRAC Learning Centre (BLC),
website, as well as union porisod website , journals and articles on rural life.

We have also conducted a primary survey applying questionnaire method for collecting the
necessary data from the villagers. The relevant data is collected from the primary sources and
also from the secondary sources

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Using cross check method to verify the data;

 Collecting data by using questionnaire survey

 Observation through the total LFE period
 Discussing with our guide about rural economy
 Interviewing both male & female villagers

Limitations:
 Time Shortage: We only had 8 days to collect information’s regarding the
households, local market, Socio and economic condition of Char kali Bari.
 Clashing with the Working Hour: Our time of fieldwork was in the morning and the
time used to clash with their working hour because during 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. they
usually work.
 Information’s regarding Health condition: Household I visited Personally; they
were in absent minded during health-related questions because most of the villagers
don’t have any kind of major health issues.
 Information’s regarding their Family Income: The informants were sometimes
hesitated to provide information on their Family Income.
 Other Issues: The informants were sometimes hesitated to provide information on
their child marriage and the amount of dowry that they had provided.

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Survey area brief discerption:

First of all we went to Brac Learning Center (BLC). The village was selected by our
honorable faculty member where every group was placed in different Para of that village for
carrying out survey work. Our course instructor along with the help of BLC authority
selected the villages. We were assigned to Chor-kalibari, and the para was Moddo Para. The
village is on the east south side of BLC. It was approximately 1 km away from BLC and
takes 10 min to reach. The village is situated left beside the Shombugong road.

Map of Char Kali Bari, Moddhopara.

Name of the village Chor-kalibari, Union Chor-kalibari, District Mymensing, Division

Mymensing Location 7 kilometer from the main city, Post office Shombugong. Total
population of the village Chor-kalibari More then 10000 Voter 5000, No of the household
Approximately 1500, Gender ratio Male-55%, Female-45%, Religion 100% Muslim.

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Educational Institution, Madrasa:

The whole village had only one school giving education to the village children. The name of
the school is “Choe-kalibari Government Primary School “. The school was established in
2005- 2006 by Govt. There have a madrasa name is “Khankaye Amdadadiya and zomiriya”.
The village has only on 4 mosques and 1 eidgha.

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Communication and Transportation:

The transport system is moderate in Chor kalibari village. There was only one mud road and
many muddy sub roads. But the road is narrow that’s why heave transports cannot enter into
thevillage. People use rickshaw, bicycle, motor-cycle and van. But in the rainy season the
villagers have to suffer a lot for the muddy road. There is a post office near the village
“Shombogong” postoffice. For that reason they can communicate with their relatives living
outside of the village or country by mailing letters to them. Besides this, most of the villagers
have cellular phone, by which they can communicate easily.

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Agriculture and Cultivation:

The village comprises mainly of cultivating lands. Paddy is the main source of cultivation.
Different types of seasonal vegetation are cultivated as well like, amon, aoushand ,boro
crops, paddy, mustard, chili, jute etc. Their main paddy crop are Atas, Untris, irri, Hira and so
on.There is talk jute cultivation very small amount. Some are cultivated for their own
consumption and the excessive sold in the ”ShombogongHaat”. The soil type of the village is
sandy loam, which is very suitable for the cultivation. In the village the farmers use deep tub
well for irrigation process and this village near to the Brahmaputra River. Farmers of the
village use different types of properties for the cultivation such as tractor, seeds, fertilizers,
pesticides etc. most of the farmers do their own works in the field and sometimes they use
labor for helping them.

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Market Analysis:
We visited Shobugong haat to know the current economy of Chor-kalibari, Mymensing. We
tried to know how many type of products sell in this bazaar and how retailer buy this product.
We also talked with some retailer and wholesaler to know the supply system of products. We
also observed the behavior of the people of the village market and what types of consumer
good is available in the village market. Dutch bangle bank branch in this bazar. Seller can
easily make transaction anywhere. ATM booth also available here.

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 Value Chain:
Value chain is when a product are moving from producer to whole seller and whole seller
take to somewhere else and sell it to a retailers and from the retailer finally the produce
reaches to the final consumer. Form the producer to the final consumers the products changes
it value like all the sellers they keep some profits and then the transportation cost are added.
That’s why the price of the product changes according to place and product. Following steps
we will try to show in our report.

Production Packaging Transportation Wholesaler Retailer consumer

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Types of Consumer products:
 Convenience products:

Soft drinks, candy, sugar, rice, oil, chips, biscuits, soap, shampoo, face wash,
cream etc.

Shopping products:

Refrigerator, iron, television, smart phone, computer etc.

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Fake Products
In this village market I have found some fake products looks like a real products at first look.

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Product price Comparison

In this village market I have found some fake products looks like a real product at first look.

Products Dhaka Mymensingh

Rice ( Miniket ) 65 taka 58 taka

Milk 65-70 taka per liter 55-60 taka per liter

Meat 480 taka per Kg 560 taka per Kg

Oil ( Rupchada ) 530 taka 510 taka

Ginger 100 taka per Kg 120 taka per Kg

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Sanitation:
The villages have not good sanitation system. As our village was most people had unhygienic
ring-slabs TOILET. Some brick houses had septic tanks no as well, they use unhygienic
toilet. In Mosque and some of the house have fully sanitary latrine. This people are so much
poor. These borrowing monies to built building but they are not built sanitary toilet.

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Health Care:

Unfortunately the health care system is poor in the Chor-kalibari village. There is no health
care center in this village. We found a vaccination center in the moddo para. By the virtue of
the cooperative society and EPI the village is100% vaccinated.

But this village has extra benefit. From this village have just 10min road distance of
Mymensing Medical College Hospital. Most of the people of the village go to the hospital for
their any kind of problem but main topic is they pay only few amounts of money. There are
no pharmacies in the village; people usually go for medicine in shombugong bazer. At child
delivery time midwives come from nearby villages now people also go to hospital.

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Trees and plants:
Different kinds of trees and plants can be found in “Chorkalibari village‟. These are mango
trees, jack-fruit trees, banana trees, coconut trees, banyan tree, date trees, Akashi trees,
papaya, lau, brinjal etc. Other important trees are Bamboo bush.

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Women rights:

The status of women in Bangladesh is defined by struggle to massive improvement over this
year. After the liberation war have seen increased political empowerment for women, better
job prospects, improved education and the adoption of new laws to protect their rights.

In Modho Para women, all most all the women are the victim of early marriage. We didn’t
find any mother who study at least class 5.

Most of the village women can cast vote. But their education knowledge has no up to the
mark. Almost every woman married of when they were studying in class 2 or 3. And others
never went to school. They were go to village moktob for study The Holy Quran. But now a
days its changing, they send their both boy and girl for studying but the custom of child
marriage is not stop yet. Women take loan from ASHA, POPI,BRAC. We survey 10
household 7 household said they make DPS in some of this organization. We see that women
are more aware join with different types NGO. So women empowerment is increasing

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Employment and Income Sources:

Most of village people are ready to response with the change of economic development.
There are daily labors, traders, milk sellers, for many people agriculture is either main or
subsidiary occupation. The village people are engaged with “Shomity” and they try to do
business altogether for making some profits. No specific program for income and
employment generation of the female population, but now-a-days they altogether working at
field.

Occupation

The economic condition of “Madhya Para” is heavily dependent on agriculture. Although the
number of farmers has decreased over the past few years as new generation finds it difficult
to do, a good fraction of villagers still depend on agriculture for their daily necessities.

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BRAC sericulture:

We visited BRAC sericulture project. I saw their how to produce cotton by silk worm.
Production of silk occurs in four distinct steps: cultivating mulberry trees, rearing silkworms
in these trees, producing yarn from those silkworms and weaving the yarn to produce fabric.
This process is carried out by marginal farmers cultivating mulberry, cocoon rearers, yarn
reelers, and weavers. At BRAC Sericulture, it is mainly women who fill these positions,
although the enterprise struggles to maintain a consistent workforce because it tends to lose a
proportion of its workers to the seasonal fruit cultivation. I was grate experience.

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Conclusion:

We can achieve all benefit from town but the key source of all product, service and
opportunities we get from our farmers or peasants who are live in unaffiliated areas and work
hard to develop our country. That’s why it’s most important to know our village .Truly I born
in city, so I had no real idea about village. So the twelve days that I spent away from home it
was lifetime experience for me. The trip is fully exceptional in my life. The objectives of LFE
were to get the experience of the rural area of Bangladesh and to understand the rural
development process. After complicating my visit to the Madhya Para I came to know about
various features of villages. I have collected all the information by questionnaire survey. The
objectives of LFE will be fulfill when this experience and knowledge will be used properly in
my life.

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Reference:

1) BLC Office Mymensingh

2) Through Interview

3) Villagers Information

4) Personal Observation

5) Field Survey 2019

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