High growth, increased discrimination and aspirations for change

Over the past five decades, Bangladesh’s socio-economy has undergone a significant capitalist transformation. In conventional terms, many aspects of this transformation can be viewed as “economic growth.” The size of the economy has expanded greatly; concrete infrastructure has proliferated; GDP has multiplied several times over; imports and exports have risen substantially; the road network has widened; transportation and communication have expanded; high-rise buildings have increased rapidly; the garment industry has achieved major success as the main source of export earnings; remittances from migrant workers have built up a large foreign currency reserve; the microcredit and NGO model has spread widely in institutions and economic activities; urbanisation has accelerated; and both domestic and international mobility and connectivity have grown.

Globally, the qualitative transformation brought by information technology has introduced many new elements into Bangladesh’s society, politics and economy. Many professions are disappearing, while many new ones are emerging.

The boom in online communication has had a profound impact on the lives and economic, cultural and political activities of vast numbers of people in both rural and urban areas. For countless individuals, daily life has now become dependent on mobile phones, the internet, WhatsApp, Imo, YouTube, OTT platforms and mobile payment systems such as bKash and Nagad.

Online banking, online seminars, discussions, and studies; online buying and selling; online businesses and commerce; online organisational activities; and online religious sermons have all multiplied many times over. The trade in computers, mobile phones, internet services and televisions, driven by both online and offline commerce, has expanded significantly, much of it dependent on imported goods.

Private clinics, laboratories, and hospitals, as well as private schools, colleges, universities, NGOs and consultancy firms, have grown in large numbers. Traditional cinema halls have declined, cineplexes have emerged; libraries, theatre halls, and cultural centres have not increased notably, but restaurants offering local and foreign cuisine and shopping malls have multiplied many times over. The number of public buses has grown somewhat, but the number of private cars has expanded manifold in comparison. Religious practice in society has also increased substantially compared to before.

However, the rapid GDP growth or so-called economic prosperity has come at a very high social and environmental cost. For instance, during the decade when GDP growth was at its highest, the rate of deforestation was also at its peak. Rivers, canals, wetlands, and forests have suffered from pollution, encroachment and devastation.

Meanwhile, a super-rich class has emerged in the country. While their wealth continues to soar, more than forty million people remain below the conventional poverty line, below the threshold of mere subsistence. If the definition of poverty were to include access to education, healthcare, security and human dignity, it would become evident that about 80 per cent of the population is trapped in inhuman living conditions. Even in the past year, both poverty and inequality have continued to increase.

In the past few decades, food production has increased more than fourfold compared to the population, yet most people still lack access to sufficient, nutritious and safe food. Farmers’ lives in the country have become precarious in many ways. The price of crops, constant uncertainty, exposure to toxins, and land grabbing and pollution all keep them in distress. To survive, they must continually seek new means of livelihood.
Education and healthcare have become heavily commercialised. Education and training geared toward a salesman-style economy are expanding, while basic studies in science, philosophy, sociology, and history are treated as unnecessary branches of knowledge. The influence of the market, consumerism, and fatalism has grown remarkably.

Over ten million Bangladeshis are now migrant workers. While the foreign currency they send home is one of the driving forces of the national economy, most of their lives and livelihoods remain plagued by uncertainty and insecurity. Within the country, 85 per cent of the working-age population now depends on the informal sector.

For wage-earning people, their main workplaces have become the “piecemeal economy,” including rickshaws, battery-operated rickshaws, buses, trucks, CNGs, tempos, hotels, restaurants, and small to large shops. Most work is temporary, irregular, and poorly paid. A national minimum wage is still a distant goal. Wages and salaries in almost every profession, including labourers and teachers, rank among the lowest in the world.
High expenses for education and healthcare place a significant portion of the population at great risk. Many people are driven into bankruptcy trying to provide medical care for relatives or education for their children.

For these reasons, social class inequality has intensified sharply. Ninety per cent of the population now has a reduced share of the GDP, while income and wealth have become concentrated in the hands of the top ten per cent, most of which is further controlled by the top one per cent.
As a result, the country’s vast resources have been plundered and siphoned off, national sovereignty has been violated, and the nation has repeatedly been trapped under the grip of authoritarian rule. Uncertainty, deprivation and oppression continue to dominate the lives of the vast majority of people.

Another major aspect of social inequality is gender discrimination. Over the past few decades, women’s participation and visible activity have increased across all sectors. The presence of women as wage labourers in both urban and rural areas is now comparatively much higher. Even girls from middle- and lower-middle-class families are increasingly participating in income-generating work.

Although girls see a higher rate of success in education, they lack continuity in this progress. The reasons behind this fall back or dropout are social barriers, restrictions and deeply-entrenched misogyny. Legal frameworks also remain discriminatory. Barriers still exist regarding property and inheritance rights, there is a lack of proper access to sports and employment, and freedom of movement is often restricted.

In both rural and urban areas, the number of displaced people deprived of land, work and shelter is increasing, with women and children in these groups being particularly vulnerable. Gender diversity faces serious threats. Alongside attacks and intimidation by groups opposed to women’s mobility and activism, incidents of sexual harassment and rape, both at home and in public spaces, remain a major concern.

Another area of inequality can be seen in the case of ethnic and linguistic minorities. Since independence, the constitution adopted in 1972 has undergone numerous amendments over the decades. Yet to this day, the existence of non-Bengali ethnicities and language speakers is not constitutionally recognised in Bangladesh. Moreover, their land, language and culture are all under constant threat of encroachment, and they face perpetual insecurity.

Religious discrimination is another major domain of social inequality and a primary source of unrest, hostility and violence for the people of South Asia. The assertion that the religion of the majority must drive the state repeatedly inflicts harm on the peoples of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. It has obstructed the path to unity in diversity.

In reality, it is not only the majority group that is secure, nor are only people of different religions the victims of discrimination. Even within the same religion, minority or weaker groups face oppression and marginalisation. The everyday insecurity experienced by vulnerable populations with different beliefs, practices, or religions is a direct result of such discriminatory systems.

As mentioned earlier, forests, government land, common property, rivers, canals, wetlands and open fields are now all targets of seizure. Needless to say, this culture of land-grabbing, corruption, and criminal activity occurs within the framework of state policies and patronage. These are therefore not isolated incidents.

Through the influence of the World Bank, IMF, ADB and JICA, neoliberal or capitalist economic reform policies have opened the way for profit-driven appropriation of all common property. It is because of these policies that, over the past few decades, vast wealth has become concentrated in the hands of a few groups. The country’s natural resources, power sector, infrastructure, agriculture, and ports have been opened to multinational investment. Projects that destroy life in the name of development and agreements contrary to national interest continue down to this day. Attempts to impose imperialist military-commercial projects have now increased.

We are witnessing a stark contrast between, on one hand, the opulence of a tiny elite and, on the other, the horror of poverty and deprivation faced by the vast majority, all orchestrated through actions that go against public interest and the environment. The rise of identity politics has created a web of fear and insecurity for different communities based solely on (religious, gender, or ethnic) identity.

On one side, there is the potential for development; on the other, programmes are underway that serve the interests of domestic and foreign exploiters, reversing progress. These forces have thrown Bangladesh into a cruel paradox.

The country has seen numerous changes of military, elected and unelected governments, yet there has been no change in these policies and no new direction has emerged. The government that came to power through student and public uprisings, carrying the dream and expectation of establishing an egalitarian Bangladesh, shows no signs of altering this reality.

There is ample cause for concern over the uncertainty and instability now visible in Bangladesh’s state politics. During the previous government, under the guise of single-party dominance, all sorts of discriminatory, ethnically biased, communal, and misogynistic forces expanded across political, economic and cultural spheres of society. They are asserting themselves with even greater audacity.

They are vandalising shrines, attacking temples and worship spaces, destroying artworks, murals, and sculptures; employing mob violence to shut down music and theatre festivals; obstructing women’s freedom of movement; creating fear and insecurity among minority ethnic and religious communities; and attempting to seize control of various institutions.

What heightens concern and anger is that when these attacks, violence, and vandalism occur, the government appears either inactive or the administration seems to provide direct support. The dominance of discriminatory politics is increasing, and religious fascist ideology is being glorified through coercion, tagging, mob violence, and activities that target women and communities, manifesting in varying degrees.

It must be noted that inequality is not the same as diversity. The diversity of society, culture, and nature is a source of our strength. This diversity must be protected, and a strong stance must be taken against all forms of discrimination. The powerful aspiration to establish a society free of inequality, oppression, and domination has been vividly expressed on walls by the teenagers and youth of our time. Our task now is to transform that expression into theoretical and organisational strength.

* Anu Muhammad is an economist and editor of Sarbojankotha