Monday | 7 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
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Monday | 7 October 2024 | Epaper

Rural development and its impact on Bangladesh economy

Published : Saturday, 10 July, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1205
Rajib Chakraborty
Out of the three main sectors of Bangladesh's economy such as agriculture, service, and industry, the agricultural sector has witnessed a substantial decline from a third of GDP in 1980 to 13.07 % in 2019. The steady rise of the industry currently contributes 30 % of GDP which was 17 % in 1980. And service sector that contributes the highest to the national GDP was 48 % in 1980 and 53 % in 2019. The scenario indicates a sectorial shift and proliferation of newly developed non-firm activities.

In the last 40 years, transformation took place in the rural economy of Bangladesh where earlier farmers were at the centre of the rural economy and policy had been formulated based on their needs. The expansion of the local infrastructure such as roads, bridges, electrification, presence of government offices, availability of commercial banks, modern market facilities, and easy communication between the thanas and wholesale market in the urban areas has brought changes in the traditional rural economy. Newly developed non-firm activities like a small shop, small-scale cottage industry, petty traders, and grocery shops are now contributing to the rural economy along with agriculture.

From 1950, many initiatives have been taken for rural development. Some of the initiatives got partial success, and the majority of projects failed to bring necessary changes in the living standard of the rural people. Among them, Village Agricultural and Industrial Development program (V-AID) for community development was first introduced in 1953 for farmers with a core objective to expand irrigation, agriculture, road construction, public health services, etc. Others are Comilla Model in 1959, Rural Works Programme (RWP) in 1962, The Swanirvar Movement in 1967, Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) in 1972, and Ektee Bari & Khamar in 2009.

With frequent natural calamity, the man made problems like political instability and social causes couldn't stop the spirit of the general mass. Hard-working mentality of the farmer those are the majority of the population made the country with a surplus of food.  Still they are struggling for regular and stable earning. Very few pragmatic policies such as compensation policy for frequently destroyed paddy fields due to excessive rainfall, special stimulus packages for farmers' children and old aged members of the families are taken to face the uncertainty or upgrade their living standard.

There is no doubt that urbanization is an essential part of this globalized world. But earning�s maximum benefit from the rural areas by utilizing the natural resources should also be our motto. Rural development will not only improve the economic condition of the residents but will also stop the migration from village to metropolitan areas. It will also help make a balance between the rural and urban populations. Migration from village to cities helps the urban economy in terms of getting easy and cheap labour.

On the other hand, it creates a vacuum in the rural economy--creating a negative impact on rural growth. Scarcity of daily labour and high labour charges for farming is now a common problem for the farmers. Consequently, it increases the operating cost, and ultimately affects the finished products. This economic condition spoils the cultural and social relationship among the inhabitants and hampers peace and social security in the village areas.

Hopefully, despite the existing problems, the recent trend of going 'back to the pavilion attitude' in middle and lower-middle-class people is giving us hope--because now a section of the urban people prefers rural atmosphere to urban facilities.

The SDGs progress report of Bangladesh 2020 revealed that Bangladesh is on the top position in south Asian counterparts for the 5th consecutive year in promoting women empowerment. Noble Laureate Amartya Sen also confessed the same while addressing at a seminar in Dhaka mentioned that despite having a big economic market of India, in some sections, the achievements of Bangladesh more specifically the women and their upliftment in the economic sector have brought a special place for Bangladesh in the global economy.

Hence, it is time for the government to concentrate on rural development, and use the unutilized resources for maximizing the outcomes--so that, in the long run, it makes balance between the urban and rural people. It will also ensure the equal distribution of the resources. For that, the government has to take initiatives to build up modern facilities in the rural areas.

Without a doubt, such a shift of population from one place to another will indeed charge high fixed costs and as a developing country. Consequently, it will create a burden for the government in implementing different projects. The domestic business firms can extend their hand through PPP or even take part in small-scale investment through CSR practices as part of their commitment to the development of society.

In this regard, to coordinate the whole work to save the country from haphazard unplanned developmental works, the government has to make a master plan by integrating its all wings. At the first stage, the divisions that have greater developed infrastructural facilities with easy transportation mode between the metropolitan cities and upazilas can be selected first and later rest of the divisions will be included in the developmental process. In addition, apart from the basic rural infrastructural development works, the high involvement of the private sector in building service organizations like hospitals, clinics, training centres, good colleges, vocational institutions, rural branches of the private commercial banks will develop the rural economy.

It will reduce the discriminations between the urban and rural people and will minimize the gap between them.  As a result, the majority of the population, the rural people, will be well equipped with better education, training, and health facilities. Therefore they will also equally participate in the development process of the country with the urban people.  

It can be said that despite the rise of non-firm activities, agriculture plays a pivotal role in feeding the growing urban population. Thus, the government should formulate policies with more emphasis on agricultural production for better utilization of the local resources of the rural areas to develop the living standard of the rural people.
Dr Rajib Chakraborty is an independent researcher & columnist




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