About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Subscribe

Bangladesh-Local Administration

MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Bangladesh Index

The Jatiyo Sangsad, Bangladesh's Parliament
Courtesy Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs

During the early British period, when modified versions of Mughal (1526-1858) and earlier administrations were adopted, the closest the government came to the rural society was the zamindar (see Glossary), an administrator with concurrent judicial functions, who ensured revenue flows from the localities to the central government and handled a wide variety of official business. Government from the top down was the general rule for the Indian Civil Service and later the Pakistani and early Bangladeshi civil services. After 1971 the government of Bangladesh saw the benefits of involving more people in democratic decision-making and development programs, but the progress of reform was slow. In 1959 General Mohammad Ayub Khan's government inaugurated a "basic democracies" program designed to involve villagers in development programs, with direct elections to union councils and indirect elections to bodies serving larger administrative units. Mujib's government held elections for union councils, but the coup of 1975 prevented their effective functioning. In 1980 Zia's government announced the Self-Sufficient Village Government Plan, but this project ended when Zia was assassinated in 1981. In 1982 Ershad appointed the Committee for Administrative Reorganization/Reforms, which led to the establishment of the National Implementation Committee for Administrative Reorganization. These bodies built a comprehensive plan for administrative decentralization based on the subdistrict.

Bangladesh is divided into four main territorial divisions (see fig. 1). In the late 1980s, the four divisions were divided into twenty-one regions, and the regions were subdivided into sixty-four districts (zilas--see Glossary). Below the district level, there were further urban and rural subdivisions. Urban areas include four municipal corporations (Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, and Khulna, each of which included several municipalities), eightyseven municipalities (pourashavas) and thirty townships (thanas). The four divisions had the same name as the four municipal corporations. The countryside had 460 subdistricts (upazilas--see Glossary), which were further divided into 4,401 unions (the rough equivalent of an urban ward); these, in turn, contained 60,315 mouzas (groups of two or more villages--about 20 percent of the total) and single villages (about 80 percent of the total). A further subdivision, equivalent to the rural mouza, was the mahalla, which was found in urban areas. Each mouza or mahalla, the size of which was determined by census data-gathering techniques, contained about 250 households. An average village in the late 1980s contained 1,300 to 1,400 people. An average union contained about 15 villages and a population of about 20,000, and an average subdistrict had 8 to 10 unions with about 200,000 people.

Throughout its history, one of the main challenges to the Bangladeshi government has been finding ways to involve people in democratic politics at every administrative level.

According to the decentralization plan in effect in mid-1988, each rural mouza had its own council (parishad) of elected representatives chosen by local voters (persons aged eighteen and over). At the next administrative level, the chairmen of the union councils were directly elected by voters within their jurisdictions. The remaining members of the union council were chosen by the mouza councils, with each member of the union council representing three or four villages. The chairmen of the union councils formed the voting membership of the council at the subdistrict level, along with three appointed women and another appointed member, usually a former freedom fighter. The chairman of the subdistrict council was directly elected by subdistrict voters. Thus the people had a direct electoral role at the village level, and they had a voice in choosing influential chairmen at the union and subdistrict levels. In the late 1980s, plans called for the expansion of representation at the district level, and the controversial District Council (Zila Parishad) Bill of 1987 was the first step in this direction (see Relaxation of Martial Law, 1986- 87 , this ch.). By mid-1988, however, these plans had not been implemented; the region and division levels remained administrative units of the civil service and had no political significance.

Local participatory politics met the civil service in the subdistrict council. In the late 1980s, the chief government official in charge of local projects and development efforts was the subdistrict project management (upazila nirbahi) officer, who directed a staff of about 250 technical and administrative officers. Nirbahi officers were part of the staff appointed by central authorities in Dhaka, and they received their pay, benefits, and promotion from the civil service. Their direct supervisors, however, were the subdistrict council chairmen. The subdistrict councils, through their chairmen, were expected to make plans for public works and development projects within their own territories, spend allocated government funds, and direct the development activities of nirbahi officers and their staff. Nirbahi officers and other subdistrict technical personnel were allowed to participate in subdistrict council meetings, but only as nonvoting members. Civil service members, heirs of a long tradition of elite government, took orders from subdistrict council chairmen because the latter wrote the annual evaluations of nirbahi officers which served as the basis for promotion within the civil service. In this way, elected representatives of the people at the local level exercised direct control over civil servants and government projects in their own area.

In the late 1980s, the administrative apparatus at the urban level was comprised of a governing council with an elected chairman, elected commissioners (no more than 10 percent of whom were women), and several ex officio members. A mayor and deputy mayors were elected from among the council members.

The decentralization scheme implemented under Ershad's government was the most ambitious attempt in the history of Bangladesh to bring responsible government to the local level. The system officially began with elections in 1983 for four-year terms to union councils and with elections in 1984 for three-year terms to subdistrict councils. However, there were major problems with this scheme of decentralized administration. First, the electoral system tended to represent only the wealthiest and most influential members of society. These persons made decisions that strengthened their own patronage networks and influence at the local level; the poorest strata in society had little direct voice in elected committees (see Local Elites , this ch.). Second, the subdistrict councils were designed to create and implement development activities in their areas, but they were typically slow to draft five-year plans or carry through broad-based development efforts. Most of their projects emphasized construction or public works, (e.g., school buildings or irrigation canals, and they sometimes neglected the personnel and training components necessary for social involvement (see Economic Policy and Planning , ch. 3). Third, civil service members have long lacked respect for local politicians, looking to their own advancement from their supervisors in Dhaka. They have often been slow to cooperate with elected members of local committees. For example, although the subdistrict council chairman was responsible for writing the nirbahi officer's annual evaluation, the officer was expected to submit the evaluation form to the subdistrict council chairman, and in many cases these forms did not appear, thus preventing the chairmen from exercising control. Finally, the entire system of decentralized politics was viewed by opposition politicians as a patronage network designed to attract local elites to the party of the regime in power. Observers tended to conclude that instead of furthering decentralized democracy, the system only strengthened the national party controlled from Dhaka.

Data as of September 1988

Background		Europeans began to set up trading posts in the area of Bangladesh in the 16th century; eventually the British came to dominate the region and it became part of British India. In 1947, West Pakistan and East Bengal (both primarily Muslim) separated from India (largely Hindu) and jointly became the new country of Pakistan. East Bengal became East Pakistan in 1955, but the awkward arrangement of a two-part country with its territorial units separated by 1,600 km left the Bengalis marginalized and dissatisfied. East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971 and was renamed Bangladesh. A military-backed, emergency caretaker regime suspended parliamentary elections planned for January 2007 in an effort to reform the political system and root out corruption. In contrast to the strikes and violent street rallies that had marked Bangladeshi politics in previous years, the parliamentary elections finally held in late December 2008 were mostly peaceful and Sheikh HASINA Wajed was reelected prime minister. About a third of this extremely poor country floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development.
Location		Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India
Area(sq km)		total: 143,998 sq km land: 130,168 sq km water: 13,830 sq km
Geographic coordinates		24 00 N, 90 00 E
Land boundaries(km)		total: 4,246 km border countries: Burma 193 km, India 4,053 km
Coastline(km)		580 km
Climate		tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October)
Elevation extremes(m)		lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m highest point: Keokradong 1,230 m
Natural resources		natural gas, arable land, timber, coal
Land use(%)		arable land: 55.39% permanent crops: 3.08% other: 41.53% (2005)
Irrigated land(sq km)		47,250 sq km (2003)
Total renewable water resources(cu km)		1,210.6 cu km (1999)
Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural)		total: 79.4 cu km/yr (3%/1%/96%) per capita: 560 cu m/yr (2000)
Natural hazards		droughts; cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during the summer monsoon season
Environment - current issues		many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; waterborne diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion; deforestation; severe overpopulation
Environment - international agreements		party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note		most of the country is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal
Population		156,050,883 (July 2009 est.)
Age structure(%)		0-14 years: 34.6% (male 27,065,625/female 26,913,961) 15-64 years: 61.4% (male 45,222,182/female 50,537,052) 65 years and over: 4% (male 3,057,255/female 3,254,808) (2009 est.)
Median age(years)		total: 23.3 years male: 22.9 years female: 23.5 years (2009 est.)
Population growth rate(%)		1.292% (2009 est.)
Birth rate(births/1,000 population)		24.68 births/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Death rate(deaths/1,000 population)		9.23 deaths/1,000 population (July 2009 est.)
Net migration rate(migrant(s)/1,000 population)		-2.53 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2009 est.)
Urbanization(%)		urban population: 27% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 3.5% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.)
Sex ratio(male(s)/female)		at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1.01 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 0.9 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.94 male(s)/female total population: 0.93 male(s)/female (2009 est.)
Infant mortality rate(deaths/1,000 live births)		total: 59.02 deaths/1,000 live births male: 66.12 deaths/1,000 live births female: 51.64 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.)
Life expectancy at birth(years)		total population: 60.25 years male: 57.57 years female: 63.03 years (2009 est.)
Total fertility rate(children born/woman)		2.74 children born/woman (2009 est.)
Nationality		noun: Bangladeshi(s) adjective: Bangladeshi
Ethnic groups(%)		Bengali 98%, other 2% (includes tribal groups, non-Bengali Muslims) (1998)
Religions(%)		Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998)
Languages(%)		Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English
Country name		conventional long form: People's Republic of Bangladesh conventional short form: Bangladesh local long form: Gana Prajatantri Banladesh local short form: Banladesh former: East Bengal, East Pakistan
Government type		parliamentary democracy
Capital		name: Dhaka geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 24 E time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Administrative divisions		6 divisions; Barisal, Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet
Constitution		4 November 1972; effective 16 December 1972; suspended following coup of 24 March 1982; restored 10 November 1986; amended many times
Legal system		based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Suffrage		18 years of age; universal
Executive branch		chief of state: President Zillur RAHMAN (since 12 February 2009) head of government: Prime Minister Sheikh HASINA Wajed (since 6 January 2009) cabinet: Cabinet selected by the prime minister and appointed by the president elections: president elected by National Parliament for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); last election held on 11 February 2009 (next scheduled election to be held in 2014) election results: Zillur RAHMAN declared president-elect by the Election Commission on 11 February 2009 (sworn in on 12 February); he ran unopposed as president; percent of National Parliament vote - NA
Legislative branch		unicameral National Parliament or Jatiya Sangsad; 300 seats elected by popular vote from single territorial constituencies; members serve five-year terms elections: last held 29 December 2008 (next to be held in 2013) election results: percent of vote by party - AL 49%, BNP 33.2%, JP 7%, JIB 4.6%, other 6.2%; seats by party - AL 230, BNP 30, JP 27, JIB 2, other 11
Judicial branch		Supreme Court (the chief justices and other judges are appointed by the president)
Political pressure groups and leaders		Advocacy to End Gender-based Violence through the MoWCA (Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs) other: environmentalists; Islamist groups; religious leaders; teachers; union leaders
International organization participation		ADB, ARF, BIMSTEC, C, CP, FAO, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt (signatory), ICRM, IDA, IDB, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MINURCAT, MINURSO, MONUC, NAM, OIC, OPCW, SAARC, SACEP, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMIL, UNMIS, UNMIT, UNOCI, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO
Flag description		green field with a large red disk shifted slightly to the hoist side of center; the red disk represents the rising sun and the sacrifice to achieve independence; the green field symbolizes the lush vegetation of Bangladesh
Economy - overview		The economy has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. In 2008 Bangladesh pursued a monetary policy aimed at maintaining high employment, but created higher inflation in the process.
GDP (purchasing power parity)		$226.4 billion (2008 est.) $214 billion (2007 est.) $201.5 billion (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP (official exchange rate)		$84.2 billion (2008 est.)
GDP - real growth rate(%)		5.8% (2008 est.) 6.2% (2007 est.) 6.4% (2006 est.)
GDP - per capita (PPP)		$1,500 (2008 est.) $1,400 (2007 est.) $1,300 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars
GDP - composition by sector(%)		agriculture: 19.1% industry: 28.6% services: 52.3% (2008 est.)
Labor force		70.86 million note: extensive export of labor to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Qatar, and Malaysia; workers' remittances estimated at $4.8 billion in 2005-06. (2008 est.)
Labor force - by occupation(%)		agriculture: 63% industry: 11% services: 26% (FY95/96)
Unemployment rate(%)		2.5% (2008 est.) 2.5% (2007 est.)
Population below poverty line(%)		45% (2004 est.)
Household income or consumption by percentage share(%)		lowest 10%: 4.3% highest 10%: 26.6% (2005)
Distribution of family income - Gini index		33.2 (2005) 33.6 (1996)
Investment (gross fixed)(% of GDP)		24.3% of GDP (2008 est.)
Budget		revenues: $8.825 billion expenditures: $12.54 billion (2008 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices)(%)		8.9% (2008 est.) 9.1% (2007 est.)
Stock of money		$9.294 billion (31 December 2008) $8.444 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of quasi money		$37.98 billion (31 December 2008) $32.35 billion (31 December 2007)
Stock of domestic credit		$47.03 billion (31 December 2008) $40.1 billion (31 December 2007)
Market value of publicly traded shares		$6.671 billion (31 December 2008) $6.793 billion (31 December 2007) $3.61 billion (31 December 2006)
Economic aid - recipient		$1.321 billion (2005)
Public debt(% of GDP)		39.4% of GDP (2008 est.) 43% of GDP (2004 est.)
Agriculture - products		rice, jute, tea, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, tobacco, pulses, oilseeds, spices, fruit; beef, milk, poultry
Industries		cotton textiles, jute, garments, tea processing, paper newsprint, cement, chemical fertilizer, light engineering, sugar
Industrial production growth rate(%)		6.9% (2008 est.)
Current account balance		$1.032 billion (2008 est.) $856.8 million (2007 est.)
Exports		$15.44 billion (2008 est.) $12.47 billion (2007 est.)
Exports - commodities(%)		garments, jute and jute goods, leather, frozen fish and seafood
Exports - partners(%)		US 21%, Germany 13.2%, UK 8.6%, France 6.3%, Netherlands 4.7% (2008)
Imports		$21.51 billion (2008 est.) $16.67 billion (2007 est.)
Imports - commodities(%)		machinery and equipment, chemicals, iron and steel, textiles, foodstuffs, petroleum products, cement
Imports - partners(%)		China 14.7%, India 14.7%, Kuwait 7.5%, Singapore 7.1%, Japan 4.1% (2008)
Reserves of foreign exchange and gold		$5.789 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $5.278 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Debt - external		$22.83 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $21.23 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - at home		$5.971 billion (31 December 2008 est.) $5.261 billion (31 December 2007 est.)
Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad		$97 million (31 December 2008 est.)
Exchange rates		taka (BDT) per US dollar - 68.554 (2008 est.), 69.893 (2007), 69.031 (2006), 64.328 (2005), 59.513 (2004)
Currency (code)		taka (BDT)
Telephones - main lines in use		1.39 million (2009)
Telephones - mobile cellular		45.75 million (2009)
Telephone system		general assessment: inadequate for a modern country; fixed-line telephone density remains less than 1 per 100 persons; mobile-cellular telephone subscribership has been increasing rapidly and has reached 30 per 100 persons domestic: modernizing; introducing digital systems; trunk systems include VHF and UHF microwave radio relay links, and some fiber-optic cable in cities international: country code - 880; landing point for the SEA-ME-WE-4 fiber-optic submarine cable system that provides links to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia; satellite earth stations - 6; international radiotelephone communications and landline service to neighboring countries (2008)
Internet country code		.bd
Internet users		556,000 (2008)
Airports		17 (2009)
Pipelines(km)		gas 2,597 km (2008)
Roadways(km)		total: 239,226 km paved: 22,726 km unpaved: 216,500 km (2003)
Ports and terminals		Chittagong, Mongla Port
Military branches		Bangladesh Defense Force: Bangladesh Army (Sena Bahini), Bangladesh Navy (Noh Bahini, BN), Bangladesh Air Force (Biman Bahini, BAF) (2009)
Military service age and obligation(years of age)		16 years of age for voluntary military service; 17 years of age for officers (both with parental consent); conscription legally possible in emergency, but has never been implemented (2008)
Manpower available for military service		males age 16-49: 41,199,340 (2008 est.)
Manpower fit for military service		males age 16-49: 24,946,041 females age 16-49: 31,409,069 (2009 est.)
Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually		male: 1,538,865 female: 1,666,670 (2009 est.)
Military expenditures(% of GDP)		1.5% of GDP (2006)
Disputes - international		discussions with India remain stalled to delimit a small section of river boundary, exchange territory for 51 small Bangladeshi exclaves in India and 111 small Indian exclaves in Bangladesh, allocate divided villages, and stop illegal cross-border trade, migration, violence, and transit of terrorists through the porous border; Bangladesh protests India's fencing and walling off high-traffic sections of the porous boundary; a joint Bangladesh-India boundary commission resurveyed and reconstructed 92 missing pillars in 2007; dispute with India over New Moore/South Talpatty/Purbasha Island in the Bay of Bengal deters maritime boundary delimitation; after 21 years, Bangladesh resumes talks with Burma on delimiting a maritime boundary
Refugees and internally displaced persons		refugees (country of origin): 26,268 (Burma) IDPs: 65,000 (land conflicts, religious persecution) (2007)
Electricity - production(kWh)		22.99 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - production by source(%)		fossil fuel: 93.7% hydro: 6.3% nuclear: 0% other: 0% (2001)
Electricity - consumption(kWh)		21.38 billion kWh (2007 est.)
Electricity - exports(kWh)		0 kWh (2008 est.)
Electricity - imports(kWh)		0 kWh (2008 est.)
Oil - production(bbl/day)		6,426 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - consumption(bbl/day)		95,000 bbl/day (2008 est.)
Oil - exports(bbl/day)		2,612 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - imports(bbl/day)		87,660 bbl/day (2007 est.)
Oil - proved reserves(bbl)		28 million bbl (1 January 2009 est.)
Natural gas - production(cu m)		17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - consumption(cu m)		17.9 billion cu m (2008 est.)
Natural gas - exports(cu m)		0 cu m (2008)
Natural gas - proved reserves(cu m)		141.6 billion cu m (1 January 2009 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate(%)		less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS		12,000 (2007 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths		fewer than 500 (2007 est.)
Major infectious diseases		degree of risk: high food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria are high risks in some locations water contact disease: leptospirosis animal contact disease: rabies note: highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza has been identified in this country; it poses a negligible risk with extremely rare cases possible among US citizens who have close contact with birds (2009)
Literacy(%)		definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 47.9% male: 54% female: 41.4% (2001 Census)
School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education)(years)		total: 8 years male: 8 years female: 8 years (2004)
Education expenditures(% of GDP)		2.7% of GDP (2005)