1. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL IMPACTS OF SISIMPUR:
PHASE 1 REPORT
July 2005
Submitted by Nazli Kibria
Associate Professor of Sociology
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
6-year boy at home, Mirka Village, Mymensingh
Principal Investigator: Professor Nazli Kibria
Research Directors: Asgar Ali Sabri, Moniza Biswas
Research Assistants: Fariba Alamgir, Manirul Islam, Ariful Haque Kabir, Md. Mostafa
Kamal, Nehrir Khan, Simeen Sabha, Mustafizul Hye Shakir.

2. TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
I INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………1
a. Background
b. Framework of the study
c. Early childhood development and education in Bangladesh: An overview
II STUDY METHODOLOGY…………………………………………..4
a. Data gathering strategies
b. Study sites
c. Fieldwork methods and data analysis
III PARENTING AND THE YOUNG CHILD: CULTURAL ATTITUDES AND
BELIEFS………………………………………………………………….10
a. Conceptions of the young child
Early childhood as a time of “natural growth”
Raising a moral human being (manush cora)
Girls and boys
b. Parenting Tasks
Discipline
Monitoring children’s friends
Children’s rising consumer needs
Preparation for school
IV “EXPERT” PERSPECTIVES: THE CHALLENGES OF EDUCATION AND
SAFETY………………………………………………………………….21
V CHILDREN AND TELEVISION……………………………………25
VI CHILDREN’S WORLDS……………………………………………28

3. a. Household portraits
Saber
Abdul
Raja
Shona
b. Daily routines
c. Play
d. Study
e. Interactions with parents
f. Television in children’s lives
g. Summary points from “Children’s Worlds”
V SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS………………………..39
REFERENCES…………………………………………………………..44
APPENDIX 1: Map of Bhaluka, Mymensingh
APPENDIX 2: Instrument 1: Parents, Interview Schedule
APPENDIX 3: Instrument 2: Educators, Interview Schedule
APPENDIX 4: Instrument 3: Community Leaders, Interview Schedule
APPENDIX 5: Instrument 4: Focus Group Interviews with Children, Guidelines
APPENDIX 6: Instrument 5: Organization Representatives and Production Community,
Interview Schedule
APPENDIX 7: Instrument 6: Household Observation Face Sheet
APPENDIX 8: Photographs from the field

4. ABSTRACT
This report presents findings from Phase 1 of a research project on the social and cultural
impacts of Sisimpur – the Bangladesh adaptation of Sesame Street. The project will
explore the emerging role and place of Sisimpur in the lives of children and their families
in Bangladesh. Phase 1 is a baseline study which was conducted in early 2005 before
Sisimpur was aired on Bangladesh national television. Phase 2, which will take place in
mid-2006, will examine the impacts of Sisimpur.
The project uses qualitative research methods – in-depth interviews, group discussions
and household observations – to gather information on the ways in which early childhood
and learning are experienced and understood in contemporary Bangladesh. In Phase 1,
data was gathered from both rural and urban areas and from communities that were
varied in their socioeconomic profile. The interviews (N=36) and group discussions
(N=22) involved a non-random, convenience sample of parents, educators, community
leaders, organizational leaders, and members and advisors of the Sisimpur production
team. The households of 10 young children were observed for 5-6 hours.
As described in this report, the Phase 1 study finds that parents and caregivers of young
children in Bangladesh face a variety of difficult challenges, including that of ensuring
the safety and security of children as well as their access to education. The prevailing
child-rearing stance towards young, preschool children is one of “natural growth” – of
letting the child grow without undue adult interference and intervention. At the same
time, there is a strong consciousness, particularly in educated families, of the need to
prepare children by teaching them basic social and pre-academic skills before their enter
school. It is also the case that parenting responsibilities are widely understood in
Bangladesh to encompass the task of raising children who are moral-ethical human
beings. It is important then that Sisimpur be understood by parents and caretakers as an
aid in their efforts to prepare young children for school and also as a partner for them in
the work of children’s moral education.
The primary recommendation to emerge from the Phase 1 study is that outreach to rural
areas should be an integral part of the Sisimpur venture since without such outreach
Sisimpur is unlikely to reach children who live in villages without electricity or with a
limited number of televisions. Such outreach, while specifically directed to young
children, can actively incorporate older children and adults, especially women. We also
recommend that outreach efforts be explicitly framed around the idea that Sisimpur is
both a source of entertainment and education for children, and that it may help parents
with the work of preparing children for school.

5. GLOSSARY OF TERMS
ajan: Islamic call to prayer
baby class: pre-Kindergarten class
bari: family homestead
bastee: urban slum/squatter settlement
bideshi: foreign
BTV: Bangladesh National Television
bujhe na: does not understand/unable to understand
ghar: room/home
gharer bayre: outside the home
Headmaster: school principal
HSC: Higher Secondary Certificate. A national-level education certificate given to those
who pass an exam, generally in the 12th
year of schooling
hujur: Islamic religious teacher/tutor
lungi: sarong-like robe worn by men
madrasah: Islamic school
manush cora: to raise a child as a proper, ethical human being
noshto: spoiled/rotten
pan-shupari: bettle-leaf and nut
shashon: discipline
SSC: Secondary School Certificate. A national-level education certificate given to those
who pass an exam, generally in the 10th
year of schooling

6. I INTRODUCTION
a. Background
Sisimpur is the adaptation in Bangladesh of the popular and acclaimed U.S. children’s
educational TV program Sesame Street. As described in a news release that appeared in
Bangladesh, Sisimpur aims to “help young children learn fundamental literacy, numeracy
and critical thinking skills through humour, music, fantasy and daily life situations” (New
Age 2005). The show features Bengali Muppets such as Halum (a tiger), Tuktuki (a 5
year old girl), Shiku (a jackal) and Ikri Mikri (a 3 year old girl). The series is co-produced
by Sesame Workshop and Nayantara Communications. Funding is provided by the
United States Agency for International Development.
In January 2005, Sesame Workshop contracted with Professor Nazli Kibria of
Boston University to conduct a qualitative study of the social and cultural impacts in
Bangladesh of the TV program Sisimpur. The study has two anticipated phases. The
report which follows presents findings from Phase 1 which was conducted in March-
April 2005. Phase 1 is conceptualized as a “baseline” study and thus took place before the
first airing (in late April 2005) of Sisimpur on Bangladesh television. Phase 2 will take
place in June-September 2006, approximately a year after Sisimpur has first aired on
Bangladesh television. Phase 2 of the study will thus explore the impact of Sisimpur,
drawing on Phase 1 findings as a basis for analysis.
b. Basic framework of the study
Studies show that Sesame Street can positively effect the cognitive developments of
young children (Mielke 2001; Zielinksa & Chambers 1995). There is also some evidence
that the impact of Sisimpur can extend to the social realm. As Mielke (1993: 93) notes:
“Children …demonstrate learning of prosocial skills modeled on Sesame Street,
particularly when children can express it in a form similar to the way in which it was
modeled on the program” (93).
The question of how Sesame Street could have a broad and large-scale impact on
prevailing attitudes towards and practices of early childhood and learning within a society
has not however been previously explored. Bangladesh as a society is in certain ways an
ideal site for such an exploration. First of all, at the present time, Sisimpur stands out in
the world of Bangladesh children’s television for its particular blend of child-oriented
education and entertainment. To be sure, there are notable children’s educational
television programs such as the UNICEF-sponsored “Meena”. But Sisimpur is quite
distinct and thus may affect the experiences of children and their families in unique ways.
Second, Bangladesh as a society is marked by a relatively high degree of ethnic,
linguistic and cultural homogeneity. This was evidenced by much of the data we gathered
on attitudes and beliefs about young children. These suggested a fairly clear cultural

7. template -- a normative set of expectations and attitudes that are widely understood to
constitute the core of Bangali culture. A study of large-scale cultural impacts may thus be
more feasible and meaningful in Bangladesh than it is in societies that are culturally less
homogeneous.
This study of the social and cultural impacts of Sisimpur in Bangladesh is driven
by two intertwined questions. First of all, how does Sisimpur shape cultural approaches
towards and practices of early childhood and learning in Bangladesh? Specifically, how
do the approaches and practices that are embedded in Sisimpur become integrated into
those of family members, educators and others who are involved in the care of young
children in Bangladesh? And how does Sisimpur shape children’s perspectives and
experiences of play, study, work, family and community? Second, how is Sisimpur
received by people in Bangladesh? Is it widely known and recognized? How is it
described and understood? Are there specific parts of the program, such as particular
characters and segments, that are especially well-known? What is the perceived
relationship of Sisimpur to Bangali culture?
The project uses qualitative research methods – in-depth interviews, group
discussions and household observations -- to gather information on the above issues. Our
strategy is to gather data in several different types of community settings. These
community settings capture a range of important differences – of social class, rural-urban
location, and levels of community literacy – that are critical to understanding
contemporary Bangladesh society. In this report, we offer information on what we
learned in these different community settings about early childhood and learning in
Bangladesh today.
In keeping with the goal of assessing the broad social and cultural impacts of
Sisimpur, we expect that the 2006 Phase 2 of the project will focus on assessing impacts
at the community level. For example, a specific question we will consider is: how have
understandings of early childhood and learning shifted in Angarpara village after the
airing of Sisimpur? Because of these plans, on a practical level, we saw an important
Phase 1 task to be the establishment of relationships in the field that would allow, during
next year’s Phase 2, for effective follow-up interviews and observations in these same
communities. It is important to note that while we expect there to be some degree of
exposure to Sisimpur in all of the community sites, there are also likely to be variations in
the extent of this exposure because of unequal access to television. As discussed at the
end of this report, we recommend that the Sisimpur production team conduct outreach
efforts in the communities, particularly at the village sites. If these efforts take place, the
impact of Sisimpur in all of these communities can be more effectively compared during
Phase 2.
c. Early childhood development and education in Bangladesh: An overview
In recent years in Bangladesh there has been growing awareness, particularly among
policy-makers and service providers, of the need for programs that actively foster and
promote early childhood development and learning. However, there is, to date, no official

8. government policy on early childhood development and preschool education. In general,
as Akhtar (2004) has noted, the concept of Early Childhood Development1
has yet to be
institutionalized in Bangladesh or even widely recognized as an area of needed attention.
For most children in Bangladesh, the process of formal schooling begins around
the age of 6, the official age of school entry. Primary education is free and compulsory
for children aged 6-10 years. Since the 1990s a variety of stipend programs, targeting
girls in particular, have been introduced in the country with the goal of enhancing school
attendance and completion. Reflecting these efforts, there has been important progress in
these areas, particularly with respect to the schooling of girls. However, major gaps
remain in place. Available information suggests that about 40% of children in
Bangladesh do not graduate from primary school due to a combination of drop-out as
well as non-enrollment in school (CAMPE 2002; UNDP 2001). Children are often
integrated early on into household economic activities. For the approximately 75% of
children who live in rural areas such integration is likely to involve agricultural work.
Children in urban areas generate income for the family through a variety of activities,
including domestic service, street hawking and factory work.
Even as gaps in the schooling of boys and girls have narrowed in recent years,
women and girls remain a disadvantaged population in Bangladesh society. Girls tend to
be valued less than boys as they are viewed as economic liabilities for the family. The
lesser value of girls finds stark expression in the gender disparities in measures of infant
mortality and health. The United Nations Population Fund (2005) reports a higher under
age 5 mortality rate for girls than boys – 90 compared to 85. The percentage of
underweight female children under the age of 5 is also higher (50%) compared to boys
(46%).
Observers have noted that the Early Childhood Development perspective is not
prevalent among families in Bangladesh. Akhtar (2004) argues that the primary concern
of parents in Bangladesh is with meeting the health, nutrition and safety needs of
children. She also notes that parent-child interactions are marked by a lack of attention to
children’s cognitive and emotional developmental needs. For example, even though
adults in Bangladesh recognize the importance of answering a child’s questions, they
tend not to converse with children or to praise their accomplishments. On a more
positive note, Bangladesh society is often described as child-friendly. Blanchet (1996)
notes that young children are often treated with great indulgence and affection by adults,
in particular by grandparents and uncles. Children grow up amidst folk traditions which
include a rich repertoire of orally transmitted children’s rhymes, songs and stories.
Even though there is no government system of preschool education in
Bangladesh, about 22% of children attend some type of preschool. In 2000 about 2
million children (out of a total of 9 million in the age group 3-5 years) attended preschool
classes (JBIC 2002). Some of these classes are housed in primary schools and referred to
1
The phrase Early Childhood Development (ECD) is used to refer to a perspective that acknowledges the
years between 3-6 as a critical period of cognitive and social development as well as the importance of
actively intervening to facilitate the developments of this period, particularly for children in disadvantaged
environments.

9. as “baby” or infant classes. Urban middle-class families often send their children to
private nurseries and kindergartens. A growing number of madrasahs or Islamic schools
also have preschool classes.
In the absence of widely available opportunities for preschool education,
children’s media can play a potentially important role in supporting early childhood
development and learning. There are a number of children’s educational programs on
Bangladesh television, many of which are focused on teaching music, dance and art (e.g.
Esho Gan Shikhi, Nritter Tale Tale2
). Akhtar (2004) notes that these programs, while
directed towards children, are usually produced and performed without input from
children and thus have limited appeal and interest for children. In general, it is not clear
that the available array of educational children’s television programs has made a
substantial mark on the learning environments and experiences of children in Bangladesh.
The one important exception to this is the case of Meena, an animated series that was
developed by UNICEF and is widely reported to have become an important part of
children’s lives. The program, which centers around a little girl called Meena, is focused
on the presentation of prosocial messages on health and education, and particularly on
ideas that support the education and empowerment of girls.
II STUDY METHODOLOGY
a. Data gathering strategies
This study of the social and cultural impacts of Sisimpur draws on qualitative research
methods. A variety of data gathering methods were used in order to capture the
complexities of understandings and practices of early childhood and learning as well as
on the daily experiences of play, school, work and family among young children in
Bangladesh. A strategy of analytic comparison3
was part of our exploration of childhood
and parenting experiences in Bangladesh. That is, with a particular focus on the variables
of social class, community levels of literacy and rural/urban differences, we examined
and compared attitudes and experiences across different communities and social sectors
in Bangladesh.
Among the specific methodologies used was the focus group interview. A focus
group interview involves bringing together a group of persons of similar status and
asking them to discuss specific topics. The focus group interview is often viewed as a
particularly appropriate and efficient method for the qualitative study of large-scale
cultural impacts. It has also been reported to be an effective way of gathering information
from persons who are apprehensive about participation in a one-to-one interview
situation. For Phase 1, as shown in Table 1, we conducted a total of 22 focus group
interviews with varied categories of respondents: members of the Sisimpur production
team, local community leaders, educators, parents, and children. Each focus group
2
These translate as “Come and learn music” and “Dance beat”.
3
The strategy of analytic comparison is broadly derived from the qualitative research traditions of analytic
induction and grounded theory. It emphasizes the strategic use of comparison cases and of theoretical
sampling or the active search for an incorporation of cases that challenge the theoretical propositions being
developed, thus providing an opportunity to refine them (Taylor and Bogdan 1998).

10. consisted of 5-8 participants. One member of the research team worked as discussion
facilitator while one or two others took notes. Drawing on the interview schedules (see
APPENDIX 2-6), the facilitator posed questions and worked to make sure that the
discussion flowed smoothly and was focused on pertinent topics.
TABLE 1: Phase 1 Focus Group Interviews
Category of
Respondent
Urban Cluster/Area Rural Cluster/Area To
talPoor Middle General Mirka Angar-
gara
Panihadi
Production
Team
2 2
Community
Leaders
1 1 1 1 1 5
Educators 1 1 1 1 1 5
Parents 1 1 1 1 1 5
Children 1 1 1 1 1 5
Total 4 4 2 4 4 4 22
TABLE 2: Phase 1 Individual Interviews
Category of
Respondent
Urban Cluster/Area Rural Cluster/Area To
talPoor Middle General Mirka Angar-
gara
Panihadi
Production
Advisor
3 3
Community
Leaders
2 2 1 1 1 7
Organi-
zational
Represent-
atives
1 2 1 1 5
Educators 3 2 1 1 1 8
Parents 2 2 2 2 2 10
Total 8 6 3 6 5 5 36
We also conducted a total of 36 individual interviews (see Table 2) with the
following categories of respondents: expert advisors to Sisimpur, local community
leaders, representatives of local governmental and non-governmental organizations,
educators and parents. Using the interview schedule, team members posed a series of
open-ended questions to the respondent. In keeping with the goal of developing a detailed
understanding of the respondent’s views, interviewees were encouraged to speak freely
and to raise topics about children and child-rearing that were of particular concern to
them. Most of the interviews were conducted by 2 members of the research team, with

11. one person leading the interview and the other person taking notes. With some
exceptions4
, respondents agreed for the interviews to also be tape-recorded.
The third methodology employed was the household observation. As shown in
Table 3, we observed 10 households that contained at least one young child for 5-6 hours.
In the three Mymensingh villages, we deliberately chose to observe both households that
owned televisions and those that did not. During the 5-6 hour observation period, one or
two team members followed the child who had been selected for observation, taking
notes on his/her activities and interactions. Detailed field notes were prepared at the
conclusion of the observation.
TABLE 3: Phase 1 Household Observations
Geographical Location Number of Households
Urban poor 2
Urban middle 2
Rural: Mirka 2
Rural: Angargara 2
Rural: Panihadi 2
Total 10
b. Study sites
The three data gathering methods – focus group interviews, individual interviews and
household observations -- were employed in a range of settings. In the capital city of
Dhaka, we gathered data in neighborhoods that are in close geographic proximity but
vastly different in their socioeconomic status and resources. We conducted interviews
and observations in the Korail, Mirpur and Mohammadpur bastees (slums) as well as in
adjoining middle-class neighborhoods. We also conducted research in 3 villages in
Mymensingh district, Bhaluka thana. For the purposes of analytic comparison, these three
villages – Mirka , Angargara, and Panihadi – were selected for their varied levels of
literacy. As shown in Table 4, Mirka has a relatively high general literacy rate of 42.7%,
in comparison to Panihadi (24.4%) and Angargara (12.7%).5
As far as other notable
differences, Mirka is a relatively small village with a population of 788 in contrast to
Angargara which is reported to have 5596 residents. Mirka is also just 4 km. away from
the town of Bhaluka, in contrast to a distance of 20 km for Angargara and 15 km for
Panihadi. All of the villages are primarily agricultural communities. They each have 1
government primary school as well as 1-2 private primary/secondary schools. In both
Mirka and Angargara we also found 1-2 NGO-administered primary schools to be
operating. Panihadi was the only village that had no electricity; however, the power
supply was quite sporadic in the others.
4
In the 6 cases in which the respondent indicated their discomfort with being tape-recorded, we quickly put
away the tape-recorder and took extensive hand-written notes instead.
5
There are no available official figures for general literacy rates in specific bastees or slum settlements of
Dhaka. Informal estimates of a general literacy rate of 60-68% was offered by local NGO representatives
working in these areas.

12. TABLE 4: INFORMATION ON 3 MYMENSINGH VILLAGES
Source: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Zilla Series, Mymensingh 1991 (1995)
Angargara Mirka Panihadi
Area (in acres) 3088 272 361
Population 5596 788 1263
Literacy: General 12.7 42.7 24.4
Male 16.1 50.7 29.5
Female 9.1 35.5 18.9
5 to 9 year-old
boys attending
school, percentage
N.A. 57 38
5 to 9 year-old girls
attending school,
percentage
N.A. 51 26
TABLE 5: BASIC INFORMATION ON CHILD STUDY-PARTICIPANTS
AGE Urban
Middle
Urban
Poor
Rural
Mirka
Rural
Angargara
Rural
Panihadi
M F M F M F M F M F
3 1 1
4 1 1 2 3
5 3 2 2 2
6 3 2 1 2 1 4 1
7 1 1 1 1 1 1
8+ 2 3 1
Total 6 4 3 4 5 6 4 4 6 2
In their fieldnotes, team members often remarked on the different character of the
three rural communities. Mirka in particular stood out for us for its relative prosperity as
evidenced by the quality of housing and clothing worn by residents as well as the fact that
almost everyone we encountered had been to school till at least the SSC (Secondary
School Certificate) level. Angargara was far larger in size and population, and the
residents were also visibly poorer. In addition, the village contained a fairly large number
of indigeneous minority (Garo and Mandi) persons.
Tables 5, 6 and 7 offer basic demographic information the study-participants.
Table 5 presents a breakdown by age and gender of the urban and rural children who
participated in the focus group discussions as well as those who were the focus of the
household observations. There were a total of 24 boy participants and 20 girl participants
in the study. There was a diversity of ages (from 3-8+) but the most prominent cluster
was around 5-6 years. It is of note though that the information on age should be viewed
as approximate; many of those we spoke to did not have an exact idea of either their own
age or that of their children.

13. Table 6 provides information on the age, education and number of children of our
parent informants, specifically of those who participated either in the individual
interviews or the focus group discussions. Table 7 provides information on age and
education for the educators and community leaders6
that we spoke to in our research.
TABLE 6: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION, PARENT RESPONDENTS
Urban
Middle
Urban
Poor
Mirka Angargara Panihadi TOTAL
M* F** M F M F M F M F
AGE
45+ 1 2 1 2 3 9
35-44 4 1 3 1 1 2 12
25-34 1 4 6 1 3 3 1 3 22
20-24 1 1 1 3
15-19
TOTAL 1 5 7 10 3 5 2 6 4 3 46
EDUCATION
None 1 3 1 1 1 7
1-5 1 1 1 1 4
6-10 2 7 1 1 2 2 2 3 20
SSC 3 1 2 1 7
HSC 1 1
B.A. 1 2 1 4
M.A. 3 3
TOTAL 1 5 7 10 3 5 2 6 4 3 46
CHILDREN
0 1 1 2
1 1 2 3 2 1 2 11
2 3 2 1 2 1 4 1 1 15
3 1 2 1 3 1 1 9
4 3 1 4
5+ 1 1 1 2 5
TOTAL 1 5 7 10 3 5 2 6 4 3 46
*Males **Females
TABLE 7: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION, EDUCATORS AND
COMMUNITY LEADERS
Educators Community
Leaders
M* F** M F
AGE
45+ 8 3 16 1
6
This does not include organizational representatives and production community members.

14. 35-44 4 2 8 3
25-34 3 7 4 1
20-24 4
15-19 1
TOTAL 15 22 28 5
EDUCATION
None
1-5 2
6-10 2 4
SSC 2 3 6 1
HSC 3 5 6 2
B.A. 5 8 9 2
M.A. 3 6 1
TOTAL 15 22 28 5
*Males **Females
c. Fieldwork methods and data analysis
A team of 8 researchers worked to collect data for the project. Prior to entry into the field,
the team met intensively with the Principal Investigator to review and discuss data
collection procedures. We then conducted a number of pilot interviews and observations
following which the team met for intensive discussions and critiques of the interview and
observation process. Based on these experiences, we made some modifications to the
interview schedule. After this, the team set off to conduct fieldwork in selected urban
slum areas of Dhaka. In the second phase, the team traveled to Bhaluka, Mymensingh to
begin the rural fieldwork segment of the project. As far as possible, team members
transcribed interviews and wrote field notes immediately after each fieldwork exercise.
As far as the recruitment of subjects for the study, we began by contacting
organizational representatives and community leaders in the targeted communities. After
explaining the nature and purposes of the study, we asked these “key informants” for
their cooperation, and in particular for referrals to educators and parents in their
communities. In the case of virtually everyone that we approached through these
referrals, we were able to obtain their consent to participation in the research project. We
began each interview or observation by providing a detailed explanation of the nature and
purposes of the study. We then assured all concerned that the data gathered were for
research purposes and it would not be released to persons and organizations other than
the investigators and Sesame Workshop. With the exception of our interviews with
members of the Sisimpur production community and the representatives of organizations,
we also said that all names would be changed in any reports or publications that resulted
from the project. The team made a special effort to inform all the participants that there
would be a follow-up study next year and that we hoped that they would extend their
cooperation in that effort. All study-participants were offered a token gift of appreciation
for their participation, of about 200 taka7
value.
7
In April 2005 the currency exchange rate was 1 USD = 59.6 Bangladesh taka.

15. The Bangla transcripts and write-ups of the interviews and observations were
translated into English. Following established methods of qualitative research, data
analysis began with the organization of the data into files that are based on the major
topics of the project as listed on the interview schedule. Thus, for example, all data
relevant to the theme of “ideas about how to discipline children” were consolidated into a
single file, with all interview excerpts identified by transcript number. Following this, we
moved on to intensive coding of the data within each of the files. At the second stage, we
followed an open-ended coding strategy, searching for new and emerging themes and
concepts in the data. In this “discovery” coding stage, we paid particular attention to “in-
vivo” themes or the literal ways in which respondents speak of particular experiences.
The third stage was one in which the data was repetitively coded with the goal of refining
and connecting the themes that had emerged and expanding their theoretical scope.
III PARENTING AND THE YOUNG CHILD: CULTURAL ATTITUDES AND
BELIEFS
We begin the findings section of our report with a discussion of cultural attitudes and
beliefs about parenting and the young child. Our primary analytic emphasis is on the
perceptions of parents. However, we draw widely on a range of accounts as provided to
us by educators, community leaders, organizational representatives and members of the
production community. Since many of these “expert” respondents were themselves
parents, much of what they had to say was drawn from their own experiences of raising a
child.
a.“ Conceptions of the young child
Early childhood as a time of ‘natural growth
Scholars have noted that the cultural template or normative set of understandings about
young children that prevails in Bangladesh includes the idea of an early developmental
stage of non-reason or an inability “to understand” (Aziz and Maloney 1985). As a way
of further exploring the precise character of this cultural understanding, we asked adult
respondents to talk about what three year olds were like, as well as how three year olds
were different from six year olds. The most common answer was that three year olds
“don’t understand” (bujhe na). In further elaborations, our participants spoke of how
three year olds could not be reasoned with and were thus often stubborn in their demands.
Three year olds had also not developed a sense of right and wrong or learned the rules of
polite society such as that of showing respect to elders. There was remarkable similarity
in the answers that we received across varied communities and socioeconomic strata.
Those with more education tended however to be more detailed in their answers,
referring to a variety of specific cognitive and emotional developments. During a
discussion with a group of upper-middle class parents, a mother made the following
observation:

16. A three year old has not experienced the development of his/her inner feelings. A
three year old will demand a toy from his/her parents – they don’t understand if the
parents can afford it or not. But a six year old can understand that, can try to
understand it. A six year old can understand if someone is feeling unhappy. A six
year old can express what s/he likes or dislikes.
Intertwined with the understanding that a three year old is developmentally very
different from a six year old is the idea that the years between three and six are ones of
sharp and significant development for children. Particularly from our expert respondents
as well as from upper middle class parents, we noted some comments about the
importance of cultivating the “natural curiosity” of children by answering their questions
and giving them positive encouragement. In general however, respondents spoke fairly
little about the importance of actively cultivating and fostering this period of
development in a child’s life. Rather, the primary attitudinal stance was similar to what
Laureau (2003) in her study of child-rearing in the U.S. has described as the
“accomplishment of natural growth”, a stance in which the parental role is defined as
allowing the child to naturally grow. Lareau (2003) contrasts this to “concerted
cultivation”, a child-rearing style in which the parent actively fosters and assesses the
child’s talents, opinions and skills. The prevalence of a “natural growth” perspective on
child-rearing in Bangladesh has also been noted by Kotalova (1993). The rural mothers
she studied saw child development as “an organic process, regulated by nature and God
and therefore apparently beyond parental control” (1993:68).
To the extent that the “active cultivation” of young children was emphasized by
our respondents, the focus was specifically on academic skills such as knowledge of the
alphabet and numbers. As we will describe later on in the report, the task of preparing
children to enter school was one that many parents viewed quite seriously. Middle-class
parents in particular understood the cultivation of academic skills in young children to be
an important part of grooming them to succeed in the highly competitive schooling
environments that lay ahead of them (see Blanchet 1996). Even with this however,
middle-class parents and others expressed a certain ambivalence about moving too far
away from a stance of “natural growth.” There was much talk of how it was important to
not push or pressure young children; several persons spoke of damaging the young
child’s brain if there was too much pressure placed on him or her.
To summarize, our findings here highlight the presence of a perspective of
“natural growth” or of letting children develop with undue adult interference. This was
the predominant view on child development across our sample, among rural and urban
residents, and those of varied socioeconomic status. To the extent that there was mention
of the importance of actively cultivating the development of young children, it was more
likely to occur among middle-class respondents and those with higher education.

17. Raising a moral human being (manush cora)
Virtually all of our informants, across communities and populations,
spoke of the importance of morals and ethics in discussing the topic
of how to raise a child well. The task of raising a child is described
in Bangla as “manush cora.” As Blanchet (1996: 69) has discussed,
“manush cora” refers to the making of a moral person. Many of our
informants made it a point to emphasize that while formal
schooling was important, it was not sufficient to ensure that a
good/proper human being was produced. Quite typical was the
observation of Farana Ahmed, a mother in Mirka village who was
educated to the SSC level:
To be a good/proper human being one has to have an honest character. They must be
properly educated. They should abide by the rules. They should behave properly with
everyone – whether they are older or younger than them. Take a person who is
educated and has a good job but doesn’t have a good character. He doesn’t behave
properly with others, he is rude, calling people bad names, doesn’t consider someone
else unless they have money. I cannot call a person like that a good/proper human
being.
A similar statement was made by Mr. Kamal Rahman, an elementary school
teacher in Mirka village. We see that descriptions of the good/proper human being tended
to focus on broad human qualities, based on universalistic principles, such as honesty and
consideration for others:
To be able to raise a child well is a major task. You cannot be a proper human being
just by being educated. S/he should also be humble, well-mannered, sincere, honest
and ethical. If he is on his way somewhere and he sees that someone has had an
accident, he should be humane enough to go and help him.
We found it notable that at times the task of raising a child to be a moral person
was often cited to be the responsibility of not just parents but also of teachers. Thus a
teacher in Panihadi, when talking about his own responsibilities, made the following
comment:
Teachers should give children the necessary lessons about manners. They should be
given such lessons that teach them to behave well with everyone. They should be
taught such things that give them courage to battle whatever barrier that comes their
way.
To summarize, we found a conception of “moral education” to be embedded in
our respondents’ ideals of child-rearing. What was quite striking was the prevalence of
this idea across variations of rural-urban residence and socioeconomic status. As
mentioned at the beginning of this report, the available literature on parenting in

18. Bangladesh has pointed to a prevailing understanding of parental responsibilities to
involve the meeting of children’s basic needs, of food, health and safety. The findings
reported here suggest another dimension to cultural notions of parenting responsibilities
in Bangladesh. Even among poor parents, the importance of meeting the basic needs of
the child was coupled with the idea of producing a moral human being.
Girls and boys
We asked questions about whether and how boys and girls were different. The responses
that we received were complex and varied. This is highlighted by the range of remarks
that we see below. The first set was recorded during a group discussion with parents in
Mirka , the second in Panihadi and the third in a Dhaka bastee:
Mirka:
A: It is better for the future if you have more sons. They can work and earn money.
Daughters, you have to marry them off.
B: We think of boys as the future of the family and daughters are considered to be a
responsibility. In our poor families we think of the girls as a burden.
E: Everyone values their sons more. Yet it is the sons who leave them and go far
away and girls who stay close by. You always find them near you in times of trouble.
C: Boys and girls are the same when they are small. It is when they grow up that they
become different. Girls have a problem going out. They are forbidden to go out at
night. Boys roam about outside day and night.
Panihadi:
B: There aren’t many differences in terms of affection or education. Girls, of course,
cannot play soccer. Boys play a lot of games.
E: Parents don’t let their daughters go out of the house. Once they get to class 6 or 7,
I will not let them play with boys any more, I will not let them go out. I will not
educate my daughters too much. The sons will remain in my house. The daughters
will go away to the house of their in-laws.
B: Girls and boys are all equal. When girls grow up they are not allowed to go out.
C: We educate our daughter a little less. It’s the village after all, they are married
off.
Dhaka bastee:
C: I make my son do what a boy is supposed to do. And I make my daughter do the
work a girl is supposed to do. I make my son get the groceries and the daughter does
household work. This is it, there are no other differences.
A: The boys have the ability to work, thus it is good to educate the daughters as they
stay at home. And even if the sons don’t get as much education, they can at least go
places and earn a living. They can do any type of business and can earn a living.
D: Girls and boys are all equal.
B: When they are small they are all the same. Until they are educated and become a
good human being and can establish themselves, they are all the same.

19. Unlike Western conceptions of gender difference which often focus on a notion of
inherent “biological” difference, our informants tended to speak of the differences as
produced by the dictates of a social system in which boys are more highly valued than
girls. Reflecting this notion, there was a general consensus that there was no significant
difference between boys and girls when they were young. The differences between them
grew as they got older. Girls faced expanded restrictions on their movements. They were
expected to refrain from playing sports and to remain within the household compound.
Among rural and poor families, girls were viewed as economic liabilities, especially
given the expected costs of arranging a marriage for them.
There were a number of rural informants who spoke of how investment in a
daughter’s education had limited value, given that girls marry and enter into another
family. On the other hand, a poor urban resident, as we saw in the remarks from a Dhaka
bastee, made the surprising remark that it was better to educate the daughter because she,
unlike the son, could not engage in paid work and thus could not generate income as an
alternative to going to school. Urban middle class residents were distinguished by their
consistent affirmation of the importance and value of educating girls as much as boys.
To summarize, there was widespread consensus that young girls and boys were
not fundamentally different but that they became different as they faced and responded to
a gender differentiated set of social rules as they got older. As one would expect, urban
middle class respondents espoused more progressive attitudes about the value of girls and
of providing opportunities for girls, especially in the area of education. However, in this
population too, there was reference to the practice of restricting the movements of girls
and of encouraging them to stay indoors rather than go outside because of safety issues.
b. Parenting tasks
Discipline
In response to our questions about what it meant to be a good parent, study-participants
spoke of successfully meeting the basic needs of the child for food, safety and medical
care. Beyond this, good parenting entailed the appropriate discipline (shashon) of
children with the goal of producing a moral human being. The remarks of our
respondents about how to discipline young children suggested a fairly clear cultural
template – a normative set of understandings – on this topic. The specific elements of this
template include the following ideas:
Rules of behavior should be explained to children
Good behavior should be rewarded
Punishment, both verbal (ie scolding) and physical, is a necessary part of child-
rearing
It is the threat of physical punishment rather than the actual fact of it which is the
most effective in controlling children’s behavior
Too much physical punishment is bad as is too little physical punishment

20. Explanation of the rules is a better and preferred discipline strategy over
punishment
Physical punishment should be followed by explanation and reasoning with the
child
In explaining the rules to children, an emphasis on community opinion/sanction is
effective (ie. What will people say/think of you?)
The specific ideas listed above were intertwined in complex ways in the
comments of our respondents. This is highlighted by the remarks of Suraiya, a mother
with 9 years of education. Suraiya had an 8 year old son and she lived in Panihadi village:
One needs to discipline, to scold. Sometimes I frighten him with a stick. Then I
explain things and tell him that people will think badly of him unless he does it. And
to make him understand I tell him that I will give him this or that.
A combination of physical punishment and explanation was also described by
Farzana Ahmed of Mirka village. Farzana had 2 children, an 8 year old girl and a 5 year
old boy, and she was educated to the SSC level:
My son did not go to school today. For this I have beaten him a lot. He cried a lot. Later
I will explain things to him and tell him not to do it again. He should always be ready to
go to school. You have to beat your children after understanding the necessity of the
situation. But if you beat them too much then they become spoilt. Along with beating
them you also have to explain things to them with affection.
In invoking the normative ideas about discipline that are listed above, middle
class respondents were more likely to downplay physical punishment and to emphasize
the strategies of explanation and reward. Overall however, there was remarkable
consistency in the ideas expressed on this topic among our respondents. This is
highlighted by the words of Sayeema Hasan. Sayeema, a Dhaka resident, had a medical
degree and was the mother of a 6 year old girl and a 4 year old son:
One should punish and beat them sometimes. It should only be done according to
necessity. I mostly try to explain things, but sometimes I get angry and slap them if they
refuse to listen to me. Hence, I do believe that they should be disciplined. Our parents
used to discipline us, they used to scold us, threaten to beat us and I don’t think it has
harmed me in any way. But one should not discipline and punish their children too much
as that harms the parent-child relationship.
In summary, with respect to the discipline of children, we found a clear and
consistent set of ideas and expectations among our respondents. With the exception of a
slightly more pronounced tendency among middle-class informants to acknowledgement
the negative aspects of physical punishment, we did not find much variation in these
norms within our sample.
Monitoring children’s friends

21. Parents, as described by our respondents, had a responsibility to monitor children’s peer
relationships in order to ensure that children were mixing with the “right” kinds of peers.
If parents did not fulfill this responsibility, the danger faced was of a child who had gone
astray. The commonly used phrase --“noshto hoye jaoa” -- to become spoiled/rotten-- is
one that is implicitly understood to refer to a child who has veered away from the right
path because of his/her poor choice of companions.8
In effect, the “noshto” child is a
conceptual counterpoint to the child who is being raised to be a proper/moral human
being. While the dangers of becoming “noshto” are understood to be greater with older
children, even very young children are not immune from this threat.
As Blanchet (1996) has noted, the concept of “noshto” is a broad one,
encompassing a range of potential outcomes and behaviors for children. Many parents
spoke of the issue of children becoming “spoiled” with reference to academic outcomes.
The concern then was to make sure that children mixed only with those who were good
students. The remarks made by a parent during a focus group discussion in a bastee
community were quite typical:
Children need to be helped in making the right choice in friends. They cannot be
allowed to mix with bad children. They should spend time with the good student.
The comments of a father in Mirka village highlight a wider range of concerns
about mixing with “bad” children:
There are a lot of children who don’t listen to their parents if they feel like it. They
sometimes slap, scratch, punch and then run from their parents. Your children can
learn to do all these bad things by mixing with them. So you say, “My child, stay a
little away from them”. In this village you also have cadres/gangsters. There are a lot
who are not good, they don’t have good principles. Or there are families who don’t
have a good reputation and so we tell them not to mix with them as they are not good.
So of course there is naturally pressure from the parents to not mix with these people.
The potential for parental concerns about children’s peer relationships to both
reflect and reinforce ostracizing attitudes towards socially marginalized groups and
populations in Bangladesh is suggested by the remarks of Farzana Ahmed, a mother from
Mirka. Farzana spoke of directing her children children to stay away from a mentally ill
girl in the village because of the girl’s habit of asking for money from people. Farzana
had a concern with a specific behavior of the girl in question; however, it was clear that
her directives to her children could only reinforce the social ostracism suffered by the
girl:
There is a mentally ill girl in my village. She is 9 years old. This girl constantly asks
anyone and everyone for money. And if she sees someone wearing a shirt and pants
or is from the city, she holds on to him tightly and scratches until he is obliged to give
8
In her discussion of Bengali cultural understandings of the “noshto” child, Blanchet (1996) describes folk
understandings for why this happens. Three factors are invoked: 1. weak parental control and discipline 2.
bad environment or neighborhood and 3. attacks from enemies and other external forces.

22. her money. She buys food with that money and eats it. I forbid my children to mix
with her. I don’t want my children to also get into the habit of asking people for
money after mixing with her.
There were a few expert and middle-class respondents who were self-conscious
about the need to promote attitudes of tolerance among their children towards diverse
groups and populations. For example, Altab Hossain, the middle class father of a six
year old girl, spoke about wanting his daughter to know “all kinds of people”. He
bemoaned the fact that middle-class children such as his own had fewer and less diverse
social opportunities than those that might have been available to them in the past:
I never forbid my child from mixing with anyone. I want her to create her own
relationships. She should know all sorts of people. I myself have worked with
disabled children. I have seen the vulnerability of children. In an unconscious way I
have tried to grow respect and not sympathy for these children in my daughter’s
heart. The children nowadays do not get opportunities to meet as many people. They
are not able to interact with children from all classes. The children in the previous
ages could move about far more freely and independently.
We also encountered the idea that a child could become “noshto” by mixing with
children of a different social class background than themselves. This impulse has been
noted by Blanchet (1996) in her writings on middle-class families in Bangladesh. She
notes: “... they seem highly occupied with enacting their middle class status. This entails
not mixing with the wrong kinds of children less one gets “spoiled”, attending the right
schools and in everything measuring up to status expectations” (16).
The complexity of these status dynamics is highlighted by the fact that in middle-
class households with young children, the presence of a young domestic servant who is
close in age to the child is not uncommon. As we saw in the two urban middle-class
households that we observed, the young domestic can be an important playmate for the
middle-class child. However, it is not clear that these cross-class interactions and
relations among children reduce the significance of class status boundaries; indeed, they
may reinforce them. We also found concerns about cross-class mixing to not be exclusive
to middle-class parents. In rural areas in particular, parents often spoke of how mixing
with rich children would “spoil” their own children. Such mixing would raise the
demands and expectations of their children for costly consumer items. It would moreover
expose their children to the “corrupt” world of the rich, in which drugs, alcohol, and an
emphasis on leisure and “foreign” ways were understood to prevail.
In summary, our respondents defined a core parental responsibility to include the
monitoring of children’s peer relationships to ensure that children were mixing with those
who would influence them in positive ways, such as by encouraging them to focus on
schoolwork. Particularly but not exclusively among our urban residents, both poor and
privileged, there was a keen sense of the danger of children’s involvement with peers
who would move them towards criminal gangs, alcohol and drugs. Embedded in these
concerns about children’s peers were complex considerations of social status, defined in

23. particular by the effort to confine children’s relationships to within their own social
strata.
The rising consumer needs of children
In speaking of the tasks of parenting, a number of informants, both urban and rural, spoke
of the work of responding and coping with the growing consumer needs of children.
Across the socioeconomic spectrum, parents spoke of how children today, unlike the
times when they had grown up, wanted and needed to buy more things. For example, a
middle-class community leader and mother made the following remark:
Nowadays as soon as you give birth to a child you need to give him or her a
computer, a cell phone, a TV.
If the expanded consumerism of children was noted by all, it was also the case,
not unexpectedly, that it was seen as a more serious problem by parents with limited
resources. A mother from a poor Dhaka neighborhood noted with some sadness the
impact of advertisements on television in expanding the needs and desires of her children
for various items. But for parents like herself, it was not possible to fulfill these needs and
desires:
Children nowadays see the advertisements on TV and they want everything…they
have no fears. But it is not possible for us to meet all their needs.
Advertisements on television were not the only culprit in expanding the consumer
needs of children. Several of our rural informants spoke with some irritation of how
going to school exposed children to needs and items which they would not have if they
remained at home.
B: Since they’ve started going to school they come home and say, “He has that thing,
now buy me one”. Stupid child! Don’t you see how much money your father has, how
can you ask him to buy that for you. They go to school and they see the children of
the rich playing cricket. Our children say, “buy me a bat.” We don’t have that much
money.
F: It would not be like this if they remained at home.
A: When we were small, we wrote on banana leaves and wore loincloth (gamcha) to
school. Children nowadays need a lot of things like pencils and slates; they cannot go
unless they pants. They have become gentlemen!
In summary, meeting and coping with the growing significance of the consumer
economy for children’s lives is increasingly understood to be an aspect of parenting in
Bangladesh. It is an especially challenging one for families for whom simply meeting the
basic nutritional needs of children is a daunting task. Of particular note is the fact that
school attendance was associated with a growth of consumer demands and expectations

24. among children. This is turn generated resentment among parents towards the schooling
system.
Preparation for school
For many parents in Bangladesh, meeting the basic needs of their children is a difficult
and even daunting task. Under these circumstances, the costs of sending a child to school
can be prohibitive. Nonetheless, even with these problems, most of those with whom we
spoke said that it was important to send children to school.9
In the experiences of our respondents, childcare arrangements for young children
included care by parents (especially mothers), relatives, and domestic servants. For the
most part, the institution of daycare was not a familiar one to them. We also encountered
fairly limited exposure to formal preschool education for children.10
The exception to
this was among our middle-class respondents, most of whom had sent their children to
“baby” or “infant” classes before the child’s entry into kindergarten. We found a general
consensus that the age of six, the official age of school entry in Bangladesh, was also the
most appropriate age for children to begin school.It was felt that before the age of six,
children could not cope with the highly structured, demanding and difficult nature of the
school environment. It is of note however that numerical age is not a well-established
concept and practice in Bangladesh; a child’s age is usually understood in approximate
terms. Thus the age of six is likely to be understood as a representation of a
developmental stage rather than a strictly chronological marker.
We asked our respondents about how children could be prepared to enter school,
and what they needed to have, in terms of skills, knowledge and other things, before they
began to attend. The following points were mentioned:
Self-care/hygiene skills, including toilet training and an understanding of the
importance of cleanliness
Ownership of a pair of shoes and 2-3 sets of good clothing
Social skills, including the ability to interact with peers and talk appropriately to
teachers and other adults
Knowledge of alphabet and numbers
Drawing skills, including basic representations such as face, tree
Knowledge of own name, names of family members and address
Ability to safely travel to school and back home
9
This most likely reflects in part an effort to conform to the ideas and beliefs of the research team, as
implicitly understood/assumed by the informants. But we did also record expressions of ambivalence
around this issue. A number of rural residents said that it was more important to work in the fields and
household than go to school. This was because of the costs and inconvenience involved, as well as the
limited benefits, especially given the poor quality of the village schools.
10
According to the Bangladesh Education Sector Overview (JBIC 2002): “About 2 million children, out of
a total of 9 million in the age group 3-5 years in 2000, attended…preschool classes”. The report further
notes that these preschool classes include 1. “baby” or “infant” classes attached to primary schools 2.
private nurseries in urban areas 3. preschool classes in maktabs and madrasahs.

25. Knowledge of basic school routines and rules
Attitude that school and learning are fun and not to be feared
The above points were not consistently mentioned across the various populations
and communities we studied. The last point -- the importance of a positive attitude
towards school and learning -- was only mentioned by middle-class parents and
educators and some of our expert respondents, in particular by NGO representatives.
Those of our study-participants with higher levels of education were more likely to
emphasize knowledge of alphabet and numbers. As one might expect, the necessity of
obtaining proper shoes and clothing was mentioned only by rural and urban poor
residents.
In general, the task of preparing children for school was widely understood by
parents to be an important and challenging one. We see this in the words of Abdul
Mannan of Angargara village. A father of 9 children, Abdul Mannan had himself studied
until Class 4:
We need to do a lot of preparation before children start school. We have to make
sure the children get good food, we have to get proper clothes for them and buy
shoes. Besides this, they need to be taught to go to the teacher for help if they face
any trouble in school. They should listen to the teacher. They should know how to
greet the elders. They should mix with everyone.
Like Abdul Mannan, Gias Ahmed of Mirka village also saw preparing children
for school entry to be an important and challenging task. But reflecting his middle class
background (he was a college graduate and small business owner) , he placed particular
emphasis on pre-academic skills such as knowledge of alphabet and numbers:
Of course we parents have some obligations to fulfill. We can’t just admit a child into
school. You need to buy them a book and to teach them the basic numbers. You have
to sit with them in the evenings. You have to make them practice writing their
alphabets a little everyday. It won’t do to just buy them the books and then send them
to school. You also have to teach the young children to mix with each other.
In discussing the topic of school preparation and readiness, a number of parents
spoke of how their children had experienced difficulty in adjusting to school. Children
were often fearful of punishment from the teacher – a not unreasonable fear given the
methods of discipline prevalent in schools in Bangladesh. Because of this, some parents
spoke of initially going with the child and sitting outside the class to provide reassurance.
Others spoke of bribing the child with chocolate to go to school. One mother, Suraiya
Khatun of Panihadi village, spoke of a long period of adjustment for her son who was 8
years old at the time of the interview:
I first admitted him into a school at the age of 6 years. He didn’t want to go to
school. I used to go and sit outside the school. Then I again admitted him at the age
of 7 years. At first I went along with him but then he slowly adapted himself to the

26. school environment. He started to mix with all the other children and the teachers
also looked after him.
In summary, our data suggest that many parents in Bangladesh see their
responsibilities to include the preparing of children to enter school. Poor families in
particular were concerned about material preparations, such as making sure that children
had shoes and adequate clothing. More generally, the acquisition of a variety of social
and pre-academic skills was widely seen to be part of this preparation. With the exception
of the middle-class which sent their preschool children to “baby” classes as preparation,
most families saw the home as the most appropriate place for these preparation tasks to
take place. The effectiveness of Sisimpur may be enhanced then if it is viewed by parents
and caregivers as a tool which assists them in the task of preparing children for school.
IV “EXPERT” PERSPECTIVES: THE CHALLENGES OF EDUCATION AND
SAFETY
Our expert respondents, the majority of whom were themselves parents, spoke to a
variety of issues, including those covered in the previous section. But their commentaries
were notably marked by discussion of the social problems facing children in Bangladesh,
at times with particular reference to the communities in which they worked. At the same
time, along with a social problems focus, there was also talk of how things overall had
gotten better for children in Bangladesh in recent times. There was, for one thing, better
access for children and families to modern medical facilities. There were also better
education opportunities, particularly for girls. Correspondingly, there was more
enthusiasm amongst parents, even those who were themselves uneducated, for sending
children to school. Monwara Islam, a teacher, spoke of this at some length. She had
taught for several years at a village school before she began teaching at a primary school
in a poor neighborhood of Dhaka:
There have been a lot of changes. Whether the children study or not I see the parents
to be very concerned about it. I see the same thing in the villages when I go to visit
my in-laws. I see the parents there as very enthusiastic about their children’s
education. Even when the children are maybe not doing so well. But I still see a kind
of interest in them.
In describing these positive changes, NGO workers and representatives often
spoke of the influence of the programs in which they had worked as well as the more
general impact of NGOS on Bangladesh society. Thus an NGO worker in Bhaluka,
Mymensingh spoke with some pride of the maternal/child health and education programs
in which she had been involved:
The NGOs have played the biggest role in bringing about social change. I see this in
my own work in this region. We have had programs on nutrition and pregnancy for
expecting mothers. I have seen a change in the behavior of mothers. And the NGOs
have also worked to make parents aware of the importance of children’s education,
especially the education of girls.

27. Even as they acknowledged these improvements, expert respondents spoke of the
many challenges that faced children and their families in Bangladesh. There were two
dominant themes here. The first was the education system and the problems of access and
quality that were a part of it. The second was the absence of safety and security for
children. In the urban context in particular, the safety issue was intertwined with an
absence in the city of secure open spaces for children to play.
As far as education, the core problem, we were frequently told, was that many
families simply did not send their children to school for financial reasons. Nasreen Jahan
Zinia, a government education officer in Bhaluka, offered a vivid summary of the
financial challenges faced by families. As suggested by her remarks, the financial stresses
reflected not only school fees, but also the cost of such items as clothes, shoes and
bookbags:
The main problems for children are financial. Those children who live in financial
destitution, they have fewer opportunities for education. Although the government
provides them with a lot of facilities, even then it is hard for these children to
continue with their education. They don’t get good food. Besides they don’t have
decent clothes to wear to school. They don’t have notebooks, bags. The scholarship
program has been quite successful at the primary school level but still it is difficult
for parents to educate their children properly.
Besides the financial problems, there were also other circumstances that
hindered access to schooling. A community leader in Panihadi mentioned a range of
problems, from seasonal flooding to a lack of teachers:
I think that the main problem that parents face is their children’s education. For
example, we have water in our area for 6 months in a year. The children cannot go to
school at that time. On top of that the government primary school that we have in our
area has only 3 teachers, including the Head Master. The Head Master is busy with a
lot of things like meetings and programs. The other female teacher also has a lot of
household obligations and she is ill a lot of times. So then there remains only one
teacher. So how is it possible for one teacher to run a school?
While much of the commentary we received was about poor families, there was
also mention of how even for middle-class families in Bangladesh, the challenges of
schooling were immense. In fact these challenges were perhaps even more
psychologically burdensome for middle-class families than others given the understood
stakes in children’s academic achievements. As noted by a community leader in Dhaka,
the competition for admission to schools, particularly to good schools, is immense:
The biggest problem in Dhaka is a scarcity of schools. There is too much
competition. The children have to face huge competition just to get a chance for
admission. It is not possible at all unless they go for some sort of coaching.

28. The following is a list of problems in the schooling system that repeatedly came
up in the interviews with expert respondents:
Scarcity of teachers; overcrowded classrooms
Scarcity of schools; intense competition for entry into schools
Limited effective instructional time (approximately an hour) in the classroom
Teachers underpaid and therefore demoralized and uncommitted to the work of
teaching children
Scarcity of teaching materials such as books, pictures, plastic letters
No facilities for physical education
No opportunities for field trips
An absence of practical and “hands-on” teaching in the curriculum
Emphasis on memorization and rote learning
The placement and teaching of students at different levels together, without any
grouping by ability
The low commitment of some parents to the schooling of their children
The sporadic school attendance of children due to bad weather, seasonal household
work, illness, etc.11
The inability of uneducated parents to monitor and participate in their children’s
schooling
No opportunities for parents to provide input to schools and teachers
Competition from the madrasah system of education
The need to engage private tutors/tutorials to ensure children’s academic success, thus
creating an added financial burden for parents12
Most of the educators we interviewed felt frustrated at not being able to provide a
higher quality of education to students. There was widespread awareness of a disjuncture
between ideal educational practices and what actually happened in their own classrooms.
For example, with respect to the use of physical punishment as a disciplinary technique in
the classroom, most were aware that it was not a desirable practice. But several
acknowledged how they did resort to it due to the circumstances they faced. A teacher
who worked in a government primary school in a poor neighborhood of Dhaka spoke of
brandishing a cane in his classroom as a way of keeping his class of 95 students in order:
We don’t have a rule of taking a cane to class. But even then we take them. We have
to do it because of the environment. These children from the slums, they grow up in
an environment where there are no rules and regulations. They don’t know anything.
The other thing is, the class I teach in has 95 students. Now when that happens they
start creating havoc if you just rely on scolding. So for this, even if I don’t hit them
with the cane I can make a noise with it and they can be brought under control. But I
never use it on them.
11
According to the 1998 Education Watch Survey, only 62% of registered students were actually attending
school on the day of the survey
12
The 1998 Education Watch Survey suggests that the private tutor system is far more prevalent in urban
areas. 45% of urban students received help from private tutors compared to 18% in rural areas.

29. There were teachers, especially those with higher education degrees, who were
aware of the deficiencies of a rote-based pedagogical approach that was focused on the
memorization of texts. But they nonetheless felt driven to maintain this approach due to a
variety of constraints, including that of preparing children for national-level
examinations. Those who were involved in teaching preschool – “baby” or “infant”
classes -- in private or NGO-administered schools were most likely to speak of
incorporating interactive and “hands-on” learning exercises into their classroom. We see
this in the remarks of one of our interviewees who was teaching at an NGO-administered
primary school in a poor neighborhood of Dhaka:
I try to teach in a different way in the baby class. When I’m teaching the letter “M” I
might bring in a mango to class. The children also enjoy it as they look forward to
eating the mango. If I am teaching them about a particular flower then I take that
flower into the classroom.
Besides the challenges of education, our expert respondents spoke at some length
about the increasingly unsafe environment for children in Bangladesh. The environment
outside the home (gharer bayre) was described as one in which children faced a constant
and severe threat of victimization by criminal elements. While these dangers were by no
means absent in rural areas, they were especially pronounced in the cities. These dangers
served to further narrow the already constrained access of urban children for open play
spaces. A community leader in a Dhaka bastee gave a vivid and disturbing picture of the
environment for children:
We are constantly in fear for our children. The children in our community often get
bullied by the errant boys of the neighboring area. Then there are also children
going missing; kidnapping is a big problem. It is often the work of child traffickers.
Sometimes they work with the police. Parents suffer from security for their
daughters. The errant boys of this area often tease the girls when they go out on the
roads. It has also been seen that if a boy proposes his love to a girl and the girl
refuses him, then they throw acid on the girl.
The problem of children’s security was also a major one for urban middle-class
families. In the remarks below, a middle-class community leader in Dhaka contrasts his
own “free” childhood to that of children now. As suggested by his comments, a common
middle-class strategy was to place severe restrictions on children’s movements outside
the home:
There is the problem of security. Children get mugged when they go out. It was
different for our generation, we grew up in less congested areas, in open fields. We
went around like free birds. But now, because of their safety and security we cannot
allow them to go wherever they want.
In summary, our expert respondents spoke primarily about the challenges facing
children and their families in Bangladesh. They focused their remarks on the problems of
schooling, both of access and quality. While the specific form that these problems took

30. was different depending on social class background, it was also the case that they
affected everyone. Besides schooling, there was also the issue of children’s safety and
security. This was seen to be less of a concern for rural families than urban ones. Poor
urban families faced a particularly difficult and insecure environment.
V. CHILDREN AND TELEVISION
The comments below were recorded during a focus group discussion with community
leaders in Panihadi village. Panihadi, it should be noted, did not have electricity. Though
not very common, there were homes with battery-operated televisions. We see that while
one informant spoke of television as “a box of the devil”, most expressed more moderate
views towards television as a social force. The general feeling was that it was OK for
children to watch some television, but that some programs were better for them to watch
than others:
F: They shouldn’t watch TV at all. This is the box of the devil. There is nothing good on
the TV. Whatever they show is bad and when children watch them they start writing
love letter, start falling in love and become rowdy. If they don’t get a person they like
then they break off their engagement, they learn to do drugs, they learn to sing and
dance—this are things which are forbidden in our religion. I don’t have a TV in my
house. And I don’t allow my children to go and watch TV at someone else’s house.
H: I believe that they should watch the educational programs on TV. Where they teach
them to read and write. They should watch those programs. For example, they can
watch the program for adult education—every body should watch this. But they
should not watch singing and dancing, VCDs and movies. Children get corrupted
from watching these programs. They learn to steal and do robberies.
S: I believe that they should of course watch TV. Are those who are born in a house with
TV bad in their studies? If you investigate you will find that those who are born into a
house with TV, and who have no restrictions on watching TV, feel no attraction for it.
They always finish their work and watch TV in their spare time for entertainment.
There are some adult programs that children shouldn’t watch.
N: After returning from the school they can watch a little TV in the evenings. But as there
is no electricity in our village, they don’t have much of a habit of watching TV.
L: There is a battery operated TV in my house. The children watch the TV after finishing
their studies. They should watch the programs ‘Jochhonar phul’, then programs on
‘Baul’ songs. On Thursdays and Fridays when I watch a Bangla movie my children
also watch it with me. Of course they shouldn’t watch all programs, especially those
that show violence.
For the most part, the adults we spoke to felt that television for children was on
the whole beneficial; children could gain knowledge and a better understanding of the
world through watching television. Certain types of programs were widely understood by

31. parents and others to be better for children than others. This included educational
programs on music, debate and Islamic studies, as well as sports, cartoons, and some
Bangla dramas. One of the specific programs that informants repeatedly cited as being
good for children to watch was Meena. As highlighted by the comments that we received
about Meena, the notion of children’s television as a potential source of prosocial
learning for children is not an unfamiliar one in Bangladesh today. Several informants
spoke with approval about the health and hygiene lessons that were being transmitted to
children via Meena and other children’s educational programs. A parent from a poor
urban neighborhood made the following comment:
In the old days we used to watch the children play with coconut hulls and tires.
Nowadays they don’t. They have learned from TV that these things help spread the
dengue fever. The children didn’t cut their nails before, but now they do.
There were some concerns were about children’s exposure to violence on
television. The specific types of programs that were seen as dangerous in this respect
were wrestling shows, computer game shows as well as Hindi and some Bangla movies.
The following comments are drawn from a discussion among parents in a bastee of
Dhaka:
NM: There are some bad games that show fighting. These should not be shown to
children. It is better if they don’t watch Hindi movies.
F: They learn to stab someone in the stomach with a knife by watching these
shows. They watch them fire with guns and now they want to play with guns.
Besides the fear of children learning violent behavior from some types of
television programs, there was also anxiety about exposure to ideas of romance. We
recorded a few comments about the dangers of “foreign” (bideshi) programs that were
“indecent” in their portrayals of sexuality. A few respondents spoke against shows on
magic, expressing fears about children’s inability to distinguish between reality and
fantasy. We encountered diverse views about Bangla films or movies produced in
Bangladesh (the most popular entertainment choice in rural areas) and their
appropriateness for children. A number of respondents told us that they were avid
viewers of Bangla films and they would watch them whenever possible, along with their
children. Others thought it was best if children were not exposed to them, given the
violence and romance that they portrayed.
In addition to concerns about children’s exposure to violence and other
undesirable themes on television was the idea that excessive television watching might
damage the vision of children. An additional concern was that television watching
distracted children from the task of studying. It is of note that there was no mention of
how television could assist families in the task of preparing young children to enter
school through the teaching of alphabets, counting and other pre-academic skills.
Sisimpur then, if it comes to have an acknowledged role in the parental task of getting
children ready to enter school, may come to add another dimension to understandings of
the relationship of children and television.

32. Like the others we spoke to, urban middle-class respondents also expressed
concerns about the children’s exposure through television to violence, sexuality and
foreign cultural norms. But what distinguished their situation in an important way was
access to satellite cable television. Consequently, urban residents, especially middle-class
ones, had more choice of what to watch as well as the opportunity for exposure to a range
of Western programs. We were told that BTV (Bangladesh National Television) – the
staple of rural viewers -- was rarely watched in urban middle-class homes. In that social
strata it was not Bangla movies but Indian “Bollywood” films that were a preferred
entertainment choice among adults. While there were some middle-class parents who
spoke of restricting the amount of television that their children watched because of its
interference with studies, most reported a rather laissez-faire attitude towards it. A
community leader and parent from a middle-class area of Dhaka described her inability to
control the television choices of her children. It seemed that she did not push her children
on this issue because of her assessment that television watching was safe as it kept her
children safe and away from the dangers of the outside environment:
This is the age of satellite TV. We cannot keep them away even if we want to do so. I
don’t want them to watch English movies. But they don’t listen. They control the TV
that they watch. I also think, the time now is really bad. If they go outside they will
mix with bad children, start smoking and taking drugs. So, if the children just sit at
home and watch TV, at least they’ll remain uncorrupted.
Among our expert respondents, several noted the need for more children’s
television programs. There was, it was felt, a particular gap in the available offerings for
young, preschool children. As noted in particular by the advisory members of the
Sisimpur production community, the children’s programs that were available tended to be
adult-centered and inattentive to the needs and interests of children. The development of
children’s television programming in Bangladesh had been stymied, it was felt, by the
absence of willing commercial sponsors for children’s programs.
In summary, television is widely understood in Bangladesh today to be an
increasingly important aspect of children’s lives. Children in urban areas clearly have
greater access to television and to a wider range of programs than their rural counterparts.
While there were concerns among adults about the possible exposure of children to
undesirable images and ideas on television, these concerns were, for the most part,
accompanied by an understanding of the potential benefits of television for children. Our
expert informants noted a need for more children’s television programs in the country.
IV CHILDREN’S WORLDS
In the following section of the report, we turn our attention to the experiences of children.
The information that we cite was gathered during focus groups with children and during

33. household observations. In order to provide a better sense of the settings in which
children live we begin our discussion with a series of household portraits or descriptions
of the households that we observed. We then move on to look at specific aspects of
children’s daily lives, such as school, play and interactions with adults.
a. Household portraits
Saber
We observed a 6 year old boy named Saber who lived in Panihadi. Saber was an only
child. His mother had been educated until Class 5 and his father had not had any
schooling. Saber’s father was a farmer who supplemented his income with a cell phone
business. That is, he owned a cell phone on which he took messages and made calls for
others in the village in exchange for a fee. Reflecting both the cell phone and the
television that they owned, Saber’s home (ghar) was quite clearly a neighborhood social
hub. The area in front of the home was marked by a steady stream of visitors from the
hamlet (para) and village.
Saber and his parents lived in a one-room home with mud walls and a tin roof.
There were four other homes in the courtyard, similarly built, that were part of the family
homestead (bari). Saber’s grandparents and uncles lived in these other homes. We were
told that Saber was very close to his grandparents and often slept and ate with them
although each of the homes cooked separately. The homes all shared a common tube-
well, bathroom and kitchen. On one side of the homestead courtyard we saw animals:
two cows, a goat, and some chickens and ducks.
Inside Saber’s home we saw a bed, a table, two wooden chairs, an iron safe, a
drum and some sacks of rice. The TV, which is on the table, is a 14” National Brand and
is about 4 years old. It operates on batteries. There is one battery and if it is charged then
in runs for 28-30 days. We were told that since Saber’s father had started his cell phone
business, the battery was often used to charge his cell phone and so the television was not
watched as often as before.
Abul
We observed Abul, a boy of about 7 years in Angarpara village. Abul’s parents had both
studied till Class 5. For several years now, Abul’s father had been living and working in
Saudi Arabia. Abul had a younger brother, aged 3 and a sister aged 5. Abul was
apparently enrolled in the local government primary school but there were some
questions about whether he actually attended. That is, Abul and his mother told us that he
went to the local government primary school. However, the Headmaster of the school
told us that he was not enrolled and did not attend.
Abul’s house was situated towards the east of Angarpara village, in an area
marked by dense groves of banana trees. Abul, his mother, and siblings lived in a small
home (ghar) with mud walls and a tin roof. There were several other homes in the family

34. homestead. Abul’s grandfather lived right next door to him. A little further away was a
home where Abul’s paternal uncle lived with his wife and 2 year old son; there was a
television here. There was a shared outdoor stove and a kitchen made of 3 bamboo walls.
There was a tube-well located on one side of the homestead as well as a stable with 3
cows and some chickens. We saw chilies being laid out to dry on the tin roofs.
Throughout the observation, we saw family members engaged in such activities as
collecting firewood, cleaning rice hulls, feeding chickens and laying tumeric roots out to
dry.
Raja
We observed Raja, a 4 year old boy who lived in a bastee of Dhaka. Raja had two
siblings -- a 14 year old sister who was in Class 7 and a 12 year old brother who was a
Class 5 student. Raja’s father, in his early 40s, was a HSC graduate and his mother had
received schooling to Class 8. Also living in the household was Raja’s 22 year old aunt.
We were told by community leaders that Raja’s family was among the more prosperous
and well-established in the neighborhood. Raja’s father was a prominent local community
leader and was a member of the Central Slum Dwellers Rights Protection Committee. He
was employed as a supervisor in a local sanitation products company. Raja’s mother told
us that these activities kept her husband out of the house for much of the day; he usually
left at 8 in the morning and returned at 10 or 11 at night. She was the one who had
responsibility for the day-to-day tasks of running the household.
Raja’s house was made of brick walls and a tin roof. There was a backyard, about
20” x 12” inches in size and shared by 3 other households, where Raja spent much of his
time playing with children from the neighborhood. The backyard was enclosed by 3
houses and a tin wall; several metal clothes lines hung across it. Inside the house there
were 2 rooms, separated by tin walls. The first room had a bed, a sofa, several small
reading tables and an old TV trolley. We were told that two persons slept in this room at
night, one on the sofa and the other on the bed. The room had a ceiling fan and two light
bulbs. The second room had a double bed, a clothes shelf and a showcase containing
toiletries and cooking pots and utensils. The TV was on the showcase and placed at an
angle by which it could be viewed from the adjoining kitchen. The room had a metal
clothes lines running through it.
Shona
Shona was a 5 year old girl living in a middle-class neighborhood of Dhaka. She attended
the nursery section of a private, English-medium primary school. Shona had a 12 year old
brother who was in Class 5 of the same primary school that she attended. Both of her
parents had attended university and had Master’s degrees. Shona’s father was a mid-
ranking officer in government service and her mother was a homemaker (she had
previously worked as a teacher). Other members of the household included 2 domestic
servants -- a young woman in her early twenties and a girl of about 10 years. Shona’s
maternal grandmother lived nearby and came over every day to spend time with them.

35. Shona lived in an apartment in a government housing complex for employees.
There was a small playground outside the complex. As we entered the apartment, we saw
a guest room on the right-hand side; Shona often used this as a study room. In the
drawing room there was a couch and several side tables and chairs. There was a
bookshelf with a variety of books from classical Bengali literature (e.g collection of
Nazrul Islam’s poetry) as well as paintings on the walls. There were two bedrooms, each
with its own attached bathroom and A/C units. The bedroom in which Shona and her
parents sleep had a large bed and a TV. The other room was used by Shona’s brother and
contained a computer. Shona’s brother had tutors who came to the house every day to
coach him in various subjects. The building had a large rooftop which was used to dry
clothes as well as take walks. We saw Shona, her mother and the young servant girl
walking and playing on the rooftop in the early evening.
b. Daily routines
When asked to describe what they had done yesterday, children related the following
activities: going to school, going to madrasah, attending coaching classes, receiving
tutors at home, doing household work, playing, eating, napping, bathing, and watching
TV. The account of a school-going girl in Mirka was quite typical:
I get up in the morning, wash up and then come to school. I study at school. Play with
my friends. After school is over I go home, wash up and eat. Then I take a nap and
then study. Then I again play; I mostly play kut-kut. And if they show any movie on
TV then I watch that movie at 2 pm in the afternoon.
The account of a 5-year old girl from an urban middle class family also related a
similar sequence of daily routine activities:
In the morning I ate my breakfast and came to school. In the afternoon I ate my lunch
and took a nap. In the evening I studied. (Did you play?) Yes, I played. I played
“Robbers and Police.” At dusk I only watched TV.
Along with the similarities, there were also some notable differences across the
communities studied in the daily routines described. Urban children in general, and
particularly (as one might expect) urban middle class children were less likely to speak of
performing household work.13
Among rural children, it was common to go to the
madrasah for religious instruction early in the morning, before school. Urban children
were more likely to receive such instruction after school, either at a local mosque or
through a private tutor (hujur). In general, as one would expect, private tutors at home
were more likely to be part of the experience of urban middle-class children. However,
attendance at coaching centers was quite widespread, reported even by urban bastee
children. Television was mentioned everywhere but its actual significance, as we will
13
We expected more references to paid work by children, especially in the poor urban nighborhoods.
However, we encountered very few, perhaps because we targeted very young children and also because of
a general awareness (among parents and adults) that such activity would not be viewed favorably by the
research team and so should not be mentioned.

36. discuss in more detail later, was quite varied. In the rural communities we studied,
television watching was severely curtailed by the sporadic supply of electricity.
b. School and Study
Children spoke about liking some aspects of school, such as playing at break and learning to read
and write. But dislike and fear of punishment14
was a common theme as were
complaints about the absence of sports, music, and toys in school. Two girls made
the following comments during a discussion in Mirka village:
Mithila: I like going to school. I like everything in school. The only thing I don’t like
is when the teachers hit me.
Chompa: It would be good if the school had PT (physical training) and if they taught
us to sing. It would be good if they had toys. It would be nice if the teachers played
with us.
Urban middle-class children were far less likely to speak of physical punishments
by teachers; however, they too wished for more time and materials to play with at school:
Belayat: At school we study with our teachers, then eat our tiffin (snack) and then
play.
Humayra: We play on the swings
Moderator: Do you think anything should be different at school?
Iffat: Color pencils and drawing books
Rimon: Beautiful pictures
Belayet: It would be nice to have a train to play with
School-going children were typically expected by their families to study at home
during certain times of the day. Many children spoke of being scolded and punished by
parents for not studying and instead doing such things as playing and watching TV. For
the children we observed and spoke to, “studying at home” was generally understood to
consist of three activities: reading aloud, memorizing (alphabets, poetry), and practicing
hand-writing.
We found the involvement of parents in the home study of their child to vary. In
families in which the parents had limited education, it was often a relative or older sibling
who played some part in supervising the children’s homework. We found that when
parents were involved, it was more likely to be the mother rather than the father. As in
the case of Emon, as described below, the rural mother would typically intersperse such
supervision with the household duties of cooking, sweeping, etc. Emon was a 6 year old
boy from Panihadi village whose mother had attended school for 8 years:
14
During our observation of Saber, a boy in Panihadi, we were told that he actually had stayed away from
school for 6 months after being beaten by a teacher for fighting with other students.

37. 2:35: After eating his food Emon sits down to study. He loudly reads the Bangla
poems and every few minutes asks his mother to tell him if he is reading it correctly
or not. His mother responds to him as she does her cooking and whenever she can
she comes next to him and tells him if he is reading correctly.
3:00 Emon gets up and plays with his cousin.
3:30 Emon sits down to study again. His mother again comes to him from time to
time and corrects what he was reading aloud. After a few minutes, Emon goes outside
to play cricket.
4:30 Emon sits down again to practice his hand-writing.
In one of the middle-class households we observed, we saw a 5 year old girl named
Shona (in private nursery school) studying at home with her mother. In contrast to
Emon’s experiences as described above, Shona’s mother devotes intensive and exclusive
time to the supervision of her daughter’s academic activities:
Mother: Shona, look. You are writing very badly now. You need to improve
your handwriting. You will now write from 1 to 20.
Shona: I want to write up to a 100.
Mother: Sure, but hold your pencil correctly. Your writing should be beautiful.
Shona writes from 1 to 10.
Shona: Mother, is my writing now beautiful? ”
Mother: Yes.
Shona: Is it very beautiful?
Mother: I can’t tell you so much. Now write ‘11’.
Shona writes a ‘2’ and then a ‘1’.
Mother: Shona, why are you being naughty? I will tell your teacher about this.
Among children who had not yet entered school, older siblings could play an
important role in teaching pre-academic skills such as alphabet recognition and writing to
their younger brothers and sisters. During a household observation in Mirka village, we
witnessed Arman, an 8-year old boy, spend a large amount of time with his 3 year old
sister Alpona, playing with her and teaching her. Arman’s mother had not gone to school
and his father, a carpenter, had studied till Class 5:
Arman gets a piece of charcoal and he writes his name on the floor with it. He writes
his name in Bangla and in English. As he writes it he spells it out. Alpona asks him
to write her name; he shows her how she can spell out her own name. Arman tells the
observer: “She repeats whatever I say. That’s how she knows all the rhymes. Arman
starts rhyming and Alpona starts singing with him.
c. Play
Our young respondents described and were observed to participate in several types of
play. Particularly in rural areas, the children spoke of traditional cooperative games such

38. as hadudu, kumir-kumir, rumal churi, which tend to involve a combination of running,
hiding, tagging and team-play. In all of the communities studied, children engaged in
role-play pretend games such as “school-school”, “robbers-police”, “train-train”. Boys
(but not girls) often played sports; we found cricket and soccer to be especially popular
activities. For the most part, manufactured toys had a very limited role in the play of
children; instead, play materials were drawn from the natural environment. This point is
highlighted by the following two fieldnote excerpts drawn from observations of two
boys, the first in Panihadi and the second in Angargara village:
Saber brings a few friends over to his house and they play in the yard outside. They
play cars. They take some fruits and pretend they are cars. They push them with a
stick and play racing.
Abul goes south of the tube-well where there are a few banana trees and where there
is a puddle of water. He starts playing there with his younger brother. Abul cuts a
path with a hoe to help drain the water from the puddle. Abul digs all around a tree
and then goes and leaves the hoe in his uncle’s room.
With the exception of middle class children, most of our young study-participants
were surrounded by other children when they were at home. A great deal of time was
spent “hanging out” with other children. The fact that most households and communities
in Bangladesh are densely packed is clearly of relevance here. Confirming the
observations of scholars, we did not find the traditional ideal of the joint family to be a
widespread reality. More common were what may be described as complex and porous
extended family households. That is, households were centered around the nuclear family
unit of married parents and children, but also extended beyond this to include some
relatives. Also of note is that the homes of kin tended to be clustered together. Beyond
this, we found the boundaries between homes and neighbors to be highly porous. The
consequences of this were particularly important for children who in our observations
seemed to constantly slip in and out of neighbor’s homes. We see this in our fieldnotes
from the observation of Shantona, a 4 year old girl in Angarpara village. Shantona had 3
siblings, including a physically disabled 7 year old brother:
At the start of the observation, while the observer was explaining his purpose and
taking some primary information down, some neighbors were jokingly alerting the
children of a possible kidnap. They were telling the children to behave themselves
and study attentively or else they would be taken away from there by the observer.
The observer repeatedly explained the purpose of the study and his role to a crowd of
25. Throughout the observation, a variety of adults and children from neighboring
households wandered in and out of the house and the yard. While the observer was
explaining his objective to the family, one of the neighbors was jokingly using foul
words to refer to some neighboring children. The children of the target household
ran away outside the house when their mother left the room. In the meantime, a
number of neighbor children came into the room. All the children are outside and
only Alhaz (disabled boy age 7) can be observed from the house. The children are