2. and cultural rights on the one hand and civil and political rights on
the other (Osmani, 2010:. 25). This paper explored the situation of
the right to development and accessibility to public services in 15
char-based Unions at the Sirajganj District in Bangladesh using
mixed method approach. The main purpose was to extract an un-
derstanding of the ultra-poor people's rights to development and
accessibility to public services.
2. Literature review
The study examined several concepts i.e. char land, ultra-poor,
vulnerable people, rights, accessibility, and violation of rights in
our paper. Chowdhury (2008: 119) classified the chars in four
different ways on the basis of its structure, size, type, and stability:
as newly raised char land; as old and permanent char land; as a char
with human habitation; or as a char not yet inhabited. We define
the char land on the basis of location, char lands are isolated from
the mainland or located on a riverbed or river basin (river bank).
The term ‘poverty’ has been used as ultra poor, extreme poor,
hardcore poor, etc. in the literature. Globally, the ultra-poor are
defined as those living on $1.25 per day or less. Khandker, Khalily,
and Samad (2010: 10) used the term ‘ultra-poor’ in their study
whose (i) households have strictly less than 50 decimals of land; (ii)
household per capita monthly income does not exceed Tk1,500
(US$25); and (iii) one household member is a daily wage worker.
We defined ultra poor as those who were daily wage workers and
who had very limited physical, human, and financial assets and
social networks to draw on to mobilize and leverage household and
community resources or external assistance. Vulnerability can be
defined as the diminished capacity of an individual or group to
anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the impact of natural
or man-made hazards (International Federation of Red Cross and
Red Crescent Societies, n.d.). Vulnerability in this context is most
often associated with poverty, but it can also arise when people are
isolated, insecure and defenseless in the face of risk, shock or stress.
We used rights as the fundamentalnormative rules that are allowed
or owed to people, according to some legal system, social conven-
tion, or ethical theory. Rights dominate modern understandings of
what actions are permissible and which institutions are just. On the
other hand, accessibility refers to the quality of being available
when needed. We viewed accessibility as the ‘ability to access’ and
benefit from some structure or entity. In our study, we measured
the rights and accessibility including basic needs and services, in-
formation services, and participation in the local institutions and
activities.
In Bangladesh, the research on char land is mainly focused on
human livelihoods and socio-cultural perspectives (Mahmud, 2011:
5). Most of these are published as reports and covered poverty,
natural disasters, climate change, and displacement of the char
people, but rarely discussed about their rights to development and
accessibility to public services. Chowdhury (2008) mentioned that
the chars are home to some of the poorest and most vulnerable
communities in Bangladesh. Islam, Singh, Shaheed, and Wei (2010)
found that the char people and their settlements in Bangladesh
channels are under threat due to floods and associated river bank
erosion. Excess of water occurs during the monsoon season because
of widespread flooding that damages char-land settlements, agri-
cultural crops, infrastructures, and communication networks.
A number of studies analyzed the socio-economic issues, and
environmental hazards of the char people in Bangladesh. For
example, Adnan and Monsoor (1976) conducted a study on the
dynamics of power in a char land in a remote village in the Barisal
region. Currey (1979) examined survival strategies during the
period of food shortage in char areas. Haque (1989) conducted a
study to see the human adjustment strategies to cope with river
bank erosion hazard among inhabitants of the Jamuna floodplain of
Bangladesh. Sarker et al., (2003) found that people displaced by char
erosion have no other alternative than to settle on accreting char
land elsewhere, creating a typical social and economic char envi-
ronment. Life for all char people is dependent on ‘influential others’
who dispatch the vulnerable to assemble char lands in a culturally,
politically, and meteorologically tumultuous environment. The
complicity of rural bureaucrats, political parties, and officials can be
passive or active. Feldman and Geisler (2012) argued that little
thought is given to the displacement of the conditions, increasingly
corrupted and dismembered by elite profiteering from the region
and beyond.
Mahmud (2011) found that due to less productive use of land
resources, frequent victimization of natural calamities, and limited
scope of off farm income generating activities have created sea-
sonal migration and higher dependency on traditional money
lenders for accessing credit supply, which bind them to fall into the
vicious cycle of debt and poverty. In absence of technical support
and inability of NGOs to reach these people, the food security, and
income and assets generation level of the project intervention area
have not brought significant change compared to their counter-
parts. Ann and Hobley (2003) found that the deep structural bar-
riers prevent the exercise of voice of the extreme poor at char areas
in the Northern part of Bangladesh. In contrary, Islam and Hossain
(2014) recently conducted a study in the char areas in the three
Northern Districts (Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat and Pabna) in
Bangladesh. They found positives in a number of areas i.e.
governmental and non-governmental organizations' services and
awareness about disaster and vulnerability and coping strategies
compared to baseline data. Haque and Zaman (1989) found that a
significant number (27%) of char people were dissatisfied by the
char livelihood programs, because the livestock and poultry could
not survive due to the extreme environment.
The above discussions show that there is a knowledge gap in the
literature about the ultra-poor people's rights to development and
accessibility to public services. Very few studies somewhat covered
the components of the rights to development and accessibility to
public services. This study attempted to fill up this knowledge gap
and provided an understanding of the ultra-poor people's rights,
their experiences of the violations of rights, and their rights to
development and accessibility to public services.
3. Context and study area
The char land is geographically isolated, underprivileged, and
defrauded from basic rights and services (e.g., health, education
and protection by laws) in Bangladesh. The major characteristics of
the char land people are their settlement patterns, way of living,
professional disturbances due to absence of principle occupation,
coping strategies against the social and natural hazards such as
uneven mobility pattern due to river erosion (Zaman, 1989: 3). The
char people are known as tough and daring as they face many
natural and social hazards. More than 6.5 million people of the char
land struggle for a living without access to proper sanitation, pri-
mary healthcare and education, basic infrastructure, and protection
from the law. The reality of inhabitants of char-land is that about
80% of them are ultra-poor and have no land of their own. They live
in leased land, led by the others who exploit them in various ways.
Further, the char people are being excluded from the state initia-
tives and institutional services (e.g., legal aid, health, education,
livelihoods, safety net, village court and formal judiciary). Most
often, the people in char land have to go to upazila and district
headquarters, crossing the river by engine-boat or on foot which
takes 2e3 h. It is a very tragic fact that the pregnant mothers,
disabled people or persons face tremendous trouble on the way
S. Paul, M.R. Islam / Habitat International 48 (2015) 113e121114
3. towards the nearest health clinic or hospital. Another reality is that
the women face various forms of violence, but they do not feel
enough confidence (as victims) to report their complaints to the
authorities due to a lack of their legal knowledge and procedural
complexities to seek protection by laws.
This study was carried out in a total of 15 char-based unions of
five upazilas (Kazipur, Shahjadpur, Sirajgonj sadar, Chowhali and
Belkuchi) in the Sirajganj district (See Fig.1). Sirajgonj is a district of
northern part of Bangladesh, lying west of the Brahmaputra river
and beside the Jamuna river, about 110 kms northwest of Dhaka.
The district is located in the Rajshahi Division. The total population
of this district is 3,097,489. The female population is 1,546,121, or
40% (123,899) of the people that live in the char land areas. They are
surviving with extreme levels of poverty. The areas have a lower
education rate and limited access to information on healthcare,
employment, legal aid, and other public services.
4. Study objective and methodology
4.1. Objectives
The overall objective of this study was to extract the ultra-poor
people's perception to development and accessibility to public
services in selected char-land areas at the Sirajganj district in
Bangladesh. To achieve this overall objective, the study defined the
following specific objectives:
i) To extract an understanding of the ultra-poor char people and
their rights and their experiences of the violations of rights, and
ii) To assess ultra-poor people's rights to development and acces-
sibility to public services.
4.2. Methodology
4.2.1. Research method
The study used a mixed method approach concurrently con-
sisting of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Islam
and Hossain (2014) used this mixed method approach in char land
areas with the related topic. The fundamental rationale behind this
method is to combine the strengths of qualitative research with the
strengths of quantitative research. It was that we could learn more
about our research problem and its contextual value i.e. char peo-
ple's rights to development and accessibility to public services. We
wanted to reduce ‘gaps’, to have greater validity, and to ensure that
our pre-existing assumptions (e.g., from our empirical experience
or other study findings) are less likely. The overall purpose and
central premise of mixed methods is that the use of this combi-
nation would provide us a better understanding of the complex
phenomena than either approach alone (Azorin & Cameron, 2010:
95). In additions, as researchers, within this mixed method
approach there was an opportunity to verify our investigation from
ontological and epistemological points of view (Sale, Lohfeld, &
Brazil, 2002).
4.2.2. Data collection methods
We collected quantitative data by using the semi-structured
interview method. We used focus group discussions (FGD),
participant observation, participatory rural appraisal (PRA), key
informants interviews (KII), and in-depth case studies for qualita-
tive data. The qualitative data helped to extract ground information
on the experiences of the ultra-poor people. This also contributed
in assessing causal links and people's satisfactions towards local
public services. In addition, the study reviewed a number of rele-
vant documents for developing a better understanding about the
concepts and to develop a conceptual framework for the study.
4.2.3. Sampling: selection of chars and respondents
The quantitative data were collected from 255 households. We
selected this sample size through random sampling. The size (n) of
the sample (255 households) was determined by using systematic
statistical equation, on conditions that the sample would be 95%
likely to yield an estimate with a given level of precision. Regarding
this, the study randomly selected 15 unions out of 30 char-based
unions from five upazillas (Kazipur, Shahjadpur, Sirajgonj sadar,
Chowhali and Belkuchi) in the Sirajganj district, and systematically
selected 17 sample respondents ultra-poor HHs (households) from
each selected char-based Union. The households were the cases and
upazilas were the unit of analysis. We found that the male efemale
ratio was 60:40. Qualitative data was collected from the ultra-poor
char people, community leaders, Union Parishad (UP) representa-
tives, and local police officials.
4.2.4. Data collection instruments
We developed a semi-structured interview schedule in order to
collect quantitative data from the sampled households. We also
developed separate guidelines and checklists for FGD, participant
observation, PRA, KII, in-depth case studies, and documentation
survey.Fig. 1. Study location.
S. Paul, M.R. Islam / Habitat International 48 (2015) 113e121 115
4. 4.2.5. Data analysis technique
The data and information collected on specific areas were stored
in a separate file with a code number and then compiled and
triangulated properly according to the nature, type and character-
istics of data/information. A standard data editing modus operandi
was used to scrutinize all sorts of data and information that were
collected from primary and secondary sources. Finally, a simple
statistical technique was applied to present the findings in different
dimensions.
5. Results
5.1. Community understanding about their rights
The findings revealed that none of the participants fully un-
derstood their rights fully. Data showed that the category ‘did not
know about their rights’ was the highest in all five upazilas: 79% in
Kazipur, 84% in Shahzadpur, 62% in Sirajgonj Sadar, 80% in Belkuchi,
and 90% in Chowhali (Fig. 2). The highest numbers of people, who
were aware of their rights, was found in nearby districts and lowest
numbers were in the remote upazilas.
5.2. Experiences and status of complain reporting about the
violation of rights against women
The study explored the physical, psychological, and sexual vio-
lations at family and community levels. Most of the men reported
beating their wives and were not aware that this was not a viola-
tion. The situation was defined as extreme in Sirajgonj Sadar area,
where more than 81% of respondents were involved in physical
violence. A portion of participants, particularly males, were in
silence. No evidence was found on forced labor, acid throwing,
murder, missing or kidnapping issues. In average, only 47% of
people responded on experiences with physical violence, but the
remaining 53% of people did not provide a response (Fig. 3).
The female participants mostly recognized that early marriage,
pressure for dowry, not allowing free movement and intimidation
were major factors contributing to psychological violence. It is
understandably clear that women of the implementation area
suffered from early marriage, intimidation and tortured for dowry
(Table 1). However, response in this area was very limited in con-
tent. Apart from this, the study did not find any response from men
and women group on divorce or threat to divorce, eve-teasing,
trafficking, rebuking, not allowing girls' education, extra-marital
affairs, and denying maintenance cost for wives.
The male participants were almost silent. Compared with the
male participants, women were found more vocal in raising
concern about their issues, but it was still considerably low. It was
through FGD's and in-depth case studies with the women, that we
learned this was because of a lack of confidence and understanding.
Regarding compliant reporting, some women and girls reported:
“We don't have scope to report our incidents to the police sta-
tion, because it is located 10e15 kms from our village, so we
have to depend on the ‘local Salish’ to resolve our problems. As
we are not well aware and we don't have enough money, the
decision of local Salish often goes in favour of powerful or rich
people. We usually don't file any complaints against our family
members. If the situation is out of our highest tolerance, then we
complain to local Chairman or UP member for its resolution.”
During KII on the experiences of the violation of rights against
women, a woman school teacher noted:
“As women we have to hear pressurized talking from our
counterparts, even as a working woman I have to pay full
attention to take care of all of my family members including
cooking and caring of my children. Sometimes if I am delayed to
serve food, I have to hear some unnecessary shouting or
revoking that often undermines my contribution and recogni-
tion in the family.”
The finding of sexual violation revealed that a limited propor-
tion of the participants, particularly women in Kazipur and Bel-
kuchi areas responded on the issue of polygamy. Regarding this, the
male participants did not make any response. The trend of response
meant that the participants were not willing to explore their ex-
periences of sexual incidences.
5.3. Accessibility of the char people to local services
5.3.1. Status of accessibility
Only 38% of the ultra-poor people had information about the
public services and 62% indicated that they did not have any in-
formation about this. The status revealed that the ultra-poor peo-
ple's limited access to information on services often resulted in a
lack of access to public services (Fig. 4). Data showed that 32% of the
ultra-poor people visited the health and family planning in-
stitutions for seeking services, followed by educational institutions
26%, and land institutions 25%. However, Union Parishad (UP) was
not found as a high demandable institution to the local people,
although it is considered as the most useful and powerful public
institution at the local level. 50% of the ultra-poor acknowledged
that they did not know about the provisions of public services. This
indicates that there is a lack of information flow about the public
services to the char people.
5.3.2. Accessibility to Union Parishad (UP) services
We received diverse opinions among the five upazilas and
among males and females about the public services provided by UPFig. 2. Level of understanding about rights.
Fig. 3. Nature of physical violence in study area.
S. Paul, M.R. Islam / Habitat International 48 (2015) 113e121116
5. (Table 2). In Shahzadpur upazila, the highest 82% had access to rural
infrastructure, followed by birth and death registration 76%, and
water supply and sanitation 62%. The resolution of family conflict
(through Salish) was also strongly acknowledged by the partici-
pants (61%) of Kazipur areas, followed by 55% to social welfare and
disaster management and 52% to water supply and sanitation. Only
24% of people in Belkuchi knew about the social welfare and
disaster management services compared to the knowledge about
other services of government. Regarding tax identification and
collection services, only 38% of men knew about it in the Kazipur
areas, while no female respondents claim to know about it of any
five upazilas. According to 38% of men and women, e-services were
accessible in Kazipur, 6% in Sirajgonj Sadar and only 3% in Belkuchi;
zero responses were found in Shahzadpur and Chowhali. However,
no outcome was found for Chowhali upazila to determine whether
Table 1
Nature of psychological violence in study area.
Nature of mental abuse Kazipur (%) Shahzadpur (%) S. Sadar (%) Belkuchi (%) Chowhali (%)
M F M F M F M F M F
Intimidation e 5.9 25.0 11.1 31.6 4.2
Dowry/Pressure for dowry 21.2 10.5 18.8
Divorce or threat to divorce 9.1 23.5
Threat for court/police cases 23.5 6.3
Early marriage 24.2 35.3 17.6 12.5 26.3 27.1
Teasing or rebuking 6.1
Not allowing free movement 31.3 15.2
Extra-marital affairs 12.1
No response 68.7 12.1 76.5 35.3 82.4 56.3 88.9 21.1 100 50.0
Fig. 4. Types of government services searched by the char poor.
Table 2
Accessibility of ultra-poor to UP services.
Major UP services Kazipur (%) Shahzadpur (%) Sirajgonj sadar (%) Belkuchi (%) Total Av (%)
M F (%) Av (%) M F (%) Av (%) M (%) F (%) Av (%) M F Av (%)
Tax identification & collection 37.5 37.5 37.5
Education, health & family planning 31.25 6.06 18.66 18.66
Agriculture, fisheries & others 6.25 6.25 6.25
Rural infrastructure development 6.25 57.58 31.91 82.35 82.35 11.76 6.25 9.01 41.09
Law and order 6.25 6.25 6.25
Birth & death registration 18.75 45.45 32.10 52.94 100 76.48 35.29 50 42.65 50.41
Water supply & sanitation 51.52 51.52 61.76 61.76 23.53 21.88 22.70 5.26 5.26 35.31
Social welfare and disaster management 54.55 54.55 23.68 23.68 39.11
Environment development & plantation 0.00 12.50 12.50 5.26 5.26 8.88
Resolution of family conflicts, women &
child welfare -Salish
60.61 60.61 44.12 44.12 23.53 23.53 42.75
Information (e-service) 31.25 45.45 38.35 6.25 6.25 2.63 2.63 15.74
Certificates 42.42 42.42 6.25 6.25 24.34
S. Paul, M.R. Islam / Habitat International 48 (2015) 113e121 117
6. they either did not know about public services or were deprived
from their entitlement in their own area.
We talked with the UP representatives and local community
leaders about the availability of public services in our FGD, in-depth
case study and KII. During in-depth-interview, a UP Chairman
mentioned:
“Char people have very limited scope to visit services provided
by the public institutions like hospitals, because all public ser-
vice institutions are located in upazila headquarter, which is
10e15 kms from our char land. Within our limited budget, we
are trying to do something, but comparing to local needs it is
nothing”.
5.3.3. Status of people's satisfaction
The findings revealed that only 6% of people were ‘fully satisfied’
with UP public services, followed by 51% ‘partially satisfied’, and
43% ‘not satisfied’. We got more qualitative information about
satisfaction levels through FGD and KII sessions; responses
included the lack of commitment, support, education and skills of
UP representatives, planning and budgeting, resources, leadership,
and negotiation, and the presence of corruption. Most of the local
representatives mentioned that lack of commitment and inability
of negotiation with the government are the reasons for discon-
tentment. A small number of them stated that the lack of the UP
planning and budgeting, and government assistance, both
accounted for their disappointment on UP services. During FGD
sessions, some ultra-poor people mentioned:
“We want to pay regular tax to UP if they promise us that they
will invest it for our priority works”.
5.3.4. Performance of UP in service deliveries
Both men and women ranked UP's deliveries with the scale of
1e10 (1 being highly dissatisfactory and 10 being outstanding). In
response, participants of Kazipur and Sirajgonj sadar agreed to give
6 to the UP service deliveries, in contrast Shahzadpur and Belkuchi
people marked 4 upon the performance of UP. Correspondingly, the
people in Chowhali ranked only 4 to the performances saying that
they were comparatively disappointed on the performances of UP
(Fig. 5).
During discussion on the mobility and accessibility of ultra-poor
women and men to local public service institutions, the response
was diverse (Fig. 6). It was noted that they often move to local
schools, where they get easy access for educating their children. In
others cases, they moved as per their needs and requirements, but
gained limited access to attain their support/services. The findings
of a cobweb analysis have been presented in Table 3. The diagram
included all major services (e.g., school, UP, upazila, local bazaar,
bank, social welfare office, agricultural office, livestock office, hos-
pital, NGO office, and police station/thana). The status reveals that
mobility is greater than accessibility in all cases. This means that
the ultra-poor people have limited access to local institutional
services (for detail, see Table 3).
5.4. Participation of the ultra-poor to local governance
We observed through our qualitative investigation that a large
section of ultra-poor people in char land areas are not aware about
the UP services though it is the lowest public administrative tier of
the government. Through quantitative analysis we found that only
8% of char people usually participate in the UP (Fig. 7). The level of
their participation is comparatively better in Belkuchi areas, and
worst in the Shahzadopur and Chowhali areas.
During FGD and in-depth case study discussions, a number of
people noticed that due to their dissatisfaction with UP service,
they did not participate in any event. Regarding participation of
people in UP affairs, a group of vulnerable women claimed:
“We want to participate in WARD Shava (meeting) to share our
needs and priorities in UP planning, but it is not usually
happened”.
We made an effort through our qualitative investigation to un-
derstand the participation of the ultra-poor in social actions. A very
small number of them stated that they sometimes participated in
social actions as response to incidents against women and girls,
while a significant number of participants did not respond. The
result revealed the lack of leadership and poor responsiveness
among ultra-poor people as factors of the violation of rights. Let us
look into Helena's case:Fig. 5. Weighted scale on the UP service delivery.
Fig. 6. Mobility and accessibility of the char people to local institutions.
S. Paul, M.R. Islam / Habitat International 48 (2015) 113e121118
7. 6. Discussion
The case study above shows the ultra-poor char people's lack of
rights to development and accessibility to public services in char
land areas at the Sirajganj district in Bangladesh using mixed
method approach. A number of limitations were faced by the re-
searchers in conducting this study. The components of rights to
development and accessibility to public services are complex and
related with many socio-economic, political, cultural and institu-
tional issues. The lack of time, remoteness of the study areas, and
local power structure of the char areas were also barriers during the
data collection period. Despite some limitations, the finding of this
study still presented a rich preliminary picture about the ultra-poor
people's rights to development and accessibility to public services.
The study found that the understanding of rights among the char
people was very low. The study also found that the tortures and
violations of rights were found very common in the char land areas.
The males did not treat physical torture as a violation of rights. The
researchers found that more often the male respondents were si-
lent on issues surrounding domestic violence and hence their input
was limited. The females more readily recognized early marriage,
pressure for dowry, lack of free movement, and intimidation as
physical violence. Both types of data confirmed us that due to the
lack of confidence and fear, the women did not raise their voices
against this violence, and they could not complain against their
exploitation. This study finding can be compared with a number of
studies i.e. Abdullah (1974), Akkas (2014), and Monsoor (1999).
They mentioned that a girl in the char area is considered as a
burden compared to a boy, who is considered the perpetuator of
the paternal line. Char people are accustomed to getting their
daughter married at a very early age because of community pres-
sures (Akkas, 2014). We found that men decided almost all aspects
of women's lives. These conditions isolated women from their local
community; prevented them from acquiring knowledge and skills,
and, thereby, from contributing to development. Ikeda (2009)
found similar finding in the chars of the Gaibandha district in
Bangladesh that some fundamental concerns in the specific socio-
economic context of the char area were not articulated by
women, such as access to livelihood resources and control of their
own marital status. These concerns are directly related to power
relations and they are the root causes of vulnerability.
Table 3
The explanation of Cobweb diagram.
Service institutions Mobility Accessibility Explanation
Schools 10 10 Ultra-poor people frequently visit the primary schools and mostly they get access
for children's admission and other ceremonies.
Union Parishad 8 4 As per needs, ultra-poor visits the UPs for seeking their services but they don't
get required services at all time, they visited.
Upazila Parishad 4 2 Ultra-poor people move to Upazila Parishad in few cases though it is far
(not around 2e3 km) from their locations.
Local bazar 6 4 Most don't have enough money to go to local bazar for daily meal; usually
men went to bazar for emergency but women never.
Bank 2 2 Ultra-poor people rarely visit the government bank for transaction. A large
section never visits the Bank.
Social welfare office 0 0 Ultra-poor people didn't hear about the name of social welfare office, so they
never went there.
Agricultural office 3 2 Most of ultra-poor don't have land, so they told that they do not feel need to
go to this office. Only few visited the office for fertilizer or seeds.
Livestock office 4 2 Few ultra-poor people had poultry and therefore they need to visit livestock
office for vaccines and other support.
Hospital 5 3 A section of ultra-poor people visited the local health center for maternal case and other
illness, mostly for children.
NGO office 7 5 Ultra-poor people often visited the NGO office but they did not get their expected services
at all time. But the service was comparatively easy accessible.
Police station/Thana 5 2 A section of ultra-poor people, particularly men visited the police station to report their problem,
but police are unwilling to care about them.
Case: “Helena is a victim of dowry and does not know about
her rights”
Helena Begum (35) was the youngest among her siblings
and grew up in poverty. A man, who was the son of a
powerful family from the same village, targeted her and
made a fake relationship and ended up marrying her. They
were together for 10 years and during this time, they had
three children. But all of a sudden, Helena's parents-in-law
demanded a dowry from her. Helena's father was unable
to give money to them due to his poverty. Helena's parents-
in-law then started both physical and mental torture to-
wards her. Helena's husband moved to another char as part
of his parents' plan to exclude her and thus torture her
more. When she lived in her village, she could get support
from her father, but later she became helpless when more
torture was inflicted her. Afterwards, she returned to her
father's home with the three children, but was stressed out
on how to get justice for the domestic violence instigated by
her in-laws. She wondered how she would manage finan-
cial support to care for herself and her children. The situa-
tion became worse when she heard that her husband
married a second time without informing her. Meanwhile,
her father, unable to help his daughter in her misery, died of
a stroke. She requested a village leader to talk to her hus-
band and his parents about the possibility of a merger, but
this did not work. Later she placed a case with the court but
since her husband's family was rich and powerful, they
dismissed the case by paying huge amounts of bribe
money. ‘No skill, no money, and no justice’ made Helena a
burden along with her children to her brothers. Her elder
son left school after fifth grade to help her. Later Helena
started stitching kantha, and working in other homes as a
domestic to manage family expenditures. She has been
searching for justice and expected she would get help from
the society, community, and elite people, to no avail.
S. Paul, M.R. Islam / Habitat International 48 (2015) 113e121 119
8. The study showed that the char people did not get information
about the services, which are locally available for them. A very small
number of people know about the major UP services i.e. law and
order, agriculture and fisheries, welfare services, etc. The satisfac-
tion level of the services was also very low those who were aware of
them. Due to their high frequency of relocation from one char to
another, the access to those services further downgraded. All the
respondents were likely for low levels of participation in UP affairs.
Our epistemological view was that the physical, economic, and
social vulnerabilities suffered by the char people cause persistent
poverty. We can compare this finding with Chowdhury (2008). He
found that a key aspect of the difficult physical environment is its
isolation and its poor communications network, which cuts them
off from the mainland and results in little or no access to govern-
ment and NGO services. Although NGOs do work in some char
areas, by their own estimation they are covering not more than 30%
of the total area. The main constraints on the lives of char dwellers
were lack of secure livelihoods, lack of social and political aware-
ness, absence of alternative life-sustaining means, and frequent
environmental hazards. These factors created the conditions for
their social, economic, and political exclusion and powerlessness.
According to the UN (2004), poverty not only arises from the lack of
resources, it may also arise from a lack of access to resources, op-
portunities, power and mobility. Our findings reflected this sce-
nario. Akkas (2014) found that only 10% of the participants felt free
to express their opinions regarding local and national issues in
general formal meetings and informal group discussions. 50%
women mentioned that the local government and community
leaders did not count their voices at all and 63% women replied that
they did not participate in Salish. Hashmi (2000) found that the
institution is elite-dominated and passes informal judgments that
seek compromised solutions in village-level disputes on matters
relating to property, family, marriage, divorce, factional strife and
patronage Women do not have opportunities to play a role in this
type of Salish, except as victims or witnesses. Our Helena's case was
a good example to support this fact. Chowdhury (2007), and Ikeda
(2009) also found similar findings in their studies. They found that
the biggest problem was resistance from traditional leaders (imam,
matabbar). Our qualitative analysis showed that they tried to stop
women going out to attend group meetings, training, even to the
shelters during floods. Many aged people complained that those
women's forming groups were destroying religion, because they
were not wearing suitable Islamic attire (i.e. hijab/scarf).
The causes of poverty were found as multi-layered and linked
with economic and social phenomena. The problems were rooted
in violation of rights, inaccessibility, communication gap, and poor
education, as for example 71 per-cent had no living assets i.e.
medical facilities, agricultural services, schooling, and economical
opportunities. The findings can be compared with Mahmud (2011)
and Osmani (2010). For example, Mahmud mentioned that due to
shortages of livelihood assets, the char people fall into the vicious
cycle of debt and poverty. This is the same as what we discovered in
our study. In this regard, found that poverty is a chronic and
complex problem for Bangladesh and women are severely affected
by it due to lack of access to resources, income generating activities,
decision-making process, and political participation. We would
argue that Bangladesh has not formulated any development pol-
icies in the light of poor people's rights to development and
accessibility to public services. In this regard, Osmani (2010: 84)
mentioned that the right to development is not just about out-
comes, but also about the process of development. One of these is
encompassed by the notion of the right to development and the
right of individuals to participate in decision-making processes that
lead to the policies and programmes designed for promoting
development. Bangladesh has been sorely lacking in this regard.
7. Conclusions
The case study was conducted in 30 unions of five upazilas in the
Sirajgonj district with a view to define the prevailing nature and
extent the violation of rights, and inaccessibility on local public
services. The finding showed the predominant nature of physical,
mental and sexual violence, and discrimination against women.
However, all these have a strong linkage with economic, social and
traditional phenomena of the targeted char land communities that
often created a vulnerable space for poverty and violence against
women at the local level. The illiteracy, early marriage, poverty and
financial dependency, lack of knowledge, lack of information and
awareness are treated as the main reasons of the violation of rights.
Inadequate social services and limited access to the public services
thus reluctant trend is defined among ultra-poor in not participating
in the UP activities. In absence of an appropriate care and support
mechanism in the respective areas, a large section is forcibly coping
with insecurity, vulnerability, and discourtesy in the families as well
as in the communities. The confidence level of the local community
is quite low, due to their illiteracy, and lack of information and
awareness. The low level of understanding about their rights makes
them unable to get access to the local public services.
The findings have direct links with a number of national policy
agendas, such as poverty alleviation, development of the ultra-
poor, and char livelihood project (CLP), and special support for
the socially excluded people. The Bangladesh Government agrees
that the poor groups of the population are severely disadvantaged
in terms of ownership of assets and has inadequate access to
institutional finances as well as to basic services, including quality
education, healthcare, water and sanitation (GoB, 2010). These
people, especially women and children, are also disproportionately
affected by natural disasters and adverse effects of climate change.
Despite expansions, publicly supported mitigating measures in the
form of social protection programs are still inadequate. In this link,
the present government's long-term development planning and
policies recognize that Bangladesh is still a low income country
with substantial poverty, inequality and deprivation. An estimated
47 million people are living below the poverty line, with a signifi-
cant proportion living in households which are female headed, in
remote areas, and consisting of socially excluded and other
vulnerable people (GoB, 2010). No doubt, a significant of number of
these vulnerable people living in the char lands. The findings of our
research can contribute to these ongoing and/or future government
initiatives.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the financial contribution of EIDHR program of
the European Union as integral part of the PRADG project, jointly
implementing by Concern Universal, Bangladesh and Manab Mukti.Fig. 7. Status of participation in revenue generation process.
S. Paul, M.R. Islam / Habitat International 48 (2015) 113e121120
9. We also acknowledge the informative support of the char-based
ultra-poor people. The study was undertaken with the financial
support of EIDHR Program of the European Union.
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