The ongoing political deadlock could wipe out all the achievements that the country has made in rural socio-economic sectors so far, former caretaker government advisor Dr. Akbar Ali Khan said on Thursday.
Speaking as the chief guest at a book launching ceremony, the former bureaucrat said revolutionary changes, both in economic and social aspects, have been achieved over the decades in the rural areas, which were never imagined during the early years of the country's independence in 1971.
"But fast deterioration of the law and order situation in the wake of persisting political turmoil could wash away those achievements," he also said.
Two books - Leading Issues in Rural Development, Bangladesh Perspective and Bish Geramer Golpo (A story of 20 villages) - were unveiled at the function. The books - one in English and another in Bangla - were written by the country's noted economists Dr. Mahabub Hossain and Professor Abdul Bayes.
Mr. Khan said there are many countries in the world, which were once financially stronger but later became weaker, only because of poor governance and lawlessness.
Emphasising improving governance in the rural areas, he said child marriage is still a common picture in many parts of the rural Bangladesh.
However, besides the government's pro-development policies he also gave credits to the foreign donors for the rural development and existing infrastructure upgradation.
Talking about the books, Dr. Mahabub Hossain said they took the initiative of writing such books in 1987 after collecting data from the state-owned BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) to analyse the changes in the rural Bangladesh.
Sharing some key findings from their publications, he said mindset of the rural people has positively changed, as the size of the rural family has squeezed to 4.2 members in 2013 in place of 6.0 in 1987.
He said crop production has enhanced significantly, which helped smooth supply to the urban areas. It has been possible, as 90 per cent farmers cultivate high-yielding varieties (HYV) of crops.
Speaking on the occasion, Professor Dr. Nurul Alam of Department of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University termed the books very essential for young researchers, as these have provided examples of mixing qualitative and quantitative research.
Professor Dr. M M Akash of Department of Economics at Dhaka University said the publications have ignored technical jargons for easy understanding by all.
Professor Abdul Bayes, Professor Dr. Abu Eusuf of Department of Development Studies at Dhaka University, and Professor Saad Andaleeb, Vice-Chancellor of Brac University, among others, also spoke at the launching ceremony.
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