Villages undergo silent transformation

Those who go to villages or have some linkages with rural areas can easily understand how the rural society and economy have changed. Whenever this writer gets an opportunity, he goes to his village and tries to stay overnight. This time, last week, he spent four days in his village. It is Alkara under Chouddagram upazila in Comilla.
Kalu Mia, aged about 60, came to see this scribe by a rickshaw. Once he was a rickshaw-puller by profession. This time, he came as a passenger. We exchanged pleasantries. He gave an invitation to visit his building now under construction. His son works in Dubai. A woman of the village Sakina came to our house. Her family was landless. Her mother was a beggar even 15 years ago. Sakina's daughter works in a garment factory in Chittagong. She bought 2 decimals of land recently from this writer's first cousin to build a house. It was surprising how she could manage Tk 3,00,000 to buy this piece of land. Just two hundred yards south of the village home, a newly- constructed two-storied building was found. Again, there is another new one-storey building with surrounding walls about five hundred metres away from our home pond. The owners of both the houses work in the Middle East and send remittances.
All these are enough to create curiosity in one's mind to walk through the village to see the real-life situation. While walking through the village in two consecutive mornings, we received ovation from the villagers. They, particularly the women, were happy to see them. They were offering cold drinks, not 'sarbat' (water mixed with sugar and lemon), as was offered earlier. It was indeed very amazing. About 30 per cent houses are now pucca buildings. The rest, except a few, are tin-shed houses. All kinds of houses have drawing rooms. The least developed drawing rooms were having at least two chairs. Generally, in every drawing room, there is a cot covered with quilt and bed sheet. Those who constructed buildings have attached bathrooms. In almost every house, sealed latrines are found.
Now-a-days, the villages have road networks. Seventy-five per cent of the roads are pucca. CNG auto-rickshaws are plying. Men-driven rickshaws have almost disappeared. The rickshaw-pullers have switched over to auto-rickshaw driving or other trades. No cow-plough is seen in the area. Land is cultivated by tractors. Some land is covered by irrigation. Agricultural labourers are not found in the area. During harvesting time such labourers come from other districts, mostly from greater Rangpur area. Those who are old cannot work any more in the field. They pass their time going to the mosques and also to the village restaurants in the evening. They enjoy television programmes. The restaurants remain overcrowded when there are events like cricket games. By paying Tk 10 each, people witness cricket games on the television.
If one visits the village bazaar in the evening, one finds it a 'ladies' market'. A large number of women come to the market for shopping. Mobile phone business is thriving in the village markets. It is because of mobile calls and mobile banking.
One also finds a unique scene in the village. Girl students in groups are seen going to and coming from schools. It is amazing that if you find 20 girls walking on the road, you will see maximum ten boys. This is how the rate of female education is spreading in Bangladesh. In the village, however, practice of coaching centres has developed. It is because of the introduction of primary school certificate and junior school final examinations. According to local guardians, teachers are found more serious on coaching than on teaching in the classrooms.
In the real-life observation, another information could be known. The Union Parishad cannot work properly. Now the village salish/arbitration is not performed by UP members. These are now done by political cadres for which money has to be paid.
Taken together, a silent revolution has occurred in  rural Bangladesh.

The writer is an economist and columnist.
Email: chowdhuryjafar@email.com