Socioeconomic and Political Issues of Small Ethnic Group in Bangladesh

The socioeconomic and political situation of ethnic people has become one of the most researched topics among the sociologists and anthropologist of recent times. This study focuses on the socioeconomic condition of ethnic people living in the Chittagong hill Tracts area of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a land of more than 45 tribal groups. These ethnic people are living in both plain lands and the hill areas.

Socioeconomic Condition of Ethnic Group

Barkat et al., characterized the CHT is one of the most vulnerable because of its income and employment opportunities, poverty, housing, health, water, sanitation, education and inter-community confidence. Dhamai commented that the main problems of ethnic people are land dispossession, limited access to education and other social service and discrimination from the part of the ethnic people. Now discuss the various aspects of social and economic problems of ethnic groups.

A. Economic Problems of the Ethnic People in the CHT: As the CHT is a hills area; the opportunities for diverse kinds of occupation are very limited. The people of cultivation and agriculture are also dependent mainly on the primitive techniques and technologies. A survey of 400 households in the CHT area identified the following as the main occupation of the households of the ethnic people in CHT.

Agriculture	64%
Business	8.5%
Service/ professional	7.8%
Agricultural Labor	12.5%
Tenant farmers	2.5%
Fishing	4.8%

From this survey it can be identified that the main attribute of the ethnic economy in the CHT is agriculture. The main form of cultivation is Swidden/slash and Busn cultivation local ethnic language this cultivation is called Jum. This social form of cultivation is common in several hill areas of different parts of the world. The hill dweller cut a good amount of trees and burns them to clear the land of cultivation. They produce several kinds of crops on that land. They produce rice, maize, millet, cotton singer, melon and some others. This thousands of bear old cultivation tradition and is the main source of sustenance for their ethnic people. It has been found that because hill area is facing huge environmental damage. Ecology is at risk, moreover, the land are becoming infertile. Because of burning process, the land becomes incapable of producing crops after this it has been done a few times. As a result, new land must be found for cultivation. It results in greater environmental damage. The status of entrepreneurship among the ethnic people of CHT is poor. Though there are many industries that are contributing to the economy of CHT, the control of these industries is completely in the hands of other people.

B. Problems Arising from Land-disposes and Migration: Land dispossession is one of the main problems of the ethnic people in Bangladesh. In most cases, lands of these people are taken away without their consent. In many cases, this dispossession is done in the name of development. In 1960, then Pakistan government built the kaptai hydraeuetric project on the river of karnafuli and as a result the land of ethnic people were flooded and they had to migrate to other places including Myanmar and India later, many times the government has taken land from the ethnic people in name of creating resort and protected areas, building national park and Eco parks and even for the establishment of military bases.

C. Problem of Education Facilities: The situation of education is also vulnerable in the CHT religion of Bangladesh. As these ethnic people mainly live in relatively remote areas of the country, the lack the basic infrastructure needed and in many areas they are neglected from the mainstream support of the government. The main problem with commenting on the educational situation is that there is a lack of information.

According to Mullah, Parveen and Ahsanullah-

It was found that literacy rate in CHT is lower than the national literacy rate and seven out of ten women in CHT are illiterate. The children literacy rate of tour ethnic groups is depicted 

Chakma	36.20%
Marman	26.60%
Mro	2.90%
Tripura	18.50%

According to Dhami “The most important limitation of the education system is that the ethnic children hence to study in Bengali which is not their mother tongue. In many cases, the ethnic children face learning difficulties and then get dropped out.

D. Problem of Health Facilities: Though in Bangladesh many health and welfare services are provided by both government agencies and the NGO’s in hill area. There serviced are not that much available like those in the plain areas sultan identified the following main health problems prevailing in the CHT-

• The poor health status is an underlying factor for its very low participate in economic development.
• There are government health care centers and private clinics but in many cases these are inaccessible as the transports are irregular and costly. In many cases, these people depend on the traditional healers. 
• The most common disease are malaria, diarrhea, acute respiratory tracts infections malnutrition and poor pregnancy.
• Infant mortality is higher than the national figure. In 2007 the child mortality rate for the nation was 52 in every 1000, whereas in the CHT this was 61 in every 1000. The main reason for this is the lack of knowledge.
• Waterborne disease, basic same and hygiene remain as the most common problems in the CHT.

E. Problems of Discrimination Violation of Human Right: Ethnic people face discrimination in different aspects of their lives. They are not given a chance to get involved in many development decisions even those are related to them. This discrimination is mainly practiced by the minority who are the ethnic majority in Bangladesh at is seen that as these ethnic people can rarely participate in the national decisions that affect them. They are slowly and steadily losing their language, culture, customers and music. In many cases, the culture of the ethnic people is considered as second rate. Though the government of Bangladesh has a policy to maintain a quota system in case of the employment of the ethnic people in governmental jobs and admission into government institutions. Discrimination is also practiced in giving them business licenses. As a result, the economic condition of these people is always vulnerable. Political issues of ethnic people in Bangladesh. The central problem of political issues is widespread concerns in many counties about the political integration of migrants and their descendants---

• Low election turnout in many countries.
• Low identification with mainstream parties conversely.
• Riots and Protest.
• Home-grown terrorism in Bangladesh 

Importance to the study of ethnic minorities

1. Voting patterns are very different from those of minority group.
2. Influences on vote also seem to be different.
3. Wider social justice and practical concerns about interaction of minorities and their political response.

Political issues focus on 

1. Registration.
2. Turnout.
3. Vote choice.
4. Other forms of political participate.
5. Trust in parliament.
6. Satisfaction with democracy.
7. Sense of Bangladeshi identity.