27 FEB 2019

Live- In-field experience.

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 Live-In-Field Experience
LFE - 201

Section: 08

Sreemangal
Autumn 2019

Submitted to:

Ms. Risa Raseeka Khaled

Submitted By:
1. Faraz Ul Islam 1610573
2. Ferdous Ul Karim 1610623

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 Letter of Transmittal
Date: Feb 27, 2019
To,
The coordinator
Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)
Subject: Submission of LFE 201 report

Dear Ma’am,
With all due respect, I would like to submit here with the Live-in-Field Experience (LFE)
Report, Autumn 2019 for your perusal. After the LFE study on Motiganj Village in
Sreemangal District from January 02, 2020 to January 13, 2020 this report has been prepared.
By using questionnaire survey, observation, and preparing case stories, we tried my best to
learn about the description of assigned village people and village environment of the village
social changes in the village economy. The analysis of data gathered from my field survey
helped me in understanding the lives of the villagers.

We sincerely hope that this report meets your approval and demonstrates our ability to present
the report. We truly believe that this report will aid to accomplish your endorsement, this
report could have some oversight, yet I am searching for your kind thought. While completing
this LFE and making this report we have accomplished heaps of fun and gained vital
experiences. We have learnt a lot through this LFE and attempted my best level to incorporate
all the fundamental data about LFE in this report. We attempted to make this report as an
impression of rustic Bangladesh through this LFE.

Sincerely yours,
Faraz Ul Islam - 1610573
Ferdous Ul Karim - 1610623

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 Table of Contents
Letter of Transmittal --------------------------------------------------------------------- i

Acknowledgement. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 2

Executive Summary --------------------------------------------------------------------- 3

Chapter 01:
Introduction --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4
Chapter 02:
Village Mapping --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5-6
Chapter 03:
Social Change --------------------------------------------------------------------- 6-7
Chapter 04:
Village Economy --------------------------------------------------------------------- 7-10
Chapter 05:
Health,Env,Gender --------------------------------------------------------------------- 10-16
Chapter 06:
Market Analysis --------------------------------------------------------------------- 17-21
Chapter 07:
Youth and Technology --------------------------------------------------------------------- 22-24
Chapter 08:
Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------- 25

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 Acknowledgement
All praise to the Almighty as without his blessings, this report wouldn’t be possible to complete
in due time. My heartfelt thanks go to a few people whose inspiration, advice and suggestion
made the successful completion of this report. I want to express gratitude towards the senior
faculties and professors who came up with the initiative to bring about development in the life
and hardships of the rural people of Bangladesh. This course has given me the opportunity to
speak with individuals with whom I would typically never interact with. Thus, enhancing my
interaction abilities and learning that can't be educated in a classroom. This course has also
helped me to adapt to the different and difficult situations while living away from our family.

I would like to thank and show respect to my honorable faculties- Ms. Risa Raseeka Khaled,
Ms. Jessica Tartila Islam, Mr. Fahad Noor and Dr. Obidullah Al Marjuk sir for considering,
guiding and supporting all of us throughout the LFE. I would also like to show my gratitude
to all the monitors who were always there during our ups and downs in those 11 days.

Last but not the least, my cordial thanks go to BRAC Learning Center (BLC), Sreemangal
and all the inhabitants of the villages we the students, have visited. Without their hospitality
and co-operation, it would be impossible to gather information required to fill-up the
questionnaires to complete this report.

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 Executive Summary
This report aims at providing detailed information about the village Motiganj which is located
in Sreemangal. In order to make this report a specific format was provided. Finding out the
actual result of Health and Wealth situation, Education, women empowerment, Usages of mass
Media at Motiganj and market analysis on Sreemangal Bazar - Bazaar and collecting
information by conducting survey of the allocated households in the village. The report starts
with the introduction part where a brief description about the village profile of Motiganj which
contains a small description of the village. The report contains some basic information about
the village population, location, schools, madrassa, clinic etc. A broad findings part is included
in the report which contains all the important aspects that we found through conducting the
survey. This part includes various observations associated with the people of Motiganj village
such as life style and environment, common occupation, education, addiction, disease,
accidents, mental conditions, women empowerment, Usages of mass Media. The report also
discusses about the behavior of the people and presents the experience that we gained through
the survey. The report contains a market analysis segment of Sreemangal Bazaar detailed
analysis and comparison of the market prices between Dhaka. The overall experience of LFE
was a beautiful one. Valuable experience and knowledge was gathered. However there were
some lacking and limitations that was faced during the survey. The report concludes with a
photo gallery containing some pictures of all those memories which will be cherished for years
to come.

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 Introduction
BRAC Learning Centre, Shreemangal, Maulvi Bazar. This is the first visit & organized by
IUB, LFE-autumn 2019. All students studying at IUB have to participate in a three-credit
course called Live-in-Field Experience. This course is unique in Bangladesh, but its concept
goes back a long way to social thinkers of our subcontinent in the early part of this century.
The idea, in a nutshell, is to impress upon young minds the socio-economic realities of rural
Bangladesh. It is a fact that nearly all the students in IUB have been brought up in urban areas
and have little or no idea about "Gram-Bangla". This report is on LFE: Live-in-Field
Experience which is a three-credit course offered in Independent University Bangladesh. This
is a unique course where students are introduced to the socio-economic realities of rural
Bangladesh. This is where the great majority of our people live. We were taken to BRAC
Learning Centre. The duration of our stay was 10 days where we conducted survey on the rural
people. The environment, the people and their lifestyle, their education system, their health and
sanitation, the medical facilities available, their family planning, all were taken into
consideration. In a broader view, we were actually introduced to the rural life of Bangladesh
where we could compare our urban life which is very much different. Through this course we
could go near to the practical life and did practical case studies on their lifestyle which was a
great experience for the students. BRAC is a non-government organization working for the
social development of our country and also in other countries like Afghanistan, Liberia,
Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and other under-developed and developing countries.

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 Village Mapping

Motiganj was assigned to conduct survey on the hardship & the lifestyle of the native residence.
This motiganj village contains some para’s that we know when we started survey in this area.
Looking towards the map (pointing towards south) the main road we entered the Bhojpur area
started from the rail gate, The left side of the rail way we can find 2 area’s udnarpar &
Bilashpar, the right side of railway we can go to naowgaon. After crossing the rail gate the road
is Bhojpur area road, then going a km Bhojpur bazar from the Bhojpur bazar we can go 3 more
areas going to right side road there is another area named satgaong, straight left horina kandi
& straight right is laharpur after laharpur another area that is madobpasa, shadatpur, gopalpar
etc are in motiganj. In every area there is a school & computer-based workshop in satgaon, but
udnarpar is mostly remote area then other areas (located near rail way).

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 Area Approx.. 6-7 sqkm
Population 6000-7000
Occupation Farmers and labors
School/college Bhojpuri, Bilashpar
Post office At satgaong
Mosque Bhojpur, Bilashpar
Maktab Bhojpur, Bilashpar
River Bhojpur, Bilashpar, Udnarpar
Madrasa Bhojpur, Bilashpar
Temple Bilashpar

Social Changes
These changes bring about development in a village or an area. These changes are
categorized in different categories.
Political change
After the liberation war the government had started various projects to develop the rural and
urban areas of Bangladesh. NGO’s such as BRAC, ASHA, Grameen have started to work
along with the government to bring about development. These joint activities have changed
the total scenario of the village. NGO’s in Motiganj have helped the government a lot
throughout various projects and training programs.
Family size and planning
The population has increased drastically as days pass by. Right after the liberation war the
population was very poor. During the 90s the population had gone beyond 70%. The villagers
then lacked knowledge regarding family planning and more over they wanted more children
in order to enlarge their family tree. From 2015-2019 onwards the villagers have become
much more cautious regarding birth control and family planning due the raising awareness of
overpopulation leading to increasing expenses with in the family.

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Education
The education facility of Motiganj is increasing gradually. People are becoming more conscious
regarding the quality education of their children. Rural education is one field that has been
lacking progress in Bangladesh and other third world countries, in general. There are very
few schools set up in the rural areas, and as such, students living in remote villages have to
walk miles to reach school. Moreover, the scope for higher education is almost negligible.
Now , its easier by migration people to another area or aboard by them villagers are influenced &
want to make their children educated & give them access to schooling & more. Government school
& mainly Brac schools helps out them to make their children educated & they are taking the
advantage.
Marriage and dowry
Dowry is a major issue in rural areas. The groom receives dowry in many forms. This
may include
Ø Capital
Ø Television
Ø Fridge
Ø Jewelry
Ø Furniture
According to the village tradition there is hardly any marriage that takes place without dowry.
Dowry as they say has become a tradition in the village. Recently the villagers have started
referring to dowry as “gifts”.
Women empowerment
Development has benefited the women of Bangladesh, in Bhojpur we saw some women they
have their own business of farming. initiatives health development, social challenges are
factors which the women of Bhojpur, Motiganj have started to overcome and accomplish.

Village Economy
The average earning of an individual is around 15000-24000tk per month. Labors and framers are
paid on a daily. Only service holders and small vendor owners earn around 25000-45000tk. While
the land lords receive remittances from their lands. The overall economic condition of the village
is improving. The following are the income classifications:

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 Ø 0- 5000 Tk. – Underprivileged- 30%
Ø 5000- 14000Tk. – Medium Class- 68%
Ø 14000Tk++ – Higher class
Income generator
o Hourly paid farmers
o Farmers working in their own lands
o Grocery store owners
o Government employees (officer + non officer)
o NGO workers
o Labors
o Drivers of auto-rickshaw
Occupation
Most of the locals of Motiganj are farmers and labors. Some work in their own fields and
others work in governmental lands. People of Motiganj that we saw, emphasize on women
empowerment as women also work in these lands or run their own grocery shops. Overall
there are diversification of jobs.

Microfinance

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 • Loan system\ payment: BRAC & other NGO’s provided loan system for them &
interest rate is much higher. For an example,
• HH • Loan • PAYMENT • INTREST
• 1 • 10,000 • 12000 • 44%
• 2 • 14500 • 17000 • 45.65%

Benefits
• Unemployment women: NGO’S like ASA help them to take a loan to buy sew
machine, poultry farm. But no government help is available.
• Old age benefits: As far as we got information that the area bhojpur & bilasherpar got
old age benefits but in udnarpar, its totally remote area & has no benefits.
• Handicap benefits: there is no handicap benefits & we got an info that totally different
shown in picture below, this man doesn’t get any benefits after 15 years of struggling
wanted for help & went to every government sector, he didn’t get any kind of help or
treatment. Finally, he just lost hope from the government benefits.

• Pregnancy benefits: women who are pregnant in blishpar & bhojpur got this benefit
but I udnar par they don’t get this benefit. They claimed that we don’t get any access
but our benefits go to members wife & they use it on their own purpose.

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Transportation and Communication
Ø Transportation
Transportation has improved from what is was in the early 90s. Before people used
to walk on foot or travel using bull carts to cover
huge distances. Now their mode of transportation
has converted into:
§ Rickshaw
§ Cycle
§ Motor Bike
§ Van

Ø Communication
Within last 5 years the communication has improved in the village. Almost 99.9% of
the villagers have access to mobile phones. Due to the technological advancement
now, online banking has become much easier as people can now transfer capital
through Bkash or through other banking services. According to the locals, electronic
transaction has reduced the extra stress and traveling cost.

Figure 12 Gp the widely used telephone

service
Figure 11 Bkash the most popular E-banking service

Health & Environment & Gender

HEALTH
People living in the villages are healthier compared to those who live in the cities. It was
observed that senior citizens in their 80s are stronger and healthier than of their city
counterparts. But as days’ progress the average health and living time is decreasing.

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Sanitation
In the earlier 70s and mid 90s, people didn’t have any sanitary latrine. The used to go to the
jungle or to the riverside to ease themselves. Now, everything has changed. People are aware
of using sanitary latrine. The scenario has totally changed because the government made
sanitary latrine mandatory for all. Every house was found having a latrine. Even though most
of these latrines are Unhygienic. Water availability is one of the main problems. Villagers use
tube well for water. Good news is most of these are Arsenic free. A common scenario exists in
the village is that the latrines are not adjacent to the houses so, women and children face
problems to use toilets at night. Soaps and hand wash are available in toilets. . There are 3 types
of latrines that exist in the village:
Ø Concrete latrine
Ø Slab latrine
Ø Dug well latrine

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Vaccination
Vaccination a medical procedure whereby a vaccine against a particular pathogen is
administered to a healthy subject for protection against possible future attack by the same
pathogen. Bangladesh is a country with heavy load of infectious diseases many of which are
vaccine-preventable. The WHO has taken steps for elimination of the six childhood diseases
through an Extended Programme of Immunisation (EPI). Through the EPI programme
Bangladesh has attained very high vaccine coverage. The success bears the promise that those
who have completed fully the vaccination course may live the rest of their lives immune from
these diseases. The EPI programme in Bangladesh has been widely alluded as a success story
of considerable magnitude which other developing countries are trying to replicate.
(MediaWiki, 2014) due to these precautious measures children in the rural areas have stopped
falling ill and are now healthier than that of their 90s counterparts.

Flora
At past, there were very big and hardwood trees in the village but now the size of the trees is
becoming small and narrow. Many types of trees are available in the village named lemon,
jam, Jackfruit, shatkora, Indian bael, Eualyptus etc.
Fauna
Throughout the survey and visiting different parts of the village these particular animals were
seen during the time period:
• Chicken
• Ducks
• Goats
• Cows

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• Birds
• Quail
• Turkey Chicken
• Farm Fishing

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Agriculture Cultivation

In total 87 cropping patterns were observed in Sylhet region of which eight cropping patterns
with exclusive rice crop covers over 90% of the NCA. There were 21 cropping patterns with
exclusive non-rice crops covering over 2% of the NCA. Rest of the NCA i.e. around 8% area
is covered by 58 rice - non-rice cropping patterns. Harvesting can either be done manually with
the use of hand harvesting tools, or mechanically, with the use of harvesting machines (reaper,
harvesters). They don’t usually buy tractors they borrow tractor by paying 200taka per day and
use it in their land.

Socio-economic profile, that farmers’ mean of level of education was 4.62 with 3.96 standard
deviation. Here, one-third of the framers can sign only and only 24.7% had education above
primary level. In case of farming experience, the mean was 24.23 with 11.53 standard
deviation. Majority of the farmers (66.7%) had medium farming experience. The mean of
agricultural training received was 1.16 with standard deviation 1.67. The proportion of farmers
having no credit facilities was higher (55.3%) than those had credit facilities (44.7%). In case
of access to extension services, 43.3% farmers had no access where as 33.3%, 18.7% and 4.7%
farmers had low, medium and high access respectively.
Crops
The process by which forces are imparted and changes in soil properties occur are known as
tillage which is comprised of some technical operations such as ploughing and harrowing.

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 Climate of Sreemangal
The Sreemangal lies on 17m above sea level In Sreemangal, the climate is warm and
temperate. In winter, there is much less rainfall than in summer. According to Köppen and

Geiger, this climate is classified as Cwa. The average annual temperature is 24.7 °C | 76.5 °F
in Sreemangal. The annual rainfall is 2420 mm | 95.3 inch. With an average of 28.3 °C | 82.9
°F, July is the warmest month. In January, the average temperature is 17.4 °C | 63.3 °F. It is
the lowest average temperature of the whole year.

The precipitation varies 492 mm | 19 inches between the driest month and the wettest month.
The average temperatures vary during the year by 10.9 °C | 51.6 °F.
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Avg. 17.4 19.6 24.4 27.2 27.9 28.2 28.3 28.3 28.2 26.3 22.4 18.6
Temperature
(°C)
Min. 8.9 11.4 16.9 21.1 23.2 24.5 24.9 24.8 24.5 21.8 15.8 10.7
Temperature
(°C)
Max. 25.9 27.9 32 33.3 32.6 31.9 31.8 31.8 32 30.9 29.1 26.6
Temperature
(°C)
Avg. 63.3 67.3 75.9 81.0 82.2 82.8 82.9 82.9 82.8 79.3 72.3 65.5
Temperature
(°F)
Min. 48.0 52.5 62.4 70.0 73.8 76.1 76.8 76.6 76.1 71.2 60.4 51.3
Temperature
(°F)
Max. 78.6 82.2 89.6 91.9 90.7 89.4 89.2 89.2 89.6 87.6 84.4 79.9
Temperature
(°F)
Precipitation / 12 28 93 219 366 498 380 331 260 192 35 6
Rainfall (mm)

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 Market Analysis

Place
Place is an important concern in marketing mix. Therefore, sellers are really cautious when
choosing places to market their products. Available in both kacha bazar and haat.

Promotion
Traditionally promoted as these products are home grown in Dinajpur.

Supply chain

Farmer
Distributor

Transporter

Wholesaler

Retailer

End User

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Bazar
Bazar is often covered with shops and stalls which provide with goods for daily needs.
This is the bazar where farmers came & sell their produced product.

Product
The Indigenous farmers have achieved a bumper production of pineapple at 30 villages in
Srimangal Upazila of the district this season.Local people said the juicy and tasty fruit has been
growing abundantly in the area since long, which is known as 'pineapple village'.Growers said
they had been cultivating different kinds of fruits as lemon, including pineapple, at Tipracherra,
Jerin, Harincherra, Biddabeel, Alubari, Kalacherra, Fulcherra, Longlia, Modonmohonpur,
Sisilbar, Kanlenji villages since Pakistan period.There was no intention among the growers to
make profit out of the pineapple cultivation at that time. The situation has now changed and
the local residents are cultivating it on massive scale and in a planned way. Locally grown
pineapple has a great demand outside the district, they said.At the around 2000 farmers have

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been brought under pineapple farming this year. There are four most popular in sreemangal
that are demanded by the customers.

Ø Lemon
Ø Shat kora
Ø Tea
Ø Pineapple

Therefore, sellers stack up majority of their inventories with the most demanded product.

Price
In order to be competitive, sellers have to be price-conscious. Therefore, they price the
products in ways that both the customers and sellers can benefit from the business.

Ø Lemon- 1/1.5 taka per piece

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Ø Tea-
1st step- They buy it in Lot, per Lot contains 500-3500 kg price – 2-2.5 hundred
Thousand only.
2nd step- They sell it as cartoon per cartoon 200taka transportation- bus/ truck
3rd step- in bazar we can meet both cartoon/in kg
Per kg- IN THE TABLE BELOW-

Ø Pineapple-
Seasonal time:
Big size: 25-30tk./per piece
Medium size: 18-20 tk /piece
Small size: 4-5tk/piece

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 Off season:
Big size: 45-50tk./per piece
Medium size: 25-30 tk /piece
Small size: 10-15 tk/piece

Price comparison

Sreemangal Dhaka
Product Price Product Price
lemon 1/1.5 lemon 40
Tea 360 Tea 590
Pineapple m 18 Pineapple 71

Transportation
As example: costing charge that comes to Dhaka depends on how they take their transport.
The lemon thy buy from this bazar at 1taka per piece then the transport charge costs them
around 1800/- taka or more depends. Then after it came to Dhaka the price to the customer
rises to 40/- per kg.
Tea costs goes higher when it comes to Dhaka.
NAME PRICE IN SREEMAGAL PRICE IN DHAKA
Tea gold 600/- NOT AVAILABLE
Bt,2 500/- NOT AVAILABLE
BTRI CLONE 380/- NOT AVAILABLE
BTRI CLONE 2 360/- 525/-
GREEN TEA 700/- 2660/-
SHYLOTI PREMIUM CLONE 560/- NOT AVAILABLE
SHYLOTI BLAND TEA 456/- NOT AVAILABLE
SHYLOTI BOLD TEA 444/- NOT AVAILABLE
BTRI GREEN TEA 1600/- NOT AVAILABLE
ORTHODOX 1000/- 3690/-

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 Youth & Technology

In the rural area the young boys & girls are curious in using technological thimgs. They have
become curious about mobile phone camera, internet, social networking sites, audio-videos,
games etc. With few efforts of government and some companies in telecom and IT sector, the
youths have gained internet in computer usage also. In shatgaoan they have a computer center
with 7 computers. Where they learn just MS-word, excel. Photoshop, browsing a limited
knowledge.

A young village boy, seemed to be very tech savvy as I found him using multiple applications
on his smart phone. Now we know about his usage of the device. Other than calling and
texting, he uses his phone for social networking (Facebook), listening music, watching
videos, playing games, taking pictures and using some entertaining apps. This boy is much
educated, completed Bsc in dhaka. He said it was very difficult for village people at first to
use all these mobile functions as he had difficulties in reading English. But continuous effort
has made it easier later. Moreover, many sites even Facebook are available in Bengali now,
which made it further easier for him. Still he sometimes suffers and regrets not being more
educated. Majority use YouTube, facebook lite, lmo.
YouTube- uses for watching songs
Facebook- using to watch funny videos & picture , comment, like, tag only
Imo- imo used for calling aboard, their family member outside the county or far from them,

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Vidmate- to download youtube vedio song they use this apps.

In education system, we find the teen age who studies at (10-12), in village area many of them
don’t know about the good side of using internet as example: they can learn anything from
YouTube now a days its much easier to access like 10 minutes school, 5 minutes craft etc. to
upgrade their knowledge. The elders in villages use mobile phones only for calling and
receiving calls. A younger told that he heard of something useful about mobile phones which
can help every farmer to grow his agricultural business but never could have used it. According
to him, it is difficult for people like elder to use technical devices as they are not used to as
well as they do not have required knowledge or education. They are happy as electricity has
come to their villages and they can watch television for news or can enjoy a nice drama through
cable connection.
Some of them plays game like – pubg, clash of clans, dr.driving, temple run, sub way surf etc.

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Some of them also use google map though in sreemangal google map its not much upgraded
but it helps to find direction main or specific area to go. In the village they all use
Grameenphone it has 4g connection all over the sreemangal but its much weaker n their houses.
Technology help people much more but it also effects more in physical, mental, environmental
health issues.
They also asked us to know many more about usage of internet we provide them some new
ideas to learn & innovate their ideas what they have learned.
The bad side of technology- they used to play in ground for long time but now they use to play
occasional & now they play games in mobile phones that’s effects their eyes.
Age Grouping-
• 10-15, plays on school ground
• 16-18, facebooking, playing on ground,
• 19-24, youtube, gamming, vidmate, google map,word,excel
• 25-30, imo & minority messenger.
Technology slowly changes human behavior also effects teen age behavior or by influenced
something by social media. It also benefits to change their dress codes & styles. It also help
them to keep connected with worldwide & learn new cultural things.
Youth part program help under 19 to grow their knowledge & technical workshops to make
them more knowing about technology. According to a report by the International
Telecommunications Union published earlier this year, around 18 percent of the population in
the country is using the internet. However, government data puts this number at more than 50
percent. While this is a considerable growth so it may take time to make our youth stronger &
educated & provide the best on technology.

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 Conclusion

People in this village are good people, from an outsider’s point of view. They are helpful but
they are also very much in need of some sort of elevation in their standard of living and they
expect positive changes in the future. People have no problem with the intermixing of multiple
religions. They however, do not have any sort of medical facilities within the village area and
they have to go to the city to get medical help.

It was a great opportunity to understand the lifestyle of our rural people and how the rural
women have their empowerment or rural Hats are in operation and also what are the roles and
impacts they play on the economy throughout our survey at Motiganj, sreemangal. By
performing the whole analysis, it is very clear that how the village women are really different
from urban women or how their society or culture influencing them. Also it was brought to
light how the distribution channels and intermediaries are functioning in the rural market.
These villages are a major economic contributor within the systematic process although there
is much to be done within those sectors, the rural scene is pure bliss for someone who has never
experienced or witnessed an authentic village life.

I personally recommend and enjoy this type of surveys because this extensive research gives
us the understanding of how the villagers live in the country and how hard the farmers are
working for our nation. Farmers are the overall victims as the middleman always deprive them.
They play vital role for the production industry so they should get the actual amount of return
they deserve. Farmers should be awarded not neglected. It was really a very pleasant journey
as new experiences were gathered, lots of memories were made and got to meet the kindest
human beings.

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THANK YOU

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