Development initiatives taken for the marginalised communities in the country were not successful in improving their standard of life.
Experts observed this on Saturday in a webinar organised by Desperately Seeking Development Expert (DSDE) as part of a symposium.
In fact, some of these attempts disrupted their social fabric and traditional way of living, they said.
Two webinars took place on the day.
In the first webinar, titled 'Development Needs of the Indigenous Communities: Voices Unheard', Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum discussed what development means for the indigenous communities in Bangladesh, while Prasenjit Kabil Chakma, the national project manager for SID-CHT, UNDP, and Jhuma Dewan, chief of Gender and Community Cohesion, SID-CHT, UNDP, talked at length about the challenges faced by the development partners while working for the mentioned communities.
Mr Drong said, “Only infrastructural development will not suffice. Government’s development strategies should take indigenous people and their cultures into consideration. Otherwise, there will never be any meaningful changes for the people, living in the fringes of society.”
Prasenjit Chakma emphasised the importance of forming equal partnerships between communities and development partners.
“The bigger development partners should always focus on engaging with the members of the indigenous communities, even though sometimes they have to maintain bureaucratic structures to ensure financial fair play”, he said.
Mentioning previous megaprojects, Jhuma Dewan said, “What am I to do with ‘development’ if I cannot maintain my own house in my ancestral land? We have to ensure that these projects do not threaten the right to privacy of these communities”.
She also mentioned that the significance of devising inclusive development strategies, “We often think that development projects in an area will affect both men and women in similar ways but that is not the case. Indigenous women often undertake a remarkably more difficult path than their male counterparts.”
The webinar also focused on the role of indigenous people in fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) proposed by the UNDP. The speakers concurred that any development attempts for indigenous people must include their active participation.
The first webinar was co-organised by Supporting People and Rebuilding Communities (SPaRC).
In the second webinar, titled “Challenges to inclusion: Our achievements and our struggles”, speakers focused on the challenges faced in the financial development sector while including women, transgenders and people with disabilities.
Shamshin Ahmed, CEO and lead consultant of Identity Inclusion, presented the keynote paper in the webinar and showed that the structural problems still obstruct the road to inclusion.
“We put immense pressure on the ghettoised individuals to merge with the mainstream, often by sacrificing their identities. But it is the burden of the majority of the populace who exploit and marginalise the individuals to make their inclusion as perfect and seamless as possible”, she remarked.
Vashkar Bhattacharjee, a consultant for a2i, pointed out that the lack of inclusion of PoD in the policymaking, “People with no disabilities are talking for us while we do not have a voice of our own”.
Lipi Rahman voiced her discontent over the transgender community in Bangladesh.
“Even though we have made progress, these people are still not allowed in religious institutions and other similar institutions. We need to incorporate them fully and wholeheartedly to ensure holistic development.”
Another speaker, Mortuza Khan, CEO of Bangladesh Business & Disability Network (BBDN) pointed out that meaningful change is still occurring.
“Governments & international organisations like the World Bank is concerned about the inclusion of persons with disabilities. This in and of itself means a lot since these large-scale organisations were not concerned with the wellbeing of marginalised communities in the past”, he said.
Albert Mollah, moderator of the webinar, also the co-founder and executive director of Access Bangladesh pointed out the lack of systematic inclusion in our society for disabled people.
“We have 127 social safety programmes. The number might seem very high but there is a distinct lack of systematic inclusion. We have to restructure every institution to make them accessible for everyone”, he opined.
Tashnuva Anan, CEO and founder of Shree-Voice of Sexual Minority, when asked, pointed out the lack of policy surrounding the transgender and hijra communities in our country, “The government has just recognised these people as ‘hijra’, that’s it. There is no definition, not even a census. There is no official policy for these people whatsoever. Even the usage of ‘third gender’ is dehumanising to us. If the society violates our integrity, we can never hope for sustainable and fruitful development”.
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