Bangladesh

Wealth and National Well-Being

Country Comparisons:
2010: see chart

World Factbook: "The economy has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product."

People

Nearly half the population lives on less than one dollar a day. About 45 percent of the population works in agriculture, and many go abroad for work.

Living in an urban area:
2010: 28%
2008: 27%

Migration
2011: More leaving than arriving. A net loss of 1.57 persons per 1,000 population.

The literacy rate in Bangladesh, according to the World Factbook, is 54% for males and 41.4% for females (age 15 and older).

Religions
2004: Muslim 89.5%, Hindu 9.6%, other 0.9%

Geography

On the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and India. South America. Slightly smaller than Indiana. Tropical and often hot and rainy, with mild winters. Much of the country is often flooded during the summer monsoon.

Recent History

Bangladesh was born in 1971 when Bengali East Pakistan seceded from its union with West Pakistan. Its full name is the People's Republic of Bangladesh. It is a parliamentary democracy.

According to Wikipedia, the center-left "Awami League was established as the Bengali alternative to the domination of the Muslim League in Pakistan. The President of the Awami League is a woman: Sheikh Hasina Wajed. She has been Bangladesh's prime minister since 6 January 2009.

June 2010:

Among the problems Bangladesh faces is sexual harassment euphemistically called "Eve teasing." The country's education ministry made June 13 "Eve Teasing Protection Day."

This followed a rise in suicides among girls. One 13-year-old, Nahfia Akhand Pinky, wrote a suicide note that described onlookers as laughing during her harassment on the street outside her home by a small group of young men. She wrote that "Nobody protested." She hanged herself.

An article in the BBC describes victims of sexual harassment as getting "virtually no help from law enforcement agencies. Families of the victims are left feeling hopeless and helpless." Men (fathers perhaps) who have protested the harassment have been murdered.

Harassment is prevalent in schools. The dropout rate among girls has been increasing as a means of escape, and, as an escape, parents have been pushing their daughters into early marriages.

Another problem: widespread arsenic poisoning, according to the World Health Organization "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history." This occurred after wells were installed in the 1970s to give people greater access to groundwater.

October 4, 2010

The High Court of Bangladesh is described by the BBC as having ruled that "no-one can be forced to wear the burka, or full Islamic headdress." The BBC adds that "The governing Awami League prides itself on its secular credentials."

Bangladesh's legal system is based on English common law.

Wikipedia: "In Bangladesh, where a modified Anglo-Indian civil and criminal legal system operates, there are no official sharia courts."

According to Boloji.com, the elections on December 29, 2008 gave the Awami League more than 260 seats out of approximately 290 plus seats, and the "Islamic fundamentalist parties were virtually wiped out." Also according to Boloji.com the elections "were free and fair without rigging."