
Bangladesh, despite its commendable progress in terms of basic education, has not been able to deal with its child labour problem. There is no single approach to the eradication of the problem, but a better understanding of the reasons why children work, the conditions under which they work and the impact it has on their lives should go a long way in improving policies and in raising awareness. It is important to document how damaging child labour can be. This study of the capital city of the country Dhaka, is revealing in many ways.
Political, economic and policy models are undergoing drastic changes in LDC’s where market reforms are being implemented. In this context, the subject of governance has attracted increasing attention and debate, marked though by conceptual confusion and lack of solid analysis. Fuzzy Governance sets to examine the subject in its historic conceptual and paradigmatic connotations, with special reference to Bangladesh. The author provides the elements of an operational framework for systematic analysis and discussion of the current problems of governance in transitional phases.
The book addresses the case of child labour by moving beyond the usual concern that regards the phenomenal essentially as an 'evil', harmful and corrupt, and instead attempts to assess children’s work in the relevant socio-economic and cultural context. It examines the specification of girl child labour in the garment industry and underlines how tradition , culture, religion, and sexual division of labour determine the parameters within which they live, work and resist patriarchal control and differential treatment at home and in the workplace.
Bangladesh: A Study of the Democratic Regimes is the author’s fifth book on the politics of Bangladesh. It essentially covers the period from 1991 to 2006 and focuses on a number of important issues including constitutional amendments and legislative reforms which have had considerable impact on the political process of the country. It encompasses with depth and precision all the developments in politics, economy, decentralization and politicization of administration that help in understanding the historical process of the concepts underscored here.
Establishing a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy was a dream of the independence leaders of Bangladesh. The process of pursuing this goal began soon after the emergence of the nation. In this journey the western democracies came forth towards aiding the Parliament. The scope of such assistance, however, has varied, with recent years witnessing a major surge in donor interest in Parliament strengthening.
‘Transition to Democracy’ is a compilation of articles published in newspapers ad magazines at home and abroad. The author writes on such developments which impinge on public policy issues and on strategic policies pursued by successive governments of Bangladesh. Tow major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), elected by the people one after the other, ruled the country with the pledge to promote democracy and the rule of law.
In tracing the plight of the Rohingya refugees, the study shows that the Rohingya refugee problem was created in the course of several historical trajectories. It has been demonstrated that the Rohingyas are both stateless and refugees. First, they became stateless in their homeland and then eventually they had to embrace the status of refugeehood under conditions of persecution, discrimination and torture. The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have remained stateless amid their refugeehood.
Some two dozen countries are already classified as water-scarce, and this-as areas as diverse as Israel, southern California and even the Netherlands know - is not a problem confined to the South. Already, as this book shows, fresh-water shortages are becoming a major cause of conflict both domestically and between states. In the future, the growing world population, further spread of irrigated agriculture and industrialization will all make increasing demands on scarce water resources. Conflict resolution capabilities in many parts of the world will be sorely stretched.
At birth Bangladesh was a homogenous nation state with a promise to make every house a happy home. But soon after its birth, schismatic tendencies developed because of the ill motive and machinations of certain political forces. The lack of a clear perception of the civil society and of the politicians about Bengali nationalism and nation state of Bangladesh, resulted in some ambiguity about their identity. Additionally, the military rulers during their term of office impaired the constitution and dichotomised the nation in order to create their own power base.
Although the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty alone has hogged the worlds ---‘attention so far — because of its uniquely dazzling dominance and durability — it is not the only one within India, leave alone the neighbouring countries of South Asia and beyond. Indeed, the number of clans striding the political stage in the region is rather large. The Senanayakes and the Bandarnaikes were entrenched in SriLanka well before Indira Gandhi first became India’s prime minister in 1966.