Essay on Bangladesh Akbor Aziz Susom   © Copyright 2018 by Akbor Aziz Sasom

We all come in this beautiful world as a human but the way of our living considering all the people in the world is so much discriminated and that is constantly increasing day by day among the people .It is a common phenomenon even in some developed countries that some people fly in jet plane while some do not even find a street to walk, some live in a mansion while some do not find a place to sleep and so many cases the distinction is emphatically obvious. In my opinion, it is a great concerning issue that can be a huge threat in future if it continues in this way. As it is seen that there are some countries in the world where people join in terrorism and violence because of the discrimination when they think that they are depriving from their country. Here I can certainly tell about my country Bangladesh where unfairness mainly exists in employment, Education, Politics, Government facilities, Health care and so on. Similarly India, Pakistan, some Middle East and African countries have the same type of problem on a great extent compared to other countries. According to the report of 2016, 58 percent of graduates and 62 percent of post graduate are jobless in India. This is bigger shocking for Bangladesh where 2.6 million people are unemployed and it is projected to increase in future. In fact, there is no any significant change in this condition since 2013.Some reports also show that around 1.6 million graduate students are unemployed only in Dhaka – the capital city in Bangladesh. In consequence of this condition, inequality is raising rapidly that creating a shoddy situation in Dhaka city. To cite some results that Dhaka has been ranked highest in the US Air Quality Index (AQI), for having the worst level of air pollution in the world. Moreover, Forbes reports cited Dhaka is the second worst city for living. As a Bangladeshi, this is certainly so shocking news for me, however, I feel more discomfort when I see that the situation is being deteriorated and we are being away to solve this. I understand that many countries in the world have the similar type of problems and they are suffering perilously. Therefore, I have decided to write about the present discrimination in Bangladesh and how it is affecting us seriously. This essay will mainly focus on the different aspects of people suffering in Bangladesh that are some what compatible with other countries as well as will try to mention some remedies at least to some sectors to decline the extent of people’s distress so that the other people in different countries can be also benefited to avoid their obstacles from this.

Firstly, I would like to describe the poor transportation condition in Dhaka city. Dhaka is the largest city with density 46997/km square having more than 18 million people dwell in here now where two third of this population are migrated from other areas living Dhaka because of necessity. It clearly indicates that the transportation demand is so high for this over populated city. There are about eight to ten types of transportations are available in Dhaka road where people typically use private transport like car, micro bus that is by very less people around 8 percent of total commuters while other use public transports . Rickshaw, Taxi, Cab and Laguna are also popular transports in here. But the unplanned road system and inadequate transports creates a serious suffering for people. It is reported that  people of Dhaka is losing around 3.2 million work hours every day due to traffic jam, and the loss amounts to 300 billion. Some issues like CNG, rickshaw, bus, etc plying in any roundabout in Dhaka form multiple lines.  They do this to grab a tiny space out of sheer desperation. The thelawallahs, rickshaw pullers, CNG drivers, van pullers, and bus/truck drivers all vie for tiny spaces with noticeable aggression and utter disregard for others’ right of way. These obviously create serious problems such as unnecessary traffic holdup and minor fender bender incidences. Apart from these, insufficient traffic polices those are not even properly trained and monitored to perform their duty precisely creates a bad situation in road. Another factor which is greatly responsible for this is the private transportation which is most of the cases used by one or two persons that take over 60-65% of roads in the capital, while public transports use 7%. Surprisingly there are only 7 flyovers that are also not located in a right place to avoid congestion. This situation is quiet intolerable while people even die in road but unfortunately no one even care about it as everyone is suffering from this to be desperate to find their destination. Last year in December my friend named Mamun (university student) called me crying to ask for money immediately to send his mobile bcash ( mobile financial service) number as he needed to take an Uber to take his mother to hospital to change the route from public transport to avoid traffic jam. For me, I cannot even live with my family in my own house at Mirpur as my office is 20 km away but it takes 2-3 hours by public transport to reach there so I am to rent a flat around my office to reach there on time at morning. There was a horrible event occurred when a train rammed a bus at the Moghbazar level crossing leaving eight people severely injured and caused a four-hour gridlock. Violating the signal the bus tried to cross the railway lines, but, could not move any further due to a terrible traffic jam. This suffering has no bound. We all should be united to make roads smooth & clean, widen the roads as needed, make proper footpaths, withdraw the rickshaws from bigger roads, provide signals as needed, make dividers as necessary, compel the drivers to abide by the road signals and regulations, eliminate illegal parking and illegal shops on road etc. More importantly our government has to play a vital role to solve this but unfortunately where we have bigger doubt of their activities.

Secondly to mention about the education situation in Bangladesh. There are 40 public and 92 private universities in Bangladesh while surprisingly 13 public and 51 private universities location is Dhaka that is also one of the big problems for the populated situation in Dhaka that other 53 districts have only 23 public and 41 private universities. Besides, most of the universities are not recognized internationally except few. Last year in 2017, only two universities got the world ranking within top 500 universities that ultimately creating an adverse situation for students to gain higher education in abroad. One of my senior brothers named Md Rejaul Haque graduated from a a private university named Northern university in Chittagong has been rejected twice to get visa from USA although he got an accepted score from GRE exam but they make questions every time with the university problem . Now Md. Haque is suffering from mental diseases. As he already tried for 4 years after his graduation for dreaming the higher studies in USA, now either he is not able to support his family to do any job or his family cannot provide him any support. Last year I saw him that he did tuition to almost 15 students to go different places in Dhaka city by bicycling to manage his own money and for embassy fees. Yesterday when I went to his room, he did not talk any single word to me. His mother said that he did not get out from his room last seven days. When I suggested his mother to try for Government job or private job, she said that they have no money to try for anything now and it needs money for government jobs and reference for private jobs. Although this is not the case for all the jobs but I talked with almost 40 people those are now seeking jobs said me that if you have money and strong reference, job is not a big problem in Bangladesh. Then I tried to motivate them saying about me that I already worked two multination companies by my self then they said me that they do not have the degree from the university like me. Meanwhile, I understand the situation that employers only give emphasis on 8 to 10 universities. So my concern is that what will happen to the thousands of students those are studying in other universities and those do not have enough money for jobs and reference from a powerful person. How they will contribute to country if they are not given the opportunities. Why we not taking yet any strong practical measures to solve this problem. Recently Professor Dr Mofazzal hossain ( Dean in East West University and former Buet Scholar ) in seminar in Buet mentioned that our education system is being less effective day by day and we have nothing to do anything except only focusing on our own pocket. He strongly suggested to change the conventional way of studies and program as all universities have the same type of courses and programs for the students and these program are not focused on practical significance and reality based. I am really shocked to cite that even in school examinations questions are leaked nowadays. This year in January when my sister was giving secondary school certificate exam just before one day of Mathematics exam, she called me and crying to say her one of the friends somehow managed the question of math. Although I know, it is happening now in Bangladesh but I tried to convince her saying this is fake news that Government board questions are never leaked. After that I asked one of my friends (who is a political leader of Government party) to find the news. After few hours, he said that questions are found by 1 lac (1200 us dollar). After hearing this, I could not find any word to say my sister. I only said her that Hero never cheat that you can do better more than anyone by your own performance that will make you feel confident in future. She finally agreed but did I really remove the doubt from her mind? I once remember that statement from Ralph Ellison that “we can turn out a hell of a lot of these. We are missing the target, and all of our children are suffering as a result. To be ill-clothed, ill-housed and ill-fed is not the only way to suffer deprivation”. This is certainly true that we can easily eradicate this problem if our government is strict and careful enough to apply rules and regulations to stop this corruption in education. Still I think very few corrupted people are responsible for this but if we yet do not take effective measures that situation will be no longer controlled in future. However, I am afraid to think that if our governments do not take any effective steps then who will come to enforce our government to remove this problem. We are surely in a great threat in education that we are not lagging behind from the world completion only but diminishing the creativity of thousands of bright students also.

Apart from many other problems finally I want to talk about the unemployment issues in Bangladesh. Education is spontaneously connected with the problem of employment as we have many obstacles in our education system that ultimately brings out lots of hindrances in employment opportunities. As a result, almost most the students those have no guarantee to get good jobs in Bangladesh trying to pursue other countries while unfortunately most of them anticipate leaving the country permanently. Last week, I met my university department director named Professor Dr. Motaher Hossain , Institute of Business Administration department that he also cited that because of the insecurity of future employments students are better attempting to move outside of their country . He also cited that we are being so much influenced by social medias like face book, twitter, instagram which mainly used by students in Bangladesh, they see thousands of opportunities in the world but they do not get those in Bangladesh eventually deciding to leave the country .With a similar topic interview with Dr. Saiful Islam who is a director of Institute of Information of communication technology in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology ( top engineering university in Bangladesh ) said that the practice to pursue higher education in foreign universities is appreciable but when it becomes intentional for the students for leaving the country that can be a big treat for the country and it is undoubtedly happening now .He pointed out that almost seventy five percent of the graduates students usually go to abroad for higher studies where most of them did not come back. Some of them come back those are already in teaching or government big position. He cited the reason for this is that this tendency is very stirring especially for the engineering students as there are no big technological companies in Bangladesh while even almost most of the big technological companies are available in our neighboring countries like India and Srilanka so they will not find job opportunities as well as technological research opportunities are very less which most of the technical students seek to innovate something. Along with discussion with other professors and university researchers also mentioned about lots of potential students name those wanted to do something for their own country but lately decided to leave because of less opportunity and enough support from Government. Therefore, Engineers prefer to go other countries to settle down. However, my question is that how our country will be developed if it cannot accommodate the thousands of Engineers those even graduated from the top university in their own country?

Another great problem is going to be hurtful for most of the people are that people are being fully controlled and dominated by Government officials in every sector of the country. They are like call the shots of everything. Bangladesh Government recognized job exam called Bangladesh Civil service (BCS) Exam has been a dream for every graduate student as they can have power , respect and also lots of way to earn lots of money if they can be a BCS cadre ( who pass the BCS exam ) . Last year, a total 346532 graduate students applied only for the post of 2024 vacancies that last almost three to four years to select a candidate. Because of this high demand, some people also take benefits from the candidate illegally to select them in the exam. Moreover, it has been a common dialogue and known to everyone that we need lost of money to be a BCS cadre. Although some exception happens but it is very rare and not of course for the important and police related cadre posts. One of my friends faced 1st face BCS exam in 2014 became Admin BCS cadre in 2018 shared his experiences with me in details when he said that finally when he understands that without taking support or giving money to any big political leaders and big government officials, he will not get job, then he paid almost 20 lac taka (24000 dollar) that he paid quarter in advance and rest of the money paid after confirming the job. The problem is that after paying this huge amount of money – almost all the employees become so greedy and hungry for money. That is why they start using their power illegally to common or victim people to have money from them. Even a university or college professor does not get that much respect and emphasis from the society that a BCS cadre gets easily. This is certainly a great concern for us that being a government employee, their main perspective should be helping common people and to hear their opinion to implement in a society, but what they do is really damaging and unexpected because they only concern about their own pocket and benefits. Recently one of the police members named Mizanur Rahman, Additional Commissioner in Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) forcefully married a woman and tortured her lot, fortunately this news published in a newspaper in details and common people make a mass protest against the person when finally government was pushed to take some action against the police commissioner. But thousands of occurrences like this became hidden when we do not know that how they are torturing to common people for their own benefits except the victims and their families. In fact, we see also lots of occurrences in private sectors also. Talking with one of the women workers in garments in Bangladesh named Bilkis Begum working in garments for about 20 years now holding supervisor position, said that around 500 women are working in this garments while almost two third of the women are sexually abused but they do not say anything as they have nothing to do except the job that helps them to earn money. Recently in a seminar organized by Human right commission and BRAC, when I asked question to one of the speaker who works in commission as a secretary that how they will protect the women’s right and respect in garments sector when I cited also some practical situations in some garments where women are being abused. Shockingly he tried to avoid my questions even saying that why they are not complaining about this and asked me with threaten voice to say that are you asking us to set closed circuit camera to every garments to see what is happening there ?

I do not know how I will express my apprehension, I know as like me thousands of people understanding this adverse situation for our country but our country is making us in such way that we do not get chance to think about the country . By the way, I love my country where my family, my parents, my sister live. Moreover, I feel strong emotion when I see innocent people are suffering. Moreover, I have respect over all human kind in the world. I know that I am not that much qualified and eligible to eradicate all the sufferings in the world like we see Syria where innocent people are being killed and even in India where lots of discrimination for religion are taking place and Pakistan has many issues with terrorism. But in such way if we all avoid our responsibility even for our own country, will never be able to make a peaceful world. From these perspectives, I mainly focused on all the major problems considering my own country where I want to see that people will live with humanity, morality, integrity, duty and more importantly with moral values that they will not make suffer to each other rather living with common good embraces with happiness and enjoyment with fulfillment of basic needs and rights for all types of people in the society. World is improving everyday when I see that many countries are doing different types of activities, researches, innovations to improve the humankind’s lives and lifestyle. What we need to learn and understand from them that how they are maintaining their culture, peach, heritage and solving the problems that they are facing so that we can apply those in our country later to do something for my own country. As like them, our country has lots of history, culture, scarifies of lots of patriots but we are not protecting these as a result these great acquisition are being vanished day by day and our young generation are not learning anything from their history. Finally to depict that the problems we are facing here are taking our lives in a completely miserable state. The whole situation has been orchestrated in such a way that leaves neither room for flourishing neither happiness nor prosperity for common people nor any talent or creativity for the young generation. In one way, qualified assets are turning into a burden due to unemployment and on the other hand, people who have job, have to spend most of their precious time in streets for the sake of traffic jam. All of these issues have exacerbated in such extent that, the solution is not so easy anymore. Although the government takes some steps in bits and pieces, but ultimately it seems to be directed to work as a placebo effect rather than making an actual difference. A long term planning to solve these issues has become a crying need. If the necessary step is not taken immediately, it will only increase the awards of shame adding to the ones we are already entitled to; such as- Dhaka being the second most air polluted city in the world, being the world's most densely populated city and so on. Therefore, an urgent action with pragmatic solution discussion and participation of experts and patriot people and experiencing from other developed countries is highly required to stop the endless suffering of this big population and we all need each other assistance to make this world filled with prosperity, peach and embrace.