About the Situation of CHT
The Chittagong Hill Tracts region is situated in the south-eastern part of the country, bordering Tripura and Mizuram of India and
The uniqueness of the region lies with its forests, lake, hilly terrains, mountains and cultural and ethnic diversity. Eleven different indigenous ethnic groups live in this region from time immemorial. The people of this region have long been deprived of basic needs and appropriate development measures. Where formal development projects were undertaken, very little benefits have accrued to the local people.
The situation of Chittagong Hill Tracts was exacerbated by political unrest, armed conflicts, displacement and populations transfer/transmigration. We believe that these negative consequences were caused by the imposition of externally conceived development projects, which were formulated and implemented without considering the opinions of the local people.
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There was very limited scope for conducting NGO activities before signing of the Accord. Now, favourable environment has been created for NGO activities taking into account the demand of the local people.
We believe that development programmes should be based on the ideas and existing knowledge of the concern communities, if we actually want a holistic and sustainable change in the socio-economic development of this region.
We have identified the crucial issues that faced by the Indigenous communities in the
Established land rights and natural resources management: Rights to land and other Natural Resources, and manage the resources in a sustainable manner for the well being for all indigenous people.
Human rights and indigenous rights: Yet constitutionally have no any legal rights for indigenous peoples and others rights:
Good Governance: Transparent and Responsive local Governance system.
Education: Access to quality education which is pro-Indigenous Peoples.
Access to Institutional Resources: Access to the resources that provided by Government and other development agencies.
Gender Justice: establish women rights and gender justice.
We believe that the peoples’ rights could be ensured and good governance could only be fostered if the development process is to be undertaken by the people of this region based on peoples’ knowledge, values, beliefs, and culture including nation and Government of Bangladesh.
Economic Status
The indigenous communities in Khagrachari are not earning sufficient income and the sources of income are very limited in this region. On the other hand, the community people do not have access to the existing sources of income, which are controlled by outsiders such as business, marketing system etc. If some individuals get scope to participate in the business and market, they do not enjoy these because of various difficulties and threats. Business and trade sectors are absolutely controlled by the non-residents as well as the ruling and powerful parties.
Once the Jum sifting cultivation was a very profitable and the Jum technology had been helpful to sustain a stable life and livelihood of the hill people. In the Golden Era of Jum sifting cultivation, the indigenous peoples did not need to buy anything except salt from the market. The demands of food, clothes, shelter etc. were fulfilled from the products of Jum sifting cultivation. Rice, vegetable, fruits, threads, seism, etc. were produced from the Jum sifting cultivation.
Due to planned transmigration of lowlanders to Khagarchari as well as the Chittagong Hill Tracts it made difficulties for the indigenous peoples to survive their life and livelihood. Due to government-backed transmigration programme the population ratio between indigenous hill peoples and Bengali settlers of the CHT increased up to 51: 49 as per the 1991 census report of Bangladesh Statistical Bureau, from 94: 6 in 1947. This population transmigration has created a high pressure on land and resources, which gives birth to ethnic conflicts in this region, which also affected on the day-to-day life and livelihood of the indigenous peoples.
The planned population transmigration caused communal conflicts in CHT. As there is scarcity of cultivable land, the outsiders started grabbing the lands of the indigenous peoples since their settlement in this region. Sometimes, indigenous people’s lands were forcefully occupied by the governmental institutions and projects, for example, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board, the Forest Department, ‘Security’ establishments, and other government projects like Kaptai Hydro-electric dam, Betbunia Satellite project, Karnafuli paper Mill etc. are among others. All these projects have accelerated the rate of land alienation and degradation of environment resources.
Following the construction of Kaptai Dam, affected people of the dam area came to settle down in different areas of Khagrachari district, but a sizeable portion of them did not get cultivable land. Consequently they fell back upon horticulture and fruit gardening. They used to produce a lot of fruits and still today they do. However, they do not get fair price for their produces, because not only Khagrachari, but also the whole market is absolutely controlled by middlemen.
Socio-cultural situation
Though Khagrachari, the northern district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is a unique region for its rich culture and ethnic diversity, the indigenous peoples have conducive to practicing their cultures. Due to political instability and negative environment, the indigenous people’s cultural organisations, which are committed to cultural development, have less scope to take initiatives for promotion of indigenous culture.
The existing government-initiated cultural institutions are not pro-active to the promotion of indigenous cultures. Moreover, indigenous culture is facing external cultural aggression brought in by outsiders. More often indigenous culture is used for commercialization or object of recreation by outsiders. For example, government officials use the government-run indigenous cultural institutes for their recreation or to entertain guests coming from outside.
The indigenous culture is also affected by the negative externalities of outside culture. This has a negative impact on indigenous socio-cultural practices. Begging, repression on women and children, and monoculture etc., which once were unheard of, are now visible in the CHT. In addition to that, the evil clutch of Muslim fundamentalism is spreading across the CHT region. Across the whole Khagrachari district, a large number of mosques those are safe sanctuary for religious fanatics are sprouting out day by day.
These fanatics are doing hate campaigns against certain religion, which substantially is promoting religious fanaticism. In this respect a lot examples, (e.g. the incident of Mahalchari where the image of Buddha and
Political Situation
Traditionally the local self-governance system of the CHT is three tiered – Circle headed by Circle Chief, Mouza by Headmen and Village by Karbari. These institutions are very important for indigenous communities, because many social and judicial problems including land rights are resolved by them at local level.
However, these institutions are not capable to effectively execute their duties and responsibilities, because the general government administrative bodies and government institutions do not recognise nor give importance to them. Moreover, these institutions have limitations – such as these are not necessarily democratically elected. These institutions are highly male dominated; only few women are in ‘Headmanship’ position.
They do not have well defined roles and responsibilities, for which they largely rely on customary practices. These are weak institutions and cannot effectively deal with the political issues. Hence, variation is seen in the application of customary rules across the communities and villages. Due to this fact, justice depends on personal wisdom of the traditional leaders. Despite these limitations, it is very important to strengthen the self-governance system in order to ensure good governance at the grassroots level.
Another important aspect of empowering the people is by decentralization, which is envisaged by the CHT Accord of 1997. It is discouraging fact that though almost 7 years have passed since signing the CHT Peace Accord, the true objective of decentralization could not be achieved to reflect people’s aspirations due to non-implementation of the major provisions of the Accord. Due to non-implementation of the CHT Accord, the CHT Regional Council (CHTRC) and Hill Districts (HDCs) are not fully empowered to exercise their duties and responsibilities towards establishing peace and justice in the CHT.
One of the most important commitments contained in the CHT Accord is to resolve land disputes through forming a Commission on land. Though the Land Commission is formed, it is not functioning yet. But considering the present realities of the CHT, it is very unlikely to establish peace and societal harmony in the region unless the land disputes are resolved effectively.
On the other hand, different actors – anti-accord elements are very active to foil peace and development initiatives in the CHT. There are many powerful anti-accord elements; among them some political groups are notable. These forces are always up and doing to keep up communal and political conflicts by supporting some groups. Despites all odds, the CHT Accord can be the ‘road map’ for establishing justice and permanent peace in the CHT. Therefore, full implementation of the peace accord is a challenge at this moment.
Gender Situation
Indigenous women along with men participate in productive activities outside home. They have more mobility than that of non-indigenous women. Apparently it seems there is no discrimination between men and women in the indigenous society, but in reality that is not true. In terms of inheritance rights, women enjoy the lower status. As per indigenous customary rules or practices, indigenous women, with an exception to Marma women, do not have right to property especially land. However, indigenous practices differ from community to community or place to place.
On the other hand, indigenous women’s participation in the political process is very low. Traditional administrative structures– Circle chieftainship, Mouza ‘headmanship/chieftainship’ and village headship are dominated by males, let alone elected bodies. Therefore, women are less visible in the decision-making process.
Besides, in the previous (top-down) development interventions in the CHT, whether governmental or non-governmental, gender aspects were totally ignored. Hence they do not have an active participation and involvement in the development process. Rather they were victimised of ‘development’ and militarization by the state machinery. In fine, indigenous women face double marginalisation as member of the state and as member within the indigenous patriarchal society.
Environment
The CHT once upon a time was rich in green forests and natural resources, but the irony is that these resources have brought in a lot of crisis in the life and livelihood of the indigenous peoples, instead of happiness. Forests and forests resources were depleted by different actors such as the Forest Department (FD) and extractive industries. In the name of Reserved Forest (RF) and Protect Forest (PF), the Forest Department (FD) of the Government controls a large tract of forests in the district.
There are a large number of brickfields spreading across the district consume a huge amount of biomass everyday. Among other actors, CHT Development Board (CHTDB) also facilitated the depletion of natural resources in the name of rehabilitation of jumias and poor people. The CHTDB implemented monoculture projects like rubber, eucalyptus etc., which destroyed natural forests forever in the district. The jungle was cleared on security ground during the conflict period. With depletion of forest cover and monoculture, there occurred soil erosion in the region.
Businessmen coming from outside the CHT started illegal logging business in the region. Everyday, logs and timber are transferred from hill tracts to the plain lands. It is highly alleged that the Forest Department and other authorities are closely involved with the illegal logging business. They let trucks of logs cross the ‘checking points’ in exchange of huge amount of ‘percentages’.
With degradation of natural resource base, there occurred changes in agricultural practices of the indigenous communities. For agricultural product maximization, pesticides are widely used, which negatively impacted upon biodiversity in the region.
All above these factors are contributing to the degradation of forests and forest resources in the CHT. Ultimately the adverse effects of environmental degradation come upon the poor indigenous people, as they have limited means of livelihoods.
Educational Situation
Educational situation of Khagrachari as well as the Chittagong Hill Tracts as a whole is more deplorable than other parts of the country. Indigenous children do not have opportunity to learn in their own mother language in the school, for which, at the beginning of their school they face linguistic barriers. Course curriculum designed for children is not consistent with indigenous culture.
Non Adivasi teachers cannot communicate with children, let alone to make lessons interesting to them. Hence, schools cannot attract children. Sometimes, school timing is also a problem. For example, during jum season, children go to jum field to assist their parents. At that time they should have a vacation like the Ramadan. On the other Ramadan vacation is imposed on indigenous children.
Children residing in the far-reaching areas do not have access to education. Due to poverty, parents cannot afford to send their children to urban schools. The dropout rate among indigenous children from school is much higher than other parts of the country.
During thirty-three years of independence, no government of
Development Situation
Rightly speaking, before the CHT Accord of 1997, there were very little scopes to initiate development activities in Khagrachari. Indigenous peoples were victims of development aggression. Indigenous peoples lost their ancestral lands and hearth and home by different so-called development projects like Kaptai dam, Karnafuli Paper Mill, Betbunia Satellite Project, Community Development Projects by the CHTDB. These types of projects did neither have any accountability, transparency in managing the resources, nor did take account of the needs, culture and knowledge of the local community.
CHT Accord has created some environment for development works in the Hill Tracts. Hence, immediate after the CHT Accord, many national and international NGOs have started to operate development activities in the CHT. The national NGOs are operating projects without taking the needs, knowledge and practices of indigenous communities into account. One of such projects is micro-credit. Though the micro-credit is expected to reduce poverty of the beneficiaries, in practice, they are enmeshed with the poverty circle by receiving loan from these NGOs. Besides the national NGOs, the indigenous communities in this region saw the flow of international NGO missions.
As the national as well as international NGOs are not familiar with the distinct economic, political, social and cultural settings, their development approach and projects are not consistent with the indigenous communities’ needs and aspiration. In this backdrop, local NGOs that are formed and run by permanent residents have come into being with a view to ensure people-centred, environment friendly and culture friendly development in the region. However, with the inflow of national and international NGOs, these local NGOs are facing hard competition with them, because local NGOs are not capable yet to stand on firm footing.
Local NGOs are experiencing development discrimination. For example, if the national and international NGOs build partnership with local NGOs, they provide very low salary to the local NGOs’ staffs. Local NGOs are working as ‘sub – contractors’ of national and international NGOs by being partner of projects designed by outsiders. By such a process, the local NGOs are gradually becoming dependent on outside NGOs and losing real autonomy.
The local administrations, which are responsible to deal with the local development activities including that of NGOs, have corrupt practices and red-tapism of the bureaucracies negatively affects upon the development efforts of the local NGOs. There is administrative ‘duality’ or ‘power conflict’ between the local-governance structures and mainstream structures especially with regards to the development activities in this region.
This also is reflected on the process of NGO Bureau registration and fund release procedures. Whatsoever, it is highly felt that being the ‘son of soil’; local NGOs can contribute to the promotion of people’s rights to development in this district as well as the CHT as a whole.
Present Development Challenges
The above mentioned situation indicates that the indigenous people in CHT are facing following problems critical to their survival, autonomy and aspiration of change:
Economic: Communities in Khagrachari are not earning sufficient income; economic resources are controlled by outsiders; planned transmigration of lowlanders to Khagrachari made difficulties for survival, life and livelihood; lands are forcefully occupied by outsiders and indigenous people do not get fair price of product and labor.
Cultural: Little scope/initiatives for promotion of indigenous culture; facing external cultural aggression and increasing religious fundamentalism and fanaticism.
Political: Local institutions are not capable pf effectively execute their duties and responsibilities; traditional bodies are not given importance by government institutions; very unlikely to establish peace and societal harmony in the region unless the land disputes are resolved effectively; non-implementation of the CHT Accord and existence of communal political conflicts.
Gender: In terms of inheritance rights, women enjoy the lower status; indigenous women’s participation in the political process is very low; violence against women.
Environment: Forests resources were depleted; polluting factors like brickfields; monoculture, soil erosion, illegal logging and degradation of natural resource base.
Education: Indigenous children do not have opportunity to learn in their own mother language; do not have access to educational institutions; high dropout rate and no government of
Development projects: indigenous peoples were victims of development aggression; Indigenous people lost their ancestral lands and home in the name of development; implemented projects did neither have any accountability, transparency in managing the resources, nor did take account of the needs, culture and knowledge of the local community. Local NGOs are working as ‘sub – contractor’ of national and international NGOs; and corrupt practices and red-tapism of bureaucracy.
The above findings suggest that the main development challenge in Khagrachari district is to facilitate people’s participatory process so that they can achieve food and livelihood security by strengthening their traditional local self-governance systems. Community should take initiative to achieve rights of education; cultural practices, women’s rights, gender justice and good governance are established by the people.
To overcome the critical issues in the socio-economic context, the following measures (solutions) are considered as the present development challenges:
1. Strengthening traditional self-governance system (Headmen/Karbari) so that they can play effective role as community leader.
2. Community people build their own organisations (women, poor, youth etc.) so that they can take collective initiative for sustainable development and have institutional power to raise voice for rights and justice.
3. Strengthening Local Government Systems (UP) so that they are transparent and responsive to promote good governance. This will also have impact on access to resources that provided by the government.
4. Establish rights over land, market and other natural resources so that the level of income increase and achieve economic wellbeing.
5. Ensure food and livelihood security for the poor and marginalized population.
6. Strengthening and promotion of people’s culture institutions, initiatives and practices.
7. Promotion of peace and societal harmony.
8. Raising gender sensitivity and awareness so that women’s rights and gender justice are established.
9. Community initiative for forest protection and natural (land, water, forest, livestock) resource management.
10. Access to quality education for all which I pro-indigenous and primary education in mother language.
11. Plan and initiate holistic, people centered sustainable development process by the community based on indigenous institutions, values, knowledge, aspirations and participation.
12. Capacity enhancement of social workers and strengthening of institutional capacity of the local development organizations.
4. Strategic Considerations and Strategy Statement.
The strategy to address the development challenges needs careful considerations due to their complex and sensitive nature. The strategy should contain the both effectiveness and values that community and network partners consider important.
Click again to their tradition and cultures>>
These groups are the original inhabitants of this land, using traditionally cultivation techniques to provide their livelihoods. Because of their varied livelihood patterns that evolved in relation to the agro-ecological diversity of the region as well as changing historical circumstances, a significant portion of the rural indigenous people still live in hard to reach areas in scattered communities of different sizes (some consisting of only about 15-20 households, some over 100 households, but the majority being in between). The majority of people belonging to such communities are very poor, with little or no access to basic services such as primary education and health care.
Khagrachari Hill Districts
Khagrachari is one of the three districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It has an area of 2699.55 km². Although no recent land survey or census has been carried out, according to the 1991
Local Indigenous Cultures
Khagrachari is one of hill districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts region and it is a unique region for its rich culture and ethnic diversity. Chakma, Marma and Tripura are the three main ethnic communities here, and they are also the majority indigenous groups in the CHT. They all have individual cultural characteristics and as well as parts of greater Bangladeshi culture. They practice their own languages, literature, proverbs, traditional rumors, manners and customs, superstitions, dances and songs. However, in recent years they have been some erosion of these traditional cultures as external cultures have become more prevalent in the region. This trend is mainly observed in urban areas rather than in rural areas. In spite of all this the people of Khagrachari still celebrate some events and practice traditions which are a symbol of their culture.
Their Religion
People are very religiously minded here. Chakma and Marma both practice Buddhism, and celebrate a variety of religious events across the year. The temple (Kiong in local language) is main place for their worship. “Prabarana Purnima” and “Kathin Cibar dan” are the main events for the communities. During the three month long rainy season, known in Chakma and Marma as “Wah”, the spiritual guides of the Buddhist people practice meditation in a silent space”. After 3 months they celebrate Prabarana Purnima and then Kathin Cibar Dan for 1 month. The Tripura community is mainly Hindu. They celebrate Durga puja, Swaraswatee puja, Ker puja, Goraia Puja, Laksmi puja but some converted to Christian.
Their way of life
The way of life is very simple here. Shifting cultivation is one of main components of indigenous culture in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The communities use 3 different names for it- Jum (Chakma), Yea (Marma) and Hog (Tripura). This type of cultivation is intrinsically linked with indigenous culture. Weaving is a colorful part of the indigenous community. They have their own tradition to make all types of cloths including dress, blankets, towels, shawls and stoles. The process of weaving is very hard and they have no modern technical equipment and everything must be handmade. The people collect the equipment from forest, and then prepare it themselves.
Handicrafts
Another rich tradition is their handicrafts. People make baskets, bins and different types of essential items for their daily use out of bamboo. They make these for their own needs and sometimes for sale to outsiders. Generally rural people make these things and most of the urban people are not involved in handicrafts.
Their traditions
Music and dance is a mentionable part of their bright culture. They have many dances in celebration of Jum cultivation. Chakma has Jum dance, Tripura has Goraia dance and bottle dance, and Marma has “Jai” (Princes and Princess), Thala and Candle Light (lamp) dance, “PangKhun” dance and Monori dance. They perform these in various types of cultural programs.
The indigenous people have their own dress and ornaments. Often in urban areas people become used to a modern and comfortable life and combine traditional culture with current trends. They also have indigenous stories, folk songs and literature. Unfortunately very few people are now practicing these and the new generations are not familiar with these ancient arts.
Bwisu, Sangrai, Biju Festivals
These are the most important annual events for the three indigenous communities. These are celebrated for three days around the Bangla New Year, from 13th -15 th April. Tripura call the festival “Bwisu”, Marma call it “Sangrai” and Chakma called it “Biju”. The festivals are celebrated in many ways. Children and youth people enjoy the day by wearing new dress, visiting friends and relatives house and take Panchan, a special vegetable dish prepared for the occasion.
In the Marma community, they also celebrate by playing some games called pani khela, alari khela and dha-thu. Goraia dance is very popular in the Tripura community. As a celebration of the festivals 10 to 100 artist perform the dance. The main theme of this dance is to show their daily lives and the steps of Jum cultivation. In urban area Government Officials, Non Governmental Organization’s, cultural institutes and civil society celebrate jointly by organizing rallies, fairs, games and competitions, cultural programs, and publishing books and journals. Wishing for a new born baby and naming ceremonies
Another social programs in these 3 communities, is wishing wellness and happiness for a new born baby. Baby naming ceremonies are performed, in which family and community members select names for the new child.
