Social exclusion of bihari community: A sociological study on Geneva camp, Dhaka

Abstract

The study of social exclusion is historically significant in sociology because of its gravity for explaining existing social problems embedded to the disadvantaged section of population in a given society. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis is to explore the patterns, dimensions and incidences of social exclusion among the Bihari community in the Geneva Camp, Dhaka. The previous research works on Bihari community have given the answers why they are excluded. However, the present research work has tried to find out why and how they are excluded and to be what extent they are excluded. For guiding this empirical study, different research works have been reviewed to find out the research gap and three pertinent theories of social exclusion, offered by Silver (1994), Clavel (1998), and Levitus (2005), also have been used for perceiving the underlying dimensions of social exclusion. Moreover, the methodology of this piece of writing involves: purposive and systematic sampling for area and respondent selection, and, mixed methods (survey and case study) for data collection. Besides, some statistical measurements have been used for data analysis such as percentile calculation, chi-square test (for measuring social exclusion) and the CBN method (for measuring poverty). The main findings of this thesis are mentionable here. From the findings it has been found that more than 95 percent of the respondents claimed that they hide their identity and dwelling place when they are outside the Camp. Moreover, by using the CBN method for measuring poverty the study found that about 30 percent people are poor, while nearly 70 percent respondents claim that they have sufficient income to run their family, but they are deprived from all basic rights, those a state usually provides. However, about 70 percent people think that they are poor and excluded in terms of ethnic identity, civic alienation, stigmatization, poor social capital, and etc. In addition, the chi-square test found most of the factors of social exclusion are strongly associated with ethnic identity at the significance level of  Most of the respondents claimed that they don’t have access to proper housing, sanitation, health facilities, and education. Besides, about 70 percent respondents said that they do not possess or enjoy any political power for negotiation with the state. For example, they have voting rights, but no one is allowed to get a passport. Besides, the study shows that about 65 percent respondents are living in jobless home, which is considered as labor market exclusion. Finally, they reported that they are facing discrimination in all sphere of society wherever they involved, and they are spatially alienated from main stream people wherever they live in the country.