Socio-Economic Conditions of the Enclave People in Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

Enclave crisis in South Asia was a manmade suffering created by wars among empires. Only general people were the key victims of the crisis. India’s inability to implement the treaty of 1958 with Pakistan and to ratify the Indira-Mujib Land Boundary Agreement of 1974 was the major cause of enclave crisis sustained for long. People suffered a lot in the enclaves for about 68 years. In 2015, the enclaves between India and Bangladesh were exchanged. Government of Bangladesh initiated steps to develop the areas. Here, the social and economic conditions of the former enclave people were tried to analyze and the socioeconomic changes after exchanging enclaves were tried to explore. In this context, two pilot survey were conducted before starting data collection finally. Questionnaire survey, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) methods were followed to collect primary data; and secondary data was collected through literature review. There was different sort of discussion with local people (young people, women, school teachers, old people and other dignitaries) during data collection. Qualitative data was categorized and quantitative data was analyzed by statistical methods. Microsoft excel was used during data analyzing process. Here, the discussion on conceptual framework was tried to look upon the core social values, security and dignity; and economic security, food security, communication and so on. Challenges in different sectors of profession, education and daily life of the dwellers have been identified through analyzing data. Finally, the study adds some recommendations that may be considered as fundamental principles to transform the former enclave societies into main stream societies of Bangladesh.