A study on the Lifestyle of Harijon Community in Dhaka City

Abstract

Harijon who has been dedicating their lives to cleaning our community forever and a day treated as untouchables. Harijon community has been living in dark and vulnerable situations. They continue to be victims of social boycotts. They live at the risk of discrimination, dehumanization, and violence. The study's purpose is to find out the situation, know about the demographic and family information, livelihood pattern, and recommendation, find out their economic and socio-cultural activities and identify the scenario of discrimination and violence against Harjon community of Dhaka city. A total of 87 respondents are selected by the purposive sampling method. Questionnaires, field observation, interviews, case studies, and FGD are used to obtain data and information. Various statistical techniques are used during the analyzed data, such as mean, median, standard deviation, variance, and Pearson correlation with SPSS software. In this study, 48% of participants are male, and 52% are female. 64.4% of respondents are under age 45. Married respondents are 76%, and only 35% used the family planning method. 25% of the respondents are illiterate. 73% of the respondents are cleaner and sweepers.47.1% of respondents has 5-6 family members.37.9% of respondents' monthly family income is below 15,000tk. 71.3% of respondents face discrimination in buying land and 62.1% in hotels/restaurants and doing business. 95.8% of respondents said women have no right to guardian property. The main barrier to women's development is poverty and dowry. 66.7% of respondents said they have a high rate of dowry in their marriage. 87.4% of the respondents only cast their votes. 32.2% hide their identity. 52.8% of respondents tease by other community people. 39.1% of the respondents have two children. Only 16.1% go to a private hospital/clinic.80.5% of respondents and their family member do not change their profession. Harijon community across the country has been passing an inhuman and substandard life. The overt discrimination against the Harijon designates its reflection in every sphere of socio-economic and political life in Bangladesh society.