Assignment on

The Summery of Scatter with One Hand: Gather with Two

Submitted to Mrs. Rezwana Karim Snigdha Course Instructor for Ethnography: Selected Texts (Anth 307)

Submitted by Md. Taqbir us Samad Talha Id# 1747 Batch: 40

Department of Anthropology Jahangirnagar University

Scatter with One Hand: Gather with Two

Introduction From the classical period to nowadays, agriculture remains the mainstay of the economy of Bangladesh. So, agricultural development and also the modernization in technology help us to develop country. As like as in Kumirpur, the availability of new agricultural technologies: mechanized irrigation, high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, pesticides and chemical fertilizers, has led to an overall increase in prosperity. Thus increases the land value and also the demand for agricultural labor. With the increasing demand of land, there invents a new process of cultivation_ sharecropping, in which a share of the crop is paid as rent. But in this process, the cost and benefits are not shred equally. Some poorer people find opportunities to improve their condition, but the major profits have gone to those who have already better off. Access to market shows clearly the inequality structured in Bangladesh. In Kumirpur, jobs are generally linked to agriculture. But the markets for agricultural resources are dominated by male. Land is owned mainly by men, loans are given on male authority, technology is operated and run by men and most field labor is open only to males. But on the contrary, technological instruments are not been user friendly for female, land right is not be given to female, even female can get smaller scale loans. At the same time, transactions within each set of markets are highly significant for class relations. Entry to different markets is highly differentiated by class as well as gender. It indicates a clear image of inequality gender discrimination in this country. A Changing Environment In the lean time, the people of Kumirpur, especially Santals have to face scarcity and lacking of work. They have no choice to do work in that time. So they can not but do work by taking a very small payment. Technological development in agriculture helps to improve the Santals circumstances. So they no longer have to migrate seasonally in search of work as they used to, there is now work locally for most of the year. The story of development in Kumirpur is a familiar one: while many have seen some benefit, the major profit has gone to those who were already better off. There we can see major changes in cropping process in Kumirpur, which have an impact on the environment as a whole. New profitability of agriculture forces the people to clear the forest areas to provide more cultivable land. With the rising demand for fuel, people reduce tree cover. Thus some major destruction of natural resources occurs. It reduces soil moisture. Even changes since irrigation are not wholly positive; it declines the soil fertility.

Invention of hand pump, shallow tube-wells and deep tube-wells helps the inhabitants of Kumirpur to increase the cultivation of agricultural products. But it creates a draw-down effect on ground water resources. Land Ownership Land is the central factor in households social status and economic strategies in rural Bangladesh. It has long been the key resource and it represents the security of a man. With agricultural development and technological boom, demand for land is increasing day by day. De Vylder estimates that 60% of households in Bangladesh are effectively landless. In addition, landholdings are highly fragmented. By the result of inheritance rules, a land is divided equally between sons. In Muslim law, daughters also inherit land _ at half the rate of their brothers. But in practice, social factors and family politics inhibit women from claiming their formal rights. Land also changes hands as a result of marriage payments, mortgage, purchase, fraud or litigation in Kumirpur. Mortgaging is known as Khai kalasi, in this process a loan is given in return for the land for a set period during which the loan giver cultivates it. Communal differences can still lead to land loss. During the liberation war of 1971, Hindus land is expropriated in their absence by declaration as enemy property. Marriage of daughters may be an occasion for land loss, because of the dowry system. Wedding gifts, marriage constitutes are the most common reasons for land transfer. Other common reasons for land sale are the need to purchase cattle for draught power or to repair or built new housing. Share-cropping Labor, share-cropping and loans are complementary aspects in household economic strategy and together contribute to households class position. They also indicate multistranded links between two particular households in a patron-client pair. Share-cropping is the main way for poorer households to gain access to land. In Bangladesh, in the standard form of share-cropping, the cultivator bears all the costs and gives one half of the crop to the landowner as rent. The wealthiest households, share out land to cut cash outlays, bestow patronage and to minimize investment of household labor, particularly as educated sons are less interested in working on the land, preferring businesses or salaried jobs. Lower class households also share out their lands, either because of distance or shortage of household labor. Many of these households are headed by widows, or have male members who are unwell or incompetent.

This is not simply a matter of economics; it indicates a wider relationship between the landowner and cultivator. It is not simply their wealth but also the upper or vulnerable households better social connections that underlie their preferential access. Agricultural labor Cropping changes have expanded the market for agricultural labor in Kumirpur. Like sharecropping arrangements, labor is freer than it was. Contracts are shorter term and most work is done by daily labor. No Bengali woman is hired as an agricultural laborer in Kumirpur. Again, benefits are therefore divided by gender as well as class: households without able adult men members are unable to take advantage of the new opportunities. However, Santal woman works as agricultural laborer. But they work the longest of all. Here, clearly, is a classic case of womans outside employment, meaning they have to work a double day. Changing in labor contracts indicates shifts in the local form of class relations. Only young boys still have year-round contracts. Otherwise, regular labor is hired on a seasonal basis. Rates for regular work vary by season, age and skill. Seasonal contracts normally cease in the slack period before harvest. The change in the cropping system has meant more labor demand for more of the year. Migrant labor comes in at peak times. Many of the migrants are young unmarried sons of middle class and small holding households. The migrants also include a few Santal and other ethnic minority female groups. Credit Credit is the main step of so much of village life that it is difficult to identify one class as more dependent on it than another. Different classes enter into various kinds of credit arrangements for different source of purposes. Large debts do not necessarily indicate weakness: they also show the ability to mobilize credit. Here we are not with institutional credit but with loans between individuals, as they express different relationship within the village. Loans are most commonly taken for consumption, cultivation and wedding or funeral expense. If possible, transfers within the households are arranged to avoid having to take credit outside. Interest-free loans may be given between close relatives, particularly brothers and married or widowed sisters. Loans between people within the lower status group are a relatively new phenomenon in Kumirpur. It increases the dependence on the market for basic consumption needs. It may represent a desirable alternative to accumulating dependencies on a richer patron. The classic kind of loan relationship, of a richer patron loaning to a poorer client, is also evident in Kumirpur. Employees often go to their employers for loans and share-croppers

to their landowners. Patrons generally refuse to give loans to those who do not have a current functional relationship with them. Loans are not always given by richer patrons to poorer clients. Loans may also be given by workers or share-croppers to employers or landowners. This is regarded as shameful. Conclusion