Live-in- Field Experience

Spring 2013
LFE-201

Prepared for
Asst. prof. Talim Hossain
School of social science and humanities
Independent University, Bangladesh

Prepared by
S.M. Imran Hasan
ID# 1020878
Group#2
Date of Submission: 31-01-2013

LFE Spring 2013
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

January 29, 2013
Tapash Kumar Paul
Department of Economics
Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB)
Bashundhara, Dhaka.
Sub: Letter of Transmittal for the assigned LFE report, spring 2013
Sir,
I, the undersigned, would like to submit herewith the Live-in-Field Experience (LFE) Report
Spring 2013 for your perusal. Upon completion of LFE study on Jogonnathpur (Gu Gu Jari
Para) in Thakurgaon district from January 3, 2013 to 13 January 2013 , this report has been
prepared.
By using questionnaire survey, observation, and preparing case stories, we tried our best to learn
about the demography, geography, social condition and change, economy and agriculture, the
impact of seasonality on various aspects of agriculture, health and environment, and the market
and haat serving the needs of the village. The analysis of data gathered from our field survey
helped us in understanding the lives of the villagers.
We would be glad to clarify any matter whenever you require so.
Sincerely yours,
SM Imran Hasan
ID# 1020878

ACKNOLEDGEMENTS
We express our honest gratitude to our teachers, Tapash Kumar Paul, Nusrat Farah, and Sadia
Haque for their restless guidance in the field.Our special thanks go to our teachers, Professor
Haroun Er Rashid and Asst. Prof. Talim Hossain for educating us on various aspects of LFE.
We also owe many thanks Manab Kallyan Parished (MKP) staffs, the most hospitable people.
Without the constant help and guidance of our assigned LFE monitors, the study would not have
been this thorough. We are really grateful to them.
Last but not the least, our honest gratitude goes to the inhabitants of Jogonnathpur (Gu Gu jari
Para), for their warm and hospitable treatment. Without their enthusiastic cooperation, it was not
possible to make the study successful.








INTRODUCTION:
Live field experience (LFE) is a mandatory course for all students of Independent
University, Bangladesh. Students have to go to a specific rural area to experience the life style
of rural people. Our group was taken to Thakurgaon, a newly added area for doing LFE; we were
given specific villages to understand the people of that area. The area which we were given is in
village named Jogonnathpur village. It was a para called Gu Gu Jariparapara.
When we first thought about going to the village and talking to the people there we thought the
people would be unfriendly also they would not co-operate with us. Afterwards our thoughts
were changed, they were very social, informative and of course friendly. It helped us to know the
people, their culture and lifestyle very vividly.
We know that about 74% of the population in Bangladesh is in the rural area it is very
important as business school students to know and understand how the rural economy works.
Their culture, social norms, educational level everything is correlated.
Bangladesh has an agro based economy it contributes to 30% of the country's GDP and
employed around 60% of the total labor force. The area we went to was also agriculture based in
our assigned Para out of 25 people we surveyed, 12 people were agriculturist. LFE made us
realize how important the farmers of our country are and how much effort they are giving to
support this country.
Through LFE we have seen the real picture of the rural area. The farmers of the rural area
were never in that good condition. They have always been in dire straits. They were struggling to
keep up the supplies of food all over the countries. However the scenarios are changing all over
the countries. Now a day people are not starving anymore. Their income had increased
comparing to the immediate post liberation period. The number of floating people had decreased.
That indicates that fundamental needs like food, clothing, and living places are not burning
issues anymore. But medical facilities and education are not adequate.
Recently, NGOs have got involved and are offering many services to develop the situation of
villagers. And they also are offering micro credits and trainings which are improving their
economic situation.
OBJECTIVES:
LIVE-IN-FIELD experience is not only an academic course but also a platform to discover the
root of ourselves. It can also be said as Change in life experience. Until we experienced it we
could not realize the true importance of this courses objective.
It is hard to limit its objective in words; the objective of this course is and will be used
throughout our entire life. It made us understand who we are? What is our root? It introduced us
with ourselves. Staying in city places and living a robotic life we almost forgot the reality of our
belongingness to this country and to the country people. LFE has opened our eyes to observe the
real picture.
We were taken to Thakurgaon, a newly added area for doing LFE; we were given specific
villages to understand the people of that area. The area which we were given is in village named
Jogonnathpur village. It was a para called Gu Gu Jaripara.

Our study objectives were following:
Our main objective was to find out information about Rural Economy & Development, which
included following specific objectives
1. Farm and non farm economy.
2. Infrastructure, economic change & development.
3. Analyzing the microcredit functions.
4. Income distribution among the villagers.

LIMITATIONS:
A certain precinct within which friars were allowed to beg or exercise their functions also the
time during which they were permitted to exercise their functions in such a district. This is quite
normal to face and handle some limitations during the program. But the art is how nicely
limitations are handled appropriately.

The first obstacle was the weather; it was hard for us to work in such a low
temperature, because we are not used to face this level of cold. The fogs and the
mist in the morning made it quite difficult to get up early in the morning and
proceed for the survey.

In the first day at village the villagers were confused about our motive and felt
inconvenient to talk to us. We felt lack of Communication.

The respondents were not sometimes comfortable to answer the questions as they
felt unsafe to talk about the topic.

As we surveyed the respective village during the working hours of the day, most
of the male were out of their houses. As a result the quantity of female
respondents is higher which may reflect in getting biased answers regarding some
questions.

There was a shortage of informative sources as most of the respondents were
confused.



METHODOLOGY:
Methodology is system of broad principals or rules from which specific methods or procedures
may be derived to understand different situations or solve different problems within the scope of
a particular discipline. Unlike an algorithm, a methodology is not a formula but a set of practices.
As this study required the participation of human respondents, specifically human resource
professionals, certain ethical issues were addressed. The consideration of these ethical issues was
necessary for the purpose of ensuring the privacy as well as the safety of the participants. Among
the significant ethical issues that were considered in the research process include consent and
confidentiality. In order to secure the consent of the selected participants, the researcher relayed
all important details of the study, including its aim and purpose. By explaining these important
details, the respondents were able to understand the importance of their role in the completion of
the research.
The respondents were also advised that they could withdraw from the study even during the
process. With this, the participants were not forced to participate in the research. The
confidentiality of the participants was also ensured by not disclosing their names or personal
information in the research. Only relevant details that helped in answering the research questions
were included.





PROFILE OF THIS VILLAGE:



Location of the Village:
At first we went to MKP, Thakugaon where we were assorted to different villages. Our
village is Jogonnathpur, which is situated around 2 kilometers on the right side of MKP.
A brief description of the village:
Jogonnathpur is a village near Thakugaon town. It takes 15 minutes by rickshaw. It is a
very big village consisting of around 15-20 paras.
My para was gu gu jari para, which is in jonnathpur union, Thakurgaon. once upon a time there
were a lot of gu gu birds in there. There is a big pond which is surrounded by bamboo forest and
there are a lot of gu gu birds still now. This is why the para is called gu gu jari para.


Village Map

BANKING SYSTEM OF GU GU JARIPARA PARA:
In Simpler term micro means small and credit means loans. Microcredit is the extension of very
small loans (microloans) to those in poverty designed to spur entrepreneurship. These individuals
lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even
the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of
microfinance, which is the provision of a wider range of financial services to the very poor.
Microcredit is a financial innovation that is generally considered to have originated with the
Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. In this country, it has successfully enabled extremely
impoverished people to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an
income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty.


There are many NGOs which are giving micro credit to the villagers. I found many NGOs those
are Brac, Grameen Bank, Asa, Islami Bank etc. We tried our best to find out each and everything
about micro credit to find out the real picture of Micro credit schemes.






Sources of loan:
While conducting our PRA in our para, we have found that there were a number of NGOs (Non-
Governmental Organizations) which are active in the Taltolipara and provide micro-credits to the
villagers. Such as-
GRAMEEN Bank
BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee)
ISLAMI Bank
KRISHI Bank
ASA
Though majority of the people of Gu Gu Jaripara are not that poor but most of them have taken
micro credits or loans. So, the NGOs are playing a very important role in changing the socio-
economic structure and development of the overall para. We have conducted our survey among
20 households in Gu Gu Jaripara.



Source: LFE Field survey, 2013 Sample size: 20 households





Yes
84%
No
16%
Household Took Loans
or Not
Yes
28%
No
72%
Households Having
Savings or Not
Facilities provided by different NGOs:
We found that mostly the middle class and poor class people are the loan takers from different
NGOs operating in Jogonnathpur village. The purpose is different in different sectors. The
following table extracts the facilities provided by different NGOs operating in Jogonnathpur
village.

Name of the
Institutions
Grameen Bank BRAC ASA Islami Bank
Particulars
Amount Of Loan
given (Tk.)
Tk.1000-1000000 Tk.5000-400000 Tk. 6000-150000 Tk. 5000-10000
Collateral Nil Land
Documentation
Nil Land
Documentation
Requirements for
Membership
Must be literate,
have less than 50
satak land
Literacy,
Recommendation
of figurehead
Literacy,
Recommendation
of figurehead
Taking Loan
Purpose of loan Agriculture,
Poultry, Buy
vehicle, establish
bakery, Education
Sanitation,
Business Loan,
Hygene, cattle
Poultry, Cattle
fattening
Agriculture
Satisfaction Moderately
Satisfied
Partially satisfied Trust is increasing Satisfaction is
decreasing
Actions taken by
institutions
Increase the time
for repayment,
seize collateral
Seize Collateral,
seize savings,
Money is
deducted from
the savings
deduction of
money from the
savings account
Increase the time
for repayment,
change the
installment size



Purposes of Loan:
People require loans for different purposes. Most of the villagers earn their livelihood
from agriculture but house building and business have the highest demand for taking loans.
Along with these the people of Gu Gu Jaripara have showed different other purposes also to take
loans.
Source: LFE Field survey, 2013 Sample size: 20 households

Case Studies:
We got to know different stories of different people regarding their repayment of loans.
Some people failed to repay the loan for various problems. But it is not a very common scenario
in this locality. In the following part we have gathered some NGO loan success & failure cases.
The case studies are given below-

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Purpose of Loan
Successful Story:
Rizina Islam, a resident of Gu Gu Jaripara, took a loan amount of Taka 1 lakh from ASA under
the GOB loan group. According to the ASA procedure she had to repay this loan in 10 months.
She had no savings on this loan. She took this loan for business purpose which was the rice mill.
By using this loan she built her house, increased livestock and brought electricity. The interest
rate charged by the ASA is 12.5% on GOB loans. But the actual rate of interest is 25%. The
calculation is shown below-
Borrowed amount = 100,000
Installment per month= 10,000
Installment with interest=12,500
100,000*12.5%=12,500
Number of installment= 10
Actual interest rate = ((12,500*10 - 100,000)/ 100,000) * 100
= (25,000/100,000) * 100
= 25%
Ultimately, she repaid all the loans and it helped her to improve her financial condition.
Unsuccessful Story:
Anwar Hossain (22 years old), took a loan amount of Taka 6,000 from Brac under the Dabi loan
category. According to the Brac loan procedures he had to repay his loan in 46 weeks. He had to
keep a savings of Taka 22. By using this loan he brought a van with Taka 5,000 and repaid Taka
1,000 to his personal loan lenders. The interest rate charged by the Brac is 15% on Dabi loans.
But the actual rate of interest is % 34.17. The calculation is shown below-
Borrowed amount = Taka 6,000
Savings amount= Taka 22 per installment
Installment per week= Taka 168
Installment with interest= Taka 225
6,000*15 %*( 1/4) = Taka 225
Number of installment= 46
Actual interest rate = [[{(225-50)*46}-6,000]/6,000]*100
= [{(175*46)-6,000}/6,000]*100
= (2,050/6,000)*100
= 34.17%
At the end he was unable to repay his payments. As a result he had to sell his goat and
repay the loan of Brac. This loan has made his financial condition very unstable.

Effects of Micro Credit on Gu Gu Jari Para:
There is no doubt that micro credit has improved the financial condition of the people of
Gu Gu Jari para. Though there are very few of failure cases. We have surveyed 25 respondents
and out of those people maximum has said that micro credit has changed their way of living.
However all the NGOs charge higher interest rate than they state to the loaners. There were also
some other hidden charges which we failed to reveal as people could not portray the actual
scenario. As a result we excluded all those charges while calculating the actual interest rates.
Positive & Negative Changes
All our findings indicate towards significant social changes that have occurred over the last half
century. We have summarized the positive and negative impact on society in the table below:
Positive changes
o Education and awareness
o Increased sources of earning
o More employment
o Empowerment of women
o Telecommunication
o Improved sanitation
o Electricity
o NGO support
Negative changes
o Loan dependency
o Deforestation
o Decreased soil fertility
o Lower family bonding
CONCLUSION
In conclusions, we can see on the above information. A social change can improved the peoples
life style in the village. We founded so many changes in the Jogonnathpur village of Gu Gu Jari
para in the last 13years (2000 to 2013). After the liberation period, people were getting
advantages occurred by those changes by reason of different NGOs contribution.

It is very great pleasure and privilege for me that I took a part of LFE 2010 in Spring from IUB. I
have learned many things from LFE. Basically most of the student of our student of our group is
from urban area. We dont know much about the village and village market. So in LFE we
learned a lot of things about the village market, hat and the buying behavior of the villagers.
From this survey we realize that Bangladesh is mainly a country of villages and the village
market plays a vital role in the life of the villagers. It is an integral part of village life. It save the
villagers from the trouble of going to distant places to buy things of daily use. A village market
is not only develops village life but also promote the export of the country.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
o Principles of Marketing by Philip kotler & Gary Armstrong.
o Marketing Management by Philip Kotler.
o Economics: Principles, problems & problems, Campbell R. Meconnell & Stanley. Brue
11
th
edition. Mcgrew Hill, 1990.
o Reference book: - H.W. BOYD, O.C. WALKER, Marketing management Third
Edition.
o www.asa.gov.bd