
This book is about birth practices among poor, rural women in Bangladesh. Kaosar Afsana has used a multidimensional framework for the study. She draws upon ideas and perspectives from history, anthropology, gender and socio-political economy to analyse experiences of self and other, which are truly impressive. It is a pioneering study where various choices available for birthing care in the country are addressed.
This book focuses on issues critical to the contemporary emphasis on gender sensitive health care for the poor pregnant women in Bangladesh. The core of the book explores the differing perspectives between rural women and health care providers regarding childbirth care and practices. The study attempts to understand women's perceptions of birthing care and their practices, the role of culture, socio-economic factors, and household dynamics as they influence women and their family's health-seeking behaviour.
Bangladesh, despite its commendable progress in terms of basic education, has not been able to deal with its child labour problem. There is no single approach to the eradication of the problem, but a better understanding of the reasons why children work, the conditions under which they work and the impact it has on their lives should go a long way in improving policies and in raising awareness. It is important to document how damaging child labour can be. This study of the capital city of the country Dhaka, is revealing in many ways.
Political, economic and policy models are undergoing drastic changes in LDC’s where market reforms are being implemented. In this context, the subject of governance has attracted increasing attention and debate, marked though by conceptual confusion and lack of solid analysis. Fuzzy Governance sets to examine the subject in its historic conceptual and paradigmatic connotations, with special reference to Bangladesh. The author provides the elements of an operational framework for systematic analysis and discussion of the current problems of governance in transitional phases.
The book addresses the case of child labour by moving beyond the usual concern that regards the phenomenal essentially as an 'evil', harmful and corrupt, and instead attempts to assess children’s work in the relevant socio-economic and cultural context. It examines the specification of girl child labour in the garment industry and underlines how tradition , culture, religion, and sexual division of labour determine the parameters within which they live, work and resist patriarchal control and differential treatment at home and in the workplace.
Bangladesh: A Study of the Democratic Regimes is the author’s fifth book on the politics of Bangladesh. It essentially covers the period from 1991 to 2006 and focuses on a number of important issues including constitutional amendments and legislative reforms which have had considerable impact on the political process of the country. It encompasses with depth and precision all the developments in politics, economy, decentralization and politicization of administration that help in understanding the historical process of the concepts underscored here.
Establishing a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy was a dream of the independence leaders of Bangladesh. The process of pursuing this goal began soon after the emergence of the nation. In this journey the western democracies came forth towards aiding the Parliament. The scope of such assistance, however, has varied, with recent years witnessing a major surge in donor interest in Parliament strengthening.
‘Transition to Democracy’ is a compilation of articles published in newspapers ad magazines at home and abroad. The author writes on such developments which impinge on public policy issues and on strategic policies pursued by successive governments of Bangladesh. Tow major political parties, the Awami League (AL) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), elected by the people one after the other, ruled the country with the pledge to promote democracy and the rule of law.
In tracing the plight of the Rohingya refugees, the study shows that the Rohingya refugee problem was created in the course of several historical trajectories. It has been demonstrated that the Rohingyas are both stateless and refugees. First, they became stateless in their homeland and then eventually they had to embrace the status of refugeehood under conditions of persecution, discrimination and torture. The Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have remained stateless amid their refugeehood.
Some two dozen countries are already classified as water-scarce, and this-as areas as diverse as Israel, southern California and even the Netherlands know - is not a problem confined to the South. Already, as this book shows, fresh-water shortages are becoming a major cause of conflict both domestically and between states. In the future, the growing world population, further spread of irrigated agriculture and industrialization will all make increasing demands on scarce water resources. Conflict resolution capabilities in many parts of the world will be sorely stretched.