1 Needless hunger: Voices from a Bangladesh village

BOOK REPORT

Needless hunger: voices from a Bangladesh Village

written by Maria Sajjad Zohaib Alam

Submitted to Sir Raza Naeem

2 Needless hunger: Voices from a Bangladesh village

Title: needless hunger: voices from village of Bangladesh Author: Betsy Hartmann & James Boyce Type of book: Non-fiction No. of pages: 69 pages Publication Year: 01/01/1979 Language: English Subject: Business & Economics Format: paperback

Introduction One bamboo alone is weak, many bamboos together are unbreakable -Quote from a villager from the book Needless Hunger

The title, Needless Hunger: Voices from a Bangladesh Village, gives a good idea to a reader to understand what is to be presented in the book, which is authored by Betsy Hartmann and James Boyce. The book takes the reader through nine months of direct exposure, of the authors, to the lifestyles and real-time issues faced by the citizens of a rural village in Bangladesh. The authors, aided by Yale University, took on the directive to conduct a research study of which they would record personal experiences while living in Bangladesh for two years, in 1974-1976. Out of the two years, nine months were spent particularly studying and living in the village Katni. The authors lived amongst the villagers to have a more direct understanding of their lives stories. Overtime they grew familiar with the daily struggles and conflicts faced by the people of Bangladesh. The authors of this book have presented a personal account of their experiences in Bangladesh, the problems that the people of Bangladesh faced, the root causes of those problems and also how the Bangladeshis may overcome those problems with different alternatives.

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Overview The first chapter begins with an introduction of the authors, provided by themselves, and paints a picture, through words, to the audience as to what Bangladesh actually looks like. It gives facts and figures as to the resource abundance it holds while showing the irony when stating, The villagers taught us what it means to be hungry in a fertile land. The chapter discusses the agrarian structure of the Bangladesh economy; about their arable land, how Bangladesh lies in the delta of three great rivers and how abundant rainfall and warm temperatures give Bangladesh an ideal climate for agriculture. They say that the alluvial soil deposited by the rivers makes Bangladesh land the most fertile in the world. The authors also point out the fact that due to the ideal climate, crops can be grown 12 months a year. While presenting bright positives, by describing the extract of the richness of land in Bangladesh, the authors present a dark contrast by discussing how the majority of the Bangladeshis are still suffering and helpless. The fact is that Bangladeshis are poor with an annual income of less than $100 and a life expectancy rate of only 47 years. Families in Bangladesh consume less food than the daily requirements, causing high rates of malnutrition, while suffering from various illnesses. In the subsequent chapters the authors discuss how trade destroyed the local industries and how the British played a major role in abolishing the Bengali industries. The British created an abominable environment in Bangladesh. Firstly, they introduced an alien system of private land ownership and after taking control of the land they charged high taxes. This led to the transfer of land from Muslim zaminadars to rich Hindus who had the money to purchase the land at prices affordable to them, since the Muslims could not afford to pay such high taxes. After the Britishers exited in 1947, Bengal was divided, West Bengal and East Bengal, respectively among India and Pakistan. However the exit of the British did not bring an end to the problems faced by Bangladeshis. After the separation of West Bengal and East Bengal disparities increased between the two creating to a huge clash between the two, since West Bengal had higher income growth and more industrial development. As the authors of the book visited Katni, a village in Bangladesh, they were able to see a much clearer picture of the situation in Bangladesh. Drawing a more precise picture on Bangladesh, the authors describe the system of land ownership in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, land is concentrated into the hands of the very few elite, as opposed to the fact that there are people who are completely landless. In Bangladesh, and in many other developing countries, land is the key to clout, whether political or economical. Other disparities arise due to the fact that large landowners receive loans on lower interest rates, because of their land serving as collateral, while the small land owners are charged more than 100 percent interest rates on loans; which widens the disparity gap among the two classes. The authors further go on to describing how sharecropping and the wage labor system in Bangladesh leads to the siphoning of surplus from poor peasants and landless laborers into the hands of the large landowners. In Katni these authors saw that share croppers receive less than

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the landowner since they alone have to bear the cost of fertilizers, seeds and other agriculture inputs. However, the injustice done to the wage laborers results in rewards even lower than those of share croppers due to the high supply of wage laborers which results in lower wage rates. As a villager in a Bangladesh told the authors I earn two pounds of rice. One taka and a meal for a days work. With that taka I used to buy 2 more pounds of rice and a little is left for oil, chilies and salt. This first hand narration by a villager discussing his current situation paints a better picture of the evils and horror to the rural people of Bangladesh. Furthermore the book discusses the details of why a fall in real wages in Bangladesh, resulting in hired labor which becomes cheaper than sharecropping, increases the number of land owners who resort to hired labor instead of sharecropping. This has a negative impact by decreasing the demand for sharecroppers and putting them out of business. The Green Revolution also made the demand for hired labor increase. The demand for hired labor caused a decrease in demand for sharecropping, which a majority of small farmers relied on. The authors have stated that in Bangladesh at that time, jute was the main crash crop and brought four -fifths of the countrys export earnings. The farmers grew jute extensively and the government announced a price flooring to help control the instable market rates. The authors narrate a story which defines the differences amongst peasants and merchants. For peasants, there were less opportunities of selling jute at government set market rates and as a villager in Katni told the authors I sold my jute for less than half of what it cost me to grow it. The reason for this, as the authors visited a local procurement center in Bangladesh, was that large warehouses had stocked most of the jute supply and those same warehouses bought this at the government rate which was higher than what the peasants received for what they sold their jute in the market for. The problem was corruption, as the warehouse manager only bought the jute from the merchants at government set market rates; while those merchants bought the jute from peasants at rates 33% lower than the government set rate. The corruption involved was that the warehouse managers had a profitable deal with the merchants to turn away peasants and make excuses of why the warehouse was not able to purchase their supply, turning them away and pressuring them to sell to merchants at any cost. Hoarding also played a factor in impoverishing the peasants from their privileges. In the subsequent chapters, the authors clearly describes why the situation keep worsening in Bangladesh; there was no reinvestment of profits due to high demand for luxury consumption there was no national productivity since the large landowners were taxed because of the fear of the government to lose their support. Betsy and James reveal that not only is the system of landownership causing problems in Bangladesh but also the squandering wealth of elites, under utilization of resources, inefficiencies produced from absent landlords, and the level of corruption at all levels play a dominant role in making the situation of Bangladesh as it was during their visit. The high rate of

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unemployment in Bangladesh, economic stagnation due to lack of inefficient demand and the poor peasants represent a terrible waste of the countrys greatest resource. Further describing, the authors claim that the inefficiency of inequality in Bangladesh is also due to the fact that the government supports the very narrow elites and does not cater to the needs of the poor. The figures determine the extent to how true this conclusion is; expenditures on defense have risen from 20 % to 30 %and the share of the governments development budget towards agriculture decreased from 30 % to 25 % even though agriculture contributes 60% towards the GNP of the country and employs 80% of the labor force. The authors also gives other reasons to why the situation keep worsening in Bangladesh; there has been no reinvestment of profits due to high demand for luxury consumption and there has been no increase in national productivity since the large landowners were not being taxed because the government feared to lose their support. The bottom line is that the only development that has taken place in Bangladesh is the development of the elites. Agriculture suffers from a lack of funds, proper attention, and efficient institutions. After discussing the problems and difficulties faced by the locals in Bangladesh, the authors shift their focus on the alternatives and the solutions. The authors believe that social reconstruction is the key to breaking the barriers which will increase production and ensure that the poor get to reap the benefits of the development process. Also, a cooperative method in agricultural production would enable the peasants of Bangladesh to undertake self-help development projects and as for the peasants, knowing that they will reap the benefits of their work, will be provided with greater energy and relief. In the seventh chapter, the authors describe the role of foreign aid in Bangladesh and how it does not get to those who it is actually intended for. The various kinds of food and project aid somehow fall into the hands of the elite due to the corruptive and scavenging mindsets of the already miserly elites. Bangladesh has received a lot of aid over the years. With its independence it received $2.5 billion worth of aid and throughout the years the aid kept increasing. Pouring aid into a country and expecting a positive outcome isnt always as simple as it seems. The authors write, Food aid strengthens the forces that create hunger. Unfortunately, most of the food aid falls into the hands of those who could pay the market price, referring to the the urban elites. The distribution of aid by the government also seems controversial as the author states that 27 percent of the food grains were allotted to members of military and civil services. Moving ahead, the urban ration system in Bangladesh is riffed with corruption. The authors tell us, what is documented by the government on paper and what actually happens with the aid is a completely different story. The authors present a stunning fact that, Although 90 percent of Bangladeshs people live in the countryside, only one-third of the governments rationed food grains are allotted to rural areas. This shows a huge disparity in distribution of the food aid coming into the country and how corruption undermines the prerogative of the underprivileged villagers. As the authors proceed to portray that not only does food aid not fall into the hands it is intended for but also it undermines domestic food production by creating a lack of institutional support from the government and creating a more lax attitude towards domestic food production. The authors

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tell us in that for the government on the receiving end, food aid creates a dependency approach and undermines any desire towards self-reliance, amongst the other harms it does. Summing it into a few simple and great lines the authors write, The logic is simple and compelling: if people are hungry, give them food. But instead of feeding needy people, food aid often strengthens the very forces which create hunger. The authors refer to the elite as those forces, thus by placing a very strong finger on the fact that food aid oppresses more than it aids the majority of the population. The authors bring up a very important point by giving both sides of the story as the donors blame the Bangladeshi government for their lack of support and interest to help the poor and the government points back at the donors who donate aid for their own mutual interests; for their own stability, security and prevention of internal disorders. In the last chapter titled, What Can We Do? three very important points are provided by the authors to answer this question. The author start from the military and economic assistance, which aids only the minority elite needs to be halted because it worsens the living conditions of the countrys poor majority. The second point is to directly assist the local organizations and communities who are stakeholders in the betterment of the country and are working to mobilize the poor. The aid should be provided to them as they are more trustworthy than the elitist government. The third point is to educate ourselves and others about the millions of people who are starving from hunger and the effects of our own governments who play a role in perpetuating this hunger and making the poor of the third world worse off. The authors leave a concluding thought by asking who is to blame for the massive upheavals in Bangladesh and what can be done.

Critical Analysis In our critical analysis we have noticed many of positive attributes of the book Needless Hunger which offers a great insight into the 3rd world as the authors describe their two year personal experience in under 100 pages of a book. The authors writing style and friendly use of language make it easy for students of all fields of study to understand and sympathize with the villagers of Katni. The authors provide a chapter by chapter account on different topics using real life examples of villagers as well as placing true stories, within some chapters, to help readers open up to the world of the poor villagers. The chapter by chapter approach makes it simple to understand the objective of the book and the point the authors are trying to make. The book includes factual data and presents arguments, using personal experiences, which argue basic development economic theories. The book begins on a straightforward and factual basis of Bangladeshs environment. The descriptive rhetoric provided in the first chapter opens up the readers mind as to what Bangladesh actually looks like. Providing background information on the subject at hand has

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become a standard format in writing non-fiction and has proven to be the best way to build up the interest of the reader. The chapter proceeds to drag the reader deeper inside the heartlands of Bangladesh, which globally is imagined to be a country full of pollution, poverty, scarce resources, violence, and other negative characteristics of the third world. To counter this negative global image the authors use very literary devices like personification, imagery, metaphors, and irony. Like in the first chapter the authors write, Rice paddies carpeted the earth, and gigantic squash vines climbed over the roofs of the bamboo village houses. The rich soil, plentiful water and hot, humid climate made us feel as if we had entered a natural greenhouse. The use of different literary devices makes it easier for readers to understand what the scenery may actually look like without going there. Chapter one goes on to provide the history of Bangladesh by discussing the colonial legacy under the British Empire and then blood-filled separation from Pakistan. The authors openly claim that the industrial nations or developed countries have the wrong rationale on their view of development which they think is a straightforward historical progression: poor countries are simply further behind on the path to development that rich ones. The authors here present an argument for the reason for development of countries as is being challenged today. They present an argument by saying But this view ignores the fact that the destinies of nations have been linked in ways which have often benefited one nation at the expense of another. The authors are referring to the dependency theory as they have stood against the colonial legacy for which Bangladesh was actually made from an aspiring trade and agricultural nation to an underdeveloped third world nation. The Rostows Stages of Growth theory which the authors are referring to as the straightforward historical progression was made popular in the 1960s and 1970s but did not answer questions outside the realm of the US and Europes development. The dependency approach, however, was also made popular in the 1960s and was supported by many third world nations as a reason to why they have lagged behind in the process of development and how the developed world hurts more than it helps. In our analysis we see the authors have presented these arguments very well and in good time , when the theories were being heavily debated upon.

The authors tell us the actions of the British Empire not only created a dependency approach for Bangladesh but also alienated the villagers from their own land. The British introduced this alien system of private land ownership which were taxed highly by the Empire and thus caused many villagers to give up their land to the State in arrears. The system, which has been seen by various former colonial countries as not sustainable, because not only does it take from the poor and give to the rich it also concentrates land from the majority into the hands of the rich minority in the form on monopoly land ownership creating a larger unequal distribution of resources. Here the authors did an excellent job explaining which creating a new system did now work.

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Creating new systems is like creating new institutions. In Institutional Economics we learn that institutions are those formal and informal rules which along with their enforcement mechanisms structure human behavior and act as those constraints which reduce uncertainty. The authors have described these new institutions which were created in Bangladesh at either the wrong time or for the wrong way. The newer institutions which were introduced, whether they were the system of private land ownership, rationed food, price floorings, subsidizes, et cetera, created weak institutions which lack efficiency and motivation to do good in society. These weak institutions did the opposite of what strong institutions in developing countries provide which are high degree of competition, high degree of efficiency, merit based selection, and innovation. In contrast these weak institutions provided for Bangladesh restriction of competition, inefficiency, non-merit based selection, and a weak knowledge base causing little to no innovation. Bangladesh being structured with such weak institutions and having constraints of being a colony could not grow as developed countries did but instead shrunk at the expense of the developed world. The productivity was low, as explained in the chapter The inefficiency of inequality, because the motivation for large landowners tend to cultivate their lands less intensively than small owners. The large land owners incentive to do better and compete is not as great as they are earning sufficient profits by exploiting the weak and cheap laborers. The authors present their argument in the chapter by saying The small landowning peasant, who tills the soil with his won hands, knows that his work determines how much he and his family will have to eat. He invests more labor in his agriculture, and strives to use every bit of land and every drop of water to its utmost. These lines provide the reason for the discrepancy of why small landowning peasants are more efficient with their land than are large land lords thus creating inefficiency of agriculture production in Bangladesh. The authors present solutions in the last chapters and give an understanding of what actually goes wrong. This completes the structure of their argument as they have presented facts and data and now are remarking on their concluding thoughts. Chapter seven begins with discussing the aid projects which developed countries think will help these less developed countries. The authors provide arguments to explain why the aid creates a beggar government as well as a dependency on the development countries aid. Logically this argument is sufficient to explain when governments on the receiving end have no motivation to do better when they are receiving billions of dollars worth of aid a year. It is a part of human instinct to become use to something and once that occurs it is hard to break the chain. When a government becomes use to something then for the government they are less worried about being efficient because they know they have the aid to fall back on. The authors are arguing this exact point as they say, food aid often strengthens the very forces which create hunger. In this excerpt the authors are referring to the elitist government which creates the hunger in the first place and is the bearer of the fruitful aid. This is something found in many economic books and was a central argument in the U.S. Senate in 1976, when a Senate study stated that to terminate food aid, was the only way to force the government to take necessary actions for eventual self-sufficiency. This argument, by the authors is presented with satisfactory factual and theoretical rhetoric.

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In the concluding pages of the book the authors ignore a major obstacle in tackling the on-going problems in Bangladesh. The authors refer to the solution as social reconstruction and speak of a cooperative system which could lead to motivating the peasants as they will reap the benefits of their own hard work and discusses that land reforms are insufficient and difficult to manage. They also speak of a revolution that the peasants together will have to resort to end their own suffering. This argument is insufficient as we have to understand that the peasants are weak, not only physically but mentally, due to all the damage done to them over the decades. Also, the authors ignore the largest problem which is of the monopolistic control on land. This problem is larger than any of the other issues and without the breaking of large land holdings, which give political and economical clout to the landlords, a revolution or change is impossible to bring in. The monopolistic control on land is the central issue to be addressed and the system only continues in this direction is because it gives the large land owners enormous amounts of influence and decision making on the system. To reconstruct and develop a nations minority it is essential for the minority to own capital. As the Department of International Development says on their website, Land policy, land rights and land reform have a critical bearing on the economic development and poverty reduction in both rural and urban areas of the developing world. Secure access of land does not only rid a country of land corruption but also provides the basis of investment for better living conditions and more equitable land distribution enables the poor to benefit from broad based economic growth. Breaking the monopolies of land is crucial in setting the path of development for pro-poor growth.

Personal View Point In our view point the book is very well written and it is deeply elaborated. There are hundreds and thousands of books written on the topic of development, poverty, inequalities and etc. but it is very unlikely that the authors have been to the country they have written about. Having knowledge about something is one thing but being able to experience something for your self is where the path of wisdom lies. The authors of Needless Hunger: Voices from a Village of Bangladesh spent two years in Bangladesh, they learned the Bangladeshi language and what they have narrated in the book is what speak out of experience about their stay in Bangladesh. The personal encounters and interactions with the people make them more than worthy to write a book; which should be noted to institutions across the world to take advice from their experiences and knowledge. The authors have mentioned personal stories of the villagers in Katni which gives the reader a very clear insight on the conditions that prevailed in Bangladesh during that time period. The personal stories of the villagers provide a sense of relation with the reader and the villager by explaining their personal dilemmas and struggle for survival. The factual statistics provided with reports and figures by the World Bank, A.I.D. reports and mentioned citations make a strong backbone for the authors arguments as they clear the reality of the situation in Bangladesh and help the reader to make easy comparisons and calculate the

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differences. The actual stories which are narrated at the end of chapters have the potential of drawing a good amount of attention and interest of the reader.