A year after uprising, Bangladesh's youth struggle to find jobs
The uprising, in which some 1,400 people were killed, according to the United Nations, was sparked by the issue of quota reservations in civil service recruitment tests.
Explore courses from Top Institutes in
Please select course:
Select a Course Category
others
CXO
Management
Data Analytics
MCA
Finance
Operations Management
Healthcare
Technology
Others
Data Science
Project Management
Product Management
Artificial Intelligence
Leadership
Degree
Design Thinking
MBA
PGDM
Cybersecurity
Data Science
healthcare
Digital Marketing
Public Policy
Skills you'll gain:
Duration:
16 Weeks
Indian School of Business
CERT - ISB Cybersecurity for Leaders Program India
Starts on
undefined
Get Details
More than half of highly sought-after government jobs were reserved for certain designated groups, including women, disabled people and descendants of veterans of the 1971 War of Independence.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Calicut: 1 Trick to Reduce Belly Fat?
Home Fitness Hack
Shop Now
Undo
The country's high court has since reduced the quota reservations to 7%.
Since the interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took over, a broad agenda of reform has been drawn up, but experts say a lack of opportunities for the young workforce remains a problem.
Live Events
"Amid jobless growth faced by the country's youth, a fair chance at civil service recruitment tests became a rallying cry," said Tuhin Khan, a leading activist in the quota reform movement and the July uprising.
"But since then, we have not seen enough meaningful focus from the government on the economic pressures faced by ordinary people as politics took center stage," he added.
About 30% of Bangladeshi youth are neither employed nor in school or training, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Also, about 23% of young women are unemployed compared with 15% of young men - and last year's protests featured the wide participation of young women.
Women in Bangladesh typically have limited opportunities for employment and career growth beyond a few sectors like government, non-governmental organizations and education.
The protesters ranged from graduate students seeking government jobs to garment workers and balloon sellers, as segments of the urban poor demanded better, more dignified lives, said Maha Mirza, a researcher who teaches economics at Jahangirnagar University.
But the creation of decent jobs depends upon jump-starting investment, which may have to wait for an elected government to be sworn in, said Rashed Al Mahmood Titumir, a professor of Development Studies at Dhaka University.
"When we have a stable policy regime, there would be more investment, and that will bring in the much-needed jobs for young people, including graduates and women," he said.
JOB LOSSES
While the protest focused on government jobs, those can provide for only a small slice of the job market.
Last year, about 18,000 government recruitments were available, yet more than 2 million young people enter the job market each year.
One major employer of young people is the garment and textile sector, but a number of factories shut down due to political changeover, including more than a dozen factories owned by Beximco Group that employed 40,000 workers.
Since the political shift, about 10,000 people have been arrested on various charges including corruption and even murder, and they include a number of business owners linked to the former ruling party.
Jasim Uddin was a supervisor in a garment factory in the outskirts of Dhaka, but he has been jobless for months.
"I had quit my earlier workplace as they were holding up the payment of wages. Since then, I went from door to door in search of a job," he said.
Many factory owners affiliated with the earlier government feared arrest and went into hiding, resulting in plant closures, said Arman Hossain, a trade union activist from Gazipur.
"We expected the government to appoint administrators who could temporarily operate those closed factories so that workers would not go jobless - but that did not happen," Hossain said.
Additional challenges come from the global economy.
The 35% tariff announced on Bangladesh's products by the United States, the largest buyer of the country's clothes, poses a threat to many of the four million workers in its garment industry.
Meanwhile, the cutting of aid from the U.S. has left about 20,000 development workers in Bangladesh jobless, said aid agency Caritas.
EFFORT AND RESULTS
The interim government has announced training programs for young people and courted foreign investment to create jobs.
Asif Mahmud Shojib Bhuyain, who heads the youth and sports ministry, has said the government had plans to create 500,000 new jobs for youth besides training 900,000 young people.
At an investment summit in April, businesses from various countries shared investment proposals of about 31 billion taka ($255.35 million), the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) said.
But the share of private investment in the economy has dropped from 24% last year to about 22.5% this year - although in actual numbers it saw a slight uptick from 11,985 billion Taka ($97.68 billion) to 12,484 billion Taka ($101.74 billion), said the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Investment by the private sector depends upon how much confidence businesses have that the political regime is stable and business risks can be managed, Titumir said.
Businesses that employ significant numbers of workers, especially the youth, need support, Mirza added.
"You cannot create thousands of industries or millions of jobs right away, but you can make sure that businesses that provide jobs to workers keep running," she said.
That could include reopening shuttered textile factories, ensuring the fair price of agricultural products for the country's 16.5 million farming families and providing targeted support to small and medium-sized industries like poultry breeding and light engineering, she said.
"We just need a bit more attention to the livelihood crisis of ordinary people," she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
India Today
29 minutes ago
- India Today
Fall of Sheikh Hasina: An uprising, urban guerilla tactic or army inaction?
On August 5 last year, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina boarded a military helicopter in the nick of time to flee from Bangladesh as lakhs of protesters headed towards her official residence in Dhaka. Such was the haste that she couldn't even record an address to the nation that she wanted to. But how did the regime of Hasina, who ruled with an iron fist for 15 years, crumble within weeks?advertisementWas it more than just a student-led uprising? Did urban guerilla-style attacks aided by Hasina's political rivals and the hands-off approach of the military play as big a role as the agitation itself in pulling down the Awami League-led government?Bangladeshi political experts and activists in Dhaka and those in self-imposed exile describe how it was a perfect storm that combined all the above to blow away the regime that had the backing of the security and intelligence apparatus and foot soldiers of her Awami League and its student wing, the Chhatra League. The official death toll of the mass protest, which saw security personnel opening fire on unarmed protesters and retaliatory attacks on the police, stands at 1,400. Experts suggest the toll to be much political analyst Shafquat Rabbee says it was a "confluence of fortuitous events and conditions that all came together, ending up in a spectacular collapse for Hasina the tyrant".Rabbee talks about how the videos of brutal killings by the security forces got all sections of Bangladeshi society to take to the streets against Hasina.A political commentator from Dhaka, requesting anonymity, tells India Today Digital that anti-Hasina forces had cultivated people for years within the administration. As the students-led agitation peaked, those officials stopped functioning, bringing about a total collapse of the state parties like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami, which were suppressed by the Hasina regime, too played their part, the experts agree. The students wouldn't have lasted even a single night without the support of the parties' street-fighters, who have protected them with their experience of taking on the police political activist and writer Faham Abdus Salam says the attack on the police personnel revealed the movement had moved to the next phase, and that the Hasina government had lost its fear last nail in the Hasina regime's coffin was Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman's declaration that the forces wouldn't shoot at protesters. This came as a booster shot for the crowd, which now had students, common people and members of political and Islamist also reveals that some within the military establishment harboured thoughts of preparing a guerilla force if Hasina hung on to power beyond August year on, as the haze somewhat lifts, the July-August movement can be divided into three distinct phases, which reveal the role of the political parties and the military in the ouster of Hasina. Till now, the July-August movement was perceived as only a student-spearheaded are the three turning points that unfolded in succession:1: Anti-quota agitation by students turns into a single-point demand seeking Hasina's resignation2: Protest across Bangladesh after police fire at protesters, cops targeted in guerilla-style attacks3: Army goes for a hands-off approach, with protests even at Defence Officers Housing Societies A vandalised police station is in Dhaka on August 6, a day after Hasina fled the country. After Hasina's departure, a wave of violence erupted with several police stations ransacked and officers targeted in retaliatory attacks. (AFP Image) BRUTAL KILLING VIDEOS FANNED ANTI-HASINA IRESheikh Hasina returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in January 2024. The election was boycotted by the BNP, the main opposition party, and was alleged to have been extremely rigged and were tired of the corrupt regime, but enforced disappearances by the establishment forced people to stay silent. The brutal Aynaghar torture or the fear of it forced some of the best brains to flee Bangladesh. The government was seen to be working just for Hasina cronies and Awami this, the Bangladesh High Court's decision in June to reinstate a quota that would reserve 30% of the civil service jobs for descendants of 1971 War veterans, seen as Hasina backers, lit the took to the streets in a country where a government job is seen by millions as the only way out of poverty. The protests gained momentum in July, and Hasina's branding the students "Razakar", a highly despicable term in Bangladesh, acted like a catalyst. The protests spread across mid-July, Chhatra League members, along with the police, were fighting the protesters on the streets of Dhaka. On July 16, six protesters, including 25-year-old student Abu Sayed, were killed by police firing."For the Hasina government, after July 17, it was all about crushing the movement. People retaliated, and then the regime started killing people indiscriminately," says Salam, who has been living in Australia in a self-imposed exile for a image of Abu Sayed inviting bullets with open arms went on to define the protests. Videos of brutal attacks and killings of protesters unnerved all sections of Bangladeshi society."Urban guerilla tactics work by creating victims, and fighting the war around them," says the political commentator from tried to buy peace by promising a probe, but the situation had spiralled out of control. On August 3, the Students Against Discrimination came out with a single-point demand -- Sheikh Hasina's organic protests do not last beyond days without support from established political or civil structures. That the students-led agitation and the students themselves survived and fought for weeks pointed at the role of political parties and the military in the fall of Hasina. A student of English literature, Abu Sayed defiantly stood with a stick in his hand before he was shot and killed at close range by the police. (Image: Social Media) advertisementMASTANS OF BNP, JAMAAT PROVIDED STREET MUSCLEPolitical parties like the BNP and the Jamaat, facing political suppression, had been emaciated. Such was the situation, that the Jamaat didn't manage to even unlock its sealed office in Dhaka over the students' protest gave the parties the much-needed oxygen, and they used the students' agitation to launch a full-scale attack on the Hasina apparatus."After July 19, police were attacked not by university students, but by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami activists and daily-waged labourers who had joined in the protests by then," Salam tells India Today evidence of that, the activist points to a video of protesters chasing away a team of security personnel in five vans, which went viral."You can see one person starts running at the police, and then a crowd follows him and starts chasing the cops. The person who first started chasing the cops was later identified as a BNP member. This was the case in most instances. Those leading the attacks against cops were either BNP or Jamaat members or daily-waged labourers," says says among all the political parties, the BNP counts the highest number of dead activists during the July-August agitation for a reason."Parties like the BNP had seasoned leadership who were battle-hardened and knew how to survive and fight government machinery. The young student leaders brought political innocence into the play and attracted the masses, and the BNP and the Jamaat provided street credibility and muscle," Rabbee tells India Today political parties like the BNP also arranged physical safety and safe houses for the student leaders when they were on the says the Hasina government, which had dealt with online activists, was spooked by two things -- shut down of remittances by Bangladeshi expats and attacks on police stations."People attacking the cops was an escalation that showed that the movement was in the next phase. The retaliation was evidence that the fear of the Hasina regime was gone, and it could be toppled," explains goes on to show that it wasn't the students who were mostly involved in the street warfare was that the worst violence took place after Hasina fled Bangladesh on August 5. There were political reprisal killings in which scores of Awami League and Chhatra League leaders were massacred."Members of Islamist organisations and Jamaat members were at the forefront when it came to attacking cops and Awami League leaders. They followed urban guerilla tactics to bring down the Hasina government, and exact revenge after that," said the Dhaka-based had descended into lawlessness and chaos for days after the fall of the Hasina regime, and the army had to step in. Following Hasina's flight, the Bangladeshi army took control, and oversaw the transition of power amidst the chaos. (AFP Image) BANGLADESH ARMY'S NOT TO SHOOT DECISION WAS GAMECHANGERWaker-Uz-Zaman was appointed Bangladesh Army Chief in June 2024, when the country was already a relative of Hasina, operated with fairness during the entire agitation, according to multiple then, protests had even started in Defence Officers Housing Society areas in Dhaka. This was unprecedented because military officers were pampered by Hasina and their children brought up in relative affluence."Hasina not only took care of the military with unprecedented largesse, but she also changed the Constitution to deter political intervention by the military, making it a crime of high treason," says lower-rung officers and sepoys, like some of the civilian officials, had by then gone into a civil-disobedience mode. That was a result of news of young relatives falling prey to bullets, sources told India Today August 4, with the Hasina government finding itself embattled with millions ready for the long March to Dhaka a day later, a shoot-at-sight curfew was in a meeting with the top Army commanders on August 4, decided that his force would not shoot at protesters. This, and the reports of military officers unwilling to act against protesters earlier, boosted the confidence of the of thousands started pouring into Dhaka at daybreak on August 5. That is when General Zaman visited Hasina and asked her to board the military helicopter and save her life."Ultimately the military had to force her collapse, mostly because the sheer number of people on Dhaka's streets with bricks and sticks were simply multiple folds of the count of ammunition the security establishment had at their disposal," says only did the army take a hands-off approach, some lower-ranking military personnel were also looking at options to bring down the regime if Hasina lasted beyond August 5."A military official told me he considered resigning and arming civilians for urban guerrilla warfare if Hasina had not fled on August 5," says activist-writer Salam, adding, "This tells you this was a civil war situation." Students chanted anti-Hasina slogans near Dhaka University after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee. (AFP Image) HASINA'S BANGLADESH EXIT NOT JUST DUE TO STUDENTS AGITATIONThough students were the ones who started the fire, but it became an inferno because political parties and Islamist organisations added their muscle to the in morgue and those injured reveal the extent to which political and religious outfits participated in the street cheers that greeted the army and personnel flashing the victory sign also reveal that the military ensured a transfer of power in what can be interpreted as a coup-de-lite, albeit in the face of a massive people's movement."Hasina's regime collapsed because, towards the end, it became fashionable for all segments of Bangladeshi society to resist her, which includes laypersons, the political class, the military and even her cronies, who, towards the end, played their cards in such a way that the regime collapsed," sums up Rabbee.- EndsMust Watch
New Indian Express
an hour ago
- New Indian Express
'Can there be Bharat without Bangla?': Mamata warns against insulting Bengali language
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that no one should try to play with or insult the Bengali language, asking whether there can be an India without West Bengal. Banerjee pointed to Bengali litterateurs Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote the national anthem, and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who penned the national song of India. "Nobody should try to play with our language or insult it," she said, asking, "Can there be Bharat without Bangla?" The TMC supremo's remark comes amid her strong criticism of the BJP over alleged attacks on Bengali-speaking migrant workers in various BJP-ruled states, as well as a recent Delhi Police order referring to the Bengali language as the "Bangladeshi national language." Pointing to the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Banerjee said on Tuesday that he taught all to live in harmony. "I believe in Ramakrishna Paramahansa's teaching of harmony of all religions," she said, after laying the foundation stone of a guest house of Ramakrishna Math and Mission at Kamarpukur in Hooghly district. "There is no division among us, we have learnt from Ramakrishna Paramahansa to live together with everyone," she said. Stating that Swami Vivekananda had taught that 'unity is strength', Banerjee said that his mother tongue was Bengali language, just as it was of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose or Raja Rammohan Roy. "Dharma is to treat other religions with love and respect," she said. Urging all to read Ramakrishna Paramahansa's 'Kathamrita', Banerjee said that people call water by different names, but it is the same. "Likewise, mother is called by different names, but she is the same," she said, before embarking on a visit to flood-hit Ghatal in Paschim Medinipur district. Banerjee also declared the formation of Jairambati-Kamarpukur Development Board, with Swami Lokottarananda, the secretary of the Ramakrishna Math, Kamarpukur, as its chairman. On Sunday, the TMC supremo lashed out at the Delhi Police for referring to the Bengali language as "Bangladeshi national language" in a purported letter, alleging that it was "insulting, anti-national and unconstitutional." "See now how Delhi Police under the direct control of the Ministry of Home, Government of India, is describing Bengali as "Bangladeshi" language!" Banerjee had posted on her Facebook account, sharing a copy of the letter. The TMC supremo described the Centre as anti-Bengali and urged all to stage protests against such "anti-Constitutional language to insult and humiliate Bengali-speaking people of India."
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
CAG report says Delhi's fiscal surplus turns into deficit in FY24, revenue surplus drops over 55% in FY24
Delhi's revenue surplus dropped by more than 55% in 2023-24, falling from ₹14,457 crore in the previous year to ₹6,462 crore, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on state finances. The fiscal balance also declined significantly as a surplus of ₹4,566 crore in 2022-23 turned into a fiscal deficit of ₹3,934 crore in 2023-24 — marking a 186% fall. Chief minister Rekha Gupta tabled the report in the Delhi Assembly on Monday, the first day of the monsoon session, a TOI report stated. GSDP growth steady, budget size expands Despite the drop in surplus, Delhi's economy continued to grow. The report showed that the gross state domestic product (GSDP) at current prices increased by 9.2% in 2023-24 compared to the previous year. Over the past five years, Delhi recorded an average GSDP growth rate of 8.8%, rising from ₹7.9 lakh crore in 2019-20 to ₹11.1 lakh crore in 2023-24. During the same period, the budget outlay rose from ₹64,180.7 crore to ₹81,918.2 crore at an average annual rate of 7.1%. Productivity Tool Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide By Metla Sudha Sekhar View Program Finance Introduction to Technical Analysis & Candlestick Theory By Dinesh Nagpal View Program Finance Financial Literacy i e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By CA Rahul Gupta View Program Digital Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By Neil Patel View Program Finance Technical Analysis Demystified- A Complete Guide to Trading By Kunal Patel View Program Productivity Tool Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By Study at home View Program Artificial Intelligence AI For Business Professionals Batch 2 By Ansh Mehra View Program Capital expenditure remains under 1% of GSDP The audit found that Delhi's capital expenditure consistently stayed below 1% of GSDP between 2019-20 and 2023-24. In 2023-24, capital spending dropped by 15% over the previous year. The report noted a significant decline in key sectors: by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Join new Free to Play WWII MMO War Thunder War Thunder Play Now Undo Medical and public health (down 49.9%) Education, sports, art and culture (down 42.2%) Public works (down 39.7%) Urban development (down 36.4%) Drop in Central assistance and capital receipts The state's grant-in-aid from the Centre showed a continuous fall over the five-year period. While revenue receipts increased from ₹47,136 crore in 2019-20 to ₹56,798 crore in 2023-24, capital receipts dropped sharply from ₹5,588 crore to ₹98 crore. The Centre's grant share in Delhi's revenue receipts declined from about 20% to just 3.7% during this time. In 2023-24, Delhi received ₹955.3 crore under centrally sponsored schemes. Live Events Subsidies rising, power sector dominates Subsidies provided by the Delhi government have been increasing, with total subsidies rising from ₹3,593 crore in 2019-20 to ₹4,840 crore in 2023-24. Power subsidies remained the largest share, making up 67% of the subsidy bill in 2019-20 and rising to 70.4% by 2023-24. The audit report highlighted that some government departments failed to use their full budgetary allocation. It also laid out several recommendations, including: 'Preparation of realistic budget estimates, backed with correct assessment for availability of resources and potential to expend' 'Strict compliance of provisions of budget manual' 'Formulating strategies for actual execution of major policy decisions' 'Adhering to quarterly targets fixed for incurring expenditure through periodic monitoring to avoid rush of spending towards end of the year' This was the first audit report of 2025 tabled in the Assembly. It included a review of the government's fiscal position, the structure of accounts, budgetary procedures, and macro-fiscal indicators. The report is yet to be taken up for discussion and will be forwarded to the Public Accounts Committee by Speaker Vijender Gupta for detailed examination.
