Civil society space shrinking

Bangladesh's civil society, which played a remarkable role in democratic polity at all turning points of pre- and post-independence days, is losing space with its relations with the state souring mostly since the 2018 elections.

"Till the national elections of 2014, there was a degree of openness on the part of ruling elites in listening to the opinions and suggestions of the civil society…Subsequently, after the 2018 elections, this vibrancy gradually gave way to a conflictual situation," Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, distinguished fellow of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), said at an international conference yesterday.

The decline of civil society-government relationship parallels the deterioration of domestic polity in the country," he said, citing declining scores of Bangladesh in global indexes like Freedom House Index, V-Dem Liberal Democracy Index, Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU).

A CSO Sustainability Index prepared by Family Health International 30 shows the overall index for Bangladesh records a deterioration since 2014 with the most visible fall in case of Advocacy (↓21%) and Legal Environment (↓18%). Interestingly, the said index also records fall of the CSOs in terms of public image during this period, he added.

In the paper presented yesterday at the international conference, virtually organised by the CPD and Cornell University's South Asia programme, he elaborated on how civic activism evolved in Bangladesh in four phases since pre-independence days till today. 

This was the third day of the conference marking 50 years of Bangladesh's independence. 

Dr Debapriya gave a historical background of civil society's relations with political elites, stating that the roots of Bangladesh's civil society may be traced back to the language movement of 1952, with active involvement in all milestone movements that led to the 1971 liberation war.

Civil activism in Bangladesh evolved in different phases, he detailed in the paper titled "Understanding Civil Society in Bangladesh: Evolution, Issues and Challenges."

During the early years of independence (1971-75), civic activism was aligned with the state's objectives of reconstruction of the economy and rehabilitation of the refugees and later distribution of food during the famine.

Organisations born out of independence strongly set out to rebuild the nation; BRAC and Gano Shasthya Kendra.

The second phase of evolution took place during the period of disrupted democracy and struggle against autocracy (1975-1990), starting with the assassination of Bangabandhu and closing with the stepping down of General Ershad. Civic activism merged with the political movement to pave the way for a "negotiated exit" of Ershad, Dr Debapriya cited.

The 1990-2014 period marks the third phase of evolution of civil society. Gano Adalat, Nagorik Committee, Shahbagh Gonojagoron Mancha are among the vibrant examples of civic activism during the period, which Debapriya labelled as the era of "new democracy."

The 2008 elections heralded the fourth phase of the civil society-state relationship, and Dr Debapriya categorised it as living with "Hybrid" Democracy–– a mix of liberal and flawed democracy.

He asked how long civil activism will be able to survive in or cope with the period of "hybrid" democracy. He saw four options: closure, scaling down, diversifying and innovating to become an implementer of government projects and co-option for opportune adjustment in line with government policies. 

Citing recent global trends of social movements like Black Lives Matter in the USA, youths spearheading Thailand's upsurges and civil society's role in Sudan's democratic transition, the CPD distinguished fellow concludes: "Posterity will say whether these trends will also hold for our country or not."

The session, fifth in the series since Monday, had comments from Dr Sabina Alkire, director of Poverty and Human Development Initiative at the University of Oxford, Prof Elora Shehabuddin of Texas-based Rice University's School of Humanities and

Prof David Lewis, professor of anthropology at London School of Economics. 

Prof Bina Agarwal at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester chaired the session, where and Dr Selim Jahan, former director of UNDP's Human Development Report Office and Dr Sohela Nazneen, fellow, at the Institute of

Development Studies (IDS), UK made presentations. 

We need a new economics, a new way of thinking beyond GDP and a broadening of our narrative in terms of multidimensional indicators, where civil society has a great role to play, Prof Agarwal said. 

In his paper, Dr Selim Jahan said Bangladesh is being heralded as a development miracle by the world but human development challenges remain for Bangladesh as it looks forward to the next 50 years.

He found poverty as a lingering problem for decades in Bangladesh. Despite reduction in the rate of poverty, a large number of people still remain poor, he said, stating that Covid-19 added some 32 million to the number of poor people.  

Inequality remains another challenge due to uneven distribution of growth and development, he added. Dr Selim also referred to the problems of lower quality of government services and unemployment.  

Dr Soheli Nazneen in her paper said Bangladesh has made some rapid but uneven progress in gender equality. Remarkable gains include a rapid decline in gender disparities in education, a rising female labour force participation, reduction in maternal mortality, and a strong numerical presence of women in parliament and local government.

"However, gender inequalities in some areas remain persistent—apparent in the high levels of malnutrition among women and girls, child marriage, and violence against women. Sticky social norms and male gatekeepers still restrict women's access to resources, spaces within formal institutions and voice," she added.