Peasant Poverty and its effects in SocietyPart-1

Course: Peasant Society-SOC 405

Dr. Kazi AbdurRouf

Associate ProfessorNoble International University

And Visiting Associate Professor

Department of SociologyUniversity of Chittagong

Peasant Poverty and its Effects in Society

Topics to be Covered•What is Poverty?•Types of Poverty•Causes of Poverty•Acute Poverty•Relative Poverty•Measuring Poverty•Disproportionate Poverty•Peasant Poverty•Traditional Peasant and Commercial Peasant•Sufferings of Peasants•Social Exclusion•Stereotyping in Capitalistic Society

Peasant Poverty and its effects in Society

Topics to be Covered continue-2

• Structural Forces of Causing Poverty• Scarcity of Public Facilities in Remotest Areas of Bangladesh• Poverty and Social Mobility• Agriculture Labor Market Exclusion • Social Stratification System and Peasant Poverty• Landless/Homelessness• Crime Victims and Poverty• Peasant Agriculture Welfare Services and Reduction of Poverty• Agricultural Policies and Peasant Poverty• Peasant Poverty and Development

Peasant Poverty and its effects in Society

Topics to be Covered continue-3• Development of Crop Diversification Program and promotion of Rural Poultry

and Fisheries and Livestock• Increase Rural Savings, Investments and Agricultural Labor Wages• Stereotyping Peasants and Women are Lazy• Zamindar, Public Services and Marginal Peasant Labors• Peasant culture• Social Reform• Design environmentally Friendly Agriculture and Support Peasants

What is Poverty?

• People are unable to fulfill their basic needs-food, housing, clothing, education, health and other fundamental essentials of life

• People are suffering from deprivation of resources for fulfilling their basic life need• People are unable access to resources• People spend miserable life in their livelihoods and suffering from malnourishment,

become illiterate, homeless; clothing and nutritional food etc. • As a result, there increases social, economic, political and environmental

inequalities in the neighborhoods/ peasant society• Many thinkers highlight peasant poverty is responsible for Colonial land tenure

system, traditional agriculture, colonial policy and continuing of colonial relationships

Types of Poverty

• There are two types of poverty:• Absolute/acute poverty and • Relative poverty

• Peasants are suffering from subsistence-the basic conditions that are not fulfilled

• Their life is suffering from threat of physical healthy existence and social isolation

• Absolute poverty is seen in Bangladesh everywhere. Majority peasants live below standard life, below poverty line

• Social inequalities, misdistribution of resources, deprivation of resources and• Injustice and unethical human accumulation of resources and lack of social

safety nets, lack of food security are responsible for acute poverty in society

Causes of Poverty

• Lack of total socio-economic and political planning is responsible for peasant poverty

• Some people think it is because demographics and geographic, war, political instability and displacement

• Sometimes natural disasters, draughts, flood, earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes, climate change, water pollution, environmental pollution and soil erosion, soil erosion etc. destroy crops, destroy resources and

• Epidemic diseases, health hazards are responsible for poverty• People are unable recover their resources that destroyed• Low agricultural productivity

Relative Poverty

• Human needs are varying at different places• In industrialized countries, below standard housing, running water, flush

toilets and regular consumption of fruit and vegetables are regarded as basic necessities for healthy life

• People who live without them could be said to live in poverty• Hence Bangladesh society people’s basic need and industrialized country

basic needs are different from American people’s need. • This is called relative poverty. As such items are not standard in Bangladesh• Therefore, US citizens live below poverty line and it can be called relative

poverty compared to Bangladesh.

Measuring Poverty

• It is difficult to measure both absolute poverty and relative poverty• Draw poverty line could a technique for measuring poverty based on the rise

of the basic goods needed for human survival in a particular society• Individuals/households whose income fall below the poverty line are said to

live in poverty• Access to consumer goods is valueless if an individual or group is unable to

access more basic goods, such as, nutritious food and good health care• In Toronto, Canada, less than Cdn$ 13,000 earn income/per annum per

person is regarded below poverty line • In Bangladesh, earn less than $2 (approximately) per day per adult person

regarded live below poverty line

Disproportionate Poverty

• Disproportionately people suffered from poverty compared to the whole population as a whole: • Children, women, ethnic minorities and older people are suffering more

from poverty sufferigings

• Usually widower, divorced, separated women, older people are most sufferer in households of a family

• Children do not have scope to earn enough income for their livelihoods• Usually they depend of other members of the family• In villages, alternative income in lean seasons are less compare to urban

areas• State does not support them

Peasant Poverty

• Peasants are also suffer from lack social safety net, food security and other support services from the state

• Rather the capitalistic profit motive exploitative market mechanism and commercialization of peasant products lead them to deprivation of fulfill their basic need

• Agricultural production inputs costs and outputs prices in market forced peasant to buy and sell their production less price then it should be

• Peasants are unable to buy their household necessity goods and services from market

• They are suffering from earning enough income and shortage of resources for fulfilling their need

• This is a societal problem instead a social problem

Traditional Peasant and Commercial Peasant

• Some sociologists remarks peasant are unable to co-opt with the present modern agricultural production, commercialized marketing system and capitalist trade system

• Commercialization process, modern agricultural production system are exploitative to peasants in Bangladesh

• Hence they are unable to survive in the modern agricultural market mechanisms, and distance travel agriculture market

• Moreover, exploitative land tenure system, lack of adaptation of technology of genetically modified hybrid agricultural seeds and other agricultural inputs

• Involved in HIV crop production• Hence their agriculture productions are treated traditional and backward.

Sufferings of Peasants

• Peasants are unable to fulfill their household necessities by selling their agricultural productions

• These peasants are suffering from buying their household necessities (health services, education services, housing, food, and clothing etc.) from private market

• Hence they suffers from fulfilling their household necessities• Like they are suffering from required calorie food, malnutrition, education,

food, clothing and depilated housing and other related poverty• Even they do not get proper justice from the society• Rural sociologists identified it is because rural elites, political elites and

religious leaders unjust to poor peasants in rural Bangladesh.

Social Exclusion

• Social exclusion is a wider term than poverty• Lack of resources, lack of access to resources and income is one dimension of

social exclusion• Other aspects of social exclusion include exclusion from the labor market• Lack of access to employment because of division of labor• Gender and gender division of labor resulted women excluded from certain

resources (not access to bank loans) and outside home job• Moreover, they are exclusion from getting public services, agricultural means

of production and relation production and social relations• Disability people are suffering from access to some community places, public

places • Landlessness/homelessness is the most extreme forms of social exclusion.

Stereotyping in Capitalistic Society• Capitalist society blame individual fault is responsible for poor poverty• It promotes market economy and rejects structural causes of poverty• Its stereotypes are poor people have less efforts, skills, and potentials to earn more

income and to overcome their miserable poverty life• Poor people treated handout receivers. Religion has provision for handouts to poor

people• State has volatile welfare support to poor people to fulfill their emergency needs,

but it is not for round the year• However, this support services are not enough to fulfill their basic need round the

year rather this is a temporary support• This handout system makes poor people welfare dependency or dependency

culture among poor/marginalized people. • Some people says, They are the “Welfare Sucks”

Structural Forces of Causing Poverty

• Structural forces/factors of society are-class, gender, ethnicity, rigidity of occupational mobility and educational attainment

• Wages, land tenure system, state actions to agriculture support services lead peasants to earn less income in modern capitalistic society

• These are the elements of persistent social inequalities • Lack of enough agricultural processing industries exist in rural Bangladesh • High rate of joblessness etc. has lead to a shrinking of extended family

support to its household members • New generation of children is born into poverty and they suffer from the

vicious cycle poverty in his family and society.

Scarcity of Public Facilities in Remotest Areas of Bangladesh

• Remotest villagers get less physical and social infrastructure facilities from the state

• No grid electricity facilities in remotest rural areas in Bangladesh • Government fiscal budget is more for urban development compare to rural

areas • Remotest villagers get less physical and social infrastructure facilities from

the state• Government huge fiscal budget is for urban development.

Peasant Poverty and its effects in societyPart-2

Course: Peasant Society-SOC 405Dr. Kazi AbdurRouf

Associate ProfessorNoble International University

And Visiting Associate Professor

Department of SociologyUniversity of Chittagong

Poverty and Social MobilityLife cycle poverty• Some people skips (in and out) from poverty for time being• However, as their economic base is vulnerable, their economic sustainable

strength is delicate• Being poor peasant does not mean being mired (always be in poverty) in

poverty• Although in Bangladesh poverty is decreasing; however, new poverty victims

are adding• The poor victims are suffering from social exclusion- being shut out from the

society. They are excluded from mainstream society• Charles Murry says, “ individuals exclude themselves from full participation

in society.”

Peasant and Social Mobility

Agriculture Labor Market Exclusion•Peasants are excluded from the involvement in labor market as they are not skillful to industrial job market-IT job market•Limited training facilities ( trade and vocational) are available in villages for peasants •Agricultural extension services, modern agricultural technology (know how) briefings are limited to marginal peasant •People think increase number of paid worker has been as an important way to reduce social exclusion in villages•However, in Bangladesh context, increase agricultural production facilities and opportunities are crucial for peasant economic development. •

Social Stratification System and Peasant Poverty

• Muslim family’s aristocracy, Hindu Caste system etc. put many peasant households social subordinate compare to higher descendent family

• Lower descendent family is excluded from opportunities and activities that are norms for the rest of society

• These people treated lower marginal families and get less safety, less services and public facilities

• They enjoy less community spaces such as parks, sports grounds, religious festivals and ceremonies in the society compare to higher descendent families

• Deprived families are suffering from overcoming their difficulties to overcome their exclusion

• Because this descendent aristocracy stratification system defined/ assigned by higher caste people.

Landless/Homelessness

• Landless/homelessness is increasing in the world. It is not exception in Bangladesh too

• Homelessness/landlessness is one of the most extreme forms of social exclusion

• Landlessness people are suffering from lacking of cultivable lands for food production and to build houses for their accommodation

• Bangladesh also has the same trend. River erosion, flood, cyclone, hurricane, fire, and capitalistic market structure and other social exploitations lead peasants to poor poverty in villages

• They are suffering from temporary accommodation and sleeping in rough houses

• There is a cause-effect consequences can be seen to homeless/landless people in rural and urban areas in Bangladesh.

Crime Victims and Poverty

• Although different study indicates there is a close relationship between crime and special exclusion

• War crimes are political and its victims women, children, seniors are not involved in crime, but war victim refugees are suffering from acute poverty

• Women trafficking, child trafficking are innocent, but they are the victims of trafficking gangs and forced to foreign maid low paid jobs

• Trafficked children are suffering from low wage child labor and molestation • However, poor peasants are articulate their victim suffering rather involved

in crime.

Peasant Agriculture Welfare Services and Reduction of Poverty

• Agriculture welfare services is absent for the poor peasants although there are agricultural subsidy system exists in the fiscal policy in Bangladesh

• But it (subsidy)has few benefit/positive impact to marginal peasants and labors in rural area

• Government plays a central role in reducing inequalities in rural peasants through the provision of subsidization of certain goods and services

• However, in practice, inequality is perpetuating among peasants in Bangladesh• Poor peasant families are unable to get quality education, healthcare, housing,

income support, and• Unemployment and pensions facilities as they are outside of the state service

benefit sphere. • Welfare system has provision to provide welfare benefits to poor people/low

income people• However, they are excluded from getting state welfare benefits.

Agricultural Policies and Peasant Poverty

• Low income countries majority people involved in agriculture productions and agricultural processing jobs

• However, few governments have no appropriate policies for poor peasant for improving their agriculture and their livelihoods

• Peasants are looking for employments to cover their deficit family needs, but employment opportunities are limited in the villages

• Resulted poor peasants are struggling to earn extra income resulted suffering from poverty, malnutrition and eve starvation

• Millions poor peasants are moving to densely populated unhygienic slums, living in slums in dilapidated unhygienic housing and sanitation.

Peasant Poverty and Development

• Bangladesh Development is closely related to peasant development • Because majority peasants are suffering from acute poverty• Many peasants are marginal peasants and landless preliterate• Access to rural resources like Khas lands, khas ponds, and other public

resources are crucial for their development and • To be a economic actor and social actor in the society• Therefore appropriate adaptive agricultural means of productions

need to be available to peasants at affordable prices• Moreover, promote vegetable, fruits, cash crops, diversification of

crops along rice-growing peasant culture in the villages

Development of Crop Diversification Program and promotion of Rural Poultry and Fisheries and Livestock

• Develop agricultural processing industries and other traditional rural crafts• Promote and support rural cottage industries that can promote various

occupational activities in peasant society• Develop monetary and non-monetary transactions in large in the villages • Develop peasant human resources by providing them training on poultry

farming, livestock and fisheries• Enhance crop diversification, agro-processing industrial works services• Implement all these programs/services with more concern with equity.

Increase Rural Savings, Investments and Agricultural Labor Wages

Some Statistics• Daily wage workers save and reinvest 9%• Marginal and middle farmers save 12%, • Salaried people14% • Farmers who have trading business 22% and• Local rich 30-45% (Maloney, 1991) • Develop a mechanism for marginalized farmers to save and invest their

money for more agricultural production and • Develop their food security systems • Moreover, Increase agricultural labor real wage for their agricultural labor.

Develop and promote peasant entrepreneurship

• Promote and develop the spirit of peasant entrepreneurship in rural Bangladesh

• Tiny peasants are entrepreneurs; hence entrepreneurships development among peasants is very crucial for reviving rural economy

• Assist peasant social organizations like family, clan and household to develop cooperation among them

• Articulate their culture, values for producing high yielding crops• Provide agricultural technology (knowhow) knowledge to peasants using

agricultural popular adult education• Decentralized agricultural and non-agricultural manufacturing plants across

Bangladesh instead Dhaka based

Stereotyping Peasants and Women are Lazy

• Rural peasants are living close to agricultural lands• Peasants are lazy and unskilled is one kind of stereotyping to them. • Provide more importance to peasants and takeout the label “Peasants are

laggards/backwards• Enhance to form/build peasant cooperatives in the village and support them

Revive, revitalized Samabay Bank in rural areas for peasants easy access to agricultural loan

• Strengthen local government agencies, and active and open their activities for access to peasants

• Develop physical infrastructures and social infrastructures at the village level • Count women domestic and agricultural processing works that have

economic value and contribute to national economy

Zamindar, Public Services and Marginal Peasant Labors

• Many rural agricultural labors are unemployed in many months in village• Hence it is necessary to develop subsidiary/alternative income activities for

them to utilize their lean season • The Bengal peasant expected the Zamindar and Mahajan to profit from their

position and • To mobilize the means to give patronage and the peasant expected

demands of labor and service in return• This expectation is now transferred to the Government and to its officers• The officers are far away from the peasants level for providing intensive

services to peasants. Here it is urgent need interventions.

Peasant Culture

• Peasant culture is not a sub-culture in Bengal• Rather it is still a dominating occupation among peasants• So open-up peasant to move up and link them with modern behavior

means of production and • Importance to peasant value (not imported values) their customs and

cultures for flourishing peasant economy and their social organizations• Promote green economy instead consumer economy

Social Reform

• Social reform is the development of peasant socio-economics and raise their class consciousness

• Reform rural land holding• Develop and enhance the rural social-structural arrangements• Support the cultural system of beliefs that support the social structure of

peasants• Huge population growth causes collapse of development• However, Bengali peasant life can support the greatest population density on

the land, without destroying the resource base.

Design environmentally Friendly Agriculture and Support Peasants

• Traditional peasant means of production is neither threat to environment• Nor the natural process of genetic selections• However, the traditional promising agricultural means of production has

destroyed by green revolution • It is a myth standard of living can be measured in consumption of goods and

modern services• Design appropriate village development plan, peasant development plan and • Implement these plans by giving importance and by mobilizing village natural

resources instead borrowing outside resources• Avoid and challenge to accept international values.

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