Suchergebnisse

This special issue is a tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022), who was the Head of the Commonwealth. Bangladesh became the 32nd member of the Commonwealth on 18 April 1972. As the Head of Commonwealth, Her Majesty was engaged in a number of Sustainable Development programs among the member states. In Bangladesh, her visit in 1983, alongside eulogisation on several occasions about the coping and resilience of the people of Bangladesh when natural disasters attacked the country, gave confidence and conviction among the people of Bangladesh, which in turn significantly impacted sustainable social development.
Social development is multidimensional as it covers all social sectors that bring about all-around development to health, education, family planning, environment, gender equality, infrastructure, social services and so on. It is not only social development but sustainable social development which has been recently emphasised by academics, researchers, development partners, environmentalists and many others.
Bangladesh, a lower middle-income country, has been thriving to ensure sustainable social development in different sectors, resulting in some commendable outcomes, despite many barriers that she faces now. The articles included in this special issue of Space and Culture, India journal, have focused on multidimensional and multifarious factors relating to sustainable social development in Bangladesh. The diverse perspectives explain and critically analyse varied issues that are directly linked to sustainable development goals (SDGs) declared by the United Nations (UN), which may be considered important for the overall improvement of the social development indicators of Bangladesh. These articles could be useful for the policymakers concerned about ensuring sustainable social development not only in Bangladesh but in all developing and least developed countries worldwide.

COVID-19 has forced the authorities to introduce online education at all levels in Bangladesh. Students from primary to tertiary levels had initial hiccups to adapt to the newly introduced online education system because of genuine reasons like lack of appropriate device, absence or limited access to internet networks, disinterest in online education, disruption in electricity, etc. Perhaps, most of the stakeholders involved in education had a kind of hope of witnessing the crisis caused through COVID-19 over within a short period of time. Thus, none of the stakeholders was very serious in online education, expecting offline in-person education to be back pretty soon. It seems to have been realised by most of the stakeholders after almost one and a half years of the corona crisis that the pandemic may not disappear quickly. As a result, online education has recently been reinforced in Bangladesh, considering it the only alternative to the previous system. This review study explores the prospects and challenges of online education in the context of Bangladesh and finds out that prospects of it could be pretty high as an alternative education system. However, its challenges may be described as daunting given the socioeconomic and cultural constraints that prevail in the country.

AbstractThe COVID‐19 pandemic affected almost all sectors including the social services in Bangladesh. The authorities struggled to provide services to the pandemic‐affected people who suddenly lost their jobs, falling into a state of poverty. This study aims to investigate interruptions, interventions, and innovations in government social services because of social policy responses during COVID‐19 considering different theoretical models of institutionalism. Following the qualitative method, the study conducted in‐depth interviews with 39 representatives of social service agencies that delivered services in the Sylhet district during the pandemic. The study finds that COVID‐19 interrupted social service programs leading to interventions and innovations based on the new situation that emerged. It reveals innovations like launching virtual service, introducing a hotline number for help seekers, creating WhatsApp and Messenger groups among the service providers, emphasizing community engagement, etc. in social services which seem to go along with the punctuated equilibrium model or the first‐order change that integrates new policies or innovations within the traditional institutional framework to deal better with the problems caused by COVID‐19. However, these initiatives were insufficient since pressing issues like mental health and domestic violence that substantially increased during COVID‐19 failed to draw the attention of the authorities.

AbstractField practicum is an integral part of social work education, and students of bachelor's and master's levels need to gain the requisite experience of field practicum to achieve the degrees. Like many practice‐based disciplines, social work has been facing enormous challenges in arranging field practicum during COVID‐19. This qualitative study aims to understand the experiences of social work faculties, students, and agency representatives for field practicum in the time of the COVID crisis in Bangladesh. Four public universities having social work schools were selected purposively and a total of 18 in‐depth interviews and four Key Informant Interviews were conducted with different stakeholders related to field practicum. The study finds that though theoretical classes were conducted using online platforms, students faced many hurdles in completing their field practicum. Several innovative strategies, such as community‐based field practice, delaying completion of field practicum, reducing daily working hours, etc. were followed to adapt to the new normal situation. This pandemic seemed to be a lesson for everyone to think of an alternative arrangement for field practicum, such as developing a flexible curriculum, virtual fieldwork, community‐based field practice, field meetings, concurrent fieldwork, etc.

An argument about indigenous social work education often surfaces in South Asian schools of social work. In this study, central concerns around the indigenous argument, together with a review of the pervasive influence of the western model of social work in Asia is undertaken. The three author- research team, utilised a methodology that featured a desk review and an analysis of communications with select South Asian scholars and academics that were respondents for the study. Additionally, the authors present their personal reflections, that prudently address their positionality and reflexivity. The primary finding in this research paper is that the legacy of Western-influenced social work education is thriving within the region, despite criticism from different quarters about its effectiveness. The secondary finding is the admittance by respondent academics in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal that relevant to their societal context, limited adaptations have been introduced and are working in their respective countries. The current research provided an opportunity to research participants to view and summarily reject claims by certain bogies that western influence in social work is solely responsible for lack of cultural appropriation within the curriculum in South Asia. The study suggests that there is a lot that can take place by way of adaptation without sacrificing the cultural elements while rearranging the social work curriculum within the region. The authors strongly advocate a blended approach as a suitable course of moderation in the re-construction attempts of social work futures in South Asia.

The presence of domestic violence (DV) within marriages is a universal phenomenon and Bangladesh is no exception. The current study explores the nature, pattern and intensity of DV perpetrated against married women, along with an investigation into the socio-economic and cultural factors behind this phenomenon, specifically, in Sylhet, Bangladesh. For this, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 42 victims of DV who sought help from two social welfare organisations that explicitly dealt with the problem of abused women in Sylhet. The victims stated that their husbands, along with their in-laws, perpetrated multiple forms of physical, psychological and sexual abuse on them. The study revealed that there were multiple reasons behind the presence of DV, including, demands for dowry, poverty, a wife's financial and emotional dependency, extramarital affairs, polygyny, the desire for a male child, an ingrained culture of violence and so on. The victims, it appeared, struggled to remain in wedlock despite repeated instances of abuse. In the absence of any viable alternatives, these women sought the help of organisations as the violence in their domestic spaces spiraled out of control. The study concluded that a continuing state of DV seemed almost inevitable in this region and was a reflection of a woman's subordinate status in society emanating from hegemonic patriarchal values and traditions.

Domestic violence (DV) against married women is widely prevalent across Bangladesh and this merits nuanced attention. Multifarious factors are believed to perpetuate DV in different socioeconomic contexts within the country. This study aimed to understand the causes and contexts of DV in the Sylhet region (a distinct sub‐culture that carries Sylheti identity). This was a qualitative study based on the experiences of 42 victims of DV who sought help from two social welfare organizations, namely 'Women Support Program (WSP)' and 'Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)', both located in Sylhet. Using in‐depth interviews, we tried to interact with the victims to retrieve the causes and contexts of DV in Sylhet. Findings revealed that a number of factors led to DV. These causal and contextual factors for DV were dowry practice, illiteracy, cultural approval of wife beating, women's silence, polygyny, socioeconomic dependency of the wife, conflicts related to extra‐ and premarital affairs, poverty, stigmatization, and drug addiction of the husband. The study concluded that all these factors could be brought under the umbrella of age‐old patriarchal cultural values that continue to create the contexts where DV takes place unabated.