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The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLI, 2017
Printed in February 2020, ISSN 1682-422 ©Jahangirnagar University
Evaluation of the 'Cluster Village' Projects: A Case Study on
Four Cluster Village Projects of Nilphamari District
Md. Redwanur Rahman*
Farhana Akther**
Abstract: Access to land is very important for socially and economically disadvantaged
people, from the countries where agriculture is the main source of employment to
improve their livelihoods. It brings an opportunity for producing their livelihoods
reducing extreme poverty. Land management is a tool being employed by the
governments around the world to contribute in this respect. In Bangladesh guchchogram/
cluster village projects are done for rehabilitating rural land less people to reduce poverty.
Successful implementation of such projects will help in reducing poverty, migration and
improving socio economic condition of rural poor. This paper focuses on evaluating
cluster village projects whether they are improving the socio economic status of the
people.
Introduction
The number of landless people Bangladesh is growing steadily because of consequent
natural disasters like -flood, river erosion, cyclone, etc., poverty, and legal disputes.
According to BBS 2010, the Agriculture Census, 2008 revealed that out of 28.67 million
households, 4.48 million or 15.62% were absolutely landless (Byron, 2009). Bangladesh
is one of the very highly disaster-prone countries in the world. The current rate of increase
in landlessness is 12.84 % in rural areas against 10.18% and 8.67% in 1996 and 1983-84
respectably (BBS, 2010, Agriculture Census 2008). Poverty rate for the landless was 57
percent in 2005 compared to 24 percent for small landowners and 13 percent for
medium/large landowners (HIES, 2002, 2005)). The phenomenon of “landless farmers”
migrating to urban centers is increasingly reported (Rahman and Manprasert 2006; IRIN
2010). In Bangladesh, current urban population growth rate is around 4% per year (World
Bank 2016). In Bangladesh, particularly the 25 percent of the population below the lower
poverty line consume at very low level (HIES, 2005). Landlessness, homelessness, adverse
person-to-land ratio, etc. are the push factors to rural-urban-migration. Poverty ignited
from landlessness and lack of wage-earning opportunities in rural areas promotes rushing
from rural to urban areas. This badly influences social environment in urban areas
especially by increasing slums and informal settlements. This increasing landless families
are rushing towards urban areas for livelihoods and creating extra pressure on the major
cities. So, the policy makers always think of relocation of such shelter less people and bring
them mainstream of the society. The Cluster village project is such a project to rehabilitate
landless destitute poor families on khas land. Already about 1761 cluster villages have been
established, and more will be done within 2025 (MoL, 2018). It is important to evaluate
the rehabilitation projects weather they contribute in socio-economic developments in
* MURP Student, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Jahnagirnagar University, Savar,
Dhaka-1342.
** Assistant Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Jahnagirnagar University, Savar,
Dhaka-1342. Email-farhana_urp@juniv.edu
264 The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLI, 2017
Nilphamari district or not. This study tries to find at what extent these projects can fulfill
their theoretical premise and uplift the socio economic condition of rootless families. The
study will also find what are the negative factors, and potentials and constraints.
Objectives and Methodology
The goal of this study is to evaluate how much socio-economic changes have been occurred
to the people due to initiating of these projects, thus the objectives were framed such as; to
evaluate these projects in socio- economic perspectives and provide some
recommendations for ensuring effectiveness of the selected projects. This research was
carried out on the basis of exploratory research design. For collecting primary data,
individual questionnaire survey and Focused Group discussion has been done. According
to the Yamane sampling, 31, 28, 17 and 12 households of Pacharhat, Nijbari, Golna, and
Shalhati communities respectably were surveyed. In FGD, both the male and female
residents of various age were present. Concerned officials of the regional office of
Guchchogram Project and BRDB office were interviewed. Earlier researches both
published and unpublished, and govt. and autonomous publications were used as the
secondary sources.
Study Area
According to CARE SDU report,
2003, total amount of Khas land in
Nilphamari district is 19,508 acres,
where agricultural Khas land is
18,071 acres and non-agricultural
Khas land is 1,437 acres and no. of
landless household is 50,952 (BBS
2010).
4 cluster villages located in 4
different Upazila of Nilphamari
district have been chosen, namely- i)
Pacharhat Adarshgram at Dimla, ii)
Nijbari Guchchhogram at Saidpur,
iii) Golna Guchchhogram at Domar,
iv) Shalhati Guchchhogram at
Dimla.
Fig 1: Map of study area
Source: LGED, modified by authors, 2018.
Evaluation of the 'Cluster Village' Projects: A Case Study ... 265
Source: Field Survey 2018
Evaluation of the Rehabilitation Projects in Socio Economic Perspectives
Demography
In the first three communities, the landless people were rehabilitated in two steps. At
Pacharhat, first 50 families were rehabilitated in 2000 and then 50 families in 2002. Also,
at Nijbari Guchchhogram firstly 70 families in 2009 and after four years more 10 families
were rehabilitate. At Golna Guchchhogram, 30 and 30 families were relocated in 2009 and
2010 respectably. There should be 60 families, but at present there live only 26. At Shalhati
Guchchhogram the rehabilitation project had been completed in 2014 for only 40 families.
But at present there live only 14 families. More than 50% households of Golna and Shalhati
communities left their community.
Family Type of the households of these communities are-
Nijbari Before relocation: 42% single & 57% joint. After: 75% single & 25% joint
Pacharhat Before relocation: 37% single & 63% joint. After: 68% single & 32% joint
Golna Before relocation: 82% single & 17% joint. After: 94% single & 6% joint
Shalhati Before relocation: 58% single & 42% joint. After: 92% single & 8% joint
Fig 2: Pacharhat cluster village
Fig 3: Golna clu ster village
Fig 4: Ni jbari cluster village
266 The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLI, 2017
Housing Condition and people’s perception
At Pacharhat Adarshagram, first relocated 50
families were given 6 dec. & the secondly relocated
50 families were given 8 dec. land. All of them got
a two-room home which dimension was more than
about 11' x 10' and a kitchen and a toilet. All the
homes had identical design and structure from the
govt. At Nijbari Guchchhogram, all the 80 families
were given a home on 3.25 dec. land, but at Golna
and Shalhati Gucchagram all the households were
given home on 4 dec. land. In the home there were
two attached rooms (11' x 10'), a kitchen, a veranda,
a toilet, and the rest area was considered as yard
(Field survey, 2018). All the homes had identical
design and structure from the govt. At pacharhat, almost all the govt. provided homes
collapsed within 10 years. The respondents repaired their homes and added extra rooms
within the fixed land area. At Nijbari, about 85% homes started to distort after 3-4 years.
Almost all the households repaired their homes at their own cost. More than 90% families
had built additional rooms. At Golna and Shalhati guchchogram, more than 75% homes
started to distort within 1-2 years. Almost 30% families have built additional rooms. Many
couldn’t build extra room for the lack of money and some became discouraged for the
sandy soil, even all they need extra room. The new rooms were made of bamboo, tin, or
clay. Households who couldn’t make additional room, repaired their home according to
their ability. Besides additional room, they built tin or bamboo shed for multiple usage;
sitting, tailoring, keeping livestock and poultry, etc.
Table 1: Number of additional rooms constructed by the households in percentage
Households in %
No. of Additional
rooms constructed
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
1 room
34
12
60
2 rooms
20
40
26
20
3 or more rooms
67
10
10
Only tin/ bamboo shed
30
16
63
70
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Table 2: Satisfaction level on housing
Satisfaction
Level
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Satisfied
73%
82%
18%
25%
Dissatisfied
17%
4%
50%
58%
No Comment
10%
14%
32%
17%
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Fig 5: Housing deteriorating due to
sandy soil at Shalhati Cluster village
Evaluation of the 'Cluster Village' Projects: A Case Study ... 267
Satisfaction level on housing condition were higher in both Pacharhat and Nijbari
communities. The significant reason behind this was that, the people could bear the cost of
repairing and modifying their homes. Only a few percent households were dissatisfied as
the 110sq feet room weren’t sufficient for their joint family. But at the Golna and shalhati,
more than 50% households were dissatisfied. Besides the reason of tiny room and small
homestead area, structures on sandy soil, very poor and low quality of building materials,
location on flood prone area, were the prime factor for dissatisfaction and low income. Due
to poverty, they could hardly bear the repairing and modifying cost.
Income Level
There occurred a notable change in monthly income after relocation in consideration of
monthly income in before- relocation. Some had changed their occupation after relocation,
where the most hadn’t, who were relocated from the adjacent areas. Changes in family size
after relocation is one significant cause for the change of family income and occupation.
Table 3: Monthly income in US $.
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Minimum
25.00
90.00
45
80
50
50
50
50
Maximum
60.00
150.00
300
325
150
135
110
135
Mean
39
127
114
135
107
103
87
122
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Table 4: Poverty condition in the study area (% of household)
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
<1.9$ (Extreme
poor)
13
0
14
0
18
12
25
9
2-4$ (Lower poor)
53
17
75
86
29
76
75
58
4-10$ (poor)
34
63
0
0
53
12
0
33
11-20$ (Middle
class)
0
20
11
14
0
0
0
0
Source: Field Survey, 2018
In every project area percentage of extreme poor household has been reduced and in two
project area it totally removed. At Pacharhat cluster village 20% households become
middle class people after the land reform project. There is positive impacts on their income
though household’s opinion on their income level change differed from community to
community due to various reasons like distance of nearest working place, availability of
land for agriculture etc.
268 The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLI, 2017
In figure 6 and 7 it has been seen that due to unavailability of job opportunity, unproductive
land pull the residence to other places.
Table 5: The change in income level of households (in %)
Communities
Income level
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Increased
87%
100%
40%
25%
Decreased
No
No
30%
17%
no change
13%
0%
30%
58%
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Relocation put a significant impact on income and income range of the households. There
occurred a notable progress in monthly income after relocation at Pacharhat and Nijbari.
Some people had changed their occupation after relocation. After relocation maximum
people were engaged in multiple occupations. Two communities, Golna and Shalhati,
mixed impacts occurred. At Golna income decreased for 30% families after relocation due
to changes in working place and working opportunity. Amongst the 3 extreme poor
families only 1 improved after relocation but others remained extreme poor. At Shalhati
Guchchhogram, there is a little change in economic condition after relocation. Many people
had changed their occupation. After relocation income significantly increased only for the
40% families. About 10% extreme poor families were found after relocation. Even after
getting relocation plot about half of the relocated people rushed towards urban areas for
income opportunity.
Employment Sectors
Earlier work in Bangladesh shows that agricultural wage laborers are typically the poorest
occupational group (Hossain, 1995); There occurred significant change in income patterns
of the male family members (head of the house), who are living in the village. In all the
Fig 6: People left home for unavailability of
livelihood at Golna
Fig 7: People left home for unavailability of
livelihood at Shalhati
Evaluation of the 'Cluster Village' Projects: A Case Study ... 269
villages, dependency on agriculture had been decreased. Employment decreased in
agriculture as many people rushed towards Dhaka and other urban areas, and some started
day laboring. The households, whose income increased, had at least one ember working in
urban or industrial areas
Table 6: Households (in %) dependency on various earning sources
Projects
Agriculture
Non- agriculture
Labor in outside
Labor in locality
Before
After
Before %
After
Before
After
Before
After
Pacharhat
47
27
13
30
10
13
90
87
Nijbari
17
5
21
43
14
7
85
93
Golna
45
12
45
70
7
20
93
80
Shalhati
75
40
30
65
30
40
70
60
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Most of people earned through multiple occupations; sometimes they do rickshaw pulling,
do farming or day laboring. They couldn’t cultivate land all over the year, most of them
had no agricultural land. They had to borrow others’ land in terms of condition. So, their
income patterns vary from season to season. Laboring in local areas increased only at
Nijbari because it is located besides industrial zone, again diversified occupations also
found there.
Training on Income Generating Activities (IGA)
The training for men on income generating activities (IGA) and social awareness is to be
done in 3 steps through total 8 days. There must be a gap of 2 month between two each
step. We can see that the relocated men were trained on only a very few topics and the most
of the people are not satisfied on the training. They claimed that the training was done in a
very short time and finished quickly. There was a little gap between the training steps.
Table 7: IGA training occurred in study area
Community
Training topics
Days
Gap between step
Pacharhat
Poultry and cattle farming
2
No gap
Nijbari
vegetable gardening, fisheries and poultry
farming
7
2
Golna
Fisheries and livestock farming
2
1
Shalhati
Fisheries, livestock farming and home gardening
2
No gap
Source: Field Survey, 2018
The relocated men were trained on only a very few general topics and the most of the
people are not satisfied on the training. There were no effective training on any important
subject like non-farming activities. The trainings were done in a very short time and
finished quickly. There were little gaps between the training steps. Only at Nijbari, 20
women got training on tailoring for 2 months, and at Pacharhat about 20% women got
tailoring training for a week. At Golna, about only 5 women got tailoring training. But, at
Shalhati there were no such training.
270 The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLI, 2017
Table 8: Respondents opinion on IGA trainings
Public Opinion
Communities
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Satisfied
17%
11%
0%
0%
Dis-satisfied
67%
57%
81%
70%
No Comment
16%
32%
19%
30%
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Micro Credit Loans Facilities
Besides IGA training, all the households were provided micro-credit loan for self-
employment and developing living condition. Bangladesh Rural Development Board
(BRDB) had been given the responsibility of this work. The relocated people got only
7000- 10000 taka loan with interest. People could not run any livelihood project by this
little amount of money, where about 50% people of Golna and Shalhati could not repay the
loans due to poverty. Due to isolation and remote location, NGOs and financial
organizations don’t come to such communities. Thus, the families can’t get enough
financial help. Most of the families borrow from local moneylenders on too much higher
interest rate. People claimed that local authorities hardly provide them govt. financial
support like widow allowance, adult allowance etc. as they live in govt. land.
Table 9: Micro financial service opportunities-
Community
Widow allowance
Adult allowance
FFW
VGF
NGO
Pacharhat
YES
YES
YES
YES
YES
Nijbari
YES
YES
NO
NO
YES
Golna
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
Shalhati
NO
NO
NO
NO
NO
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Food Security
In a survey conducted by DPHE in 1998-99 in collaboration with the British Geological
Survey and Mott MacDonald Limited, Nilphamari was found in the list of the least affected
districts (Abedin and 2013). The Bangladesh standard for iron in drinking water is 0.3 - 1.0
mg/L. According to Bangladesh National Drinking Water Quality Survey, 2009, there are
some places in Domar, Dimla, Saidpur Upozilla, contaminated with iron (Fe) exceeding .3
and 1.0 mg/L, where Bangladesh standard is 0.3- 1.0 mg/L.
Table 10: Households (in %) on food security levels of the communities
Food options
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Rice production
37
47
14
22
18
6
30
10
Evaluation of the 'Cluster Village' Projects: A Case Study ... 271
Vegetable
gardening
17
27
43
22
24
0
20
10
Fruit tree
30
47
21
14
24
0
30
0
Safe drinking water
100
36
100
64
35.
29
40
50
Poultry
46
47
54
36
41
18
50
30
Livestock
64
47
29
18
35
12
40
40
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Except Nijbari, in the other three cluster village people
cannot cultivate due to soil quality. In golna soil is fragile
and sandy, in shalhati soil is totally sandy and have not
enough space for gardening. Rice production was
seasonal; the households have to rent others land. Here
safe water is counted without considering iron (Fe)
contamination. Both at Golna and shalhati, before
relocation some families jointly installed deep tube well
in their previous houses. It was an easy source of safe
drinking water. After relocation, joint families separated
and many single families can’t bear the cost of installing
personal tube well in this sandy soil. Contamination of iron (Fe) is also a common problem
here.
Distance to the nearest community facilities
Due to locational disadvantages, many households hardly get facilities and deprived of
opportunities for developing their status. Sometimes long distance discouraged people of
receiving better services. Education is a key determinant of wage rates and household
income in both HIES 2000 and 2005 (Al-Samarrai, 2007). Due to long distance children’s
are discouraged to go for higher education after completing primary level.
Table 11: Distance of various service centers from the selected communities
Service centers
Distance of the nearest one (km)
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Primary school
.5
.5
1
1.5
High school
10
3.5
2
6
Village clinic
4.5
4
7
6
Hospital
10
5
15
12
Police station
10
4
15
12
Post office
4.5
4
2
6
Bazar
4
.1
1
5.5
Financial offices
10
4
7
12
Nearest town
10
4
15
12
Fig 8: Vegetable gardening at Nijbari
272 The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLI, 2017
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Conflicts Among Neighbors
There were many reasons for conflicts among the neighbors. Many respondents answered
single reason for conflict, where some answered multiple reasons.
Table 12: The reasons of conflicts (where one household might show multiple reasons)
Reasons of conflicts (in %)
Waste
management
Tubewell &
washroom
Used water
management
Poultry &
livestocks
Others
Pacharhat
27
57
10
27
9
Nijbari
20
65
18
25
6
Golna
30
60
0
20
23
Shalhati
10
40
30
0
30
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Conflicts mainly occur for tubewell & washroom sharing. Immediately after relocation, as
multiple families used only 1 tube well (installed by the project), in some cases, the sharing
family number vary from 8 to 12. 10 tube wells for 80- 100 families including about 400
persons was pathetic, especially embarrassing situation for the women.
Availability of Sanitation Facilities
All the household families were provided with a personal toilet (pit latrine) by govt.,
typically about 7 feet deep and the rings were made of cement concrete, and the
surrounding wall is made of tin. Almost 65% toilets were damaged within 5 years due to
poor materials and weak construction.
Table 13: Statistics of households having toilet facilities
Pacharhat
Nijbari
Golna
Shalhati
Before
Present
Before
Present
Before
Present
Before
Present
Households
having personal
latrine
20%
97%
33%
100%
29%
68%
30%
50%
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Sanitation condition significantly developed in first two communities. In the other
communities the situation is not satisfied due to poverty and lack in knowledge.
Education Facility
The educational facilities within or near the communities were somewhat dissatisfying.
Again, poverty was a vital obstacle for education. Only a few could study after class-v. In
some families, all the children were deprived of basic education due to poverty. There were
Evaluation of the 'Cluster Village' Projects: A Case Study ... 273
many families, where at least one child can’t go to school due to poverty, again, in many
families at least one child drops out after class-v.
Table 14: A short statistic of households dropping out from education
Community
Dropped out After Class-V
Not Going to School
Pacharhat
40.00%
20.00%
Nijbari
25.00%
10.71%
Golna
43.75%
18.75%
Shalhati
40.00%
20.00%
Source: Field Survey, 2018
Rate of deprivation from education is higher at Golna and Shalhati because of poverty and
lack of employment.
Conclusion & Recommendation
The cluster village projects is contributing significantly to provide shelter to the landless
families. But, there need of some necessary supports to the beneficiaries for increasing
their livelihood security. As govt. wants to bring them to the mainstream societies, there
are lacking in some strategies like- selection of place, homestead area, employment
opportunities, vocational training, supervision etc. Due to corruption in implementing and
creating such villages, the theoretical objectives have become difficult to achieve. The
newer proposed cluster villages should be planned in a way in which the priority setting
should be based on income generation rather than only housing facility. The findings of
the study will help in further developing of the landless people and future relocation
projects.
This study has tried to evaluate what extent and how much socio-economic condition
changed in the selected cluster villages. Again, another objective of this study is to provide
necessary guidelines for the perfectiveness of this projects. Only a few communities
provide the beneficiaries with potentiality for income generation, where the remote
communities can’t provide. The following suggestions and ideas are resulted from the
study of the research can be executed to ensure better output from the projects.
Recommendations have been given on existing state-led approach-
• Location is an important fact for income and other livelihoods. The rootless people
should be relocated near economic zone or urban area, so that they can get easily
better employment, as well as educational facilities, better health care, and other
livelihoods.
• The relocated families should be provided with more effective and better IGA and
vocational training. Only 7 days training is not enough for these illiterate people.
• Strong regular monitoring by local administration is needed to check up their regular
socio-economic condition up to 5-10 years. Such monitoring will help to reduce
various constrains and corruption in the communities.
274 The Jahangirnagar Review, Part II: Social Sciences, Vol. XLI, 2017
• In remote areas, where there is little scope for better income, the households should
be provided larger amount of homestead land, so that they can earn by small industries
or home gardening.
• In the remote and rural areas, the rootless and landless families should be provided
cultivable land along with homestead land. Then most of the families will not shift to
urban areas for employment.
• Checking the levels of arsenic and iron contamination should be measured according
to Bangladeshi standard before installing tube wells, as well as selecting project
location.
• When the provided homestead land will be too much little or less than 4 dec., strategic
housing type can be followed. Such as- two storied houses (using tin, and RCC pillar)
instead of traditional one storied house. In such strategic houses, joint families with a
large number of members can easily accommodate in one home.
• They should be provided with necessary utilities like electricity, better road
connection, etc. If they have electricity, they can build small cottage industries, launch
small businesses easily, or create newer profession.
• Selecting families to be relocated without corruption and nepotism so that no solvent
family can’t get plot.
• Providing adult allowance card, widow card, and VGF and FFW opportunities.
• Relocation besides previous location with income generation opportunities. Such idea
was collected from the recent relocation by Delhi Development Authority.
• Increase awareness and provide basic education can help them uplifting their
condition.
• Corruption must be checked during implementation and relocation.
• There needs a provision so that the president and secretary of such community must
be responsible to the community dwellers for his management.
• Review of the theoretical premise of such project’s accordance with present economic
condition of the country.
The cluster village projects is contributing significantly to provide shelter to the landless
families. But, there need of some necessary supports to the beneficiaries for increasing
their livelihood security. As govt. wants to bring them to the mainstream societies, there
are lacking in some strategies like- selection of place, homestead area, employment
opportunities, vocational training, supervision etc. Due to corruption in implementing and
creating such villages, the theoretical objectives have become difficult to achieve. The
newer proposed cluster villages should be planned in a way in which the priority setting
should be based on income generation rather than only housing facility. The findings of
the study will help in further developing of the landless people and future relocation
projects.
Evaluation of the 'Cluster Village' Projects: A Case Study ... 275
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