Impact of Hartal on the Economy of Bangladesh

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

1.1        The right to expression of views, including dissent, through public demonstrations and social mobilization is a democratic right enshrined in international law and practiced throughout the world -- from demonstrating against multilateral trade regimes, to rallying for the protection of the environment, to protesting against illegitimate regimes. The voicing of differing views and political debate over policies is a healthy feature of any modern democracy. As the Human Development Report 2002 notes:

“Changes in the world have shifted human development priorities and made political freedom, participation and collective action much more important as public policy issues .... Open space for free political debate and the diverse ways in which people can express their views are the essence of democratic life and are what make decision making work in democracies.”

In this context, the right to call ‘a hartal’ -- a particular form of protest used in Bangladesh and in other parts of South Asia -- could be viewed is a legitimate democratic right. However, when this right impinges on the rights of individuals to earn a living and to go about their daily lives in peace and security, a situation of ‘conflict of competing rights’ arises. Hartals are often called in ‘the name of the people’, but it is ordinary people whose movements are restricted, property endangered, and progress curbed. Children miss school, the sick miss treatment, and business miss targets. In addition, the reality in Bangladesh is that the success of hartals often rests on coercion, or even the use of payment to ‘hired hands’ by hartal organizers to mobilize support. At the same time, hartals can also be viewed a ‘symptom’ of the frustration of opposition parties at the lack of space for them to play a constructive role in democratic dialogue and the ‘winner takes all’ style of successive Governments. In this respect, promoting a more constructive role for opposition in Parliament, and enabling greater freedom of expression through peaceful demonstrations and through the media could take away much of the impetus for hartals.

1.2        Many articles and reports mention the harmful impact of hartals on the economy. Some attempts have been made to calculate the economic cost of hartals in terms of the forgone output, employment and lost earnings. However, it is also important to understand the various coping strategies used by people and businesses to re-coup those lost earnings.

PURPOSE

1.3        The purpose of the report is to describe the impact of hartals on the economy of Bangladesh.

SCOPE

1.4        In this report the scope is limited on few key sectors, namely the export sector (particularly readymade garments), the transport, retail & small business sectors and the private & public sector. Both formal and informal sectors of the economy are included in the study. The analysis also provides a comparison of the impact of hartals on the rural and urban economy.

LIMITATIONS

1.5        The writer had the following limitations in preparing this report:

1. Lack of adequate information related to subject matter in public libraries.
2. Difficulty in collecting old newspapers and reports.
3. Lack of authenticated information from the hartal effected sectors.
4. Difficulty to move during hartal days for collecting actual information.
5. Lack of time due to official and family commitments.

METHODOLOGY

1.6        Mainly secondary method of data collection is used in preparing this report. Various reports on hartals, newspapers and journals were consulted. News and captions of different television channels were also reviewed in collecting information.

REPORT PREVIEW

1.7        The report is developed chronologically through the following sections:

1. Historical Background of Hartal,
2. Measuring the Economic Cost of Hartals,
3. Impact of Hartals on the Transport Sector,
4. Impact of Hartals on the Export Sector,
5. Impact of Hartals on the Retail Sector,
6. Impact of Hartals on the Private and Public Sector,
7. Impact of Hartals on the Rural Economy,
8. Summary and Conclusions.

CHAPTER 2

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

DEFINITION OF ‘HARTAL’

2.1        The literal translation of the word hartal, derived from Gujarati, is “closing down shops” or “locking doors”. However, in Bangladesh today hartals are usually associated with the stoppage of vehicular traffic and closure of markets, shops and offices for a specific period of time to articulate agitation. As per the report of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Bangladesh, in today’s context of ‘contentious politics’ hartals can be described as: