Country Reports on Local Government Systems: Bangladesh

Bangladesh
________________________________________________
1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY 1.1 Socio-economic profile

Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation state in 1971. Although a new state, Bangladesh is an old country with a long recorded history of several thousand years. In its recent past it was part of Pakistan (1947-1971) and was known as East Pakistan. Prior to this, different parts of present Bangladesh were under British India (1765-1947), the Mughals and other Muslim rulers, and before them under Buddhist and Hindu rule. Bangladesh lies in the northeastern part of South Asia. The country is bounded by India in the west, north, northeast and east, by Myanmar in the southeast and by the Bay of Bengal in the south. The area of the country is 147,570 square kilometers. Climatically, the country belongs to the humid tropics and is vulnerable to a number of natural hazards like cyclones, floods and riverbank erosion, which almost regularly displaces a large number of people. Bangladesh is predominantly a delta plain of one of the largest river systems of the world. Only a part in the southeastern area is hilly. In spite of the apparent physical homogeneity and small territorial size, Bangladesh shows regional variations in physical, infrastructural and socio-economic development. Since its independence, the development planners of Bangladesh have given consideration to the importance of regional balance for integrated national development. Yet, regional imbalances continue to exist (Islam 1997). The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics conducted the fourth decennial population census in January 2001. The population stood at 129.25 million in 2001 (BBS 2001). The percentage of the urban population was 23.39 per cent while the rural was 76.61 per cent (Table 1). The intercensal population