Unrest and Reform: Bangladesh’s Youth Movement and Higher Education with Sharowat Shamin

Sam Pufek: You're listening to the world of higher education podcast, season three, episode 11.
Alex Usher: Hi there. I'm Alex Usher, and this is the World of Higher Education podcast.
In our terminally postmodern world, it's easy to discount student political movements. It has after all been decades since they were a major political factor in most Western countries. To the extent that we've seen them provoke major disruptions in recent decades, it's tended to be in the service of rather narrow and self interested issues like tuition fees, as in South Africa in 2015 and 2016 and Quebec in 2011 and 2012. And yet we do know that in certain countries at certain moments, students can be powerful enough to shake the foundations of a state. Seoul 1961. Paris 1968. Beijing, 1989. It's rare, but it happens. And when it does, it's usually pretty spectacular.
Bangladesh is a country where student movements have played a major role since the country's birth. But what happened this past summer was a shock. A set of student protests over a frankly absurd job reservation scheme for families of the veterans of the 1971 independence war led to a massive and ill advised government crackdown and then to days of street violence and hundreds of fatalities.
Eventually, a mass movement emerged backing the students over the increasingly authoritarian government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. On the 5th of August, the PM was forced to flee to India and a new interim government headed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus took power.
With me today on the show is Sharowat Shamin. She's an academic at both the university of Dhaka in Bangladesh and the School for Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. She's written for many years on aspects of perennial youth underemployment in Bangladesh and its consequences.
Together, we discussed not just the specific sequence of events leading up to the protests of July and August, but also about the longer term background to those events. In particular, the nature of the country's higher education system, the history of student power there, and how the national labour market works for younger people, or doesn't.
Overall, it's a fascinating conversation about a place that often doesn't get the respect it deserves as a rapidly developing country. So without further ado, let's listen to Sharowat.
Uh, Sharowat, what, you know, Bangladesh over the last 55 years, I guess, has gone back and forth between democracy and military dictatorships and how have student politics intertwined with the politics of the country as a whole. Obviously students had quite a bit to play in the independence war. They had a role to play there. What role have they played in the country since then?
Sharowat Shamin: Thank you, Alex. That's a very good question. Student politics has always been very significant in national politics before and after independence, as you already mentioned. For example, like, in 1952, the language movement for Bangla as the state state language for East Pakistan, the then East Pakistan.
So students role was significant in achieving that state language thing. And before the liberation, 1970, I mean, up to 1971, there are many protests, many movements where students significantly, actively taken part and made the independence basically happen in 1971. And the 1971 liberation war, they also actively participated, meaning they fought the war. So they were I mean, there were many guerrilla groups. So this academic students, they were part of those civilian groups who fought this liberation war and liberated the country from Pakistan and gave birth to new independent Bangladesh. And after independence of course, and it is very important, I should, I should also mention it here. It's not like student politics has not always been confined within the traditional student union kind of thing that we see in universities. So it's kind of like the political parties used to have their different student wings, actively acting, actively participating and also organizing uh, holding different activities inside higher educational institutions, particularly at undergrad and post grad levels. So this is kind of very evident and they were very instrumental in restoring democracy from the military rule that you mentioned, like, almost 15 years of military rule. And in 1990, the country entered into democracy. So that 1990s revolution also, they were very significant. And as I mentioned, like the political party having their own steering wings in different organ, I mean different universities. So that is also an important I mean whoever is coming into power is perhaps using them politically. That is also evident.
Alex Usher: Interesting. So what's student life like in Bangladesh? My impression has always been that the system of higher education there was quite similar to the one in India with obviously they share some heritage there. They have the same DNA, if you will, but maybe without institutions like the IITs. So large, rapidly expanding, but maybe not with the quality standards that people might want.
Is that a fair description? What would you add or change to that?
Sharowat Shamin: All right, in terms of like the student life and the living standard in the higher educational institution, of course, as a overcrowded and economically struggling country, perhaps our educational institutions are very overcrowded. Not all amenities are up to the standard. But also at the same time, on a positive note, I must mention, like Bangladesh is an agriculture based economy with a huge population, 170 million population. So even if it's a tiny country with a number of the population, it's a huge country, basically. So we do have several agricultural universities who are doing excellent research and contributing to ensuring food security for the country and the food production and use of advanced. What does it say? Like, technologies in the food production and the agriculture, different sorts of agriculture, they're contributing, very good. And at the same time, there are several engineering universities. Perhaps, maybe as you said, maybe IITs, maybe about the research and thing, maybe our research fa— facilities are very weak, but at the same time, these engineering universities are contributing to infrastructural and economic development in the country. They're collaborating with international counterparts who are undertaking many mega projects and stuff, and, on the other hand, like for social science and other research, perhaps the budget and resources and other facilities, like library resources and stuff, these are very limited. So that's the tension for, like, to utilize the full potential of the higher education and from the academics as well, overall research environment.
Alex Usher: Now, I don't know if it's because of the rapid growth in the system, but I know that one of the things that's been a, an issue for many years has been poor employment prospects for graduates of universities. And you've written about one aspect of student reaction to this, which is brain drain, right? This is so people, graduates will leave the country. Is this just about employment prospects or are there other things driving this migration? And also where are these students, where are these graduates going?
Sharowat Shamin: That's kind of like brain drain. It's not something new. It's been happening for many years, but perhaps for last one or one and a half decades, we are seeing uh, it's like increasing number of students are going. So this destination is mostly to the global North countries mostly in the United States in Canada, or Europe and Australia. So this, these are kind of the popular destination where the students are going. The reason, of course one of the reason is, of course, job prospect. I should mention that about the job prospect, like our private sector jobs are very insecure. There are laws and policies, but in, I mean, implementation of those laws is not always very straightforward. So, people working in private sector sometimes feel very insecure in terms of after retirement, there are no pension no social security. So what would happen and about the progress in the jobs. So that is also very like, it's not something guaranteed that they don't always follow, like set rules and apply them, but there are other factors Uh, which are very crucial. Most importantly like. It's like the social cultural things that also plays a significant part. For example, gender inequality is also very evident. So, for this gender based violence, since it's kind of, every now and then we see incidents in newspapers. So, there are people somehow being discriminated because of the gender or face violence. That makes other student, other skill student afraid of continuing in the country. That's one of the other issues. There are other issues. For example, pollution environmental situations, and since climate change is quite evident, and that is also playing a significant role with internal and external migration for last few decades. So that is also playing a significant part and overall living standard and maybe utilizing their full potential. Perhaps all these are contributing to this migration. And of course, I must say as well, like, a political division divided politically divided society, perhaps somehow made people feel very insecure.
Alex Usher: Got it. So at least the employment part of that, that was what led to demonstrations and eventually riots this past summer. In particular, the sort of the focus of that was the, I think what was called the Freedom Fighter Quota. So it was the idea that a certain percentage of public sector jobs were reserved for the descendants of people who were active in the war of independence in 1971. So, these quotas were abandoned at one point, I think, in 2018, and the trigger for this year's demonstrations was a high court decision that invalidated you know, the elimination of these positions. So, what were the students asking for this summer, and why did the government choose to crack down so hard on them you know, when it actually began in mid July?
Sharowat Shamin: That is, as I mentioned, since the like public sector jobs is considered as quite lucrative because of its security, its overall structure after retirement benefits. So it's kind of considered very lucrative. And the rate of higher education has been, significantly increased over past few decades. I mean, historically, maybe 20, 20, 30 years before we didn't used to have that many university graduates that we now do have, but at the same time, like, this high skilled unemployment rate is kind of 5%. The latest data, I think, in 2022, that says that it's 5%. But at the same time, constitutionally, there are legal requirements about helping this marginalized groups and allowing for some positive actions for them some kind of reservations. And this reservation kind of thing is not something that only Bangladesh has, for example, in India, it has 60 percent reservation for public sector jobs for different groups in the society. So what happened here is about this 30%. Uh, Yes, after 54 years it required a reform. So that didn't take place in state abolishing it wholly was perhaps also unconstitutional. I mean, you say no quota, there were quota and suddenly you say no quota. That's also against the constitution. So you want, it's not only about freedom fighter, but also about different groups, including as I was talking about gender based inequality, marginalized groups, different religious and ethnic minorities. So these quotas also help them to be included in the, into the public sector jobs being represented there. And did I answer all of your question or
Alex Usher: Well, I think the other question is how, so the students were upset about the high court decision. They wanted at least a better reform, but why did the government choose to crack down so hard on dissent do you think?
Sharowat Shamin: That I think uh, still very premature. That's I think like the way the government acted, I won't say that was politically very wise move that they chose they mishandled the situation that was not a politically correct situation, but still why question, to answer that why question, perhaps it's still premature stage. We need more evidences and investigations from both sides to answer concretely on that.
Alex Usher: We're going to take a short break? We'll be right back And we're back. Okay, so we don't know why the government chose to respond the way it did, but one thing that was quite striking, I guess, in the 2 or 3 weeks that followed was how quickly a demonstration about students and youth job prospects suddenly became something that would overthrow the government. And that, to me, suggests that the students were able to convince others in society that they you know, that they were all in it together, you know, that they had good outreach to other parts of society. What do we know about the links between student groups and the rest of society? So what, what was it that made the mobilization happen so quickly?
Sharowat Shamin: That's a very good question. So, as I mentioned in answering your first question, like, the student politics, they do have political parties affiliation. All the student groups, all the major political parties do have their student wings operating in higher educational institution. So, one possibility could be this political support from the opposition group that made this reaching out to other sects of the community and the society. And, of course, social media played a vital role in reaching out to people very quickly.
Alex Usher: Okay. And I understand that, so the government falls in early August and we have a new interim government led by Mohammed Yunus. What's the role of students in this new regime? I, you know, were they brought into the government at all? And I guess more importantly, what's happened to that issue of job quotas? Has that been solved or is it still hanging?
Sharowat Shamin: All right, the first, part of your answer, question is yes, they're they are in the government. They are part of the government. The interim government, two of them are the advisor to this interim government and one of them are special assistant to the chief advisor, Dr. Yunus but at the same time, this is like, active participation, but there are like, implied participations as well. So they're playing instrumental role inside the government and outside the government. So, many other coordinators are also kind of aiding and making government function, whatever they want, that their demands and everything, so put the government to maybe utilize it quickly as possible, whatever they want. They're, they're kind of, seemingly like, very instrumental for this government. And about the job quota perhaps we didn't see much much talk about job quota after formation of interim government. But earlier this week, there was another demand. Initially, that was a small, I mean, that happened during, the earlier, that started during the earlier regime that they wanted to raise the entry age for public sector jobs that used to be 30. So their demand was to increase it to 35 years. For this public sector jobs. So, just this week, the government made, brought a change. Like, they raised the year by 2, age by 2 years. Now, they can apply for public sector jobs up to 32 years. Otherwise, there are no discussion after the appellate divisions verdict about now the quota is 7%. And still there are no quota for women. And it's completely gone. So 5 percent for freedom fighter quota and rest 2 percent is for minorities, ethnic minorities disabled person and transgenders. Otherwise, there are no other quotas for marginalized communities as a whole that used to have like 10 percent quota earlier.
Alex Usher: So I'm actually fascinated by that. I didn't realize this, that you, that, you know, you finished university, but then you have to wait five to 10 years in order to apply for a government job. What do graduates do in the meantime?
Sharowat Shamin: The thing is this public sector jobs are very, I mean, it's competitive exams. It's a long procedure there. The exam has, like, different tiers. At least 3 tiers they have to go through. So, we have seen that students do study do prepare for those exams. This is a very competitive. But you see, like. hundreds thousand students do participate in those competitive exams. But yes the success rate is just a few below 10 percent because, of course, you understand not that many positions are available, right? So what happens, like, they keep trying for these exams. Over the years, but recent decision, as I say, they raise the bar from 30 years to 32 years, but they also limited that chance. So now they can take part in the public sector jobs only 3 time. Not more than that.
Alex Usher: Okay. All right.
Sharowat Shamin: So they didn't accept it very positively. They still want it to be gone. I mean, 35 years, they want 35 years, not 32 years. So it's still, I mean, they're demanding that.
Alex Usher: Interesting. So, what does all this mean for higher education in Bangladesh? Because I know in other countries where we've seen this kind of dynamic between students and regime change sometimes the regime is very, you know, wants to placate students and wants to give them, you know, they're grateful to students, and so they give the institution, more money to institutions or better institutions. In this case, I suspect it'd be, you know, maybe there's concessions on on quotas and things like that, but sometimes that also makes them seem dangerous, right? That oh wait, this is a constituency that can change the government. We'd better be careful with them. Where do you think things are right now? Like our, is are university is going to be seen in a positive light because they're a source of good or are they going to be seen as a dangerous hotbed of unrest?
Sharowat Shamin: You see, like, the students are back to the classroom just very recently, so after almost three months or more, so there are still tensions. So, after this uh, massive protest and with the number of casualties so perhaps they need support as well. Not everyone is like protesting and like always protesting, but there are some students who are more concerned about their academic life. So, as you mentioned, perhaps that requires a very careful tending. So from the universities as well, from the academics as well. Universities should offer some sort of maybe psychological support, mental health issues. This would be very prominent. There is a culture of very, I mean, quite intolerance in the society. Perhaps that is not good. In the long run, so we, I mean, the educational institutions and the country and the society as a whole needs to restore those trust. I mean, mutual trust and respect.
Alex Usher: Mm
hmm
Sharowat Shamin: uh, I'm not, I'm not talking about government perspective, just within the society from community perspective, I mean, you can't just be enemy with your classmate, right? Just because someone has a different opinion than you yourself. So this mutual respect and everything, that needs to be restored and, of course, their academic life as I mentioned, it's being interrupted significantly. So, bringing them back into the classroom and making them prepared for their future career and making them as like, substantive workforce for the future economy of the country, make the country going, that is very crucial. That requires a very careful tending.
Alex Usher: Let's imagine we're having this discussion, we bring you back on the show in 10 years time. You know, Bangladesh is a country that has been experiencing fairly rapid economic growth, a little bit of industrialization, a little bit less agriculturally dependent, as you said earlier. How do you think the job market's going to evolve in the next 10 years? Like, are we still going to have graduates 10 years from now who are you know, who are frustrated by things like job quotas? Is brain drain likely to continue? Like how hopeful are you that you know, whatever the short term issues around regime change might be, that the whole system is at least moving in the right kind of direction.
Sharowat Shamin: Well, you say after 10 years uh, I mean, maybe, it's difficult to say given the current, uh, volatileness in the, overall system. What, I mean, how it is progressing I would say it is mostly dependent on how for a democratic transition is taking place. Uh, It's like, and the people are getting back their voting power and elected a political government uh, should take over and perhaps like, a government with proper people's mandate so that voting so that is also very important how fast they're passing into that. So after 10 years, of course, I assume that a number of graduates would be like, expanding of course, but the country was like, economic growth was very good for the last few years, at least before covid. So, it was very, I mean, going very great, but at the same time, you can always criticize whether that was sustainable or not. Those economic GDP rate and stuff, perhaps may not always show us the overall picture of development maybe to be very specific human development, not just economic development. So, these are the issues, but about the brain drain. Given this unrest and stuff, I am not quite like, uh, I can't be very optimistic that it, would be reversed. It, I don't think I mean, given the current scenario, it's it, I don't think it's going to be reversed, but maybe people will be more interested in going abroad. Usually, and I'm now the trend is like after graduation people go going for post graduation level, but maybe I fear, at least from the economically solvent class of people who can afford higher education earlier stage, maybe they would migrate much earlier than they're doing it now.
Alex Usher: Sharowat, thanks so much for joining us today.
Sharowat Shamin: Thank you, Alex.
Alex Usher: And it just remains for me to thank our excellent producers, Tiffany MacLennan and Sam Pufek, and you, our viewers and listeners for tuning in. If you have any questions about today's episodes or suggestions for future ones, please don't hesitate to contact us at podcast@higheredstrategy.com. Join us next week when our guests will be University of York professor, Paul Wakeling, and he'll be talking to us about how Brexit affected inbound student mobility patterns in the United Kingdom. Bye for now.