Jyoti bhai has been pushing me to write a piece on generational changes in Bangladesh, and thus end my long exile away from my favourite Bangladeshi blog. So here I am, with some Dhaka-centric observations about generational changes. I cannot over-emphasize the Dhaka-centric, middle-class-centric (and perhaps, male-centric) nature of these observations. I worry that when we talk about “generational change”, we only mean a small portion of the population privileged to lead a life free of want, with enough leisure to indulge in art, politics, opinion-making and, of course, adda. Meanwhile, our farmers’ sons and daughters look at another generation on the farm with ever-shrinking land and ever-more complex global linkages, our domestic help bring their children to the city to serve our children, and the garment workers’ daughters line the streets of Tejgaon as our children go to school in BMWs and Volvos. Generations going by, no change at all.

Government Service - Except for certain “patriotic” sectors, government service is definitely becoming less and less lucrative as a career option and not just for “spoiled English Medium brats”. The salary was never anything to write home about. The “perks” were perks in the 70s, not now. Free landline, but are there mobile allowances all across the different bureaucracies? Have you seen the housing for civilian bureaucrats? When was the last time the government invested in “colonies” or other accommodations for them? But most importantly, the prestige that used to come from being a bureaucrat has gone down considerably. There is always the scent of corruption lingering around those who have done well, even after a lifetime of service to the nation, regardless of what capacity. If we do not improve the civilian bureaucracy and make it more lucrative as a career option, our best and brightest will not join government service. Yet, who here has heard of economic growth without good governance?

Impact of Technology: I’m not going to bore you with condescending stories about how “even raastar konar dokandar mobile bebohaar korchey”. People are using technology in all sort of different ways. My mother tells me how she still buys fish from the vendors at Kawran Bazar even though my family has moved and now live further from it than they used to. A similar move in the 80s would have meant the vendors losing another customer. Aside from such economic impacts, technology has also made access to previously unattainable (or difficult to attain) information easier. This is most starkly apparent in terms of information on sexuality. Dhaka kids now have easy porn and no meaningful sex-education, which to me is worrisome but I’m no expert on adolescent behaviour, just juvenile behaviour. More importantly, this technology is making it easier for middle-class kids to connect, and not just over porn. A friend tells me that IRC chat leads to face to face encounters. When I asked if this was “online dating”, he said that this was mostly guys and mostly over some sort of common interest. In other words, non-political “civil society” is doing its thing better thanks to technology. A friend of this friend even landed a part-time job through such a connection.

Divorces: Asif bhai recently mentioned that he noticed a lot of divorces taking place during his recent visit to Dhaka. I agreed, but we both noted that the nature of our evidence was entirely anecdotal. Two weeks later, my friend calls and after chit-chatting says he is sort of disturbed about something. He tells me that he has heard of three people getting divorced within the last three days, all amongst his friend circle (very middle-class, traditionally anti-divorce group). All this is anecdotal, so I would appreciate anyone producing some statistics on this if possible. Again, class-disclaimers: increased rural-to-urban migration no doubt ended a lot of marriages during the 70s and 80s among lower-income groups. Any statistics on that would be appreciated as well. Lastly, people might be tempted to put this down to “arranged” marriages vs. the other kind. Unfortunately, all 3 were the other kind.

Lack of cross-cutting cleavages?: Talking to my father the other day, I mentioned that social networks and cross-cutting social cleavages. I told him that even if BMS and EMS students were world aparts in school, at least at DU, JU, NSU or (all else failing) the workplace they were thrown together and formed some sort of bonds. The same could hardly be said of quami madrassah/dakhil students, an increasingly smaller fraction of whom attend these institutions (again, anecdotal, so statistics would be helpful). And without attending a western-styled university, they are also less likely to work in the same places. I also pointed to the fact that this trend of remaining “worlds apart” was exacerbated thanks to the lack of places were you just socialise and form bonds based on extra-curricular activities: for instance, the lack of playing grounds in Dhaka city. As a result, people might live side by side, but not become friends except with their respective EMS, BMS, madrassa, workplace friends. That is most definitely a worrying trend in my generation, and MIGHT translate into some very bad socio-political cleavages in the coming years.