News

Covid Conversations: Reflections from South Asia
Vulnerable Populations and COVID-19: Bangladesh During a Global Pandemic 
May 27, 2020

This event on the impact of the coronavirus in Bangladesh features a conversation between:

From Fragility to Resilience: The Unique Position of Bangladesh in Global Supply Chains Panel Discussion | May 7 | 5-7 a.m.

Seven years ago, one of the worst industrial disasters in history — the collapse of an eight-story commercial building in Rana Plaza, Dhaka — demonstrated to the world the heavy price of producing cheap clothing to fuel the ‘fast fashion’ industry for consumers in the global North

The mass social distancing strategy being used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the United States and Europe doesn’t easily translate to a developing country like Bangladesh, which lacks the capacity to impose restrictions or provide a social safety net for the unemployed. We talked with Yale SOM development economist Mushfiq Mobarak about how he is repurposing his research infrastructure in Bangladesh to gather information and test approaches to spreading public health messages.

Growing up in a house composed of doctors and public health professionals, I am no stranger to dinner conversations quickly turning to blood, mucus and infectious diseases. In high population countries like Bangladesh, health systems are constantly overwhelmed; WHO estimates the doctor-patient ratio to be 3.05 physicians for every 10,000 people.

In an age of dog-whistle scaremongering, a Union minister alleged on February 9 that, “half of Bangladesh will come to India if citizenship is offered.” But no crystal ball prediction could be more deluded. This year Bangladesh’s economic growth rate has surpassed India.

Beyond the Crisis Narrative:
Rohingya Statelessness and its implications for Bangladesh

Friday, February 7, 2020
UC Berkeley

(Please click on links for corresponding videos)

Welcome Remarks

SANCHITA SAXENA, Director, Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, UC Berkeley
RICK SPEES, Executive Director, CAORC

The United Nations general assembly has approved a resolution condemning human rights abuses against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims and other minorities, including arbitrary arrests, torture, rape and deaths in detention.

The 193-member body voted 134-9 with 28 abstentions on Friday in favour of the resolution, which also calls on Myanmar’s government to take urgent measures to combat incitement of hatred against the Rohingya and other minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states.

General assembly resolutions are not legally binding but do reflect world opinion.

The Chowdhury Center Distinguished Lecture for 2019
Shahidul Alam | The Challenge of being a Journalist in Bangladesh Today
November 9, 2019 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Sibley Auditorium

New Directions in Bangladesh Studies: Recent Scholarship and New Publications
Panel Discussion | November 5 | 3-7 p.m. | 10 Stephens Hall

Opening Remarks

• Sanchita B. Saxena, Director, Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies
• Poulomi Saha, Assistant Professor of English, University of California, Berkeley

Book Launch | Labor, Global Supply Chains, and the Garment Industry in South Asia: Bangladesh after Rana Plaza
October 21 | 5:30-7:30 p.m. | NYU Stern School of Business

Ali Asgar (Tara) | In Between Lands and Territories: Love, Loss and Survival
Lecture | October 15 | 5-7 p.m. | 10 Stephens Hall

Rebecca Whittington | Tug-of-Ear: The Play of Dialect in Modern Bengali and Tamil Literature
Lecture | September 24 | 5-7 p.m. | 10 Stephens Hall

An Afternoon with Amitav Ghosh: A Conversation on Climate Change, Literature, and Art
Conversation | September 16 | 12-2 p.m. | 10 Stephens Hall

Dolly Akhtar was only 16 when she started work in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, stitching clothing destined for shop floors in western countries thousands of miles away. She accepted the long hours and low pay, but what she wasn’t expecting was the sexual advances of her older, married line manager.

The Bangladesh government should end restrictions on Rohingya refugees’ freedom of movement and access to the internet and online communications, Human Rights Watc

Bangladesh has made economic progress under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The country has maintained an impressive growth record of between 6–7.9 per cent over the past five years. The World Bank endorses the country as among the five fastest-growing economies in the world and forecasts economic growth as both strong and stable.

Marzana Kamal | Wives Left Behind: A Study of the Impact of Men’s International Labour Migration on their Wives in Bangladesh Lecture | August 27, 2019 | 12-2 p.m. | Stephens Hall, 10 (ISAS Conference Room)