1. Introduction

Among few varieties of tribal communities in Bangladesh, Manipuri community is the oldest one [1]. Majority of the Manipuri people of Bangladesh live in Sylhet division. Like other communities Manipuris have an individual culture and custom Monipuri culture is considered to be one of the oldest cultures in the sub-continent. Monipuri art and culture is the pride of the Monipuri community in Bangladesh [2, 3, 4]. However, it is a matter of great concern that those are fading away [5].

The contrast between one community and other is enhancing noticeable in Bangladesh and Manipuris especially the Manipuri women have to face discrimination in education, employment and civil rights though the income of Manipuri women provides a major contribution to the economic-resources of Manipuri family. They use traditional handloom to make Manipuri bed sheet, bedcover, pillow cover, ladies shawl and woollen shawl are the best in sales [6]. In Sylhet city, Manipuris are concentrated mainly in Sylhet town suburb areas e.g. Lamabazar, Manipuri Rajbari, Laladighirpar, Kewapara, Narsingtilla (Bagbari), Sagardighirpar, Subidbazar (Nayabosti), Ambar-Khana, Gowaipara (Barabazar), Brajanathtilla, Shibganj, Nayabazar and Dakshingachh. The year of forming this settlement is very old [1].

Tribal people and their culture is national asset of a country. Like other ethnic minority people of Bangladesh, Manipuri community is underprivileged at every sphere of human development. Moreover, they are deprived of various civil rights and facilities that other indigenous people have. Various national and international organizations are promoting diverse programs to improve the livelihood of different tribal people of Bangladesh but no organization is working specifically for the development of this community. The socio-economic condition of Manipuri community should be developed. Researches to explore their socio-economic condition and reproductive behavior is needed, however there is no mentionable data based research on this community is available. We have taken this opportunity to put forward a study concerning the women of Manipuri community in Sylhet, Bangladesh through this data based research. Through this study, we put forward some suggestions to develop the socio-economic conditions of the people of Manipuri community in Sylhet and in other parts of Bangladesh.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Data

The study is based on primary data. Two distinct sample surveys were conducted in two different phases in the years 2001-2002 and 2008-2009 respectively under the financial support of Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of Bangladesh. In the first phase (in 2001-2002) a total of 101 ever married women and in the second phase (in 2008-2009) a total of 201 ever married women were interviewed. Sylhet city was selected as the study area in a sense that it is considered as the most densely populated area of Manipuri people.

2.2. Sampling Technique

A cluster sampling procedure was used to collect the primary data. There are thirteen Manipuri paras in Sylhet city. Each of the Manipuri paras of Sylhet city was considered as a cluster. At the first phase (in 2001-2002) four paras were selected at random and covered all the married women. At the second phase (in 2008-2009) eight paras (including four paras of first phase) were selected at random and covered all the married women. A total of 101 women in the first phase and 201 women in the second phase were successfully interviewed.

2.3. Analytical Tools

An exploratory data analysis was done to have an insight of the data. The socio-economic condition of Manipuri community was investigated by using various statistical tools. Pareto’s law of income distribution, Gini coefficient, and concentration ratio were calculated to investigate concentration of the income distribution of community people. The Gini coefficient is the area between the Lorenz curve of the income distribution and the diagonal line of complete equality [7, 8]. The empirical formula to measure inequality is

(1)

where, y is the number of people having income x or greater, a is the lowest income on which the curve begins and A, v are certain parameters. By the Method of Least Squares (MLS) we get the Gini’s coefficient as follows:

(2)

And Gini concentration ratio is defined as follows:

(3)

The Gini coefficient was used to indicate how the distribution of income has changed within a representative Manipuri community over a period of time, thus it is possible to see if inequality is increasing or decreasing.

3. Results and Discussion

Education is one of the key determinants of the life style for improving the status of society [9, 10]. A tendency of sending Manipuri girls to secondary and higher secondary classes was much higher than before the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. They were used to send to husband’s house, and hence, higher education was not a necessary in an environment where they had to be good house-wives only [6]. About 5% respondents were found with no education in 2001, which diminished to 2.5% in 2008. The proportion of Manipuri women with primary and secondary school certificate (SSC) level education was approximately same for both phases and proportion of Manipuri women with but higher secondary school certificate (HSC) were found 12.9% and 17.9% in phase one and two respectively. Only about 7% respondents were found as graduate in both years. It is also found that husbands’ educational level was better than that of their wives (Table 3.1). Among Manipuri women, about 23% in 2001and 60% in 2008 were found unemployed. Among employed Manipuri women the major portion were involved in weaving followed by business. The figures for weaving (70.3% in 2001 and 32.8% in 2008) indicate that Manipuri women were diverting from weaving to other professions over time. The tendency of involving in service or entering in job market of Manipuri women was increased by 7% from 2001 to 2008. Professionally, the Manipuri people are very closely related to the vast majority of the Bengali community in Bangladesh [11]. The respondents were asked about their husbands’ occupation. It was found that (table 3.1) majority of the husbands were engaged in business (56.6% in 2001 and 25.9% in 2008). No goldsmith was found in 2001 whereas 15.2% were goldsmiths in 2008. Moreover, percentage of motor mechanics was increased from 1 to 11.2.

Table 3.1. Distribution of respondents by education and occupation

The average monthly family income of the respondents was found BDT 13722.38 with standard deviation BDT 10686.87 in 2008 and BDT 6331.68 with standard deviation BDT 2876.44 in 2001. It is evident from the graph 3.1 that the monthly family income of the respondents was increasing extensively. More specifically, in 2008, 11.9% respondents had monthly family income more than BDT 20000 whereas no such family was found in 2001. In addition to income, their monthly family expenditure was also increasing. It was depicted that in 2008 the average monthly family expenditure was BDT 13447.01 with standard deviation BDT 10550.88 whereas it was BDT 5622.77 with standard deviation BDT 2819.67 in 2001 (Figure 3.2).

Figure 3.1. Distribution of monthly family income

Figure 3.2. Distribution of monthly family expenditure

The percentage of joint family of the Manipuri community in Bangladesh is so high that nuclear family is nearly absent [6]. In contrast, we found that in 2008 there were 36% nuclear and 58% joint families, whereas in 2001 there were 49% nuclear and 45% joint families (Figure 3.3). That is, joint families were increased in 2008 compared to 2001. However, their house ownership was not increased in the similar manner. We observe that only two percent house ownership was increased in 2008 compared to 2001, and the rest of the respondents mentioned that they had no own house (Figure 3.4). The Manipuri Religion is said to be the oldest organized religion of South-East Asia. All of our sampled Manipuri women were Hindu. Respondents were asked about the land holding and about housing materials. About one fourth of the respondents in 2008 mentioned that they had no idea about their homestead land area (Table 3.2). However, in 2008, it is observed that 81% respondents had homestead land area of 20 decimal or less and in 2001, 92% respondents had homestead land area of 20 decimal or less. The relationship between the Manipuri lifestyle and their construction of houses had been reflected in the past. But as the life style becomes westernized, there have been changes in using housing and construction materials [12]. Similar to Singh (2005), we also found that the housing condition of the respondents of 2008 became standard than that of the respondents of 2001. The use of concrete as their housing (roof, wall, floor) materials in 2008 was comparatively higher than those in 2001.

Table 3.2. Distribution of residential land ownership and housing characteristics

Figure 3.3. Pie diagrams of respondents family type

Figure 3.4. Pie diagrams of present residence statuses of the respondents

3.1. Income Inequality by Gini-Coefficient and Lorenz Curve Calculation of Gini’s Concentration Ratio

Concentration ratios show that 57.07% and 55.72% income was concentrated in the hands of a few households and rest 42.93% and 44.28% of the total income was almost equally distributed in 2008 and 2001 respectively as shown in the Table 3.3.

Table 3.3. Gini’s coefficient and Concentration ratio

3.2. Lorenz Curve

A common way to analyze personal income statistics is to construct a Lorenz curve (Gujrati, 2004; Koutsoyiannis, 1973). Lorenz Curve provides a visual representation of the information we wish to consider, in this case the inequality of wealth prevailing in Manipuri community over two time period. Figure 3.5 shows that 57.07% and 55.67% income was concentrated in the hands of a few households and rest 42.93% and 44.33% of the total income was almost equally distributed in 2008 and 2001 respectively.

Figure 3.5. Lorenz Curve of Income Distribution (2001)

4. Conclusions

Tribal people and their culture is national asset to a country. Although Manipuri culture is considered to be one of the oldest cultures in the sub-continent, in Bangladesh Manipuri people are deprived of various civil rights and facilities that other indigenous people have. This study is designed to investigate the socio-economic conditions of Manipuri tribe and to see whether there is improvement in their socio-economic conditions in a two phase study. This study is mainly based on primary data and some secondary information is also used for comparison. Sylhet city is selected as the study area in a sense that it is considered as the most densely populated area of Manipuri people. A strong effort is made to ensure a representative sample of the study. In order to reach the ultimate sampling unit, cluster sampling design is adopted. The study is expected to provide the policy makers and planners of Government and Non- Government agencies vital information about Manipuri women and their community needs.

No mentionable development had been found in the education sector of Manipuri community from the year 2001 and 2008. Although the percentage of women with SSC and HSC level education was increased in a very low rate, the percentage of higher educated women was decreased by fifty percent. Husbands’ educational level was found better than that of their wives. It is unfortunate in Manipuri community that the number of occupied women was decreasing. The number of women who were involved with different jobs reduced about fifty percent from 2001 to 2008 due to the lack of better employment opportunity and the lack of better facilities for their traditional weaving profession. Manipuri women were diverting from their traditional weaving to other professions like service, business and seamstress. Like women their husbands were also diverting to new professions such as goldsmith, motor mechanics and others from business and service. Average incomes and standard deviations of both years indicate that though the income level was increased in 2008 from 2001, it is true only for few people. Gini’s concentration ratios clarify this fact. Monthly savings extensively decreased since expenditure was increased in a high rate. Where nuclear families are increasing all over the country, different picture was shown in Manipuri community. The number of joint family was increased whereas percentage of nuclear family was decreased than 2001 since their house ownership was not increased as well. Although the housing condition was improved in 2008 as compared with 2001, the overall housing condition was not satisfactory. In spite of living in urban area still now about half of the Manipuri families were living under tin made roof, which represent their poor economic condition.

There are some limitations in this study. Firstly, sectarian restriction is a problem in Manipuri community. So, it was cumbersome job to collect information from the people of Manipuri community due to their conservativeness and language (Bengali) problem. For that reason, there may be arisen information bias in the collected data. Secondly, there may be raised non-sampling errors for several data required such as income, expenditure, savings, loan, land ownership etc. because some of the respondents had no correct idea about these variables. Gini Coefficient would work best if data on each and every resident in the Manipuri community is available. This can ensure most accurate Lorenz curve and thus most accurate computation of the coefficient. But in this study, we randomly selected group of Manipuri people which may lead to selection bias in our analysis. It would be interesting if Optimal Data Analysis Paradigm could have been used as a robust statistical method which might be added a new contribution to the investigation [13, 14]. Further investigations should be done in future to have a clear picture of the socio-economic condition of all Manipuri tribe in Bangladesh if data have been collected for each and every people of that community.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We acknowledge the invaluable financial support from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh without which this research work would have been difficult to conduct. We are grateful for the generosity of time and effort by the participants and all researchers who make the project possible.