Present Situation of the Field Workers in the Development Sector: A Social, Financial and Employment Aspect in Bangladesh

西 南 交 通 大 学 学 报

第 56 卷 第 2 期

2021

年 4 月

JOURNAL OF SOUTHWEST JIAOTONG UNIVERSITY

Vol. 56 No. 2

Apr. 2021

ISSN: 0258-2724 DOI：10.35741/issn.0258-2724.56.2.29

Research article Social Sciences

P

RESENT

S

ITUATION OF THE

F

IELD

W

ORKERS IN THE

D

EVELOPMENT

S

ECTOR

:

A

S

OCIAL

,

F

INANCIAL AND

E

MPLOYMENT

A

SPECT IN

B

ANGLADESH

发展部门实地工人的现状：孟加拉国的社会，金融和就业方面

Sheikh Abdul Kader a_{, Umme Kulsum} b_{, K. M. Anwarul Islam} c_{, Md. Nurul Amin Siddiki} d_{, Nurul Mohammad} Zayed e, *_{, Tahsin Sharmila Raisa} b

a _{Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Jagannath University}

Dhaka, Bangladesh PhD. Scholar, Sakarya University

Serdivan, Sakarya Province, Turkey, kаfiаub@gmail.com

b _{Lecturer, Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Business and Entrepreneurship, Daffodil International}

University

Dhaka, Bangladesh, ummеkulsum@dаffodilvarsity.edu.bd, rаisa.bbа@diu.edu.bd

c _{Associate Professor, Department of Business Administration, The Millennium University}

Dhaka, Bangladesh, аi419bаnkingdu@gmail.com

d _{Founder & Executive Director, Research Concern & Development Foundation (RCDF), arifbdcu@gmail.com} e _{Assistant Professor & Head, Department of Real Estate, Daffodil International University}

Dhaka, Bangladesh, Zayеd.bbа@daffodilvаrsity.edu.bd

Received: January 17, 2021 ▪ Review: February 21, 2021 ▪ Accepted: April 10, 2021 ▪ Published: April 30, 2021

This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

Abstract

This study has identified the present situation of the fieldworkers working in the development field, or we can call it data collection work, regarding their social, financial, and employment conditions. There is no existing literature on the social acceptances, financial security, job environment, and job security of the field workers working in the research and development sector. According to the founder president of the Organization of Research Associate in Bangladesh, almost 3500 to 4000 people work in the data collection field. The study found that only a few organizations have a wages policy for the field data collector. If the project budget is high, it will enable them to increase the payment of the fieldworkers. If the budget is low, they have to decrease the payment of the field workers. The working environment for the female workers working in the development sector for women is not well established.

摘要 这项研究已经确定了在开发领域工作的现场工作者的现状，或者我们可以将其称为数据收集工 作，涉及他们的社会，财务和就业状况。 尚无关于研究与开发部门工作的现场工作人员的社会接受 度，财务保障，工作环境和工作保障的文献。 根据孟加拉国研究协会组织的创始人主席的说法，在 数据收集领域有近 3500 至 4000 人在工作。 研究发现，只有少数组织对现场数据收集器制定了工资 政策。 如果项目预算很高，这将使他们能够增加实地工作者的报酬。 如果预算很低，他们必须减少 实地工人的工资。 在妇女发展部门工作的女工的工作环境尚不完善。 关键词: 工作，领域，发展，工人，研究

I.

I

Bangladesh is a largely populated country according to its land area. As a developing country, unemployment is a major social problem for Bangladesh. For the proper development of society, many INGOs, national NGOs, and Governments are implementing different kinds of programs all over the country. To implement such programs, they needed accurate and authentic data at the field level to prepare the actual development work plans. In this context, the development sector requires a lot of human resources. For this reason, day by day working opportunity is increasing in this sector. After the country's independence, many organizations came forward to develop the research and development sectors of the country. Moreover, with this purpose, they are increasing their activities day by day. There are now numerous research organizations in the country.

Besides the research organization, academic research of the educational institute plays a vital role in the research and development sector. Nowadays, different institutes from different public and private universities conducted different types of research all over the year. Different departments of the different ministries also conducted a feasibility study to implement their program.

So, to conduct their study, they needed the primary data collection from the field level. In these circumstances, they hired contractual data collectors. Those data collectors are named field workers.

Mostly fresh graduates from different universities and colleges are working in this sector. Some of them choose their career in this sector, and as such, they tried to settle down their career in these formats; but the workers in this sector do not have any job security. There is no government policy for this sector.

Organization/institute/department hired data collector/field worker as per their own opinion. They offered them different wages for different programs. Sometimes it is at a standard level, sometimes less than that, and sometimes it is going upper than the standard level. The majority work time frame/ duration is less than a month. So, every time they have to struggle with their continuous workflow. They were not able to say about their next work. So, this study tried to find the actual scenario of their professional life and others.

II.

S

L

S

With the increase in the number of the social research work in Bangladesh, many research organization and research institute has been established. On these references, data collection work increases rapidly, and data collectors needed more and more. A huge number of data collectors are joining in this data collection work. Employment opportunity is increasing day by day.

The study has a scope to determine the present situation on social acceptances, financial security, job environment, and job security of the field workers. Meanwhile, there is no existing study on these issues in the research sector and also other sectors. In the end, the study will cover the working background of the data collector, working opportunity, financial situation, job security, social acceptance, working environment for female workers over the period up to 2020. Scope of the study restricted to take a sample of the data collector from a government organization and non-government organization and institute located across Dhaka city of Bangladesh. Therefore, the scope of this study is limited to Bangladesh, and more specifically to those involves in social research work in Bangladesh.

III.

L

R

There is no existing literature on the social acceptances, financial security, and job environment, and job security of the field workers; those are worked in the research and development sector. First of all, the study could not find any study report or related papers in Bangladesh and the world regarding the same. However, discussions with the research and development organization/institute/department representatives and their online window, the study team collect some information.

A worker gets a wage for his administration, dependent on his effectiveness. Even though the capacity of workers contrasts from individual to individual, their fundamental necessities are nearly the equivalent. Along these lines, the pay structure is determined to meet the fundamental necessities of workers [1].

The study divided the information into three categories: (a) the number of people who worked in this sector, (b) name of the organization, those are work in this sector and recruit the contractual data collector, and (c) scenario of the payment policy of the recruiting agency [2].

Besides this, after the independence of Bangladesh, educational institutes and different government departments only conducted the research study. However, after some days non – government organizations also came forward in this sector. Now in Bangladesh, lots of institutes and organizations conducted research or survey work like SSMF, PDF, Innovation Consulting Limited, DATA, MOMODA Foundation, ECONS, Dhaka University, CBSG, Mitra and associate, BBS, Young Consultant, Population Council, PATHWAYs, NIPSOM, BSMMU, NIPORT, Midas, RDC, Helen Keller International, BUP, THE NIELSEN COMPANY BD LIMITED, Bangladesh Bank. ADSL, ICDDRB, BCAS, SANEM, CIPRB, IEDCR, RTM, HDRC, EUSUF and Associate, IRC, ETC.

According to the founder president of the Organization of Research Associate (ORA) in Bangladesh, almost 3500 – 4000 people work in the data collection field. Most of them work here due to their financial crisis. Some of them work here to gather knowledge about research fieldwork, and some of them work here because they do not have any other option to earn money. Students from the relevant institute work at the field level in the information on academic research, but they do

not get any wages for this work. They work it as their field experience. So, the number of field workers is not accurate calculative. It is always upping and downs.

The study found that only a few of the organization has the wages policy for the field data collector. Most organizations/institutes/departments do not have a payment policy for the field data collectors; they recruit them on a contract basis and pay them as per the project's budget. If the project budget is high, they can increase the payment of the fieldworker, and if the budget is low, they decrease the payment of the field worker. There is no fixed payment policy for the field worker. The government institute and department also fixed the payment policy according to the project budget [3]. Researcher [4] checked out the work needing rigorous exercise. Most of the employees are young. However, they are going to possess employment and earn cash rather than be a part of NGOs as sky-high field workers. Most field-workers in the People's Republic of Bangladesh should leave the task once they get older or (in the case of women) get hitched.

Researcher [5] examined gender variations within the practices and perceptions of field-level implementers in 2 rural development programs in the People's Republic of Bangladesh. One goes past the state, the opposite by associate degree organization. These programs have giant proportions of girl’s beneficiaries and espouse GAD goals like women's monetary authorization. This paper investigates how they exercise discretion in distinguishing beneficiaries deemed worthy, in the dominant amount of input and data they deliver, and establishing routines of interaction with beneficiaries. The target of that specialization in the traditionally and contextually specific implementation practices of field staff in ladies' development programs is to map how women's deprivilege could also be created or undermined through procedures for managing the contact between women beneficiaries and, therefore, the organization. Structural variations between the organization and government approach are slighter than could be expected in foresting willingness to the requirements and interests of poor women. Different factors like individual positions in school and gender hierarchies matter an excellent deal in determinative willingness and responsiveness at the grassroots level [6], [7].

IV.

O

The study's overall objective was to gather information on the financial and social life of the development field worker.

- To know the present job, the financial situation of the development field worker;

- To know the employment opportunity in the development fieldwork;

- To understand the social position and appreciation of the development field worker;

- To assess the involvement of the development field worker in the national income;

- To understand the financial policy of the development organization for the field worker;

- To find out the government involvement regarding employment facility creation in the development sector;

- To find out the recommendation and suggestion to develop the facility for the development field worker.

V.

M

A mixed-method combining quantitative and qualitative approach, policy review exercise, and review of existing tools/indexes available and recommended to the study were deployed to meet the study objectives. The study started with a rapid literature review of the project. Evaluate various documents relevant to the discipline as well as certain background study documents.

A. Quantitative Survey through Semi-Structured Questionnaire

The quantitative samples were subjectively chosen based on study objectives and rationale to be advised through secondary data reviews.

The study surveyed the development worker from different organizations, and for the unknown population, the calculated sample size is 384.

𝑛0=

𝑧2𝑝̂ (1−𝑝̂)

𝜀2 ∗ (1 + 𝑑𝑒𝑓𝑓) (1)

where:

n = Estimated sample size;

z = Value of z for the level of significance alpha (at

a 95% level of significance value of Z is 1.96); σ = Standard Deviation (0.5);

ϵ = Marginal Error (0.05)

deff = 0.00

The study started the survey before the COVID-19 pandemic situation, but after some data collection, the pandemic situation started. That is why the study team collected the data through an

online platform. The respondents give their opinion/information via an online platform. The study team replaced the sample into 150 as a random sample.

B. Qualitative Survey

The qualitative data was also collected through an online platform.

C. Key Informant Interviews (Guideline & Semi-Structured)

• Recruitment organization representative • Researcher

We will try to show that most fieldworkers do not find their works for the whole year. The majority of the people in Bangladesh are not aware of the working situation in the development sector. Most organizations/institutes/departments do not have a payment policy for the field data collectors; they recruit them on a contract basis and pay them as per the project's budget.

D. Data Analysis

For achieving the objectives mentioned above, the following hypotheses have been tested through frequency distribution:

H0: There is no significant influence of

qualitative and quantitative factors on the developments of the field workers.

H1: There is a significant influence of

geographical background on the developments of the field workers.

H2: There is a significant influence of working

experience on the developments of the field workers.

H3: There is a significant influence of minimum

education on the development of field workers.

H4: There is a significant influence of the type

of work on the developments of the field workers.

H5: There is a significant influence of the

working period on the developments of the field workers.

H6: There is a significant influence of work

satisfaction on the developments of the field workers.

H7: There is a significant influence of average

monthly income on the developments of the field workers.

H8: There is a significant influence of monthly

expenditure on the development of the field workers.

H9: There is a significant influence of the nature

H10: There is a significant influence of payment

policy on the developments of the field workers.

H11: There is a significant influence of the type

of payment policy on the developments of the field workers.

H12: There is a significant influence on the

ability to maintain expenditure on the developments of the field workers.

H13: There is a significant influence of social

acceptance on the developments of the field workers.

VI.

R

D

Both males and females are working in this sector. From the beginning of this sector, the only male was worked, but nowadays female are joining rapidly. Sometimes a study/survey is conducted by the only female data collector due to the demand/necessity of the study. The study found that 31.01% is female and 68.99% is male from the participants of this survey. They are from different religions, caste, and creed. Most of the field workers have a strong educational background. Their minimum educational certification is graduation. Most of their family source of income is agriculture and small business. Their average number of family members is 4.

Figure 1. Survey report

B. Working Background in This Sector

Most of the young people came into this sector by the hand of an existing field worker. Due to a lack of employment, they came into this profession. Some of them came here only for gathering experience; they do not have a long vision into this sector. The study found that 43.41% of people working here for 5 – 10 years. 25.58%

said that they are working for below five years. After this certain period, these two categories of people could find their destination carrier. That is why they move from here. The rest of them choose their carrier here permanently. A day's youth is encouraging to establish their carrier here, but they cannot do this due to a lack of job security.

Figure 2. Survey report

C. Working Opportunity

Our country has a mass to identify the social problem, which is unemployment. Our government and development workers try to solve this problem. Fields working in the social development sector can be an important job field for job seekers. However, mass awareness is not available in this sector. For this reason, the young generation is not aware of the sector. Those who are known about this sector are not interested in continuing in this sector due to a lack of job security. The study found that 76% of field workers think minimum educational qualification should be a graduation to enter this sector. Another 19% think that Higher Secondary Certificate level education can be enough.

Figure 3. Survey report

31,01

68,99

100

Graph - 01: Sex Female Male Total

<5 Years5 – 10 10 – 15 15 –₂₀ >20 years Total 25,58 43,41 24,81 3,88 _2,33 100 Graph:- 02: Working Experience

Percent

19%

76% 5%

Graph:- 03: Minimum Education needed to work in this sector

There are two types of work performed in the development fieldwork: quantitative data collection and qualitative data collection. People can choose one or both types of work for his or her career. Among the study participants, 81% of field workers performed two types of work, 14% performed only quantitative, and 5% performed only qualitative data collection work. 42% of the participants think that their social acceptance is increased by doing this job, but 39% of the respondents think their social acceptance has not increased, whereas at least 19% of the field workers mentioned that they are not sure about this.

Figure 4. Survey report

Another important side of the sector is working duration. Most of the survey work is conducted in time duration; it can be five days to 2/3 months. However, most of the fieldwork was conducted on an average of 15 to 30 days. So, after completing a work, field workers have to wait for the next work. They need to search in every organization, is there any opportunity available to work. Based on the last one-year working involvement of the fieldworker, the following graph showed us, 26.36% worker, in the last one-year work for below five months, 36.43% field worker got the opportunity to work 5-7 months. The interesting thing is that only 5.43% of field workers got the opportunity to work for 10-12 months. So, it was cleared that most of the field did not find work for them in the whole year.

One female field worker mentioned that "As a

woman, I have to face many problems to get the work opportunity. Sometimes work providers choose the only male person to complete their work first. Their concern is that the female worker is lazy and always makes an excuse."

Figure 5. Survey report

D. Financial Situation

The study found that 67.44% of the workers mentioned are happy with this profession, 17.83 think they are not happy with their profession, and 14.73 were not sure about their working satisfaction.

One of the male fieldworkers mentioned: "We

are happy with this profession because this is social development work, by this profession we can participate in the development process, but we are worried about our financial security."

Figure 6. Survey report

Most of the fieldworkers always worried about their financial capability. Due to a lack of work sources, they are not able to find a continuous work schedule. Somebody was lucky about their continuous work schedule, but many are not lucky about their continuous job. For this reason, their average monthly income is not in good figures. The study found that 21.71% of field workers had an average monthly income below 10,000 Bangladesh Taka (BDT), 36.43% had 10,000-20,000 BDT, and

5% 14%

81%

Graph:- 04: Type of Work Qualitative Quantitative Both

<5 month 5 – 7 month 7-10 month 10 -12 month 26,36 36,43 31,01 5,43 Graph:- 05: Month of work in the

last 1 year Percent

Yes No Not sure Total 67,44

17,83 _14,73

100 Graph:- 06: Work Satisfaction

28.68% of worker's monthly average income was 20,000-30,000 BDT.

Figure 7. Survey report

The study also found that 63.57% of field workers' average monthly expenditure was above 10,000 BDT, and 18.6% of workers' expenditure was 8,000 to 10,000 BDT.

Figure 8. Survey report

E. Job Security

Job security is the main thing to develop a career in any sector. However, the study found there is no job security in the development field working sector. Job seekers are not interested in working in this sector because of the nature of the job. The study found that 95% of the job was conducted on a contractual basis, and 1% said that they worked here permanently.

One of the participants, Mr. M. S. Rahman mentioned: “We work on a contractual basis;

organization hired us for only the days to collect the data.”

Figure 9. Survey report

According to the nature of the work, every organization has a payment policy, but this policy was not permanent. This policy was made on a project or assignment basis. Based on these study survey participants, 83% said organizations have a payment policy, but 17% said there was no payment policy by the organization. They recruit people on an assignment basis and provide payment as per their own instant decision.

One of the participants said: "Recruiting

organizations pay us based on their interest. They never think about the interest of the field worker."

Figure 10. Survey report

Development organizations make contracts with the fieldworker on a daily payment basis. Some of them are paid monthly, and sometimes, they are hired on a work basis. According to the study report, 79.84% of field workers mentioned that they work daily payment policy and 6.98% said they work every month.

21,71 36,43 28,68 10,85 2,33 100 <Tk. 10,000 Tk. 10,000 to 20,000 Tk. 20,000 to 30,000 Tk. 300,000 to 50,000 More than Tk. 50,000 Total

Graph:- 07: Average Monthly Income

Percent

3,1 6,2

7,75 18,6

63,57 Graph:- 08: Monthly Expenditure

Percent

95% 1%4%

Graph:- 09: Nature of work Contractual Permanent Others

17%

83%

Graph:- 10: Payment Policy No Yes

Figure 11. Survey report

F. Social Acceptance

In our society, there is a common thing that is social acceptance. The majority of people in Bangladesh do not become aware of the development sector work. They did not recognize the profession as a socially known profession. There is a reason behind this thinking. The study found that 42% of the participants said they could not maintain their expenditure by doing these jobs, and another 14% were not sure about their life expenditure.

Figure 12. Survey report

Figure 13. Survey report

G. The Working Environment for Female Workers

Working in the field of development sector for women is not well established. They have to face lots of problems. Financial remuneration is equal for both male and female field workers. First of all, they have to face low demand behavior during recruitment. The recruiting agency always prefers male field workers for their work. If the client bounds them to hire females is compulsory then, they follow it. Otherwise, the recruiting organization thinks female field workers are slower than male field workers. The female worker has many issues to work fast, and social and individual security is needed for female workers.

Secondly and a vital problem they face is sexual harassment. They have to face different type's harassment like:

• Foul or hostile language;

• Inappropriate touching;

• Sexually explicit talk;

• Sexually provocative photographs;

• Harassment in transportation.

Now the question is, by whom they face these kinds of harassment? They face harassment by their coworker, by the recruiting organization representative, and by the respondents.

When they have faced these kinds of harassment, they tried to protest by themselves most of the time. In some cases, they inform their recruiting authority, and some of the fields did not do anything about their incident.

One of the participants in the study mentioned her experience: "I am Samiha (Name changed)

working as a field data collector. Some years ago, I was recruited to an organization to collect

Daily basis Weekly basis Monthly basis Work basis Others 79,84 0,78 6,98 9,3 3,1

Graph:- 11: Type of Payment Policy

Percent

42%

44% 14%

Graph:- 12: Ability to maintain expenditure by doing this work

Yes No

Not sure or N/A

42%

39% 19%

Graph:- 13: Social Acceptance

Yes No

Not sure or N/A

qualitative data from the field. I went to the field in a team. Every day after 10 pm, our supervisor asked one of our teammates to work with him. One day, he asked me to work with him in his room. I refused and told him I could not work after 9 pm, wherever it is. He threads me that I will be dismissed from my job if I do not follow his instructions. I refused because I already knew that he tried to harass other female members of our team sexually. So, when I refused him, he mentioned that I would be fired the next day. However, before he fired me, I resigned from my job in the morning.”

VII.

C

P

S

The study has been conducted in the COVID-19 situation, but it started before the pandemic situation. During the data collection, the situation before the pandemic period was considered. The study was conducted based on the practical situation of the field data collector. The study followed the situation-based social science research methodology. The focus of the study was only the working aspect of the field data collector. Study results can help to work for the proper rights of the filed data collector. Study results will create more opportunities to conduct more study regarding the field data collector activities in the social science research work. In this study, field data mostly used for the findings, but desk review took part rigorously. However, the study has some limitations in the field data collection and existing document collection but resolved with the proper planning.

According to the study findings, it is clear that the financial situation of the field data collector is not well enough for them. For that reason, social recognition is not established as yet. This sector is not renowned as an employment sector by the government. Recruiting organizations developed their policy according to their interest. It is quite evident that they never thought about the interest of the field workers.

Female field workers faced the most vulnerable situation sometimes. Sexual harassment is one of them.

The study recommends the following suggestions for improving the social, financial, and working environment situation of the field workers who are working in the social development sector:

- Recognize this sector as an employment sector;

- Develop a national payment policy for the development sector field data collector;

- Develop a common working manual for all the organizations;

- Ensure the working opportunity for both male and female field workers.

R

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