Peasant perceptions: famine, credit needs, sanitation

Abstract

BRAC has, in the past been called upon to provide relief in areas where famine or extreme scarcities prevailed. The prolonged drought in the recent months has already damaged two consecutive rice crops and the spectre of famine is already evident in some parts of Bangladesh. BRAC is again planning to mount relief efforts in some of these areas of extreme need. At this juncture, BRAC felt that eliciting the perceptions and experience of poor peasants from some of the worst affected areas of Bangladesh will be a worthwhile exercise. BRAC has recently begun exploring a new method of “participatory research”. In this form of research the idea is to generate information on the subject under study through the opinions and observations of a group of participants sitting together as a forum. These group sessions are usually conducted under the guidance of one or several facilitators whose role is to keep the discussion within a prearranged framework of topics that the researchers are interested in. The essential aspect of this method is to allow the participants as much freedom as possible to express their own views and to bring up features that they feel are most important to them. The facilitators do not control the nature of the information that is produced, they only throw open realms of discourse and permit the participants as a group, to explore that realm in whatever way is important and meaningful to them.