BBC survey 2005

Most people in Bangladesh are happy with their life

Most of the country’s people are happy with their life today while 96 per cent feels proud to be a Bangladeshi, according to a BBC survey.

According to the survey, 74 per cent Bangladeshis said that they are happy with their current life, 97 per cent stated that the religion is very important to them and 72 per cent considered spending time with family as the most popular leisure time activity. Publishing the summery of the survey, Sabir Mostafa, acting executive editor of the BBC World Service Asia Pacific region, at a press conference in the city Tuesday said that Bangladeshis are family-oriented, religious and proud of their country.

BBC Bangla Service organized the press conference to give information about objectives and different aspects of their new project titled Bangladesh Sanglap, scheduled to start from November 17.

Held at the VIP auditorium of National Press Club Tuesday, the press conference was also attended and addressed by senior officials of BBC World Service. BBC World Service Trust conducted “ The Pulse Of Bangladesh”, a national survey to understand how Bangladeshis perceive themselves, their country and the rest of the world, along with their development priorities.

The survey was conducted in August. More than 5,000 people from all over Bangladesh talked about their lives and shared opinions about: family, religion, national identity, public life and governance. The main aim of Bangladesh Sanglap is to create greater understanding and increased quality of debate around key governance issues and their relationship to the development of Bangladesh.

According to the survey, national pride is universally felt, with 96 per cent being proud to be Bangladeshi and 69 per cent preferring to be recognized as Bangladeshi over religious or other affiliations. Most admired were the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and the Prophet Mohammed (SM).

The poll highlights the concerns of ordinary Bangladeshi, 45 per cent of whom felt unemployment was the most important national problem with commodity prices coming in second and transport third.

The government’s performance was also assessed. There were three issues upon which more than half the people felt the government had done well: education (65 per cent), promoting equality between men and women (56 per cent), and providing clean drinking water (56 per cent).