THE SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD FRAMEWORK AND PEOPLE IN THE CHAR OF BANGLADESH: A STUDY OF THE OLD BRAHMAPUTRA RIVER IN SHERPUR DISTRICT

Bangladesh is widely known as a riverine based country. Thousands of people across the country directly or indirectly are connected with rivers for their livelihood. In the history of Bengal delta, we have found that huge numbers of economic and social activities were related to rivers. These economic and social activities have been gradually shifted because of the industrial and technological development in the globalized world. Every year, four major rivers in Bangladesh, i.e. the Padma, the Jamuna, the Meghna and the Brahmaputra, and their distributaries erode away a substantial tract of land and have devastating social, physical, economic, and political impacts upon the population. These kinds of changes effect the people’s livelihood patterns and lifestyles, which are directly or indirectly connected to rivers. This paper has described the livelihood pattern of the people who are living in rived-based char areas through the well-known framework, ‘the Sustainable Livelihood Approach.’. The sustainable livelihood framework has been adopted by the UK’s Department for International Development’s (DFID) in late 1990’s that’s become the dominant approach to the implementation of development interventions by a number of major international agencies. The study area is Sherpur district of Bangladesh, which is situated on the bank of the old Brahmaputra River. This study has been conducted and examined the circumstances throughout both the wet and dry seasons. The findings of the study show that a significant number of inhabitants including women and children in the Sherpur district’s chars go through an experience of a shift in their standard of life and ways of livelihood every year. Overall, the study examines the many dimensions of livelihood patterns of char’s inhabitants and then looks for a long-term probable solution of problems.Keywords: Char, Livelihood Pattern, Sherpur District, The Sustainable Livelihood Framework.