Bangladesh has closed all schools in the country after six people were killed during protests demanding the end of a quota system for top civil service jobs.
Bangladesh has more than 1.9 million civil servant positions, according to a 2022 report by the Ministry of Administration.
More than half of those recruited for these positions are not selected on the basis of merit, but under positive discrimination rules that give priority to women, people with disabilities and people from less developed regions.
The most controversial aspect of the quota system is that 30 percent of civil service positions are reserved for the children of those who fought for Bangladesh’s independence in 1971.
These rules were introduced the following year by Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh (previously part of Pakistan) to independence. He is the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
In 2018, student protests led M’s administration tome Hasina to scale back the quota system. But last June, the High Court reversed that decision and ordered the government to reintroduce the category of children of independence fighters.
Why do students oppose quota rules?
Bangladesh was one of the poorest countries in the world when it gained independence in 1971 before suffering a terrible famine in 1974. Its economy grew spectacularly in the following decades, largely thanks to a thriving textile industry that supplies the world’s biggest fast fashion brands.
But the country still struggles to provide enough jobs for its roughly 170 million people as its population continues to grow.
According to government statistics from 2022, more than 40% of Bangladeshis aged 15 to 24 were unemployed, not in education or training, or 18 million people.
Economists say the jobs crisis is particularly acute for millions of college graduates.
Civil service positions offer a chance of secure employment for life, but students say the quota system is being abused to allow supporters of the ruling Awami League party to fill civil service positions. They want the system to be restricted to ethnic minorities and people with disabilities, with the remaining 94 percent of positions awarded solely on merit.
How did the protests take place?
The protests began on the 1ster July by the blocking of major roads and railways by students from large cities.
They have continued almost every day since, with high school students also joining the rallies, although Bangladesh’s highest court suspended the quota system on July 10 for a month and urged protesters to return to class.
The next day, police tried to disperse the rallies, firing rubber bullets and tear gas, but failed to stop the protests in Dhaka.
On Monday, violent clashes broke out between protesters against the quota system and students belonging to the Awami League, leaving more than 400 injured at two universities in Dhaka.
Police repression and clashes between rival student groups left six people dead on Tuesday – in circumstances that remain unclear – in Dhaka, Chittagong (Bangladesh’s main port) and the northern city of Rangpur.
How did the government react?
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina condemned the protests and said students were “wasting their time” as the system had already been suspended.
However, she promised on Wednesday to punish those responsible for the “murders” of six people during student protests, without however naming those responsible.
Descriptions provided to AFP by hospital officials and students suggest that at least some of the victims died when police fired non-lethal weapons to quell the protests.
On Tuesday, the Education Ministry ordered all Islamic schools, universities and seminaries in the country to close until further notice, and deployed paramilitary forces to maintain order in several cities.