The grameen bank and the changing patron-client relationship in Bangladesh

Thinking through ethnographies: Making sense of societies in transition

“…Since Bangladesh's independence in 1971, economic transformations fueled by national development programs, microcredit policies, a focus on private entrepreneurship, and industrialization have shifted local discourses, affecting production relations and women's positions. Before the concept of petty‐money entrepreneurship (introduced by microcredit programs) and industrialization (with the rise of garment industries) became widely accepted, the poor could graze on the rich's fields and ponds for subsistence in times of hardship (see Breman, 2000; Datta, 1998; Islam, 2002; Makita, 2007; Mannan, 2005; Rahman & Wahid, 1992; Rudra, 1984) argues, women's roles were traditionally related to household maintenance and reproduction and performed within the homestead. In contrast, men were considered producers who earned and provided for the family.…”

“…First, with the expansion of microcredit and industrialization, many changes in the country followed: in terms of mobility of people and relaxation of rural economic structure. According to Rahman and Wahid (1992), traditional patron‐client relationships were changed after Grameen Bank became a formal financial organization in 1983. The poorest people's access to credit decreased their dependency on financial support from patrons and raised the rate of agricultural wages, which irritated their regular patrons (Rahman & Wahid, 1992, 319).…”

“…According to Rahman and Wahid (1992), traditional patron‐client relationships were changed after Grameen Bank became a formal financial organization in 1983. The poorest people's access to credit decreased their dependency on financial support from patrons and raised the rate of agricultural wages, which irritated their regular patrons (Rahman & Wahid, 1992, 319). Furthermore, when microcredit groups began to handle conflicts internally, these patrons' traditional position as judges of village courts was diminished, weakening and replacing the conventional patron‐client relationship (see Karim, 2008).…”

Model Citizens in Bangladesh

“…Before the widespread use of credit, those labeled poor were seen to have a right to the wealthy's resources through patron-client relationships. In exchange, the rural rich typically extracted free labor service and loyalty (see Breman 2000;Datta 1998;Islam 2002;Makita 2007;Mannan 2005;Rahman and Wahid 1992;Rudra 1984). However, since Grameen Bank started operating as a formal financial organization in 1983, widespread credit availability and the neoliberal ideology of self-help and individual responsibility have eroded and supplanted this longstanding patronclient relationship (see Karim 2008;Rahman and Wahid 1992).…”

Power and poverty: the Shapla Neer experience

“…One example is of a Union Chairman accused of distributing part of the relief received on behalf of his village for victims of the 1998 floods 'among his supporters who helped him returning in the election' and keeping the remainder for himself (The Independent 10 February 1999). 14 In a survey of 49 patrons Rahman and Wahid (1992) found that 25 sharecroppers had left their patrons soon after joining the Grameen Bank. The same study noted that of the 15 per cent of faction members who had joined the bank in the study area, only five per cent remained with their factions.…”