Students win jobs quota reform despite campus crackdown

In the wake of a Supreme Court order, the Bangladesh government this week said it will make its biggest ever reform in the quota system for coveted public service jobs in the country.

The statement followed a week of heavy bloodshed as law enforcers came down heavily on students protesting on university campuses and in many cities for modification of a system they regard as deeply unfair.

However, student leaders pledged to carry on their protests.

In the past week universities in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka have come under attack by law enforcers trying to disperse students.

After a week of violence, the government on 23 July issued a circular for 93% of civil service jobs to be filled on merit, in line with the 21 July Supreme Court order to bring change in the quota system. Until then, just 44% of jobs for public service were on merit.

This is the biggest reform in the quota system since Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, as the quota for freedom fighters’ who took part in the war of independence from Pakistan was never previously lowered below 30%, and there was always a quota for women.

The authorities took the decision to reform the quota system in the wake of unprecedented violence after student protests to reform quotas began early this month. The violence left 197 killed and several thousand injured since 16 July when largely peaceful protests that had been ongoing since 1 July turned violent.

“We have implemented the apex court’s verdict as it is… It was mainly a movement for reformation of the quota and we have reformed it. Students should return to their classrooms,” Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Anisul Huq said at a press conference in Dhaka on 23 July.

However, Nahid Islam of the Anti-Discriminatory Student Movement, one of the key organisers of the quota reform protest, on Tuesday rejected the government circular.

“Our movement will continue until justice is being served regarding the deaths and injured,” Islam told University World News.

“This movement is no longer limited to the reformation of the quota for public service. Many people were killed, much destruction has been done. We will continue our movement until all problems are resolved and justice is served for the people killed,” he added.

At a press conference on Tuesday of the four organisers of the quota protests, Dhaka University student Sargis Alam claimed at least 300 to 400 people were killed in the violence. Islam said they will continue their protests.

He said they had given the government 48 hours to meet their four demands.

These were restoration of internet connectivity, withdrawal of the curfew, reopening of all the universities and other educational institutions after withdrawing all law enforcement agencies from campuses, and ensuring safety of lives of all the coordinators of the movement.

Universities attacked

The government indefinitely shut down all schools, colleges and universities – including 55 public and 114 private universities — from 16 July, disrupting the education of more than 40 million students, 4.4 million of them in higher education. The authorities also enforced a curfew from midnight 19 July, with a ‘shoot-on-sight’ order.

A nationwide internet blackout in place since 15 July was partially lifted on Wednesday on an area-based ‘trial basis’, with priority initially given to the banking, commercial, technology and exports industries.

Since the partial restoration of internet and mobile communications, information has begun to filter out of attacks on university campuses.

According to reports, on 18 July police entered the Canadian University of Bangladesh, a private university in Dhaka, as demonstrators took up positions outside. Police fired shotguns and lobbed teargas shells from inside the university, leaving many wounded.

At around 3pm, helicopters of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite military force, airlifted 60 police personnel from the rooftop of a building just next to the Canadian University of Bangladesh.

Police lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the students gathered in front of North South University, BRAC University, East West University and others.

Sources at BRAC told University World News, that the university “experienced terrible violence” in response to student protests, even though it is a private university and protests were peaceful.

’Enforced disappearances’ of students

Islam, who is a student at Dhaka University’s sociology department, told University World News the whereabouts of Dhaka University students Asif Mahmud, Abu Baker Majumdar, Rifat Rashid, Abdul Kader and Ibrahim Nirob, have been unknown for the past several days.

“I was one of the victims of enforced disappearance. The state of course knows where they are, we want to know their whereabouts, this is human rights violation,” he said, alleging he was picked up by law enforcers from a house in the capital’s Sabujbagh area in the early hours of 16 July and “tortured physically”.

“After taking me into a room, they interrogated me about the student movement. They tortured me mentally and physically. At one point, I lost consciousness,” he added.

When he gained consciousness around dawn on 23 July, he found himself dumped under a bridge in the Purbachal area on the outskirts of the city.

“I learned where I was after looking at a signboard. After walking along the road for some time, I found a CNG and went home.,” he said referring to three-wheel vehicles fuelled by compressed natural gas (CNG). He is now undergoing treatment at a private hospital.

Asif Mahmud’s father, Billal Hossain said during Tuesday’s press conference: “I came to Dhaka from Comilla Muradnagar (in Chittagong district) on Tuesday after seeing the news of Asif’s disappearance. I didn’t find him. Now I have only one request, I want to find Asif”.

Unprecedented clashes and use of helicopters

The situation took a deadly turn when many non-students joined the protest on 18 July when at least 41 were killed, and 19 July when at least 66 were killed, according to figures not yet verified by the authorities. On 21 July – the first day of curfew – 26 were reported killed as many non-students joined the protest.

Pro-government activists were seen attacking students with iron pipes, rods, sticks and hockey sticks in Dhaka and elsewhere. Some also opened fire on the protesters in and outside the capital, according to student reports.

Law enforcers fired live rounds and rubber bullets, lobbed teargas shells and blasted sound grenades – a kind of stun grenade – at the protesters who retaliated with brickbats, creating panic among residents in different areas.

In scenes unprecedented in independent Bangladesh, law enforcers discharged sound grenades and teargas shells at the demonstrators from the air, as RAB helicopters patrolled the Dhaka sky at a low altitude, including in Mirpur 10 and 6, Mohammadpur, and Rampura bridge areas of the city.

Dhaka was isolated from the rest of the country as road and rail communications were snapped.

The massive unrest also saw dozens of public and private establishments, including Bangladesh Television (BTV) centre and two Metro stations vandalised or burned or both, according to multiple reports. Scores of vehicles also came under arson attack.

Major quota reform

Amid a volatile situation and as the death toll continued to rise, the government on 18 July requested the top court to hold an early hearing, and it was brought forward to 21 July from 7 August.

The seven-member full bench of the Appellate Division led by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan directed the government to keep 93% of government jobs on merit and the rest on quotas.

Two days later, the government issued a circular announcing that for direct appointments that take place after a recruitment test, 93% of jobs in the civil service, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, would be on merit.

There will be a 5% quota for children of freedom fighters, martyred freedom fighters and Biranganas – war heroines who were raped during the 1971 war. A 1% quota has been reserved for ethnic minorities and another 1% for persons with disabilities and people of third gender.

The circular and other orders, including the circular of October 4, 2018 were scrapped, according to the 23 July circular.

A 2018 government circular abolished the quota system for first and second-class jobs in the wake of massive quota reform protests that year. The current protests began after the High Court on 5 June ruled the 2018 circular illegal, effectively reinstating the quota system.

The government appealed against the decision and on 10 July the Supreme Court suspended the High Court order for a month.

Around 56% of government jobs were reserved under rules in place before 2018. Of these 30% were for the children and grandchildren of those who fought for Bangladesh independence; 10% for women; 10% for people from underdeveloped districts; 5% for members of indigenous communities; and 1% for persons with disabilities.

In 1996, as the numbers of those claiming the freedom fighters’ quota positions started to dwindle, the government extended the quota to children of freedom fighters. In 2009, it was further expanded to include their grandchildren.

Uncertainty over reopening universities

While the government relaxed the curfew on Wednesday and many offices were reopened for five hours, the authorities said the reopening of schools, colleges and universities was still uncertain.

Bangladesh’s University Grants Commission (UGC) acting Chairman Prof Muhammed Alamgir told University World News that the UGC was closely observing the situation. “We will sit with the government (to discuss) the reopening of public and private universities only after the situation significantly improves,” he said.

Primary and Mass Education Ministry spokesperson and Mahbubur Rahman Education Ministry spokesperson MA Khair both told University World News there was no decision yet to reopen the primary and secondary schools.