“We often walked for hours through fields, woods, and along riverbanks just to find one household. And sometimes, by the time we arrived, the man we were supposed to interview had already left the house for work.”
Between February and March 2025, the SHINE Bangladesh team travelled to Mymensingh and Barishal to conduct a baseline survey for the SHINE project. Our plan was to cover five subdistricts each in the Barishal and Mymensingh districts. The subdistricts in Barishal are mostly river-oriented and remote, where commuting often requires crossing waterways. In contrast, the subdistricts in Mymensingh are largely industrial and host internally migrated communities. There are areas located near the international border where movement by outsiders is often restricted due to political tensions and limited transportation options. It was fulfilling work but also full of twists, turns, and lessons we didn’t expect.
According to the sampling design, we had to move every 10 households to collect data. The distance between two homes wasn’t just a number. The maps don’t tell you how rough the roads are—or how much your legs will feel it later. Especially in Barishal’s char areas (river islands), reaching homes was a journey in itself. We walked through muddy paths and broken roads and even crossed small rivers. Sometimes, a boat was the only way forward, and we had to wait for hours to get a boat to cross the river. Other times, it was a hired motorbike ride followed by a 30- to 40-minute walk on the edge of a paddy field. Some clusters were so scattered that reaching the next household felt like trekking to a new village altogether.
Even after walking for miles to reach the households with the formed clusters at villages, one thing quickly became clear that in both districts, catching the male household head at home was not an easy task. In most cases, they would be out of their houses for work; some were nearby, others far away. It got even tougher during the harvesting season. We found ourselves going back to those homes more than once, adjusting our timing or rescheduling the interview.
Almost half of the data collection happened during the holy month of Ramadan, and that changed a lot of our daily work patterns. Many women were busy with prayers, preparing iftar, or simply didn’t feel up to talking during the day while fasting. On the other hand, in more conservative char regions, sometimes religious norms made it difficult for male data collectors to speak directly to women, which meant in those cases we had to rely more on female team members or reschedule visits, or sometimes both.
The sampling plan looks good in the office, but in real life, villages don’t always follow our spreadsheets. In some places, there just weren’t enough eligible households, so we had to move beyond the original boundary. That meant more walking, more coordination, and fewer interviews per day. And the “every 10th household” rule? In areas where homes are far apart or irregularly spaced, sticking to that “every 10th household” rule became a logistical puzzle. We had to have an instant short team meeting at field sites with the team lead and field team to make adjustments while keeping the integrity of our data quality.
In the Dhobaura subdistrict, Mymensingh, we hit a difficult situation. A recent incident of sexual violence had shaken the community where we were supposed to collect data, and the atmosphere was tense. Police patrols and local gatherings made it nearly impossible to continue fieldwork for a while. We had to be very strategic and careful during that tense time. And in border-side unions like Dokkhin Maijpara, in Dhobaura subdistrict, where cross-border unrest is common, outsiders (like us) weren’t always welcomed with open arms. Some community members were wary or suspicious, and earning trust became part of the job. Inspection by border guards was common while commuting to the targeted households.
If this fieldwork taught us anything, it is that maintaining methodological rigor while remaining flexible, both in scheduling and in mindset, is essential. In future field plans, we need to consider wider data collection windows, aligned with local routines (i.e., harvesting time, Ramadan, etc.). We should consider gender-matched field teams, especially in culturally sensitive areas like ours. Field plans should have time for community outreach ahead of data collection, to ease suspicion and build rapport, and account for terrain and travel time, not just sample size.
SHINE isn’t just about surveys. It’s about connecting with communities, listening closely, and making sure those often left out are finally counted—and heard.
Written by:
Ranjan Koiri (Senior Research Associate, BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University),
Sukamal Chakma (Sr. Officer, Data Management, BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University),
Md. Arfat Uddin (Sr. Officer, Data Management, BRAC JPGSPH, BRAC University)