Reasons for the selection of Bagerhat district in particular for this study. The district adjoins the Bay of Bengal and is a tidal delta region, where flood is a regular phenomenon & water is the only cheapest means of transport. The socio-economic conditions are mostly agrarian. Easy accessibility to different police stations has made the fieldwork easier and quick Advantage of the researcher in terms of personal knowledge and familiarity as a local inhabitant of the district. Some markets enjoy modern facilities but most of them remain backward with poor communication & infrastructure. The study area has 156 market centres. Only 45 market centres are selected for detailed study of different police stations of the district. The area, selected for the study is Bagerhat district, which lies in the Southern part of the Khulna division, Bangladesh.It is situated at the fringes of the Bay of Bengal. It is bounded on the North by the Gopalgonj district, on the East by the Pirojpur and Barguna district, on the South by the Bay of Bengal and on the West by the Khulna district. It has between 20-49' North by latitude and between 89-98' East longitudes. The district is 3959.11 Km is revering and 1868.91 Km is under forest The district has 156 market centers distributed by very un-evenly in different police stations. There are two municipal towns and nine Upazila headquarters'. The district has a population of 143119 persons (cencus 1991). The average density of population per/km is 304. Which is lower than the National average. About 92% of the total population of the district is rural and 90% of villagers depend for their necessary goods on these local markets.
This work is largely based on field investigation. A field survey was started in the middle of 2005 and it was continued till 2006. In this connection, wide-ranging inquiries have been made in different offices of the police station. The primary data are obtained through personal inquiries of different parts of the region under study. The survey was made on the basis of selected samplings. The information of field investigation was available from different sources, depending or the nature of data necessary for a particular purpose. For instance, in the case of finding out the functional character of the market centers, the character of buyers & sellers level of markets etc., a man to man survey was made with the questionnaire. Moreover, questionnaires were sent to various organizations like education offices, hospitals and statistical offices etc. From collected data, the nature of attendances, the standard of education, functional character of 'hats', income size of traders and attendance of male & female buyers have been worked out. Different market centres of nine police stations were surveyed for this purpose. Analyses of the activities of the marketplaces of different police stations widely distributed over the region were surveyed by fieldwork. Besides, the nature of the marketing activity and information was gathered. Origins of the markets, growth trend, command area and specialization of commodities have been studied.
Apart from primary data collected through personal investigations, secondary data have also been used for the writing of different chapters. Among the government offices and different organizations visited for the collection of secondary data, the most notable are the agricultural offices, the settlement offices, the Upazila land offices, the D.C. Offices and L.G.E.D. offices. The base map for the land use survey was collected from the settlement office and other maps were available in the Upazila land offices. A number of maps have, however, been prepared on the basis of collected data. All the collected data have been compiled in the thesis. The photographs have been taken by the author personally for representing some noted features of the area. Data processing and compilation have been performed with a scientific calculator. The results have been mapped for analytical description and visual presentation. The history of markets in the district is mainly based on old records available in public libraries in Khulna Division and Rajshahi University Seminar Library in Bangladesh. Census data have been adopted vigorously for writing up different chapters but have been tactically avoided in the preparation of the maps. Some of the data & results which cannot be tabulated in the chapters concerned have been appended at the end. It may be mentioned that some of the materials of this article have been published in various levels and journals in Bangladesh & India and abroad in different times.
Analysis of different types of functions in different parameters: From the analysis of the study area, it is observed that the market centers are poorly developed in the region. On the basis of seven parameters, the market centers of the district were categorized into five-level to assess their level of development On the basis of there parameters of the markets in a police station the standard and level of police stations in the district have been assessed. All the parameters of the market directly or indirectly help to grow the market centers as a service center and indirectly play an important role in the development of police stations. The selected parameters are as follows: 1. Permanent shopper market. 2. Temporary shopper market. 3. Attendance on hat day per market. 4. Command population served per market. 5. Command area or zones of influence of market. 6. Bid-value or cash collection in a year per market and 7. Hat day of market in a week.
Each parameter has been categorized into different functional score values. Different grading has been given in the parameter value of market centers. From the field study, it is observed that all the market centers are not of equal functional values. Combined values of seven parameters were utilized to identify the differential level of score value of market centers. They differ in a number of functional varieties. So growing of each parameter of the market center into hierarchical levels wee made on the basis of total values. And the score value of the individual market center has been assessed. Broadly, the lowest values. And the score value of permanent shops e.g. 1-1 00 shops are given one weightage score and the highest values of weightage i.e. 10 is given to 500 & above shops. In this way, the weightage of each parameter is given according to the number of functions e. g. temporary shop, attendances of market, command area, command population, market days and bid values of market centers. After calculating the total weight age value of each selected market center there have been categorized in different hierarchical levels.