Akhtar Hameed Khan Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project what was the goal of the comilla cooperative pilot project? The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme what were V-AID's failures? V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development.
how was the comilla model different?
how was the comilla model different from a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme?
The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme that was launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan launched the project in 1959 on his return from Michigan, and developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID. Practical help was also sought from Japan to improve the local farming techniques.  Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes. The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme; a decentralized, small scale irrigation programme; and, a two-tiered cooperative system with primary cooperatives operating in the villages, and federations operating at sub-district level.  After Khan's departure from Comilla, the cooperative's model failed in independent Bangladesh because only a few occupational groups managed to achieve the desired success. By 1979, only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were functioning. The model actually fell prey to the ineffective internal and external controls, stagnation, and diversion of funds. This prompted the subsequent scholars and practitioners in microfinance, such as Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, to abandon the cooperative approach in favour of more centralised control and service delivery structures. The new strategy targeted the poorest villagers, while excluding the 'less poor'. However, Khan's leadership skills during the course of his association with the project remained a source of inspiration for these leaders, as well as other participatory development initiatives in the country. CANNOTANSWER
developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation.
Akhter Hameed Khan (, pronounced ; 15 July 1914 – 9 October 1999) was a Pakistani development practitioner and social scientist. He promoted participatory rural development in Pakistan and other developing countries, and widely advocated community participation in development. His particular contribution was the establishment of a comprehensive project for rural development, the Comilla Model (1959). It earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award from the Philippines and an honorary Doctorate of law from Michigan State University.

In the 1980s he started a bottom-up community development initiative of Orangi Pilot Project, based in the outskirts of Karachi, which became a model of participatory development initiatives. He also directed many programmes, from microcredit to self-finance and from housing provision to family planning, for rural communities and urban slums. It earned him international recognition and high honours in Pakistan. Khan was fluent in at least seven languages and dialects. Apart from many scholarly books and articles, he also published a collection of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

Early life
Khan was born on 15 July 1914 in Agra. He was among the four sons and three daughters of Khansaahib Ameer Ahmed Khan and Mehmoodah Begum. His father, a police inspector, was inspired by the reformist thinking of Syed Ahmed Khan. In his early age, Khan's mother introduced him to the poetry of Maulana Hali and Muhammad Iqbal, the sermons of Abul Kalam Azad, and the Sufist philosophy of Rumi. This upbringing influenced his interest in historical as well as contemporary social, economic, and political affairs.

Khan attended Government High School at Jalam (Uttar Pradesh), and completed his education in 1930 at Agra College where he studied English literature and history. He read English literature, history, and philosophy for a Bachelor of Arts degree at Meerut College in 1932. At that point, his mother was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died in the same year at the age of 36. Khan continued his studies and was awarded a Master of Arts in English Literature from Agra University in 1934. He worked as a lecturer at Meerut College before joining the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in 1936. As part of the ICS training, he was sent to read literature and history at Magdalene College, Cambridge, England. During the stay, he developed a friendship with Choudhary Rahmat Ali.

Khan married Hameedah Begum (the eldest daughter of Allama Mashriqi) in 1940. Together, they had three daughters (Mariam, Amina, and Rasheeda) and a son (Akbar). After Hameedah Begum's death in 1966, he married Shafiq Khan and had one daughter, Ayesha. During his ICS career, Khan worked as collector of revenue, a position that brought him into regular contact with living conditions in rural areas of East Bengal. The Bengal famine of 1943 and subsequent handling of the situation by the colonial rulers led him to resign from the Indian Civil Service in 1945. He wrote, "I realised that if I did not escape while I was young and vigorous, I will forever remain in the trap, and terminate as a bureaucratic big wig." During this period, he was influenced by the philosophy of Nietzsche and Mashriqi, and joined the Khaksar Movement. This attachment was brief. He quit the movement and turned to Sufism. According to Khan, "I had a profound personal concern; I wanted to live a life free from fear and anxiety, a calm and serene life, without turmoil and conflict. ... when I followed the advice of old Sufis and sages, and tried to curb my greed, my pride and aggression, fears, anxieties and conflict diminished."

For the next two years, Khan worked in Mamoola village near Aligarh as a labourer and locksmith, an experience that provided him with firsthand knowledge of the problems and issues of rural communities. In 1947, he took up a teaching position at the Jamia Millia, Delhi, where he worked for three years. In 1950, Khan migrated to Pakistan to teach at Islamia College, Karachi. In the same year, he was invited by the Government of Pakistan to take charge as Principal of Comilla Victoria College in East Pakistan, a position he held until 1958. During this time (1950–58) he also served as President of the East Pakistan Non-Government Teachers' Association.

Rural development initiatives
During his tenure as principal of Comilla Victoria College, Khan developed a special interest in grassroots actions. Between 1954 and 1955, he took a break to work as director of the Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) Programme. However, he was not satisfied with the development approach adopted in the programme that was limited to the training of villagers. In 1958, he went to Michigan State University to acquire education and training in rural development. Returning in 1959, he established the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (PARD, eventually renamed as Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development) at Comilla on 27 May 1959 and was appointed as its founding director. Khan became vice-chairman of the board of Governors of PARD in 1964, and in the same year, was awarded an honorary Doctorate of law by Michigan State University. In 1969, he established collaborative links with Arthur Lewis.

Advisory roles
Following his move to Pakistan, Khan was asked to implement the Comilla Model in rural settlements of North-West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Punjab, and Sindh. He declined the offer on the grounds that the proposals were predominantly motivated by political interests rather than the common well-being. However, he continued to advise the authorities on various aspects of rural development, such as participatory irrigation management. He worked as a research fellow at the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad from 1971 to 1972, and as Director of Rural Economics Research Project at Karachi University from 1972 to 1973. Khan went to Michigan State University as a visiting professor in 1973 and remained there until 1979. During this time, he carried on advising the Rural Development Academy at Bogra in northern Bangladesh, and the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development, Peshawar, on the Daudzai Integrated Rural Development Programme. In 1974, he was appointed as a World Bank consultant to survey rural development situations in Java, Indonesia. He also briefly worked as a visiting professor at Lund University, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford.

In 1980, Khan moved to Karachi and started working on the improvement of sanitary conditions in Karachi suburbs. He laid the foundations of the Orangi Pilot Project for the largest squatter community of Orangi in the city. He remained associated with this project until his death in 1999. Meanwhile, he maintained his support for rural communities around Karachi, and also helped to develop the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme. OPP became a model for participatory bottom-up development initiatives.

Major development programmes

Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project

The Comilla Model (1959) was Khan's initiative in response to the failure of a Village Agricultural and Industrial Development (V-AID) programme that was launched in 1953 in East and West Pakistan with technical assistance from the US government. V-AID remained a government-level attempt to promote citizen participation in the sphere of rural development. Khan launched the project in 1959 on his return from Michigan, and developed a methodology of implementation in the areas of agricultural and rural development on the principle of grassroots-level participation. Initially, the aim was to provide a development model of programmes and institutions that could be replicated across the country. Advisory support in this respect was provided by experts from Harvard and Michigan State Universities, the Ford Foundation, and USAID.

Comilla Model simultaneously addressed the problems that were caused by the inadequacy of both local infrastructure and institutions through a range of integrated programmes. The initiatives included the establishment of: a training and development centre; a road-drainage embankment works programme; a decentralized, small scale irrigation programme; and, a two-tiered cooperative system with primary cooperatives operating in the villages, and federations operating at sub-district level.

After Khan's departure from Comilla, the cooperative's model failed in independent Bangladesh because only a few occupational groups managed to achieve the desired success. By 1979, only 61 of the 400 cooperatives were functioning. The model actually fell prey to the ineffective internal and external controls, stagnation, and diversion of funds. This prompted the subsequent scholars and practitioners in microfinance, such as Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank and Fazle Hasan Abed of BRAC, to abandon the cooperative approach in favour of more centralised control and service delivery structures. The new strategy targeted the poorest villagers, while excluding the 'less poor'. However, Khan's leadership skills during the course of his association with the project remained a source of inspiration for these leaders, as well as other participatory development initiatives in the country.

Orangi Pilot Project

The Orangi poverty alleviation project (known as the Orangi Pilot Project, or OPP) was initiated by Khan as an NGO in 1980. Orangi is located on the northwest periphery of Karachi. At that time, it was the largest of the city's approximately 650 low-income squatter settlements (known as katchi abadi). The locality was first developed in 1963 as a government township of . The influx of migrants after the creation of Bangladesh swelled the settlement to about one million people crowded over an area of more than . The working class multi-ethnic population was predominantly composed of day labourers, skilled workers, artisans, small shopkeepers, peddlers and low-income white collar workers. The project proved an impetus to the socio-economic development of the population of the area. As the project director, Khan proved to be a dynamic and innovative leader. The project initially focused on creating a system of underground sewers, using local materials and labour, and succeeded in laying hundreds of kilometres of drainage pipes along with auxiliary facilities. Within a decade of the initiative, local residents had established schools, health clinics, women's work centres, cooperative stores and a credit organisation to finance enterprise projects. By 1993, OPP had managed to provide low-cost sewers to more than 72,000 houses. The project subsequently diversified into a number of programmes, including a people's financed and managed low-cost sanitation programme; a housing programme; a basic health and family planning programme; a programme of supervised credit for small family enterprise units; an education programme; and a rural development programme in the nearby villages.

Comparing the OPP with Comilla project, Akhter Hameed Khan once commented:

The Orangi Pilot Project was very different from the Comilla Academy. OPP was a private body, dependent for its small fixed budget on another NGO. The vast resources and support of the government, Harvard advisors, MSU, and Ford Foundation was missing. OPP possessed no authority, no sanctions. It may observe and investigate but it could only advise, not enforce.

The successful OPP model became an inspiration for other municipalities around the country. In 1999, Khan helped to create Lodhran Pilot Project (LPP) to collaborate with Lodhran municipal committee. Learning from past experiences, the project extended its scope to the whole town instead of concentrating on low-income settlements only. The municipal partnership was itself a new initiative that ensured wider civic co-operation.

The success of OPP did come at a cost for Dr Khan as his liberal views and self-help initiatives were questioned and criticised by certain interest groups. At two occasions, he was accused of blasphemy. However, all allegations against him were acquitted by the courts of law and cleared by independent religious scholars.

Death
In 1999, Khan was visiting his family in the United States when he suffered from kidney failure. He died of myocardial infarction on 9 October in Indianapolis at the age of 85. His body was flown to Karachi on 15 October, where he was buried on the grounds of the OPP office compound.

Legacy
Khan's ideology and leadership skills were a source of inspiration for his students and colleagues, and continue to serve as guiding principles even after his death. Edgar Owens, who became an admirer of Khan's ideology while working at USAID's Asia Bureau, co-authored a book with Robert Shaw as a result of observations and discussions with Khan at Comilla Academy. A later study of various rural development experiences from South Asia, edited by Uphoff and Cambell (1983) was jointly dedicated to Khan and Owens.

Soon after Khan's death, on 10 April 2000, the Government of Pakistan renamed the National Centre for Rural Development the Akhter Hameed Khan National Centre for Rural Development and Municipal Administration.

Later in 2005, the Council of Social Sciences, Pakistan, in collaboration with the National Rural Support Programme and other institutions, announced the Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award. The annual cash award is given on Khan's birthday to a Pakistani author for a book on issues related to rural and urban development, peace, poverty alleviation, or gender discrimination. At the occasion of the award ceremony in 2006, a documentary film about the life and times of Akhter Hameed Khan was premiered. The film includes archival footage and interviews with family members, colleagues, and contributors and beneficiaries of the Comilla and OPP projects.

The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Centre (AHK Resource Center)was established in Islamabad, under the auspices of the Institute of Rural Management, as a repository of published and digital resources on rural development. The Akhter Hameed Khan Resource Center was initially formed in 2010 as a repository of works and writings by Khan and his mentee Shoaib Sultan Khan; after 2015 the resource center transitioned into an NGO that established an experimental site in urban development in Dhok Hassu, Rawalpindi.

Awards and honours
Khan received the following civil awards:
 Jinnah Award (Posthumous, 2004) for services to people as founder of the Orangi Pilot Project.
 Nishan-e-Imtiaz (Posthumous, 2001) for services to the community.
 Ramon Magsaysay Award (31 August 1963, Manila, Philippines) for services to rural development.
 Sitara-e-Pakistan (1961) for pioneering work in rural development.

Publications
Khan was fluent in Arabic, Bengali, English, Hindi, Pali, Persian, and Urdu. He wrote several reports and monographs, mostly relating to rural development in general or his various successful and model initiatives in particular. He also published collections of poems and travelogues in Urdu.

In English
 1956, Bengal Reminances, vol 1, 2 & 3. Comilla Academy (now the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development), Comilla, Bangladesh.
 1965, Rural Development in East Pakistan, Speeches By Akhter Hameed Khan. Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University.
 1974, Institutions for rural development in Indonesia, Pakistan Academy for Rural Development. Karachi.
 1985, Rural development in Pakistan. Vanguard Books. Lahore.
 1994, What I learnt in Comilla and Orangi. Paper presented at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) seminar. Islamabad.
 1996, Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. The Oxford University Press: Karachi. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005). 
 1997 The sanitation gap: Development's deadly menace . The Progress of Nations . UNICEF.
 1998, Community-Based Schools and the Orangi Project. In Hoodbhoy, P (ed.), Education and the State: Fifty Years of Pakistan, Chapter 7, Karachi: Oxford University Press. 
 2000, Twenty Weeks in America: A Diary, 3 September 1969 – 21 January 1970. Translated from Urdu by Aqila Ismail. City Press.

In Urdu
 1972, Safar-e-Amrika ki Diary (A Diary of Travels in America). The City Press: Karachi. 2nd Edition: Atlantis Publications, Karachi 2017.
 1988, Chiragh aur Kanwal (Collection of poems in Urdu). Saad Publishers. Karachi.

See also

 Civil society
 Social entrepreneurship
 Social innovation

Notes

References

 Abadi, H. (2006). Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan. Karachi: Oxford University Press.  
 BARD (1983). The Works of Akhter Hameed Khan. Volumes I–III. Comilla: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development.
 Barmazel, S. (2005). "Orangi Pilot Project: An NGO Helping to Build Community" in O.P. Richmond and H.F. Carey (eds.) Subcontracting Peace: The Challenges of NGO Peacebuilding. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 191–98. 
 Chowdhury, A.N. (1990). Let Grassroots Speak: People's Participation Self-Help Groups and NGO's in Bangladesh. Dhaka: South Asia Books. 
 Chaudhuri, M.A. (1969). Rural Government in East Pakistan. Dhaka: Puthighar Ltd.
 Dowla, A. and Barua, D. (2006). The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press. 
 Hasan, A. (1994). "Replicating the Low-Cost Sanitation Programme Administered by the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi, Pakistan" in I. Serageldin, M.A. Cohen, and K.C. Sivaramakrishnan (eds.) The Human Face of the Urban Environment, Proceedings of the Second Annual World Bank Conference on Environmentally Sustainable Development. (19–21 September). Washington, D.C.: The World Bank. 
 Hasan, A. (1996). "Introduction" in A.H. Khan Orangi Pilot Project – Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. pp. xi–xli. 
 Hasan, A. (1999). Akhter Hameed Khan and the Orangi Pilot Project. Karachi: City Press. 
 Hasan, A. (2002). "A model for government-community partnership in building sewage systems for urban areas: The experiences of the OPP-RTI". Water Science and Technology Vol. 45, No. 8, pp. 199–216.
 Khan, A.H. (1996). Orangi Pilot Project: Reminiscences and Reflections. Karachi: Oxford University Press. (editions: 1996, 1999, 2005). 
 Nigam, A. and Rasheed, S. (1998). "Financing of Fresh Water for All: A Rights Based Approach" in UNICEF Staff Working Papers. Evaluation, Policy and Planning Series, No. EPP-EVL-98-003.
 NRSP (2000). In commemoration of The Life and Times of Akhter Hameed Khan: Talks of Akhter Hameed Khan at the National Rural Support Programme. Islamabad: National Rural Support Programme (NRSP).
 Raper, A.F. (1970). Rural Development in Action: The Comprehensive Experiment at Comilla, East Pakistan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 
 Valsan, E.H. (2005). "Leadership in Public Administration for Alleviating Poverty and Development: A Conceptual Approach", in J. Jabes (ed.) The Role of Public Administration in Alleviating Poverty and Improving Governance, NAPSIPAG. Manila: Asian Development Bank. 
 Yousaf, N. (2003). Allama Mashriqi and Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan: Two Legends of Pakistan. New York: Xlibris.

External links
 Akhter Hameed Khan Memorial Award, at Council of Social Sciences (COSS) website
 AHK Resource Centre and Digital Library
 AHK Photo Gallery at Institute of Rural Management (IRM) website
 

1914 births
1999 deaths
Development specialists
Sewerage
Appropriate technology
Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge
People from Karachi
Academics from Karachi
Recipients of Nishan-e-Imtiaz
Pakistani humanitarians
Recipients of Hilal-i-Imtiaz
Cooperative organizers
Microfinance people
Muhajir people
Pakistani scientists
Pakistani economists
Pakistani scholars
Pakistani Sunni Muslims
Ramon Magsaysay Award winners
Michigan State University alumni
People from Agra
Fellows of Pakistan Academy of Sciences
20th-century economists
Comilla Victoria Government College faculty
Recipients of the Sitara-e-Pakistan
Squatter leaders
Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) () is an autonomous institution that strives for research and training of local people as well as practitioners on rural development. The academy is known for implementing the Comilla Model in the 1960s that has been internationally recognised as a model project for rural development in the developing countries.

Foundation

East Pakistan Academy for Rural Development was established in 1959 in Comilla as EPARD under the initiative of Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan who became the institution's founder-Director. After the Bangladesh War of Independence, the institution was renamed to its present form.

Location

The academy is located at Kotbari, 10 km from Comilla town. The campus is spread over a vast area that also hosts residences, conference rooms, mosque, library, a health clinic, sports complex, and other amenities.

Objectives

One of the main functions of BARD is to provide training for both officials and non-official members of the public and private institutions working on rural development. The training is provided in the form of courses, visit programmes, workshops and seminars.

Research

The research is basically aimed at collecting socioeconomic data for planning and project preparation. Findings are also used for training and information materials by respective public bodies and planning institutions. Research also relate to the evaluation of national rural development programmes either independently or jointly with government agencies, universities and research organisations.

Projects

Since its inception BARD has conducted a number of large and small scales development programmes.
 TCCA - In the 1960s the academy evolved a new system of rural cooperatives where small farmers of Comilla sadar thana were organised into primary cooperatives in the form of the federation of Thana Central Cooperative Association. The model has been successfully replicated all over the country.
 The Thana Training and Development Centre (TTDC) (since 1962–63) is a model of decentralised and coordinated rural administration for development. Subsequently, it was renamed as Rural Works Programme (RWP).
 1969, Thana Irrigation Programme.

Board of Governors (BOG)

Board of Governors (BOG) of Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) has consisted of 21 (twenty-one) individuals. There are one President, one vice-president, 14 (fourteen) members, 4 (four) nominated members, and one secretariat member. President is selected a minister from the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives. And vice-president is elected from Rural Development and Co-operative Division. Other members are selected and nominated from the different Ministries, Divisions, and Institutes. There is included a table of BOG. Such as:-

See also
 Rural Development Academy, Sherpur, Bogra
 List of Educational Institutions in Comilla

References

External links 

 
 

Recipients of the Independence Day Award
Organisations based in Comilla
Rural development in Bangladesh Comilla District, officially known as Cumilla District, is a district of Bangladesh located about 100 kilometres south east of Dhaka. Comilla is bordered by Brahmanbaria and Narayanganj districts to the north, Noakhali and Feni districts to the south, Tripura of India to the east and Munshiganj and Chandpur districts to the west. Comilla district is located in the southeastern part of Bangladesh.

History

The name Cumilla is derived from the Bengali word Komolangko (), the previous ancient name of the region, which means 'lotus pond'. The present Comilla is a district under the Chittagong Division. It was once under ancient Samatata and later became part of the state of Tripura. As far as is known from the ancient archeology found in the region, Gupta emperors ruled Tripura since the fifth century AD. According to historians, the Buddhist Deva dynasty ruled the region from the seventh to the middle of the eighth century. In the ninth century, Comilla came under the control of the kings of Harikela and then ruled by the Chandra dynasty during the tenth and mid-eleventh century AD. Later on, it was ruled by the Mughals and then it came under the rule of East India Company in 1765.

In order to facilitate revenue collection, the company hired a district collector in the province in 1769. Comilla then belonged to the province of Dhaka. Comilla was made under the office of the district collector in 1776. The Tripura Collector's journey began with the formation of Tippera or Tipperah district of Bengal by the British in 1790. According to the Third Regulation in 1793, a civil judge was appointed for the Tripura district and in that year he was given magisterial powers. In 1837, the posts of magistrates and collectors were separated. In 1859, these two posts were merged again. After the partition in 1947, the district was renamed Comilla in 1960 and the post of district magistrate and collector was named deputy commissioner. Chandpur and Brahmanbaria sub-divisions of this district became districts in 1984.

Geography and climate
Comilla has a total area of 3146.30.17 square kilometres. It is bounded by Brahmanbaria district and Narayanganj district of Dhaka division to the north, Munshiganj district of Dhaka division and Chandpur district to the west, Noakhali and Feni districts to the south and the Indian state of Tripura to the east. The district headquarters of Comilla is located close to the Indian border, with the town of Sonamura on the other side. Major rivers passing through Comilla include the Gumti and the Little Feni. It is hot in summer and cold in winter.

The district is primarily plain land.

Administration
The administrative headquarters of Comilla are located in the city of Comilla which has a total area of 11.47 square kilometres. It consists of 18 mouzas and 3 wards. Comilla thana was officially converted into an upazila in 1983 which contains one municipality, 18 wards, 19 union parishads, 452 mouzas, and 458 villages.

Administrator of Zila Parishad: M. Omar Faruque

Deputy Commissioner (DC): Md Jahangir Alam

Subdistricts
Comilla district consists of the following Upazilas:
Barura Upazila
Brahmanpara Upazila
Burichong Upazila
Comilla Sadar Upazila
Comilla Sadar Dakshin Upazila
Chandina Upazila
Chauddagram Upazila
Daudkandi Upazila
Debidwar Upazila
Homna Upazila
Laksam Upazila
Lalmai Upazila
Monohorgonj Upazila
Meghna Upazila
Muradnagar Upazila
Nangalkot Upazila
Titas Upazila

Demographics 
According to the 2011 Bangladesh census, Comilla District had a population of 5,387,288, of which 2,575,018 were males and 2,812,270 females. Rural population was 4,546,962 (84.40%) while the urban population was 840,326 (15.60%). Comilla district had a literacy rate of 53.32% for the population 7 years and above: 54.08% for males and 52.65% for females.

Muslims make up 95.10% of the population, while Hindus are 4.79% of the population. There are nearly 5,000 Buddhists in the district.

Economy

Mainly based on agriculture, the economy of Comilla has flourished through trade and cottage industries, especially the 'Khadi' textile. For the economic development of the region the "Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority" has established the "Comilla Export Processing Zone" spread over an area of  in the Comilla Airport area in 2000. The export zone employs 20 thousand people as of 2013.

Places of interest
Important landmarks include Kotbari, a cantonment, or military installation and Kandirpar, considered the heart of the Comilla district. Ancient Buddhist monastery ruins are the major attraction of Mainamati, near Kotbari. There is an ancient Hindu Temple named Comilla Jagannath Temple located on East Bibirbazar Road. There is also the recently constructed Allah Chattar, a tower in Muradnagar.

There is a Second World War cemetery, Mainamati War Cemetery, located about  away from Comilla Cantonment, which was a frontier military base in the fight against the Japanese who had occupied Burma. British Army soldiers killed during the fight with the Japanese Army at the Burma (Myanmar) frontier were buried here. Pashchimgaon Nawab Bari, the place of only lady Jaminder Nawab Faizunnesa, a poet, educationist and a philanthropist.

Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh, passed a significant time of his life in this town. Both his wives, Promila Devi and Nargis, hailed from this district.

Comilla Victoria College and Comilla Zilla School are two old and renowned college and school in the country. Comilla Zilla School was established in the year of 1837. Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (BARD) is situated in Kotbari. The area also saw the development of Comilla Model.

Education 
 Comilla Government City College
 Comilla University
 Comilla Medical College
 Comilla Victoria Government College
 Bangladesh Army International University of Science & Technology
 Ispahani Public School & College, Comilla
 Comilla Polytechnic Institute
 Comilla Government College
 Comilla Government Women's College
 Comilla Cadet College
 Comilla Zilla School
Nawab Faizunnesa Government College
Laksam Pilot High School

Notable people

The following personalities were either born or stayed in this district for a significant span of their lifetime:
 Nawab Faizunnesa Choudhurani (1834–1903): poet and philanthropist.
 Kazi Zafar Ahmed: former Prime Minister
 Shilvadra (529–654): a great Buddhist monk and pundit, professor and chancellor of Nalanda University. Born in Koilain, Chandina Upazila
 Dhirendranath Datta (1886–1971): political leader, provincial minister of the than East Pakistan, Language Movement activist and lawyer.
 Buddhadeb Basu (1908–1974): Bengali poet, novelist, essayist, translator & editor.
 Sachin Dev Burman (1906–1975): singer, composer & music director.
 Akhtar Hameed Khan (1914–1999): social reformer and development activist. He is from U.P -undivided India, but spent an important part of his life as asst magistrate (ICS) and thereafter as principal Victoria College and creator of co-operative programme and BARD at Comilla.
 Shib Narayan Das: The designer of the first national flag of Bangladesh in 1971, a freedom fighter and political activist
 Kamrul Ahsan : secretary to the government and now serving as Bangladesh Ambassador to Russia. Earlier served as High Commissioner to Canada and Singapore.
 Sabitri Chatterjee: actress in Indian Bengali film, TV serial and theatre.
 Akbar Hossain BP: former minister of Bangladesh Government.
 Kazi Shamsul Hoque eminent journalist, founder editor of weekly Akhon Samoy, New York.
 Abdul Gani: (1919 – 1957) was a Bengali military officer. He was the founder and the first in-charge of one of the pioneer companies of 1st East Bengal Regiment.
 Abul Manzoor, sector commander during Bangladesh War of Independence and decorated with the award Bir Uttom, was born in Comilla.
 Sudhin Das, Swaralipikar of Nazrul Sangeet, awarded by Ekushe Padak
 Alaka Das, artist of classical music, principal of Sangeet Shikhharthee Sammilan (সঙ্গীত শিক্ষার্থী সম্মেলন) Talpukur Par, Comilla
 Sagarmoy Ghosh : Bengali editor and author
 General Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan : former chief of Army Staff
 Atiqul Islam - Mayor, Dhaka North City Corporation
 Md Mainul Islam - former chief, Border Guards Bangladesh
 Md. Tafazzul Islam - 17th Chief Justice of Bangladesh.
 Ferdous Ahmed - Bangladeshi film actor.
 Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, 5th President of Bangladesh (15 August 1975 to 3 November 1975).

See also
 List of Educational Institutions in Comilla

References

External links

 Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development

 
Districts of Chittagong Division
Districts of Bangladesh
Districts of Bangladesh established before 1971