Journal of Primeasia
Integrative Disciplinary Research | Online ISSN 3064-9870 | Print ISSN 3069-4353
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Volume 7 Number 1 2026
RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)
E-Governance and Public Service Delivery in Rural Bangladesh: Adoption, Barriers, and Outcomes in Union Parishads
Md. Motaher Hossain 1*
Journal of Primeasia 7 (1) 1-8 https://doi.org/10.25163/primeasia.7110793
Submitted: 12 May 2026 Revised: 30 June 2026 Accepted: 06 July 2026 Published: 08 July 2026
Abstract
Local governments are often where citizens actually meet the state, and in Bangladesh that meeting happens at the Union Parishad — the union-level office where a birth certificate, a tax receipt, or a grievance either moves quickly or does not move at all. This study asks a fairly simple question with a less simple answer: is digital governance actually changing that experience, or is it mostly a promise on paper? Using a mixed-methods design, we surveyed 200 citizens, interviewed 20 key informants (chairpersons, IT staff, and service users), and reviewed administrative service records across 10 Union Parishads selected to reflect regional variation. Descriptive and comparative statistics summarized adoption patterns and pre/post-digitalization service times, while thematic analysis of interviews surfaced institutional barriers. Six of the ten Union Parishads had adopted at least one digital service; birth and death registration was the most common (50%), while online grievance submission (20%) and digital social safety net records (10%) lagged well behind. Processing times fell markedly — birth/death certificates from roughly seven days to three, tax payments from about six days to two — and citizen satisfaction rose accordingly, though unevenly across service types. The persistent obstacles were not exotic: patchy internet and electricity, officials with little digital training, and, notably, not a single sampled Union Parishad with a dedicated e-governance budget line. We conclude that digital governance at the grassroots level is real but partial, administrative more than participatory, and that its future depends less on new software than on infrastructure, training, and sustained institutional commitment.
Keywords: e-governance; Union Parishad; local government; digital public service delivery; rural Bangladesh
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