Dohar Upazila HQ

 township, fourth-level administrative division, local government

Dohar Upazila (Dhaka district) with an area of 161.49 sq km, is bounded by Nawabganj upazila on the north, the padma river and sadarpur upazila on the south, Sreenagar and Nawabganj upazilas on the east, Harirampur and char Bhadrasan upazilas and the Padma river on the west.

Dohar is located at 23.5958°N 90.1222°E. It has 31,645 units of house hold. Dohar (Town) The town is now a municipality with an area of 6.18 sq km and population 61828; male 49.08%, female 50.92%. It has 9 wards and 44 mahallas. Literacy rate among the town people is 34.76%.

Dohar thana, now an upazila, was established in 1926. The upazila consists of one municipality, six wards, 8 union parishads, 78 mouzas and 139 villages.

As of the 1991 Bangladesh census, Population 175842: male 49.41%, female 50.59%; Muslim 94.26%, Hindu 5.42%, others 0.32%.

Religious institutions: Mosque 250, temple 31, pagoda 1, tomb 4, most noted of which are Upazila Jami Mosque, Joypara Jami Mosque, Mukshedpur Jami Mosque, Jagabandhu Sundar Ashram, Shiva Mandir (Roypara)

Average literacy 32.9%; male 36.3% and female 29.6%. Educational institutions: college 3, high school 16, junior high school 4, madrasa 27, government teacher's training institute 1, government primary school 42, non-government primary school 11, satellite school 10, low cost school 6, kindergarten 14, vocational training institute 1. Noted educational institutions: Purbachar Primary School (1925), Joypara Pilot High School (1902), Joypara College (1972).

Main occupations: Agriculture 17.15%, agricultural labourer 11.45%, wage labourer 5.08%, commerce 14.08%, service 18.06%, construction 1.47%, fishery 1.7%, weaving 8.53%, transport 3.45%, house renting out 6.92%, and others 12.11%.

Land use: Total cultivable land 6065 hectares; fallow land 516.68 hectares, khas land 397.11 hectares; single crop land 57.44%, double crop 32.55% and treble crop land 10.01%. Cultivable land under irrigation 85%.

Land control: Among the peasants 30.55% are landless, 80.81% small, 16.06% intermediate and 3.13% rich; cultivable land per head 0.04 hectare.

Fisheries, dairies, poultries Poultry 64, fishery 435, dairy 2.

Manufactories Cotton mill 1, saw mill 26, welding and steel works 270.

Cottage industries Weaving 4311, bamboo & cane work 18, wood work 130, goldsmith 78, blacksmith 9, potteries 37, tailoring 370, bidi 1, sweet meat work 21, chanachur work 20.

Main exports: cane goods, lungi, chanachur.

Communication facilities Roads: pucca 45 km, semi pucca 50 km and mud road 265.77 km; waterways 24 nautical mile.

Health centres Upazila health complex 1, family planning centre 4, satellite clinic 2 and veterinary hospital 1

NGO activities Operationally important NGOs are proshika, caritas, KDFH Health Service.