Evidence
Five kinds of evidence: a measurement, published theory, programmes that reached people at scale, the independent society that carries field measurement, and a working tool. Each is listed with what it demonstrates and what it does not.
The Fairness Index applied in full to one cohort, April 2026.
The instrument produces differentiated, interpretable results on a real population rather than noise. All five domains fell below 2.00 — a broad consistent signal, not unfairness concentrated in one area.
This is not a measurement of Bangladesh. The cohort was 71 per cent aged 18–25, 61 per cent male, 62 per cent urban, 54 per cent undergraduate. A youth-educated-urban signal and nothing wider.
Every question, every response distribution, every standard deviation and the full calculation chain are in the report of record.
One result from the pilot matters more than the headline figure.
The question concerns regional differences in the quality of public education. Article 17(a) of the Constitution of Bangladesh commits the state to “a uniform, mass oriented and universal system of education”. Article 17 sits in Part II, and Article 8(2) states that the principles in that Part are fundamental to the governance of Bangladesh but shall not be judicially enforceable. No citizen can claim it in court.
The cohort’s strongest judgment falls on a commitment the Constitution makes and Article 8(2) places beyond the courts. CARO calls this Legal Injustice.
On the amendment position: Articles 7A and 7B, inserted by the Fifteenth Amendment in 2011, made the Preamble and Parts I to III unamendable. The High Court Division struck both down on 17 December 2024 and the Appellate Division upheld that judgment on 9 July 2026. Part II is therefore amendable. This finding does not rest on unamendability. It rests on Article 8(2), which is unaffected. Parliament could make Article 17 claimable and has not.
The theory the measurement rests on, in citable form.
| Work | Scale | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Fairness as Foundation | 380 pages | SSRN 6632960 |
| The Meta-Right to Structural Fairness | 41 pages, four authors across three universities | |
| Fairness as a Meta-Norm | 13 pages |
The framework is written down and open to criticism. Chapter Eleven is the constitutional blueprint; Chapter Thirteen specifies every formula the Index uses. The Meta-Right paper was written with co-authors from the University of Dhaka, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, and Bangladesh University of Professionals.
None of it has completed peer review. It is published and citable, not peer-certified.
What CARO's programmes in Bangladesh reached, 2023 to 2026.
| Stage | Reach |
|---|---|
| Civic awareness (MEP) | 450+ educational institutions, all eight divisions |
| Campus fellowship | 450+ applications from 143 campuses; 392 selected across 247 universities |
| Immersive training (VEP) | Four batches, 130+ selected, ages 16–35 |
| Field research (CMEP) | ~450 trained volunteers; 16 divisional leaders |
| The network built | 2,259 verified participants across 211 of 300 parliamentary constituencies |
People with no prior exposure to formal civic education can be trained to collect governance measurements to a standard. Alumni returned at every stage.
Reach is not retention. Whether a local unit keeps measuring without the organisation that trained it is the open question, and the programmes ran while CARO was funding them.
Field measurement in Bangladesh.
Founded under the Societies Registration Act 1860 and governed by its own members. CARO does not direct it, fund it or act for it.
It carries out field measurement in Bangladesh and applies CARO’s published method. It has published no readings yet.
PlayerOne — built, running, and open to anyone.
A browser-based governance simulation that puts a participant inside a decision: a fixed budget, competing claims, a hearing to face, and every choice evaluated against structural fairness principles. It also collects Fairness Index responses in-simulation.
The measurement instrument can be deployed at distance, without field staff, and the training layer can run without an organisation present.
Cite the version and the cohort, never the organisation alone.
The cohort was 71 per cent aged 18–25, 61 per cent male, 62 per cent urban and 54 per cent undergraduate. Any citation carries that qualification.
Students and volunteers across Bangladesh wrote the questions, reached participants in 211 constituencies, checked consent, cleaned the data and built the platform it was collected on. They are named in full on Who built it.