Northern mat gaining ground in local market

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/oct/20/busi.html#3

Northern mat gaining ground in local market

Zakir Hossain . Rangpur

Mats manufactured by financially vulnerable women of Rangpur-Dinajpur region are making room in the market across the country.

Mat promotional activities, an initiative of Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service Bangladesh, an NGO, have so far changed the fortune of thousands of financially vulnerable women in the region.

The product manufactured by the poor women of the country’s poverty-stricken areas is now being supplied across the country. The initiative has so far created job opportunities for thousands of women.

About 4,000 women of greater Rangpur and Dinajpur districts are now engaged in manufacturing mats. Gradually, these women are becoming self-reliant providing additional support to their families.

RDRS, Bangladesh began mat promotional activities in the worst poverty-stricken areas of the Rangpur and Dinajpur districts. The women of the areas were provided training by the organisation along with supplying raw materials free of cost to prepare mats in their houses. The NGO also took the responsibility of marketing the product.

Nayon Moni, craft manager of the organisation, said that most of the poor women in the region are not directly involved in any income-generating activities in the lean period. Women in the monga-affected areas pass weeks even months with little work in the lean period when the male members go to other areas looking for job.

He also said that the organisation began mat production and promotional activities by financially-vulnerable women at village level of the districts in 2005. It provided women 60-day practical training on mat production. Nearly 4,000 women have so far received training.

The official said that her organisation also buys the finished product from them at the rate of Tk 10 per square foot. Later, RDRS sells the product across the country at 20-25 per cent higher price to maintain staff and other costs.

Manjushri Shah, women rights coordinator, RDRS, said that mat production, as an income generating activity, is very useful for women, as they can do it at home without compromising other household activities like cooking, cleaning and looking after kids and elders.

A woman can manufacture 10 to 15 square feet mat in a day that can earn her about Tk 100 to 150, she added.

Hajera Begum, a 39-year-old woman of Gojoghanta village under Gongachara upazila in Rangpur, said that she along with her husband and three children used to starve or remain half-fed during Bengali months of Aswhin and Kartik, as there was no farm work.

Having been engaged in mat production after receiving training she is now able to make additional money along with household works, she said adding that her family is now much better-off.

DAM skill dev project for garment workers

http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2009/10/12/81342.html

DAM skill dev project for garment workers

Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), a national NGO, has undertaken a skill development project for garment workers, slum-dwellers and other underprivileged people, reports UNB.

A total of 1,320 people have already been given training under this project. Of them, 1,303 were employed in various garment factories.

Speakers disclosed this at the certificate awarding ceremony among the graduates of the Vocational Training Institute of DAM at the Bangladesh Krishi Bank Training Institute auditorium in the city Saturday.

DAM Vocational Training Institute and German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) jointly organised the course completion and certificate-awarding ceremony of skill development trained graduates of Vocational Training Institute for Working Children (VTIWC).

Speakers said if the trend continued, poor and unskilled workers will be able to change their standard of living through working in standard garment industries.

Poultry farms boost Netrakona rural economy

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/oct/04/home.html#1

Poultry farms boost Netrakona rural economy
Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha . Netrakona

Poultry farming has given a significant boost to the rural economy with more than 2000 big, medium and small sized poultry farms creating jobs for hundreds of unemployed people in Netrakona.

Officials of the district livestock department said that Bangladesh Krishi Bank and other such financial institutions were providing loans under the government’s poverty alleviation programme to establish income-generating project like poultry farms.

The field level officials of the district livestock department have been extending due cooperation to the poultry farm owners while the veterinary doctors in mobile teams are rendering medicare service to improve the health of poultry birds.

Talking to the news agency, Aftab Ahmed, owner of a big poultry farm at Mukterpara, said Tk 550 to Tk 600 was needed for rearing a hybrid chicken, which laid 300 to 330 eggs a year. ‘I can easily earn a substantial amount of profit from my farm,’ he said.

Aftab also said he had received loan from a state-run bank to set up poultry farm, which ultimately brought about a positive change in his life, enabling him also to contribute in the economy through creating employment opportunities for a number of people in the area.

Khaleda Begum, a housewife and a small poultry farm owner in the remote village Shyampur under Mohnganj upazila of the district, said that Tk 1.50 was needed for feeding a chicken everyday.

She was inspired by other housewives in her area and also poultry farm owners as well as field-level workers of the livestock department to set up a poultry farm, which has already started becoming a profitable venture.

Big entrepreneurs said that many unemployed young men and women and marginal farmers in the district had started achieving tremendous success after setting up poultry farms.

According to them, poultry farming will further flourish if a big cold storage is established in the district by the government or under private initiative to preserve the eggs prior to marketing.

Info Lady: A rural troubleshooter

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=99804

Technology
Info Lady: A rural troubleshooter

Helped by an Info Lady, a rural woman uses a laptop, equipped with a modem, to communicate with her loved ones. Twenty-four such Info Ladies are now working in different villages of Gaibandha, Noakhali and Satkhira districts. Photo: D.Net

Md Hasan

Dula Miah got himself in a fix when three months ago a mad dog bit his two milch cows — the main earning source of the poor farmer at Uzan Goshagari village in Gaibandha district.

A bicycle bell woke him up from the awful silence of uncertainty.

Luich Akhter Porag, a woman equipped with a laptop, internet modem and a mobile phone, was passing by Dula, riding the bicycle. Dula stopped Porag, a familiar face in the area, and asked her if there was any way to save the cows.

Porag sat with Dula right away and ran ‘Jeeon’, a Bangla livelihood software, developed mainly to provide nine services to the rural people. Porag, the ‘Info Lady’, found that a vaccine is required to cure the cows immediately.

Following the Info Lady’s tips, Dula rushed to Sundarganj Veterinary Hospital and took the vaccines. In a repeat visit, Porag found Dula in his sheer delight.

For her, the profession is nothing but doing something for the people around her for token money, carrying a high-tech bag. Porag expressed her dedication to work in such a way to The Daily Star by phone from Velaray village at Sonarpara union in Gaibandha.

More like Porag are there in remote villages.

They receive specialised training and necessary equipment, and then travel to remote areas by bicycle to personally connect villagers to information and resources the underprivileged need.

As many as 24 such info ladies are now working in different villages of Gaibandha, Noakhali and Satkhira districts.

The info lady solution evolved from the original ‘Mobile Lady’ concept developed by D.Net (Development Research Network) Bangladesh, a non-profit research organisation that champions the use of ICT for the economic development of Bangladesh. Mobile ladies were providing services through cellphones.

From the key learning from the mobile lady idea, D.Net found some limitations of mobile phone-based services. The technological innovations, like laptop device, helped D.Net find that if a bundle of services are integrated with the mobile lady, she will become a “telecentre” herself.

Any one can become an info person, but women are encouraged as they enjoy more privilege than men for entering a house.

Manusher Jonno Foundation, a nongovernmental organisation, has funded the D.Net’s Info Lady project. The foundation is an initiative to promote human rights and good governance in Bangladesh.

The village information workers, ‘mobile ladies’, were renamed ‘info ladies’. An info lady possesses a laptop or classmate computer, internet modem, headphone, webcam, digital camera, photo printer and a mobile phone for giving the entire livelihood information services at a cheaper rate, and fast.

Help line service, commercial phone service, photography service, livelihood information and knowledge service, international and local voice call service, video and animation service, and internet-based information service are among the services provided by an info lady.

“Now I earn more than Tk 2,500 to Tk 3,500 per month after becoming an info lady,” said Porag who started such a career in June 2007.

Porag said she has so far delivered different services to more than 6,000 villagers.

What she found amazing among the poor villagers is their interest in technology to better their livelihood.

Porag cannot forget Rupia and Kuddus’ problems centring their conjugal life. Some days after their marriage, Kuddus abandoned Rupia to her father’s house.

In remote villages, poor women often face such situations. But most of them do not tend to go for legal actions.

In an evening when Porag was demonstrating her services among the villagers, Rupia came to know about the legal side of her situation. She sought help from Porag.

Porag said when she briefed the two families about the legal sides of a marriage after consulting some experts in Dhaka, leaders of the village also supported Rupia. Kuddus was convinced and took her wife.

“I was proud to see their happiness,” said the info lady.

Porag thus became an icon among the villagers for providing solutions to their day-to-day problems regarding farming, healthcare, information, education and agro-product marketing.

Dr Ananya Raihan, executive director for D.Net, said each info lady now earns Tk 2,500 to even more than Tk 20,000 per month. It is a good social business for rural women as well, he said.”We are planning to increase the number of info ladies to 1,000 by year-end.”

Two things happen here, said Raihan. Some rural women are employed and the poor villagers take the advantages of new technologies that could hardly reach their doorstep in traditional ways.

Technology comes, and after some days it becomes old. But a digital divide between the rural and urban areas remains. Of the 150 million people, 47 million people are now enjoying telecommunication services — most of them are from urban areas.

Technology-based services are selling in many ways in both urban and rural areas. But it was once unthinkable that someone will peddle technology in the rural areas, as big companies are not willing to expand in those areas fearing bad returns.

But when Porag’s bicycle bell rings, it seems technology itself is knocking at the door of the rural underprivileged.

hasan@thedailystar.net

Animal husbandry can boost economy in char areas in Rangpur

http://www.thebangladeshtoday.com/archive/January%2009/19-1-2009.htm#national

Animal husbandry can boost economy in char areas in Rangpur

BSS, Rangpur

The socio-economic condition of the downtrodden char people living on the river basins in greater Rangpur can be changed through proper exploration of the huge prospects prevailing there in animal husbandry sector.

Many people living in the sandy char lands in the Brahmaputra, Dharla and Teesta basins in greater Rangpur have been changing their fates successfully through animal husbandry despite a lot of hurdles in their efforts, char people said.

Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) under the government’s Char Livelihood Project (CLP), Grameen Pisciculture and Livestock Foundation, BRAC and some other NGOs are now playing important roles to promote the sector in these char areas.

Experts said increased attention of the government and its concerned departments could accelerate boost the sector to eradicate poverty and monga once for all from the poverty-prone char areas.

Many of the char people have already achieved notable successes in recent years and are living in better conditions with newer hopes for their next generations, experts and char people said.

Some of them have achieved complete self- reliance through rearing cows, goats, sheep and poultry birds though they struggled for survivals and depended mainly on relief goods during the annual lean periods and floods for decades together. The char people alleged that most of the NGO operators could bring no changes in the char economy by their activities, including micro- credits during the last 37 years though a revolutionary change could be brought there through only animal husbandry.

“To change out fates, we started our own journey through exploring the huge prospects of animal husbandry in char areas, achieved successes and hoping for more successes if the prevailing prospects were properly explored,” they said.

Earlier, the char people could grow almost nothing except some vegetables in the sandy-chars, but are now expanding animal husbandry on commercial basis and the sector is boosting fast.

They are also cultivating various crops like maize, wheat, tobacco, water melon, pulses, kaun, vegetables and engaging their limited efforts now in the handloom and cottage industries to change their economic condition for better life.

The huge natural green grasses available in the barren char areas on the rive basins encouraged the char people for rearing cattle heads over the years but they are yet to get adequate supports for the purpose.

Presently, hundreds of cows, buffalos, goats and sheep are found in the green grass fields everyday and cowboys are found taking bathes with their animals, hundreds in number in the rivers.

Some char families have been rearing those on commercial basis and earning profits to add to their capitals after meeting their expenses for living and their children are going to the schools.

Thus the char economy and life are flourishing as animal husbandry becomes popular despite manifold problems and the char people are supplying huge number of healthy sacrificial animals to the markets to keep the prices lower in recent years. They are selling cows, goats and sheep after their proper fattening but not getting proper market and fair prices of huge milk for lack of diary factory or milk processing industries or preservation facilities in the char areas.

Only RDRS has been collecting some portion of the milk from the char areas and supplying to the milk chilling plant of BRAC at Ulipur in Kurigram for processing, but the facility is quite inadequate.

Kuddus Ali, Julekha Begum, Abdul Karim, Johura Khatun, Ambia Khatun and others of different char villages in Chilmari upazila on the Brahmaputra recently narrated BSS the problems being faced and successes they achieved in recent years.

“We are also earning good incomes by rearing chickens, ducks and other poultry birds which have become our hopes and sources of inspirations in dreaming a better future for our next generations,” they added.

The char people identified the main problem of saving their animals during the flash floods for lack of necessary high lands and flood shelters when they become bound to sell their animals in throwaway prices.

“If diary farms, milk processing and preservation facilities are set up, animal vaccines are supplied, easy-term adequate loans are provided, the char people can contribute a lot in improving their own fates,” Nurul Amin Sarker, editor of the Weekly Janopran in Chilmari said.

Upazila Coordinator of CLP Tarikul Islam and Community Development Supervisor of CLP Abul Kalam Azad today told BSS that 5,672 cows have been distributed among 2,836 poor char families in three unions of Chilmari upazila during the past three years.

“We will complete distribution of more 2,600 cows among 1,300 families of these three unions of Ostomir Char, Noyarhat and Chilmari Sadar under Chilmari upazila of Kurigram on the Brahmaputra by the next two months period,” they added.

BSCIC helps large number of jobless becoming self-reliant in Ctg

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/12/24/news0905.htm

BSCIC helps large number of jobless becoming self-reliant in Ctg

BSS, Chittagong

A large number of jobless people in the district became self-reliant economically with the financial and technical assistance of Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) during the last fiscal year.

The BSCIC authorities have provided soft-term loan and training facilities to 536 unemployed and low-income group people in different categories of small and cottage industries sector during the last fiscal year under its poverty alleviation programme.

BSCIC officials said most beneficiaries, who got loan and necessary training under the programme, have achieved economic solvency by involving themselves with various income generating ventures. During the period, the authorities distributed Taka 17 lakh as loan among the unemployment people, including females.

A maximum of Taka 50 thousand was disbursed to each individual to undertake projects on poultry raising, welding factory, confectionery, tailoring, laundry and computer training center.

Eng. Harun-ur-Rashid, regional director of BSCIC told BSS that the corporation has been working by giving priority to the jobless and distressed people of rural areas for improving their economic status.

Apart from providing loan money and adequate logistic facilities to the new entrepreneurs, the authorities also gave such facilities to the people who are unable to run their on- going businesses for lack of working capital and technical knowledge.

Bangladesh could halve poverty by 2015

http://www.newstoday-bd.com/business.asp?newsdate=11/24/2008#8160

Dhaka achieves higher poverty reduction in SA

Bangladesh achieved higher poverty reduction in current decade compared to other South Asian countries but lagged behind the East Asian standard, World Bank said in a report released here today, reports BSS.

The report said Bangladesh will be able to achieve its millennium development goals (MDGs) halving the proportion of its population below poverty line by 2015, despite the adverse impact of many recent internal and external shocks.

WB country director Xian Zhu released the report to the press at its local office. Senior WB officials were present.

The report titled ‘Poverty Assessment-Creating Opportunities and Bridging the East-West Divide’ disclosed some significant poverty reduction trend in the country’s Eastern and Western regions.

It said more than 6 million people graduated above the poverty level from 2000 to 2005. The number of extremely poor graduated above the poverty line during this period, further stood at 8 million, it said.

Using a database of 2005, the report said poverty level at that time stood at 32 percent in Dhaka division and 34 percent in Chittagong and Sylhet divisions. But it was more than 45 percent that time in Khulna, Barisal and Rajshahi division on the other side of the rivers Jamuna and Padma.

The Western region is lagging behind the Eastern region in many respects, the report said pointing to some reasons, for example, 24 percent household of Chittagong division and 16 percent in Sylhet Division received remittances.

On the other hand, less than 5 percent households of Rajshahi, Khulna and Barisal divisions received the inflow of external remittance keeping the poverty level at much higher level in those divisions, the report said.

Another aspect of the report is that the country’s existing safety-net programs are inadequate even after its progressive expansion in the current budget. Less than a quarter of the poorest 10 percent of the population are recipients of at least one safety-net program it said, indicating the need for greater efforts in this area.

It emphasized the need for better targeted placement of resources to drastically reduce poverty at an accelerated pace. The report said Sylhet division enjoys the highest safety-net coverage despite its low poverty rate for better targeting the resources.

Referring to the need for new jobs for new comers in the employment market, it estimates at least an annual growth of 2.2 million jobs from now, which is twice as much annual need from 2000-2005.

It is a big challenge, but Bangladesh can also achieve higher prosperity if it can use its workforce and turn it into better human resource, the report said.

It said higher growth in agricultural productivity and manufacturing will remain vital to accelerated poverty reduction and achieving sustainable socio- economic growth.

NSPDL to build one million low-cost flats for country’s poor

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/10/21/news0766.htm

NSPDL to build one million low-cost flats for country’s poor

BSS, Chittagong

Officials of a private real estate company on Sunday said it was planning to build one million low-cost apartments across the country by 2025 for slum dwellers and less-income people.

They made the announcement at a seminar here saying such a huge number of residential apartments would be constructed in line with the concept of a pilot project being implemented in the capital city.

The officials said the pilot project jointly undertaken by the Ministry of Land and the company with approval of RAJUK and ECNEC would soon complete construction of 6,000 flats for low-income group and 10,000 flats for slum dwellers on an area of 150 acres at a cost of Taka 1,000 crore in Bhashantek area of Mirpur.

The company, North South Property Development Limited (NSPDL), organised the seminar at Chittagong Press Club auditorium with academics, trade body leaders and economists sharing their views on “Social responsibility in rehabilitation of slum-dwellers.” NSPDL chairman M A Rahim presided over the function.

Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology Prof. Shyamal Khanti Biswas, Vice-Chancellor of Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Science University Prof. Dr. Nitish Chandra Debnath and Pro-VC of Southern University Prof. Dr. Mohammad Sharifuzzaman, among others, were present at the seminar.

The discussants urged the rich people to come forward with positive attitude for solving the growing accommodation problems of the insolvent and poor people in the country.

They said increasing housing problems of the less-income groups, particularly in urban areas, could not be solved if efforts in this regard are taken with commercial approach.

The participants in the seminar urged the government, financial institutions and the rich people to find a sustainable solution to such a problem not only for rehabilitating the poor people but also maintaining a constant social stability in the greater national interest.

M A Rahim sought sincere cooperation from both public and private sector organisations as well as individuals in the port city to launch another venture like the one in the capital city to solve the accommodation problems of insolvent and slum people here.