Rural economy is marked by shortage of job opportunities twice a year before each harvesting season. Thousands of day labourers face extreme hardship because of limited work opportunity and suffer from seasonal hunger during these times. Such seasonal unemployment is a consequence of crop failure, poor harvest and extreme weather conditions.
The Employment Generation Programme for the Poorest (EGPP) was launched in Bangladesh in 2008 to address this problem. The government allocated Tk 6.2 billion as labour wages for the go-ahead of the first-phase of the EGPP throughout the country from November this year. The money has been allocated for creating adequate jobs for the poor and distressed people numbering 7,74,833, including women and farm-labourers, in 485 upazilas of all 64 districts. The aim is to improve their livelihoods during the lean period. Each of the card-holder beneficiaries will work five days a week to earn Tk 1,000 as wages per head for their 40-day works during the two-month period.
Reaching the extremely poor people in our society has always been a great challenge for the government. The EGPP is the country's first cash-based work programme that targets the most vulnerable in society in a number of ways. First, a greater proportion of fund is channelled to the poorest upazilas. Second, only a household with less than half an acre of land with a manual labourer as family head is eligible. Third, wages are set below market wage level to attract only those who need the money most. Furthermore, one-third of all beneficiaries include women. This gender quota increases the probability of particularly female-headed households which are particularly vulnerable, to benefit from EGPP. Male and female beneficiaries receive the same amount of daily wages, making the programme particularly attractive for poor women.
The Programme mainly supports earthworks as short-term employment generation activities. These activities will help the agriculture productivity, better rural communication, improve protection during natural disasters etc.
The EGPP has showed clear signs of progress in implementation with a low level of corruption, according to an international study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). But it says the rate of participation of women workers is lower than the planned 30 per cent of the total participants. So, increasing women's participation must be addressed carefully. The authority must be watchful so that no extreme poor are out of the selection list even when only two members constitute a family.
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