We made a field survey to Rashun Shimulbari village under Fulbari upazila of Kurigram district. Kurigram was once known for serious food scarcity. For decades, the people of the village suffered from serious food shortage and were occasionally attacked by 'monga' or 'mora kartik'.
Purnima Rani, aged 25, told us her story. Her father had a small plot of land to feed the family but the Dharala river devoured it. Turned landless and destitute, the family forced upon Purnima, when she was in Class Seven, an early marriage with a landless wage-labourer Ranjit. He used to till others' lands and never attended any school. After the marriage, poor Ranjit worked from dawn to dusk to see a smile on Purnima's pale face. Unfortunately that didn't work as wage rate was very low and there was dearth of non-farm activities. The family had to face a famine-like situation. The problems compounded further with the arrival of two children - a daughter and a son. The moon was covered by the cloud and Purnima found no meaning of her name.
Faced with the ordeal, Ranjit migrated to Dhaka city. At the moment, he is a rickshaw-puller, makes a higher income and is capable of sending Tk.5000-6000 per month - and interestingly, through mobile phone - to the family.
Purnima has also joined the struggle with her husband. Ekjoner dia ki shongshar chole, (Can a family run with only one's income?), she reckons. In a bid to uplift economic status, she bought a cow at Tk. 10,000 by taking loan from the BRAC. The loan money has already been repaid along with interest. The cow has produced a calf and both are doing well under Purnima's close supervision and because of the availability of animal vaccines in and around the village. She got another loan of Tk.1900 from the Thengamara Mohila Sabuj Sangha (TMSS) and used it for repairing the house. She also serves as an aide to the health worker of the BRAC who visits the village twice a month. Her duty includes identification of pregnant women and their babies. She is to detect problems, inform the BRAC and help transfer the patient to the hospital as and when needed.
This has been an innovative intervention by the BRAC to reduce maternal and child mortality in villages in consort with the MDG (Millennium Development Goals) goals. Discussions with villagers revealed that the intervention has improved maternal and child health care status in the village. They further feel that infant and maternal mortality has gone down over time and the spill-over effect is very large - transcending the village border.
In return for services so rendered, Purnima gets Tk.50 per patient and Tk.60 for attending meetings. The average earning is Tk.1000-1500 per month. In addition, and especially during paddy harvesting, she works for households of surplus farmers to fetch home additional benefits.
The total monthly income of the household is now Tk.7,000 - with roughly one-third pouring in from Purnima's hard work. Not much but not little either. Half of the total expenditure of the household goes for buying rice, about 14 per cent on other foods such as meat, spices, eggs, etc. and 8.0 per cent on fruits and vegetables.
This level of income would have been sufficient had there been no dream before Purnima. There is a growing consciousness - thanks to government policies and NGO initiatives - about the value of education in her village. She has sent her children to school: the daughter has just finished Junior Certificate Examination and the boy reads in Class Three. With a mission in mind, she spends Tk. 700 each month (17 per cent of total expenditure) on children's education including payment to the tutor who teaches mathematics and English to her daughter.
Purnima's household has now the prospect of coming out of the shackles of poverty. Hopefully, within next 10-15 years or so, the children would be graduates and thus relieve parents of their burden. Parents may or may not enjoy the fruits but their next generation would. The boy could join a job - private or public - or start business and the girl could one day become a school teacher or an NGO activist - thanks to their parents' otherwise painful and undignified activities. The full moon could be full in sight then.
But there are risks down the road. For example, the small homestead could be swept away by river erosion. Ranjit could face a prolonged illness or be seriously hurt during hartals. The boy could be spoiled due to bad company (drug users are recently on the rise in the village). Finally, soaring prices of essentials (especially rice) on the heels of production setbacks might make them poorer by reducing their real income. The household buys almost everything from the market.
Saying good-bye to Purnima and back on the mechanised boat to cross the Dharala river, I started brooding over the transformation of the village as well as of the march forward by the poor families.
Things have dramatically changed in the villages - and on many fronts: modern mechanised modes have replaced bullock carts; pucca or kutcha-pucca roads have replaced muddy ones; advent of modern varieties of paddy has almost sent traditional ones to the museum; usurious money lending by Mohajons has almost been wiped out as NGOs have come forward with credit, creation of awareness and innovative services; tractors taking up tilling in place of draft animals, etc.
More importantly, rickshaw-puller Ranjit visits Purnima twice a month with the help of speedy modern buses, uses mobile phone to send money and talks to his wife off and on. The woman doesn't need to wait for long for him.
The village we visited shows that ending chronic hunger in our lifetime is not a difficult task. It was once in a chronic hunger situation but is not so any longer.
The writer is Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. [email protected]
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