Govt project making 80,000 destitute women self reliant

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Eighty thousand destitute rural women are under the process of becoming self-reliant through "Vulnerable Group Development for Ultra-Poor (VGDUP) Project" providing food security, cash support and livelihood trainings, reports BSS.
The initiative was taken by the Department of Women Affairs under the Ministry of Women and Children affairs through one of its projects styled VGDUP with the financial support of European Commission.
The two-year project, started from May this year, is being implemented at 36 upazilas in eight districts - Nilphamari, Kurigram, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Netrokona and Mymensingh at a cost of Tk 1.76 billion (176 crore), of which European Commission is providing Tk 1.72 billion and the rest is coming from Government fund.
Project Director Morshedul Alam told Tanzim Anwar that the main objective of the project is to ensure food security and enhance the productive income generating opportunities for rural destitute women through proving various assets after giving income generating training on it.
Location of the project were selected on the basis of poverty incidence and level of food insecurity as provided in the Food Security Map of Bangladesh, prepared jointly by the government and World Food Programme (WFP), he said.
The women of the project were selected for the project by their respective Union Parishad (UP) male and female members following a strict criterion fixed earlier by the policy makers. The selection criteria included that the women must own less than 10 decimals of land, have no ownership of production assets and have no active adult male members at home.
During the project, besides the Income Generating Activity (IGA) training, the beneficiary women will also get various kinds of life skill training like nutrition, primary health, human rights, AIDS, reproductive health, gender, and rights issues and environment.
"We have already started to provide life skill training and within few months we will begin the IGA training like petty trade, tailoring, food catering and processing, poultry, livestock production and home gardening," Morshed said.