Not by credit alone

Sheuli Khatun (26) is a beneficiary of a non-government organization (NGO), named Dhruva Society which is located 10 km before the Bogura city. Standing on the Dhaka-Bogura highway with green fields in the backyard, the NGO has micro-credit programme in a smaller scale, but mostly it carries out other functions to serve the society. For example, it caters to the cry of the public for water, both for consumption and production purposes. The area is one of those with astoundingly high arsenic problems. Taking technical and financial assistance from the neighbouring by Rural Academy, the said NGO owns a Deep Tube Well (DTW) to serve two purposes in the locality. First, it provides irrigation water to farmers who used to keep land fallow for want of water. Now, with the advent of water from the DTW, three crops are grown in that area. This has tremendously affected the livelihoods of the people living there. Second, the lifted water is sold to the households for drinking purposes. This helped overcome arsenic and high level ironic problems. Third, drawing upon resources of Bangladesh NGO Foundation, Dhruva Society is engaged in training the poor women on vegetables production, providing small grants for rearing chicks and livestock. The ultimate goal is to make horticulture production market-oriented rather than subsistence-based that has been the age-old practice. I shall now talk about Sheuli Khatun - a lady who seemingly turned a new leaf in her household life through credit, commitment and care. Looking agile and active, she was sitting before me with her younger of the two sons on her lap. Sheuli was married at the age of 14 when a girl is supposed to be in schools. Her marriage took place at the cost of dearly dowry of Tk.8000 given to husband's house. However, the father-in-law bought a van worth Tk.3000 for Sheuli's husband and spent the rest for other needs. The van became the main source of income for Sheuli's family with no homestead land. Whatever meager amount of land was there for them, the father-in-law sold out to put them in a sea of sufferings. But she took up the challenge and, after consulting the 'caring' husband, she approached Dhruva for a loan of Tk. 6000 in 2007. With that money, both of them decided to buy two decimals of land from the father-in-law to build a hut. The first loan money was repaid from two sources: husband's daily income from van and her engagement in manual works that fetched Tk.100-130 per day for around six months of the year. Sheuli's second loan of Tk.8000 was used for buying a calf that she reared up and sold at Tk. 26,000 last year on the eve of the Eid. A part of that surplus went to purchasing land and now they own 15 decimal. She grows vegetables, rears 15-16 chicks worth Tk.3000 and four ducks worth Tk.800 in her expanded land frontier. The lady took third and four loans but, unlike many others, repaid most of the loan by hard work of hers and husband's. Now she is indebted to the NGO to the tune of Tk. 10, 000. To the critics, Sheuli could be daubed as clear case of going 'broke' as she has been constantly leaning on loans to eke out a living. But the recipient herself rejects that notion by saying that, within a span of five years or so, the small doses of loans helped her raise standard of living. The household of four is now far better off than before. As she went on reporting, the household got access to electricity that cost Tk. 5000 and pays a monthly bill of Tk. 100. The house has been renovated with tin as against a straw-house earlier. It has a hand tube-well and a sanitary latrine. And amazingly, the household has bought a colour television set with dish connection. The TV set was procured at Tk. 10,000 payable on installment (Tk. 700/month). The reason for buying a television is 'prestige' gained by not going to other houses to watch television. "Since we can afford a television, why should we miss that chance? We are also eating more and better food". Further, for the private tutor of her son, she also spends Tk. 100 each month. After completing conversation, few kilometers away from Dhruva, we drove to another NGO of immense social services in that part of Bangladesh - Grameen Alo. Here again, micro-credit is very insignificant part of the whole operation. This NGO is located is an area that once stole newspaper headlines for "Hilla marriage". A dozen women of a particular village were forced to get married, on small pretext, by the dictates of religious fanatics in the village called 'fatwa'. Grameen Alo stood and raised voice against that vice by mobilizing women in those villages. Ultimately, it could be stopped. Those who fought against that were very poor women. Drawing upon the resources of Bangladesh NGO Foundation, Grameen Alo, among other things, also trains poor women on sewing, pottery and goat rearing. The NGO also helps them connected with the windows of opportunities, e.g. market. The NGO's help to the disabled persons is another important event. Some of the disabled children have been admitted to schools by virtue of logistic support and training from the NGO. But none of the women complained about the soaring rice prices that we expected to dominate our dialogue. "Price is rising and our income is also rising" - echoed the luminous ladies. Their demands mostly were for more credit/grants, training on economic pursuits and getting access to markets. The stance may sound "silly" to urban social scientists but that what the reality seemingly is on the ground. Only micro-credit is not the panacea; it must be matched with the windows of opportunities. Training on different economic activities could widen the windows of opportunities. Again, to seize upon the opportunities, they also need credit. Both are complimentary, not substitute. Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. He can be reached at e-mail: abdubayes@yahoo.com