Overcoming extreme poverty
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
Ishrat Firdousi
According to the BBS report of 2000, between 20 to 25 percent of the population of Bangladesh are ultra poor. This ultra poor segment is deprived of all services and benefits enjoyed by the rest of the society. They do not even get any help from the NGOs.
In order to improve the abysmal situation of the ultra poor, BRAC started its Ultra Poor Programme in 2002. BRAC adopted a different approach to the problem. There is a difference between BRAC's Ultra Poor Programme and other poverty alleviation programmes in the country. It is not loans but income generating assets as grants that BRAC provides to these supremely ignored underprivileged ultra poor people in order to change their lives so that they can be self-employed and can improve their lifestyle to be able to join the stream of development.
Those who are consuming less than 1800 kilo calories of food daily are considered ultra poor and they are not eligible to receive micro-credit from any development organizations or the government and are considered as beneficiaries under BRAC's Programme.
There are four stages in this Programme: (1) Selection of the beneficiary ultra poor family (2) Handing over of the assets (3) Training, and (4) Monitoring or supervision.
The most sensitive task is the selection process. A lot of care and sincerity goes into the selection. The second important stage is the awarding of the assets to the beneficiaries. If the assets are livestock then the animals are bought and handed over. If it is agriculture they have chosen then land is leased and the beneficiary is provided with all necessary input like tools, seeds, fertilizer, pesticide, etc. Special attention is given to see that assets given is enough for the beneficiary to begin income generating activity.
Before they can begin, all beneficiaries are required to undergo training on the income generating activity of their choice.
The last and most importance stage is monitoring or supervision. Under the Programme, weekly upazilla and monthly district level close monitoring and supervision is carried out by BRAC. All four stages of this Programme have to be executed with extreme care otherwise it would not be possible to implement it properly.
BRAC Officers at Head Office choose the target areas based on information of distress maps. The next step was BRAC's participatory rural appraisal (PRA) method which includes social mapping and wealth ranking system in addition to survey by questionnaire. Here the information from local government representatives is taken into account.
Under this Programme, the beneficiary ultra poor families are provided with subsistence allowance at the rate of Tk 15 per day until the time they are able to earn money through the enterprise of their choice. According to a BRAC report, so far, most of them have opted to raise cows and goats as enterprise.
Here, the government's Livestock Division has supported BRAC a lot in many different ways. With the result that those ultra poor families are getting a great help to safeguard their livestock.
It is also not possible on part of BRAC alone to win this war against extreme poverty and raise from misery the 20-25 percent of our population who are ultra poor. It is only through the participation of people from all levels of the society will it be possible to eradicate this extreme poverty.
The ultra poor can be found everywhere in the country. They are not concentrated in any poor district or upazilla or village. BRAC is responsible for selecting the ultra poor and then according to their condition include them into different programmes. Fund for this programme is derived from donations from different sources and also from savings from other programmes. Funds also come from the profit of profit making enterprises of BRAC like Aarong.
BRAC started its journey in Bangladesh in 1972. Today BRAC is also working in other countries. After its establishment, BRAC undertook different programmes in the sectors of poverty alleviation, education, health, etc., for the socio-economic development of the country.
Chhutujan is a typical success story of BRAC's Ultra Poor Programme. Chhutujan was born in Ambalpur village of Goalundo thana under Rajbari district. Her father was a poor peasant and Chhutujan grew up in poverty ridden family. Because of poverty Chhutujan never went to school, never had any education. Then, at the very young age of 15, Chhutujan was married off to Gendu Sheikh of Hanirdanga village of the same thana . But as luck would have it, Chhutujan could not stay with her husband's family and was sent back to her father's house. She never went back to her husband's house.
At her father's house Chhutujan passed her years in near poverty at times starving for days along with the rest of the family.
It was around this time that BRAC started its Ultra Poor Programme. One day, BRAC's programme came to her door. That is, Chhutujan was chosen to be a beneficiary under BRAC-BDP CFPR-STUP. The programme is funded by DFID, EC, CIDA, NOVIB and BRAC's own fund.
When Chhutujan was asked what she wanted as an income generating enterprise she chose goat rearing. BRAC gave her three-day training on the enterprise of her choice and then provided her with five goats as grant.
With a lot of enthusiasm and hope, Chhutujan began taking care of her goats. In no time the goats started giving birth to kids. In a short time Chhutujan became the owner of 13 goats. She sold seven of the goats and bought a young heifer with the money. The heifer began to grow. The number of goats also continued to grow. After sometime, Chhutujan sold 8 of her goats and bought a young bull.
She now had a bigger herd of livestock to look after but she managed very well. The goats continued to multiply and she sold one or two from time to time to use the money for other purposes in her everyday life.
Today, Chhutujan has forgotten all her sorrows of the past and is living in peace and happiness. It may be mentioned that the market price of her cow and bull together is Tk 22,000. Presently she has seven goats and a savings of Tk 481. Today Chhutujan can hold her head high and is extremely grateful to BRAC for the dynamic change in her life.
According to the BBS report of 2000, between 20 to 25 percent of the population of Bangladesh are ultra poor. This ultra poor segment is deprived of all services and benefits enjoyed by the rest of the society. They do not even get any help from the NGOs.
In order to improve the abysmal situation of the ultra poor, BRAC started its Ultra Poor Programme in 2002. BRAC adopted a different approach to the problem. There is a difference between BRAC's Ultra Poor Programme and other poverty alleviation programmes in the country. It is not loans but income generating assets as grants that BRAC provides to these supremely ignored underprivileged ultra poor people in order to change their lives so that they can be self-employed and can improve their lifestyle to be able to join the stream of development.
Those who are consuming less than 1800 kilo calories of food daily are considered ultra poor and they are not eligible to receive micro-credit from any development organizations or the government and are considered as beneficiaries under BRAC's Programme.
There are four stages in this Programme: (1) Selection of the beneficiary ultra poor family (2) Handing over of the assets (3) Training, and (4) Monitoring or supervision.
The most sensitive task is the selection process. A lot of care and sincerity goes into the selection. The second important stage is the awarding of the assets to the beneficiaries. If the assets are livestock then the animals are bought and handed over. If it is agriculture they have chosen then land is leased and the beneficiary is provided with all necessary input like tools, seeds, fertilizer, pesticide, etc. Special attention is given to see that assets given is enough for the beneficiary to begin income generating activity.
Before they can begin, all beneficiaries are required to undergo training on the income generating activity of their choice.
The last and most importance stage is monitoring or supervision. Under the Programme, weekly upazilla and monthly district level close monitoring and supervision is carried out by BRAC. All four stages of this Programme have to be executed with extreme care otherwise it would not be possible to implement it properly.
BRAC Officers at Head Office choose the target areas based on information of distress maps. The next step was BRAC's participatory rural appraisal (PRA) method which includes social mapping and wealth ranking system in addition to survey by questionnaire. Here the information from local government representatives is taken into account.
Under this Programme, the beneficiary ultra poor families are provided with subsistence allowance at the rate of Tk 15 per day until the time they are able to earn money through the enterprise of their choice. According to a BRAC report, so far, most of them have opted to raise cows and goats as enterprise.
Here, the government's Livestock Division has supported BRAC a lot in many different ways. With the result that those ultra poor families are getting a great help to safeguard their livestock.
It is also not possible on part of BRAC alone to win this war against extreme poverty and raise from misery the 20-25 percent of our population who are ultra poor. It is only through the participation of people from all levels of the society will it be possible to eradicate this extreme poverty.
The ultra poor can be found everywhere in the country. They are not concentrated in any poor district or upazilla or village. BRAC is responsible for selecting the ultra poor and then according to their condition include them into different programmes. Fund for this programme is derived from donations from different sources and also from savings from other programmes. Funds also come from the profit of profit making enterprises of BRAC like Aarong.
BRAC started its journey in Bangladesh in 1972. Today BRAC is also working in other countries. After its establishment, BRAC undertook different programmes in the sectors of poverty alleviation, education, health, etc., for the socio-economic development of the country.
Chhutujan is a typical success story of BRAC's Ultra Poor Programme. Chhutujan was born in Ambalpur village of Goalundo thana under Rajbari district. Her father was a poor peasant and Chhutujan grew up in poverty ridden family. Because of poverty Chhutujan never went to school, never had any education. Then, at the very young age of 15, Chhutujan was married off to Gendu Sheikh of Hanirdanga village of the same thana . But as luck would have it, Chhutujan could not stay with her husband's family and was sent back to her father's house. She never went back to her husband's house.
At her father's house Chhutujan passed her years in near poverty at times starving for days along with the rest of the family.
It was around this time that BRAC started its Ultra Poor Programme. One day, BRAC's programme came to her door. That is, Chhutujan was chosen to be a beneficiary under BRAC-BDP CFPR-STUP. The programme is funded by DFID, EC, CIDA, NOVIB and BRAC's own fund.
When Chhutujan was asked what she wanted as an income generating enterprise she chose goat rearing. BRAC gave her three-day training on the enterprise of her choice and then provided her with five goats as grant.
With a lot of enthusiasm and hope, Chhutujan began taking care of her goats. In no time the goats started giving birth to kids. In a short time Chhutujan became the owner of 13 goats. She sold seven of the goats and bought a young heifer with the money. The heifer began to grow. The number of goats also continued to grow. After sometime, Chhutujan sold 8 of her goats and bought a young bull.
She now had a bigger herd of livestock to look after but she managed very well. The goats continued to multiply and she sold one or two from time to time to use the money for other purposes in her everyday life.
Today, Chhutujan has forgotten all her sorrows of the past and is living in peace and happiness. It may be mentioned that the market price of her cow and bull together is Tk 22,000. Presently she has seven goats and a savings of Tk 481. Today Chhutujan can hold her head high and is extremely grateful to BRAC for the dynamic change in her life.