REOPA opens opportunities for rural women
Monday, 29 December 2008
A government programme launched nine months back to create rural job opportunities appeared to have benefited largely the poor rural women offering them scopes to live with dignity and comfort, reports BSS.
With European Union (EU) assistance, the government launched the Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets (REOPA) earlier this year in 388 unions of six districts with an initial cost of nearly Tk 1.74 billion (174 crore) to create livelihood opportunities under rural infrastructure building activities.
The Suburban Narsingdi is one of the six districts where the project was operating in 70 unions of six upazilas of the district.
Under the REOPA project, the selected women in the district are required to work from 8 am to 2:00 pm in exchange of Tk 100 each for earth work of different village roads identified by union parishads.
From the salary, Tk 70 directly goes to each woman while Tk 30 goes to her bank account which she will get together after the end of her job cycle in two years.
"I can now dream of continuing the study of my children and doing small business of my own with the savings after two years cycle of my job when REOPA ends," said Rashida Begum, the team leader of the women working in Sadarchar union under the programme as she was talking to the news agency.
She was close to tears as she described her ordeals after her husband became mentally retarded and left her abandoning three children; but a flicker of hope shone in her eyes when she tried to explain what benefits REOPA had brought for her.
Abdul Baset, a 50 year old farmer of Sukundi village of Sadarchar union, was visibly happy to see the destitute women of his area having opportunities to earn their living. "REOPA has created a good opportunity for some of our poor women in my area to work and earn their livelihood and lead a more dignified and independent life," Baset said.
Their comments were echoed by local Union Parishad member Abdur Rahim as he said, REOPA already created lot of enthusiasm among the people especially the destitute women in the neighbourhood as they are getting jobs earning a minimum salary to meet their livelihood expenses.
REOPA's district officer Raju Jobed said, the programme in Narsingdi so far created job opportunities for 2100 destitute women for the next two years while "we are going to recruit 2100 more women to expand the opportunity for others after the present cycle of two years is over".
The local Project Management committee chairman Monowara Begum said that many of the destitute women under the programme were widows or were deserted by their husbands.
With European Union (EU) assistance, the government launched the Rural Employment Opportunities for Public Assets (REOPA) earlier this year in 388 unions of six districts with an initial cost of nearly Tk 1.74 billion (174 crore) to create livelihood opportunities under rural infrastructure building activities.
The Suburban Narsingdi is one of the six districts where the project was operating in 70 unions of six upazilas of the district.
Under the REOPA project, the selected women in the district are required to work from 8 am to 2:00 pm in exchange of Tk 100 each for earth work of different village roads identified by union parishads.
From the salary, Tk 70 directly goes to each woman while Tk 30 goes to her bank account which she will get together after the end of her job cycle in two years.
"I can now dream of continuing the study of my children and doing small business of my own with the savings after two years cycle of my job when REOPA ends," said Rashida Begum, the team leader of the women working in Sadarchar union under the programme as she was talking to the news agency.
She was close to tears as she described her ordeals after her husband became mentally retarded and left her abandoning three children; but a flicker of hope shone in her eyes when she tried to explain what benefits REOPA had brought for her.
Abdul Baset, a 50 year old farmer of Sukundi village of Sadarchar union, was visibly happy to see the destitute women of his area having opportunities to earn their living. "REOPA has created a good opportunity for some of our poor women in my area to work and earn their livelihood and lead a more dignified and independent life," Baset said.
Their comments were echoed by local Union Parishad member Abdur Rahim as he said, REOPA already created lot of enthusiasm among the people especially the destitute women in the neighbourhood as they are getting jobs earning a minimum salary to meet their livelihood expenses.
REOPA's district officer Raju Jobed said, the programme in Narsingdi so far created job opportunities for 2100 destitute women for the next two years while "we are going to recruit 2100 more women to expand the opportunity for others after the present cycle of two years is over".
The local Project Management committee chairman Monowara Begum said that many of the destitute women under the programme were widows or were deserted by their husbands.