Rural women achieve macroeconomic success

RANGPUR, May 17 (BSS) : The rural women have been achieving continuous macroeconomic success in alleviating poverty. They are improving standard of life accelerating their development and empowerment.
As a result of the success achieved by thousands of the rural women through various income generation activities under GO-NGO assistance during the past six years, the seasonal curse of 'monga' has disappeared from Rangpur region.
Head of Programme of RDRS Bangladesh, Manjushree Saha said economic condition of rural women has improved because of their engagements with income generating activities under effective GO-NGO-private initiatives.
Thousands of distressed women have achieved self- reliance through small-scale enterprises, trades, cottage industries, sewing, embroidery, micro-credit, homestead farming, pisciculture, rearing poultry birds, animals and participatory social forestation.
These women have been living with their children in economic solvency though they lived in utter distress, especially during the seasonal lean periods, due to abject poverty even a decade ago.
The easy-term and interest-free loans, training for unemployed girls and women on various trades for self-employment, assistance of the government, NGOs, donor agencies, development partners played important roles in eradicating extreme poverty, she said. District relief and rehabilitation officer of Rangpur Abdus Salam said the government implemented comprehensive social safety-net programmes like handing out allowances, employment generation, VGF, VGD, TR and FFW resulting to the success.
"As a result of successful implementation of these programmes, the poor, including distressed rural women, never experienced any bite of extreme poverty following improvement of their economic condition largely during the past six years," he added.
Earlier in the past, the seasonal 'monga' caused miseries to the hard core poor, mostly distressed rural women and children, , he said.