Socio-economic changes improving child education

RANGPUR, Mar 7 (BSS): The fast achievement of socioeconomic development in recent years in the remote Char areas on the river basins have substantially improved child education side by side with enhancing women empowerment. The char women, who lived in utter poverty in the past, are now moving towards sustainable uplift after achieving economic self-sufficiency and bidding good-bye to century-old monga by eradicating poverty. Because of their economic betterment, they are now ensuring education of their children reducing school dropouts to make them worthy citizens though they never thought about education of their kids in the past. According to the NGOs working in the remote char areas on the Brahmaputra, Teesta and Dharla riverbeds in greater Rangpur, the number of school going children has been doubled during the past two years following various government steps. The number of dropouts has been reduced and hectic efforts are now on to bring the number to zero level through the government-NGO and local initiatives within the next couple of years as the char economy has been growing fast. The char people have improved their sanitation and taken a firm stand against repression, child marriage, dowry, polygamy, superstitions and adopted family planning to reduce their high population growth. Because of their economic improvement and awareness, the number of maternal and neonatal deaths and the extent of malnutrition of children, women and pregnant women have been reducing substantially in the vast char areas. Talking to the news agency, a char woman said that it became possible for them to attain economic self-sufficiency through hard endeavors of their own or under the assistance of various ongoing programmes of the government and NGOs. The process of achieving sustainable and balanced socioeconomic and national advancement and women empowerment would accelerate further through properly developing the country's womenfolk and empowering them in backward areas. The women could be the driving force in attaining 100 per cent literacy for their children by completely stopping school dropouts if all of the downtrodden womenfolk in the backwards areas could be made economically solvent. The government and NGOs could take more steps for poverty eradication, as poverty is the main enemy and obstacle to the path of attaining complete social advancement and sustainable development, they said. The char women laid stress on ensuring equal women rights and empowering them economically for ensuring development in building a developed digital Bangladesh by 2021. "We have achieved economic success by sewing handloom garments, animal husbandry, poultry, dairy, selling labour as farm labourers, homestead gardening, farming fruits, vegetables, spices, fish and agri-activities," they said. Many of them also achieved success by setting up cottage and smaller cottage industries like weaving, participatory social afforestation, microcredit activities, VGD and other income- generating and social safety-net government programmes. They said the century-old seasonal job crisis of monga is already over from the poverty-prone char areas in the riverbeds because of the changing situation and various government steps.