Drishtipat Blog

By Priscilla Raj

[Editorial note: Priscilla set off to find the real impact of price rise in the most poverty stricken region of Bangladesh — the extreme Southern part of the country in the remotest of chars. This series, the partial cost for which is being borne by this blog, is a reflection on that trip. Hope you will find this series, the third of which is being published today, to be interesting and fascinating as this is a part of the country whose voice is often unheard in our conversations

After Part 1 and Part 2, here is the part 3. In the midst of the recent debate concerning, the Washington Post's rice crisis in Bangladesh, these reports from the grassroots, gives a telling and contrasting picture and tells the story of strength of our people.
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Sun that lights the Nights

Dhalchar Bazaar is ten minutes walk from the boat anchorage of the island. The crowd of skyward antennas attracts the eyes first. These are mostly to strengthen the wave of the mobile phones that is very feeble in this southernmost island. White glows of the tube lights spread weakly in front of the shops. The source of the light was not visible though. They were the solar power units installed on the roofs.

Government electricity department has yet to reach Dhalchar. Solar panels as electricity production unit were introduced in 1999 by Coastal Association for Social Transformation (COAST), one of the very few NGOs working in this island. Md. Mahbubur Rahman, Manager of Dhalchar unit of the organization informed that 44 solar panels have been sold so far. Recently Grameen Shakti, a sister organization Grameen conglomerate has started its selling.

COAST sells solar units with three different capacities:

i. 40 watt - Lights three eight-watt lights, a plug-point for 14″ black and white TV and two other plug-points to charge mobile phones. Price 29,280 taka inclusive of service charges.
ii. 50 watt - Lights four eight-watt lights, a plug-point for running 17″ black and white TV and two other plug-points to charge mobile phones. Price 36,950 taka inclusive of service charges.
iii. 75 watt - Lights six eight-watt lights, a plug-point for running 20″ black and white TV and three other plug-points to charge mobile phones. Price 52,000 taka inclusive of service charges.

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By Priscilla Raj

[Editorial note: Priscilla set off to find the real impact of price rise in the most poverty stricken region of Bangladesh — the extreme Southern part of the country in the remotest of chars. This series, the partial cost for which is being borne by this blog, is a reflection on that trip. Hope you will find this series, the second of which is being published today, to be interesting and fascinating as this is a part of the country whose voice is often unheard in our conversations ]

After Part 1

With the two women

The local woman member and her husband also came with us as Bashir had asked them. I wasn’t sure why Bashir Member had asked the woman member to come. Later I realized it might be because here people are very much reserved about talking to women. When even being a woman you talk to a male, they would avoid your eyes and talk to your male companion instead. I knew with time they would be flexible and learn to cope with a woman traveler amidst them. After having tea I was almost forcibly sent inside the house of the hotel owner which was adjacent to it. The woman member also came with me.

We had been welcomed by the wife of the hotel owner. Now that it was a three-woman league, both of them became very relaxed and started talking freely. The hotel owner’s wife seemed to be a robust and happy woman. I forgot to ask her name. She is originally from Lalmohan, an area in Char Fashon to be married here. We had a long talk about the situation of women.

Education is probably the least touched sector in this economically rather thriving island. There is no high school in the island. Very few students studied as high as class VIII in the island who go to the only junior high school. As students interested in giving SSC examination increased recent years, the administration of this school registers the students in the schools at Char Kachchapia while teaching them here. These students go to Char Kachchapia later to sit for the examination. Girls are increasingly going to school but early marriage and post-marital negative environment is a big setback against their educational progress. “I was married when I had passed class VIII,” said the hotel owner’s wife. Then her mother died. The young Romeos of the locality started to disturb her on her way to and from school. Feeling insecure, her father got her married. “My two other sisters are more educated than me. My mother-in-law was a big bully. She didn’t let me continue my school. At that time no girl was here as educated as I am. The teachers in the local school entreated her to let me finish my school. They said so many women quotas were vacant in different jobs because there were no fitting women. But she didn’t move.”

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By Priscilla Raj

[Editorial note: Priscilla set off to find the real impact of price rise in the most poverty stricken region of Bangladesh -- the extreme Southern part of the country in the remotest of chars. This series, the partial cost for which is being borne by this blog, is a reflection on that trip. Hope you will find this series, the first of which is being published today, to be interesting and fascinating as this is a part of the country whose voice is often unheard in our conversations ]

To the Extreme South

I had been wondering how people are coping with the present price hike. Every day each of the daily life commodities - rice, flour, puffed rice, pressed rice, oil, vegetables, sugar, milk - is getting ever expensive. When any fuss about lowering of price of any commodity is heard, it is only about reducing one or two taka per kg or litre. One day an old woman begging told me that she could not buy rice for several days because she did not get enough alms. In such families people usually buy rice or other bare necessities on daily basis. What she told meant that either her family did not eat rice for the days they failed to procure or ate insufficient. I thought if that is the case in Dhaka what is the situation in the remote parts of the country? Already there are rumors that a silent famine has started in certain pockets of the country. I am not an extensive newspaper reader; still I have a feeling that there might be a lack of on-the-whole scenario of the country from which we can understand how people are plying through their life in present time. I felt that traveling several corners of the country may give me a better picture. I had started my journey from Dhalchor, the southernmost island of the country under Bhola, the island district.

I had almost an opposite picture in Dhalchor though.

We had started for Dhalchor on February 17 (2008). The route was from Bhola to Char Fashon by bus. From there to Dakhkhin Aicha also by bus. From there to Char Kachchapia by rickshaw. From there to Dhalchor by boat. Afjal, the local young journalist accompanied me. Our bus started from Bhola bus stand at seven in the morning. A ten-minute break on the way for breakfast and reached Char Fashon little past ten. Char Fashon is an Upazila of Bhola district. Dhalchor is an island under Char Kukrimukri of Char Fashon Upazila.

Char Fashon was at one time an island separate from Bhola island. All these big and small islands are in the mouth of Meghna River where it meets the Bay of Bengal. Silt deposition over the years has joined some of the islands like Bhola and Char Fashon. So you don’t have to cross any river to go to Char Fashion from Bhola.

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The global failure of communism in the twilight of the 20th century seemed to vindicate the champions of the free market – be they Chicago libertarians or Washington Consensus neoclassicists. However, even as command economies fell, the world came to witness new crises in the fledgling free markets. From the disastrous privatization of Bolivia’s natural resources to the violent upheavals in the former Soviet Union, capitalism and the free market failed time and time again to provide sufficient conditions for sustainable growth. The promised virtuous cycle of economic and social development often did not come to pass.

Moving past blind faith, economists have now come to realize that liberalization, deregulation and privatization by themselves cannot guarantee that a market will truly be functioning, free, and able to provide the social services necessary for sustainable development. A key ingredient for functioning markets to be able to deliver an environment conducive to development is a strong institutional framework, which many developing countries like Bangladesh lack. Into this abyss of institutional failure enters a new player – distinct from both the state and the traditional profit-seeking businessman – that provides the social services that governments currently may not be. This player is the social entrepreneur.

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গত মাসে আমি যখন রাইজিং ভয়েসেস এর ব্লগ আউটরিচ প্রজেক্টের মাইক্রোগ্রান্ট সম্পর্কে এখানে জানাই তখনও বাংলাদেশে সিটিজেন মিডিয়া উদ্যোগগুলো সম্পর্কে তেমন জানতাম না। বাংলাদেশে আসলেই কিছু কাজ হচ্ছে এ নিয়ে।

৪০টি ভিন্ন দেশ থেকে মোট ১৪২টি প্রকল্প প্রস্তাব এসেছিল রাইজিং ভয়েসেসে। তার মধ্যে বাংলাদেশ থেকে ৫ এর অধিক আবেদন ছিল। আনন্দের সাথে জানাচ্ছি ৫টি সফল প্রকল্প যারা ফান্ড পেয়েছেন তার মধ্য দুটিই বাংলাভাষী এবং একটি বাংলাদেশের। গ্লোবাল ভয়েসেস থেকে তাদের সম্বন্ধে:

কাজী রফিক ইসলাম এবং ক্যাথরিন ওয়ার্ড – ঢাকা, বাংলাদেশ:

কাজী রফিক ইসলাম এবং ক্যাথি ওয়ার্ড হচ্ছেন ঢাকার নারী জীবন প্রকল্পের যথাক্রমে সমন্বয়কারী এবং নির্বাহী পরিচালক। এদের ওয়েবসাইট থেকে আপনি জানতে পারবেন তারা ঢাকার যুবনারীদের নিয়ে চোখে পড়ার মত কাজ করছেন। রাইজিং ভয়েসেস ক্ষুদ্র অনুদানের সহায়তায় তারা তাদের বর্তমানে সেবাদানরত বাংলা, ইংলিশ এবং কম্পিউটার ক্লাসের মাধ্যমে বাংলাদেশী নারীদের ব্লগিং, ফটোগ্রাফী এবং ভিডিওব্লগিং করতে শেখাবেন। আপনারা ‘বাংলাদেশ আমাদের চোখে’ এই ব্লগের মাধ্যমে ইতিমধ্যে এইসব নারীদের পোস্ট করা কিছু নমুনা দেখতে পারবেন।

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Beenapani Shorkar, 90, lives in Masterpara in the northern town of Joypurhat. Her family originally lived in Polashi in West Bengal, where Sirajuddowlah fought and lost. Her father was a successful businessman who fell out with the local British rulers and quit Polashi for Shodpur. Beenapani’s brothers were committed leftists who fought in the struggle to kick out the colonial power. Inspired by her brothers, she too participated in the independence movement, and played a role in educating and raising awareness among local women.

At the age of 22, she got married to Kumud Bihari, a Congress activist from Joypurhat. Although they shared different political beliefs, this did not overshadow their marriage. Beenapani has been working for the community ever since she moved to Joypurhat 68 years ago. In particular, she has educated several generations of poor kids in her own home, the majority of them children of the indigenous Santal and Buna tribes who live nearby. For those kids who can’t afford it, she buys textbooks and pays exam registration fees, even though her family is no longer affluent. Having run the local ladies’ recreation club for many years, she is on friendly terms with many of the town’s richer womenfolk and she has never shrunk away from commandeering their support for her various charitable causes. Ever-friendly, ever-smiling Beenapani Shorkar is a household name in Joypurhat.

Click on the video above to see more.

Translation: Zubaer
Background by Farhan

A tiny cottage stands on the shores of the Betraboti river, in the village of Baag-achra in the district of Jessore. Inside this cottage, there live a number of destitute children. Some of them were born out of wedlock and abandoned by their parents, others were orphaned at a young age. Honufa Begum raises these children in her tiny cottage. She herself has 8 children of her own, and having lost her husband 20 years ago, she is forced to work herself to stave off hunger and want. She earns about 20-25 takas every day, fetching water for a local restaurant and sweeping the village streets. It was while she was sweeping the streets one day many years ago that she found two babies abandoned on the side of the road, one aged 10 months, the other 18 months. She picked them up and took them home. She asked her next-door neighbours not to throw away the bhaat’er maarh and she asked for the leftover food from the restaurant so that she would be able to feed the kids.

That’s where it all started. 20 years later, she’s still running her shelter. Not just children, she’s also taken in the physically and mentally disabled. She feeds them, gives them shelter and looks after their welfare as best as she can, all in spite of her own dire poverty.

Click on the video above to see more.

Translation: Zubaer
Background by Farhan

Progressive Bangladesh, a new online magazine, has started its journey with the mission to analyse “society and politics with an aim toward what Alan Lightman has called “actively disturbing the status quo”. Among all the articles published, my favourte one is the one by Rubaiya Ahmad. Rubaiya Ahmad was educated at the University of Texas in the United States. After working in the US for over 5 years, she returned to Bangladesh. She is currenly engaged with Bangladesh Golden Agri Seed Associates (BGASA) and a project called Champions of Change, which aims to highlight positive grassroots initiatives. This new project Champions of Change is something that you all will hear about in the coming days as some of us from Drishtipat plan to engage with it heavily. Rubaia’s report is from one such village where she went to find a champion of change.

Read Rubaia’s inspiring article here.

Helaluddin asked, “Tumi ki kaaz koro”? I said, “Brac e kaaj kori”. He replies promptly, “Tomago Brac to amader shob dhani beez ar jomi shesh kori disse! Sakri korba koro, dyasher kawthao to bhabti hobe!”

Read the Progressive Bangladesh here.

Image: Mahrukh Mohiuddin

Where prescription by World Bank, ADB, WHO fails, the simple grassroot, local solutions work wonders.

BETGARI, Bangladesh — In the golden haze of dawn, Mohammed Salim Sheikh walked slowly through the paddies, so frail and thin that the lungi wrapped around his waist looked like a clown’s oversize trousers.

Carrying a treatment chart in one hand and a stainless steel water glass in the other, he crossed the threshold of a house. The housewife inside, Zahida Khatun Jharna, rose from her cooking fire, fetched his medication and filled his water glass. Then she ticked off his chart for the day and sent him home.

The routine plays out in countless villages across this country every morning, and it represents a remarkably simple but apparently effective effort to tackle a stubborn and deadly epidemic: tuberculosis, a scourge that kills 1.6 million people worldwide each year.

Full Article

Slideshow