BSS, Rajshahi :
Around 6,000 youths, most of them are women, from poor and extreme poor communities, have become workforces towards making them self-reliant and contributing the society in Rajshahi city.
They are now either rendering their services as fulltime workers or apprentices on various trades and vocations like welding, motor mechanics, plumbing, auto electric and embroidery or tailoring almost everywhere in the metropolis.
“Personally, I’m happy over the pro-people activities as many of the unemployed people have become social contributors in the city,” said Mosaddeque Hossain Bulbul, Mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation.
He said the activities are being executed by Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPRP), a seven-year anti-poverty scheme funded by UNDP, being implemented in the city since July 2008 last.
Mahbubul Alam, UPPRP Town Manager, told BSS that some 5,792 youths including around 4,800 females were given six months apprenticeship training on the need-oriented trades and vocations after linking them with the factory and shop owners till December last. Around Taka 5.21 crore were spent for the purpose.
During the six-month apprenticeship period, each of them were provided Taka 1,500 per month as apprenticeship allowance in addition to some assistance from the shop owners.
“Raziya Sultana, 25, of Dharampur Bazekazla earns around Taka 400-500 per day after making and selling cloth bag for shopping and now she is on the afoot to divert her long-lasting poverty and hunger,” said a local community leader.
Rahima, 30, wife of Rustam Ali of Hetemkha area, told BSS that she received six-month training on tailoring. Now, she has brought some happiness in her four-member family as she earns Taka 500-600 per day after operating a sewing machine at present.
“We are working here to improve living and livelihood condition of some 73,000 households including 61,000 extreme poor and poor families through multi-sectoral interventions,” said Mahbubul Alam adding that the apprenticeship is one of the major components.
Mayor Bulbul stated that the city area is the home of around eight lakh population and around 65,000 households are poor and extreme poor categories who needed special support for uplifting their living and livelihood condition.
So, such type of poverty reduction programme should be expanded more for transforming the poor and extreme poor people into skilled human resources coupled with mainstreaming them as they are more vulnerable towards creating various social crimes.
He said some other government organisations especially Department of Youth Development, Women Affairs, BRDB and Social Service are working for making the unemployed youths into skilled human resources.
In this context, he said the uplift activities should be more intensified and transparent so that the target group of people could derive total benefits of the programmes to attain the cherished goal of freeing the society from unemployment problem.
Most of the slum and underprivileged areas are always talked-about as breeding places of street children and various social crimes and disorders especially drug abuse, terrorism, early marriage, polygamy and violence against women.
Creating job for the vulnerable sections of the society has become an urgent need to bring them out from the vicious circle of poverty.
If we make the vulnerable section of the society money-makers through such type of anti-poverty intervention the existing rate of urban poverty could be reduced to a greater extent, he added.
