BSS, Rajshahi :
More than 8,500 youths, mostly women from the poor and extreme poor communities, have become a strong workforce in Rajshahi city through making them self-reliant and social contributors.
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 Musaddeque Hossain Bulbul, mayor of Rajshahi City Corporation.
He 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 was provided with 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 verge of driving out 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.
“We have worked here to improve living and livelihood condition of some 73,000 households including 61,000 extreme poor and poor families through diversified anti-poverty interventions,” said Mayor Bulbul adding that the apprenticeship is one of the major components.
He stated that the city area is the home to 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 anti-poverty programme should be adopted more for transforming the poor and extreme poor people into skilled human resources coupled with mainstreaming them as they are more vulnerable to 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.
