BSS, Rangpur :
The Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) has become a milestone in developing fortune of thousands of the extremely poor living in the hardly reachable char areas on the Brahmaputra basin in recent years.
Under the comprehensive livelihoods development programme, over one lakh landless and distressed families have achieved self-reliance bidding a permanent good-bye to the century-old seasonal ‘monga’ through eradicating abject poverty.
Agriculture and Environment Coordinator Mamunur Rashid of RDRS Bangladesh, one of the implementing organisations of CLP, said the char people had to live in utter poverty for decades together in the pasts, but they are now lead meaningful life.
The CLP has been working with the extremely poor households living on riverine island chars to improve their livelihoods and has raised plinths for over one lakh families so far in the remote char areas since 2004 in ten northwestern districts.
The UKaid through the Department for International Development (DFID) and Australian Government through Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) have been funding implementation of the CLP.
Under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, CLP is being executed by the Rural Development and Cooperatives Division with the management through Maxwell Stamp Plc.
Mamunur Rashid further said that the programme is being implemented in collaboration with GO-NGOs on the chars in Kurigram, Bogra, Gaibandha, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Pabna and Tangail districts.
According to CLP sources, 900,000 people of 55,000 poorest households were benefited under CLP phase-I during 2004-2010 and over 60,000 more out of 67,000 households so far under phase-II (2010- 2016) to improve livelihoods of 1.9 million extremely poor char people by 2016.
Under the programme, plinths of the beneficiary families have been raised, grants, assets, training and other assistances provided to make them self-reliant through income generation activities to boost the char economy and improve their livelihoods.
Chilmari upazila chairman and valiant freedom fighter Shawkat Ali Sarker, Bir Bikram, said CLP has been helping the have-nots group the char people in changing their socio-economic condition through winning over extreme poverty.
Due to their economic uplift, ‘monga’ has been eradicated, standard of life improved and number of maternal and neonatal deaths and extent of malnutrition of children, women and pregnant women reduced substantially in char areas, he added.
According to legendary freedom fighter Taramon Bibi, Bir Pratik, the plinth-raising programme of CLP has become very effective to assist the char people in escaping floods side by side improving livelihoods to change their fortune.
She said the CLP has also become a milestone in ensuring sanitation and pure drinking water, reduce repression, child marriage, dowry, polygamy, superstitions and improve family planning to reduce high population growth in char areas.
Talking to BSS, CLP beneficiaries Mahmuda Begum, Aklima Khatun and Lipi Begum said they have achieved success by sewing handloom garments, animal husbandry, poultry, dairy, homestead gardening, farming vegetables and agri-activities.
They also narrated their success stories as how they have changed their fortunes through proper utilisation of the assistances they received under CLP activities under supervision of different NGOs.
They happier char women said they have won over abject poverty, hunger and illiteracy and their children are now going to the schools and living well though their days were miserable without hopes in the pasts.
Executive Director of Northbengal Institute of Development Studies Dr Syed Samsuzzaman termed the CLP as one of the most successful programmes that has effectively changed fortune of char families under adverse situations.
