BSS, Rajshahi :
In the wake of gradually rising slum, poor and extreme poor people, more schemes needed to eradicate urban poverty in the city alongside eliminating other poverty linked social crimes especially addiction of drugs and its trafficking, speakers at a profit-distribution event said.
They viewed tenure of the Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPRP) needs to be expanded more so that its beneficiary women can get more time to eradicate their poverty.
Local Government Engineering Department has been implementing the project in the metropolis in association with UNDP and financial and technical supports from UKaid and UNHabitat.
With the project intervention, more than 20,000 women from slum and underprivileged areas across the city have come together in an anti-poverty savings scheme to raise more than Taka 9.5 crore.
Through the savings and credit programmes, the communities now can operate their own savings schemes and create a revolving fund from which credit operations are being managed by themselves.
Rajshahi City Corporation (RCC) organised the event distributing profit-share of the savings held at Atkoshi Govt. Primary School premises in the city yesterday afternoon.
Mayor of Rajshahi Mosaddique Hossain Bulbul distributed the profits worth Taka 14.73 lakh among 1,000 members of four Community Development Committees as chief guest.
Main thrust of the project is to improve the living and livelihood condition of around two and half lakh poor and extreme poor people, especially women and girls, in the city by March, 2015.
Under the project, the beneficiary communities identify and priorities the environmental, social and economic challenges they face as well as the required actions to address them.
The programme promotes household and community level urban food production technology demonstrations, provides small input supports especially high yielding variety vegetable and fruits seeds, saplings, ducklings, chick and poultry vaccination.
It also provides business start-up grants to extreme poor women for poultry, goat rearing, beef fattening and agri-business allowing them to have access to regular income.
Besides, the ongoing apprenticeships and vocational training improve the odds of youth landing decent jobs and regular income.
Various other settlement improvement facilities like 8,484 pit latrines, one community latrine, 1,403 tubewells, 42,412 squire- kilometre footpath, 6,708 metre drain, 34 dustbins and seven community centres were developed for ensuring improved water and sanitation among the poverty-prone communities.
The access to improved water sources makes the lives of community members healthier while the constructed toilets and bathing facilities leads to improved hygiene practices and the footpaths improve settlement accessibility and mobility.
