Once Azad Mia, a van puller and inhabitant of Shahjadpur upazila of Sirajganj district, had to live with hardship with his six-member family as he could not run his van properly due to illness.
Consequently, Azad often had quarrel with his wife Aleya as he could not maintain family expenses properly. Finding no way, Aleya then had to work as housemaid to run their family.
In 2005, Aleya came in contact with an employee of a microcredit organisation. She then told him about her misfortune, poverty-ridden family and sufferings.
With the help of the employee, Aleya started rearing goat and poultry after receiving a loan of Taka 10,000 from the microcredit organisation.
Aleya paid back her loan amount successfully within six months after selling eggs and billy goats.
With success Aleya felt encouraged and took Taka 30,000 again from the organisation and bought a cow. Her family became financially solvent selling milk and eggs.
In 2010, Aleya constituted a tiny farm adjacent to her house after taking a loan of Taka 1 lakh from a public bank.
Currently, Aleya’s farm has five cows, 10 goats and 20 poultry fowls. Children of Aleya are going to schools and they are not facing any kind of obstacles in continuing their studies.
Azad Mia is also involved with the farm. Every morning, he goes to Baghabari Milk Vita to sell milk. Now, they do not have any kind of financial crisis.
Poverty is a great challenge for countries like Bangladesh. Now, the poverty rate has been significantly reduced in the country. The seventh five-year-plan is being successfully implemented by the government, said officials close to the microcredit programmes.
The main theme of the plan is poverty alleviation as well as economic development of the country.
“A large number of the women in the country are now involved in self employment,” said an official of the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs.
The women community are directly involve with agriculture commodity production, cow rearing, aquaculture, poultry, vegetable gardening, pottery, tree plantation adjacent to the households, and bamboo and cane based industrial commodity production to change their fate, she added.
Even almost 34 per cent of the workers involve with small and cottage industries are women, said another official on condition of anonymity, adding that urban based apparel industries have 80 per cent women workers.
“There is no alternative to women empowerment to ensure sustainable development and building a poverty and starvation-free society,” said State Minister for Women and Children Affairs.
