Tales of two women
Victims of natural disasters need temporary aid for sustainted well-being. Photo: Adnan/ Drik News
DOLEYA (40) of Ghatak Char Village was married at 16. Not surprising, since early marriage in rural areas is a regular phenomenon. Doleya's husband is an agricultural labourer -- owning only 2 decimals of homestead land. Despite his sincere devotion, he could do little to feed a family of seven due to his prolonged illness. Out of their five children, only one is working in a factory to earn a meager monthly income of Tk.1,300. Two of the children go to schools and two are yet to step into school. They need more than 3kgs of rice per day, which means about Tk.70-75 per day is spent for rice only. Cyclone Sidr, that swept the southern districts of Bangladesh in 2007, hit Doleya's household very hard. The house was severely damaged and the only non-land assets that they had -- two goats -- were also lost. Further, the demand for agricultural labour dwindled drastically because of the damages inflicted on the crops. As a result, the feeble income that her husband had earned was also falling. Doleya's husband died few months back. The woman of our story, thus, was driven to deep darkness and, seemingly, there was no light at the end of the tunnel. But life goes on, and people lean on different ladders of livelihoods. To start with, people helped her repair the house damaged by Sidr. She also borrowed Tk.2,000 from a neighbour to fry peanuts. Both of these are possibly the output of the "social capital" that she developed over time. The money from selling fried peanuts give her a profit of Tk.100-150 per day. By selling nuts, she cleared the debt that accrued on account of her husband's illness. Meantime, in the aftermath of the cyclone, a Brac survey identified Doleya as a deserving candidate for aid. She got two goats from Brac under EU grant. Now she has few more in stock. There has, thus, been an increase in her endowments of assets within a couple of months. The lady now plans to sell these goats in a very short time and wishes to buy a cow. The cow would provide milk to generate more income and the calves would form capital stock. Doleya also informed us (requesting secrecy) that she has a life insurance policy that would mature very soon. She learnt about this from another woman from the same village and had been paying Tk.100 per month as premium for a long time. She knows it well that after her death, her family members would get Tk.1.5 lakh or so. And to keep these vital documents safe, she has already made a wooden box to keep them safe and locked away. "Are you happy now?" I asked her. "Yes I am happy now as I have no loan to leave behind. Rich people cannot sleep well due to loans, but I can," said Doleya although she didn't have meat since the last Eid-ul-Azha and has fish only two days a month. I met another wonderful woman, Begum (35), in Madaripur. She lives with her ailing husband and two children. Her prime occupation is selling saris across villages. But the most important point to note here is that she herself goes to Dhaka (Gulistan and Islampur) to buy 30 saris, spending Tk.300 as bus fare per trip. She commutes 4-5 times a month between Dhaka and Madaripur. Unfortunately, Sidr also impinged heavy tolls on her household. The business capital accumulated had to be spent in meeting the exigencies. But being on Brac's list of candidates for immediate grants from EU, she got Tk.4,000 to restart her business. Her ailing husband continues to sell vegetables to supplement Begum's efforts. But the most important source of income for the household remains to be her selling the saris. Had she not been provided the capital, her household might have faced a serious blow at that time. Begum reckons that she is far better now than before. She already repaired the house, bought 5 poultry birds, and accumulated a saving of Tk.40,000. She plans to buy a goat and a cow so that she, too, can generate more income and build more assets. The moral of the story is: it is true that access to assets, not relief, is a sine qua non for helping the poor in a sustainable fashion. But some assets, such as livestock or trees, have a gestation period to yield dividends. In between, there should be provisions for meeting consumption needs even for very short periods. Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University. Email: abdulbayes@yahoo.com.
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