Beneath the Surface
A Grameen Graduate
THIS is the story of Nurjahan Begum (40), one of the millions of poor women in Rural Bangladesh. That she stole our attention rather than others of same kind in the basket is due to the fact that Nurjahan - a most backward woman - moves with a most forward technology, cellular phone. She leased-in a cellular phone from Grameen Bank (GB) at a cost of Tk. 18000 to be paid in three years in an easy installment of Tk 160 per week. Her phone is now being used by many of the people of the village Boura in Dakkhin Khan, 10 km north of the Zia International Airport. Each week her phone serves 150-170 calls - to charge Tk 4.50 a minute. The net monthly income of her household from selling phone service alone stands at Tk. 2500-3000, on average.
When I visited her last week, a smiling Nurjahan appeared cheerful and confident seemingly of a direction to her destiny. Her two sons have two shops in the village with access to a pucca road and electricity. From all these sources (viz, phone, grocery shop and electronics repairing), the net income fetched to the household is nearly Tk 7000 ($155) per month or a per capita income of $622 per annum. This is almost double the national average per capita income.
Nurjahan was telling me about her rocky road to survival that she travelled throughout. Twelve years back, her husband deserted her with two small children to marry another woman and settle there. He mortgaged the scant property and moved away with the money. Nurjahan with her two kids found the sky falling on her and took refuge in her parents' house. But a benevolent villager brought her back to Boura village so that she could impinge her claims on the property. Nurjahan started working in others' houses, sent children to school and thus took up the challenge for survival.
When darkness shrouded her from all around, and she was torn apart by poverty, Grameen Bank laid the torch before her. GB provided her Tk 1500 as credit to pursue income generating activities. Nurjahan bought goats and reared these to earn Tk 8000 as profit. Moved with the zeal to steal fortunes, Nurjahan reinvested the surplus on a grocery shop. Besides, she took house loans to repair the house - and also borrowed money to sink a tubewell and set up a sanitary latrine. I was told by Mr Nurul Alam - the Dakkhin Khan GB branch manager - that Nurjahan had paid back most of her dues. And because of her bright track of records in loan repayment, she was selected to lease-in cellular phone.
Who are the users of her cellular phone? Mostly people involved in the business of land transactions. Close at heel is the proportion of traders who call Dhaka to supply information on the prices or their marketable produce (e.g. eggs, chickens, vegetables etc.). Before the advent of the phone in the village, Dhaka price was the price quoted by the middlemen involved in trading. Now they cannot cheat the suppliers, I was told. Do the GB members - the poorest in the village - utilize the services prided by Nurjahan? Yes, she replied and then pointed at Somota standing nearby who has just finished a call. "What did you phone for", I asked Somota. "My chickens are not providing enough eggs, they also seem to be sick. So I called the expert 10 km from here to advise me. I got the advice and now going home to work accordingly." They also use the phone to call friends and relatives in and around Dhaka, to call doctor for advice on medicines. Nurjahan - aided by Nurul Alam - also informed me that calls are received from and made to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore by friends and relatives of the villagers.
Nurjahan is proud of her graduation from extreme poverty to moderate solvency. Her graduation is sustainable because the total value of the property that she now possesses including household effects - a dressing table, a ceiling fan, a showcase, and stock in two shops and livestock at the home - would far exceed her total loans due to GB. Further, her two sons are also her assets with secondary level education. The "Grameen Graduate" Nurjahan has already been interviewed by BBC and many a newspaper - both national and international - who flashed her photographs with a cellular phone in hand.
As mentioned earlier, Nurjahan's husband deserted her, but never divorced. "Where and how is he now", I asked the elder son about his farther. I was told that Nurjahan's husband has become poorer and off and on seeks help from his sons. He also comes to visit them once in a while and stays with his sons. Nurjahan does not mind. "After all, he is the husband and nothing can be grudged against husband!" - told the lady with the mobile phone. As I left her place, the village with the latest technology, I recalled the dreamer of the dreams - Dr Yunus - who saw the poor through his visionary lens, to come to the conclusion that it is the technology that matters most for poverty alleviation. There are thirty other Grameen graduates belonging to the poorest segment of the villages who are carrying with mobile phones, to ensure mobility without physical movements. The dawn that started with Grameen Credit Programmes is now landing on latest technology in rural Bangladesh. It's nice to see, pleasant to hear.
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