Defenders on the bank of the Jamuna

But now Gobindapur has a different look. Those miseries are becoming matters of the past. The people are overcoming those adversities. They have been organised to build up their own fate, pushing aside all hostile environment.

The suffering
Gobindapur is an ordinary village of Haldia Union Parishad, four kms off the upazila headquarters. Most of the five thousand villagers are landless, poor and illiterate. Though agriculture is their main occupation, very few of them have land of their own to work on. As a result they have to go to other parts of the country to find work as agricultural labour, daily labour, rickshaw puller, brick field labour etc. Like many other villages of the upazila, people of Gobindapur also are victims of seasonal famine 'Monga'. They have to bear the lashes of bitter cold of winter every year. But their sorrows increase manifold when flood and river erosion takle a furious turn. The river Jamuna was 15 km away from Gobindapur two decades ago. Due to the constant erosion it is now within half km, and all the cultivable lands have gone in the river. Now for the people of Gobindapur, there is no land to grow paddy jute or any crop to earn a living.

The whole village sunk in an utter hopeless and helplessness. The villages took it as part of their fate that they would have to suffer, and starve. The labour force or the work potential they had, could not be utilised for any productive purpose which could deliver them from the clutches of poverty and miseries. There prevailed most unhygeinic condition everywhere. Open latrine was a common sight. Illiteracy was another curse.

Flash of light
In 2003 Samsuzzoha Bablu a volunteer of the The Hunger Project (THP) contacted the chairman of Haldia Union Parishad Khairuzzaman Sarker. Bablu could convince the chairman, that he could develop his area in a different way and make it hunger free and self-reliant. The chairman agreed to the proposal of Bablu. They took Mr. Nurul Islam

Master, a teacher of Gobindapur High School with them and arranged for an Animators Training Programme in the school. Their objectives were to create a good number of animators in the area who would pioneer the movement of self-reliance.

In October 2003, the chairman and teachers of Gobindapur High

School organised training for the batch in the school in collaboration with THP. A good number of villagers participated in the training. The Animators Training Programme was quite effective and inspired the poor villagers. They were animated with a new vision and a new determination.

Fire of inspiration
The inspiration of the 4-day Animator Training spread fast over the nearby villages and everywhere there was a talk that they can solve their problems themselves. Animator Nurul Islam Master, Abul Kashem Member, Motiur Rahman, chairman Khairuzzaman and volunteer Bablu took the leadership and discussed with the elderly people of the area. They all agreed that they would build up their villages themselves.

They first identified the most backward people of the village and prepared some plan for them. They organised workshop with 25-30 villagers on sanitation, oppression on women, self-employment, education, family planning etc. Initially some of the villagers, of course, laughed at them, but soon they realised that the animators were serious in their purpose. In few months there was a revolution in the village, and a change was noticeable everywhere.

Well done Gobindapur
A group of animators went on organising workshops and meetings with a view to convince the villagers, that they could solve their own problems, if they are united. The result was very positive and in November 2003, they were able to form the Gobindapur Unnayan Samity.

Gobindapur Unnayan Samity is now a driving force of development with 101 members. Of them 50 are animators and 40 female. Under the leadership of Abul Kashem as president and Nurul Islam Master as secretary, the samity started to make a capital of their own with savings of Tk.5 a week from each member. After three months, the members unanimously agreed to raise the rate of contribution from Tk. 5 to Tk. 10 and Tk.100 as onetime contribution, at the beginning of harvesting season.

The present saving of the Samity is Tk.80,000. When a member of the samity has Tk.5,000 as share in his account, he opens a fixed deposit account with the Grameen Bank. Now the target of the Samity is to get Tk.5,000 fixed deposit for each member.

The samity has a plan to start a textile factory when they would have a capital of Tk.5,00,000, to create employment opportunity for the people who have been rendered landless by the erosion of river. By this time they have contacted different textile factories and agencies of Sirajganj for that purpose.

The samity, has also directed its attention to other areas for development. They identified open latrine as a major health hazard of the village. In November 2003, 60 percent people of the village used sanitary latrine. They made it one of their targets that, all the villagers should have sanitary latrine, by the next year. Haldia Union Parishad supplied 15 percent of the rings and slabs for the latrine and the rest was done by the beneficiaries. In December 2004, Gobindapur was declared a village free from open latrine. Being inspired by the instance of Gobindapur nearby villages namely Malchia and Garamara have taken similar initiative. Ninety percent latrines of the neighbouring villages are now hygienic.

The Gobindapur Unnayan Samity has also undertaken another praiseworthy project to create employment for the poor and increase their income. They have taken, on lease, a Haor (water body) of 300 acres, from the neighbouring village and started pisciculture there. The people of Gobindapur will stand on their own feet with all these projects and income generating activities by the next year, if flood and river erosion do not create any havoc.

The efforts, made by the animators towards self-reliance, are by no means insignificant: 300 people who were earlier landless and homeless are now self-employed, and can earn a moderate living.

The example which the animators of Gobindapur have created by utilizing their own talents and efforts, is now being followed by others to make their areas developed, self-reliant and hunger free.

Shashanka Boron Roy is Assistant Programme Officer, The Hunger Project-Bangladesh.