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Women and economic war

This is how the poor women embarked on creating assets for their households. They seem to realise that income per se is not sufficient to pull them out of poverty. Small grants through assets could be more useful and productive. Women fighting an economic war need that kind of help.

Abdul Bayes
AS we all know, cyclone Sidr, which swept over Southern Bangladesh in ^007, caused colossal loss to people and properties. The price of any climatic change or other natural hazards generally falls heavily on the poor, and this was also the case with Sidr. The livelihoods of the poor were shattered, with razed houses, uprooted trees, damage to standing crops, and loss of livestock.
Survival was shrouded in deep darkness with no light at the end of the economic tunnel. We were told that some of these poor households were almost crossing the poverty line, but Sidr pushed them back. No food, no clothing, and only a shelter under the sky for many days.
The women of our story have seemingly overcome the rot through a post-Sidr rehabilitation program of the European Union (EU). It was implemented by Brae. These women were found to be genuine candidates for financial grants from EU to regain their liveli-hoods. Brae picked them through information gathering from the people of the locality. More than a dozen economic activities were stipulated to help the poor, but the women under consideration were employed in cash-for work in road construction/maintenance.
Admittedly, these types of works are mostly manual, and are usually done by men. But economic hardships sometimes erase that kind of division. Anyhow, 20 women of our sample from Modhyam Chandra village under Amtoli Upazila (Borguna district) got work for 7 months (6 days a week) at Tk.lOO/day. Mentionably, a few of these women are widows and heads of their respective household; the husbands of others are day labourers. As reported, each of them earned, on average, Tk.17, 500 after completion of the work. We are told that, in subsequent attempts, each of them was also provided with a cow by the EU so that they could build up some assets to sustain the income so generated.
Let us look at the allocation of the meager amount of money that they fetched. Almost all of them leased land with that money to grow crops. In fact, the largest chunk of the money was diverted towards that end. The decision of leasing land came from their common feeling that, after getting livestock, leasing land would help in procuring food for the household, and feed for the livestock.
The women expect that they will get 5 maunds of paddy from the land they
leased. If that is so, they could get food for four months from their own fields. This compares with no food from own production in earlier periods. The other part of the income went into repairing the houses. Two of them also helped their husbands by buying vans to generate income. By and large, only one-fifth of the women's income went for consumption and the rest went for investment. Mentionably, the husbands' meager income was mostly spent on daily necessities.
The women informed us that they could not eat two times a day in the past; now they have three meals easily. Before Sidr, buying biscuits for the kids was beyond their means; now they can buy apples, if needed. By and large, the women of our story could come out of the poverty-cave that they were thrown into by Sidr. But all said, they are still haunted by the taunt that women, like men, carry bricks on their head for the construction and repairing of roads.
They were also refused any help from their earlier mentors on the plea that they did not work for their households during the few months they worked on roads. The women are not even allowed to take the livestock to the grazing lands of their former employers. But these pernicious acts do not seem to provoke them anymore, because they are fighting an economic war, and must win it.
Going further south of Amtoli, we met 15 women who were provided with vans/rickshaws by EU. The vans were for the males as they had lost their livelihood during Sidr. However, the condition was that the husband would deposit Tk.30/day in his wife’s bank (bamboo poles or mud-pots located in the house). The husbands earn, on average, Tk.200-250/day, and that money to the wife goes as rent for the rickshaw/van. This is man-
datory, failing which the transport could be forfeited or future assistance could be at risk for the household.
We are told that most of the women bought goats with that savings. For example, 5 of them now have 5 goats each, generated from the one they bought with that money. Interestingly, half of the sample women also pay Tk.200/month for insurance, in the hope of undertaking bigger investment in future when the insurance will mature and more money will pour in. They are also using the savings for the repairing their houses, and for childrens' education.
By and large, their expenses are mostly investment expenses for generating future income. The decisions about investments are taken jointly with their husbands. But three of the sample women performed very poorly on account of serious illness of the husband, larger family with higher dependency ratio, and indecisions about future plans.
This is how the poor women embarked on creating assets for their households. They seem to realise that income per se is not sufficient to pull them out of poverty. Small grants through assets could be more useful and productive. Women fighting an economic war need that kind ofhelp.
Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangimagar University.
E-mail abdulbayes@yahoo.com