Selling labour in advance has always been a regular practice in north Bengal, where in certain periods food shortages become acute. However, with a little foresight and planning this can be avoided. Writes Ruhul Motin
Noni Ba w a's husband died 10 years ago leaving behind a debt of Tk 5,000 for her to repay, but no asset. Then Noni, a 60-year-old woman of Mankira village in Dinajpur district, had to beg food from door to door, particularly during September-October period when poverty creeps in with ominous assertions -- lack of work and lack of food. A landlord of the village was her last resort. When she could not buy food, Noni would sell her labour in advance to the landlord at a flat rate of Tk25 a day. This is how Noni survived since her husband Moyen Chan's death.
There is nothing new in selling advance labour in Noni's impoverished neighborhood because the poor in her village always sell their labour in advance, wh ich is better known as 'Aguri'. But, things have changed for Noni Ba w a now. She no longer resorts to 'Aguri'. A little foresight has motivated her to put away a handful of rice before cooking everyday. Since 2005, Noni has been able to avoid the demeanin g and disorienting clutches of Monga, a seasonal food crisis. On top of that, s he has regained her confidence.
"No I don't resort to 'Aguri' any more. Putting away a fistful of rice helps me go through the terrible lean period," says Noni flashing a big smile on her face. To make her idea of saving rice more meaningful, she hangs a clay-pot with a rope in her house. She shifts the rice to a larger pot when the clay-pot fills up. Soon 73 families of Mankira village started to replicate Noni Ba w a's idea to avert 'Monga'.
There are a lot of poverty pockets like Mankira Para in different parts of Bangladesh 's northern region where most people are dependent on farm works. During the months of Mogna (September-October and February-April) they cannot manage work for their livelihoods. The poor are forced to sell their labour when the situation gets worse. Those who live in the vicinities of the Jamuna, Teesta and Brahmaputra rivers suffer more because their neighbourhoods are inaccessible.
Experts, however, hold different views. They say that the people in this region face Monga due to a high concentration of landless people defined as marginalised farmers. Recurring floods and river erosion are the other reasons behind their hardship.
To solve their problems by themselves, CARE Bangladesh's 'Nijeder Janiya Nijera (We for Ourselves)' project has explored a new development approach for mobilising the grassroot s communities on the basis of poverty managing methods invented by poor men and women.
The project, emerging from CARE-Bangladesh's Rural Livelihood Program (RLP), aims at promoting the self-realisation of the rural poor, including women, helping them articulate their own visions of development and strengthening their capacity to act in pursuit of self-defined goals. It's another objective is to alleviate extreme poverty and create a governance environment so that communities can protect its achievements.
Witnessing rapid success of the programme launched in 5 hamlets of Gaibandha and Dinajpur districts in October 2004, Nijera has rolled out its activities to 45 villages in six districts, targeting 37,000 beneficiaries of poor and extreme-poor households.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), there are 65.87 lakh households in 16 northern districts and more than 32.04 lakh of them are totally dependent on agricultural activities. Of the agriculture-based families, 6.73 lakh are landless while 20.90 lakh are dependent on selling labour in farms for their survival.
In Dinajpur district, the number of landless families are 58,638 and 1.38 lakh of them are totally dependent o n farm labour, the report says. The situation in Mankira village is, however, worse as around 70 per cent households are landless. Only 1.39 percent households at the village are large-scale landowners; and the practice of depositing a fistful of rice helped the poor villagers to overcome the hard time this year.
Depositing a fistful of rice is nothing new in rural Bangladesh . This has been a common practice in rural areas for quite some time. But, the practice was on the verge of extinction for various reasons. But, the poor people of Mankira have resuscitated the traditional practice as a tool for fighting extreme poverty; now, every family of the hamlet deposits 1 kg of rice each week. This also gives the poor farmers a chance to bargain with the landlords on matters of wage.
Naresh Chandra, a (natural) community leader, said, 'We've asked local landlords to raise our wages. When our requests fell on deaf ears, we picked the period of ' China ' paddy (one variety of IRRI paddy) harvest to realise our demands. For the harvest of this kind of paddy, there is very little time and we used the time constraint as a tool to give material form to our demands.'
As per the plan, when harvesting time came, a strike was called and the infuriated landowners hired workers from Madanpur, the neighbouring village. But, when the hired farm workers saw the local labourers going on strike demanding a wage hike, they abstained from work as a mark of solidarity.
Finally, the landowners were forced to raise the daily wage from Tk25 to Tk50 and ended the wage discrimination between male and female labourers. During the strike, it was also decided that they would have to be paid the agreed daily wage even if they decided to sell labour in advance.
The people of Manikara not only managed to remove Aguri, but they also managed to avoid 'Dadan' (high-interest loan) fr om the Mohajans (moneylenders). With the success in the two moves, the Mankira beneficiaries took up various income-generating activities which include producing bamboo craft, kantha (comforters with needle works), jute mat (Dhokra), vegetable dyeing and embroidery, fish culture, goat rearing, homestead vegetable cultivation, savings through samitys (groups). In
2006, they saved Tk 49,500.
In an effort to tackle seasonal hunger (Monga), it has initiated the development of artisans' self-managed entrepreneurship. The activities include natural indigo processing facility, vegetable dyeing of cloth, honey production, readymade garments, quilting and cap production.
Sadhona Rani, 29, of Mankira says, "CARE doesn't provide us money. It encourages, organises and gives suggestions on the basis of which we solve our problems ourselves."
It facilitates a process of self-realisation through analysis and action to enable various communities and groups to set up their own development agendas.
Through this sharing process, it has developed community consultants (natural leaders) who will inspire neighbouring hamlets to take responsibility for key aspects of development.
Anowarul Haque, Project Manager of Social Development Unit (SDU) of CARE Bangladesh, says the united efforts of Mankira Para attracted people from neighbouring villages -- Madhudanga, Madanpur, Bhaduria, Mohongaon and Jagdal -- who came forward for the development of their own communities.
Mukti Majumder, a local development worker, says the process reduces dependency of the poor on government subsidy, improves up self-capabilities and support to build up a larger forum within unions through which marginalised groups and communities can effectively make a change in local governance. The people of Mankira now find out a new avenue for their survival and they now seek new alternatives for sources of income. "If the process continues, sustainability will be achieved," she hopes.
Mukti was right. Being inspired by the motivation of CARE, Noni Bawa now grows vegetables, rears goat and plants fruit tree in her tiny courtyard. She also shares views with community people on the aspects of their development initiatives that already made a change in their life.
Noni says, 'If I can continue to save a fistful of rice every time I cook and keep on small income generating activities, I'll never have to go to a landlord for assistance and there will be no need to take Aguri'.
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