Rapid change in char women's life

The life of women sees a rapid change as increasing number of female workers in the Jamuna river char areas of the district are getting engaged in jobs outside their households.

The poverty-stricken women in Sariakandi upazila previously had to work in households for a small amount of broken and low quality rice as wages, which was not sufficient for feeding their family members.

Many chars, landmass emerging from riverbed, have appeared in the Jamuna river under five unions of the upazila.

Once the women had to do such jobs and pass their days in hardship, the villagers said. The situation has changed now as they have been contributing to their families like the male members, working in chilli, paddy, pumpkin, wheat and maize fields, they said. The women have proved their worth through their devotion and integrity, they added.

Upazila Social Service Officer Md Abdur Rashid said the women are engaged in cultivating chilli, paddy, pumpkin, wheat, maize and other crops, and are also working in rice-husking mills.

The chilli farm owners are  engaging female workers for Tk 130 to Tk 150 a day as they are sincere workers and chilli farming has been getting popular, he added.

Upazila Project Implementation Officer (PIO) Sarwar Alam said the distressed women are engaged in repairing flood-affected roads and building markets and other government establishments under projects run by PIO and Local Government Engineering Department.

Jahiron at Char Benipur said the women are busy in different works and the earning helps them to maintain their families. She said they are getting the same wages as male workers, which was not the case earlier.

Van puller Shailesh Kumar said his wife Kalyani Das earns Tk 130 to Tk 150 daily working at a chilli field and now they are able to send their two daughters to school.

Phulbari Union Parishad Chairman Anwaruttarik Mohammad said the lifestyle of the common people, especially the women, has improved a lot and begging as well as crimes  have decreased.

Sarwar said female workers have been engaged in government development works on a priority basis as they have been doing the works efficiently. 

The women of at least 116 char villages in Kazla, Chaluabari, Kornibari, Bohail, Chandanbaisha, Hat Sherpur and Sariakandi Sadar unions are engaged in different jobs, said Sarwar.

Of around one lakh people, at least 20, 000 women have been benefited from different income-generating activities in the chars and thus changing their lifestyle, Rashid said, adding that now they can arrange schooling for their children.