Bikes keeping girls in school

For class-eight student Moni Chattri who lives in Hazaribagh tea garden in Moulvibazar's Kamalganj upazila, reaching school was arduous. Every day she had to cover the twelve kilometres from home to the campus of Vandarigaon High School on foot, returning the same way. She didn't always manage. But nowadays Moni reaches school more regularly and with ease because she has a bicycle.

On June 11 this year, the Kamalganj upazila administration distributed 80 bicycles to female students of 13 high schools to reduce dropout rates and help students from distant homes reach class.

“I'm really happy to get a bicycle,” says Moni. “I wasn't very interested in attending school before because of the long walk. Now it's quite convenient. I will take good care of my bicycle.”

“Having a bicycle encourages me to study properly,” says another recipient Pranti Chasa, a class-six student at Tetoigaon Rashid Uddin High School.

“Never again will transport problems prevent me from attending school.”

Vandarigaon High School's headmaster, Abdul Matin, says the upazila administration's bicycle initiative has been helpful in encouraging education for girls.

“Since the bicycle distribution, the attendance of female students at our school has become more regular.”

Local council member of Madhabpur union, Paul Kuraia, also sees merit in the scheme.

“Parents are more comfortable sending their daughters to school now,” she says, “and that makes it easier for them to enrol in high school and ultimately pursue higher education too. The girls' dropout rate at local schools is decreasing because of the bicycles.”

“We allocated the bicycles to meritorious students and to disadvantaged schoolgirls from the tea gardens,” says Upazila Nirbahi Officer in Kamalganj Mohammad Mahmadul Haque. “We hope to support their schooling and address social problems associated with a lack of education.”

The UNO also says the use of bicycles will be monitored to assess the longer term success of the scheme.

Indeed the bicycles are far more than transport. They offer the girls a sense of pride in themselves and their education, and can work to underline the importance of schooling for women across remote communities.

“At first it was difficult to convince some guardians that their daughters needed school,” Haque recalls. “The benefits of schooling for girls are now better appreciated. When locals see a large number of female students cycling together, it helps promote the idea that girls pursuing education is both usual and of value. In our society, the social barriers to women's mobility are many. This initiative is definitely a step forward in overcoming them.”