The landless unite to establish rights

Sometimes the big guns forced them out of Khas land, as they were not aware of their rights over Khas land.

With the implementation of Supporting Household Activities for Hygiene, Assets and Revenue (SHAHAR) project, a Community Resource Management Committee (CRMC) was formed and Sarwar, a dweller of the community, made one of the leaders of the committee.

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Sarwar, who came to the city yesterday at a 'learning fair' organized by Care Bangladesh, expressed his views how the land-less poor got united under the umbrella of Adhikar Bastabayon Sangstha (ABS) to establish their rights over land and attaining food as well as sanitation security.

"We are now able to raise our voice against any sort of injustice against us as the ABS has empowered us," said Sarwar, a leader of the ABS.

Like SHAHAR Project, Care Bangladesh implemented its Integrated Food Security Program (IFSP) through other three components named Building Infras-tructure for Local Development (Build), Disaster Management Project (DMP) and Flood Proofing Project (FPP).

The IFSP was implemented between July 1999 and September 2004 and was financed by the USAID and Government of Bangladesh with a view to promoting and protecting the rights of food and livelihood security of vulnerable groups in rural and urban areas of the country.

The 'learning fair' which was held in Shishu Academy premises brought different groups of women and men from remote villages of different parts of the country. These organisations formed under IFSP, set up their stalls in the fair to showcase their activities.

Women Development Organisation of Miaz Char village under Bazitpur upazila in Koshoregonj district set up such a stall in the fair and projected its efforts of village development and fishing rights movement.

Maloti Rani, an entrepreneur of Chap Gram under Bogra district, presented a 'women market corner' at a stall and explained how she got a space in the newly built union parishad market complex along with other women.

After successful implementation of IFSP, Care Bangladesh is going to implement another new five-year program named SHOUHARDO starting from next year.

The experiences and achievements of the IFSP will be utilised in the SHOUHARDO program, which aims at reducing chronic food insecurity of some 40,0000 vulnerable households in 18 districts of the country.

The USAID and the Government of Bangladesh will provide $ 115 million and $ 13 million respectively for the SHOUHARDO program.