<i>Becoming self-reliant thru' own efforts</i>
Sadhona Rani takes care of the chickens at her poultry farm at Madhabpur village of Thakurgaon Sadar upazila. Photo: STAR
Starvation was common for Shadhona just a few years ago. She could not visit a doctor or buy medicine when her family members fell sick. But things have changed now. She no longer faces crisis of food or seeks just God's help for recovery from illness. Shadhona Rani Roy of Madhobpur married Gouralal Proshad Roy of the same village in Sadar upazila 25 years ago while she was only 15 years old. A student of class-X, her education also ended with the marriage. At the beginning of their marital life, her husband was involved with construction work while doing farm jobs. She involved herself with homestead gardening. But that was not enough to bear the expenses of their family. A few years after her marriage, Shadhona started to work as an agri-labourer as their economic condition started to worsen gradually. Several more years passed silently while poverty remained her companion. Seven years ago, Shadhona Rani joined Madhobpur MBS Women Group, a micro finance unit of RDRS Bangladesh. After a few months, she took Tk 10 thousand from the unit and started rearing chickens. At the very start of the project, she made a profit of Tk 8000, which inspired her to invest more. Now she has three poultry sheds involving Tk 6 lakh. Each shed has a capacity to keep a thousand chicks that need feeds worth Tk 12,000 a day. Last month she made a profit of Tk 80,000 from the sales of around two thousand birds at a price of Tk 135 per kg. Today the couple have two sons and two daughters. Their elder son assists Shadhona in rearing birds. The two daughters are students of class-X while the son reads in class-VII. By farming poultry in the last three years, she has bought 2.7 bighas of crop land worth Tk 5.5 lakh. She also helped her husband set up a tailoring shop at Dholarhat Bazar near their home. She still remembers the technical support extended by the district livestock officials. They regularly visited her project to give advice for free. Today Shadhona has become a model of development activities among the rural women. Many people from far away places visit her house to see the poultry rearing process. She has also become the chairman of Akhanagar Shamaj Unnayan Shangstha, a sister organisation of RDRS Federation. With the changes of time, she is now much aware about various social issues like gender equity, women rights, bad effect of child marriage, dowry, human trafficking, health care and sanitation. "We rush to the places with other group members to assist the victims. Let it be a case of women repression, child marriage or dowry", she told this correspondent. "We also observe International Women's Day every year under the banner of Akhanagar Shamaj Unnayan Shangstha," she said. "Today I can contribute to women development besides helping my family as I have obtained financial solvency through struggle", she said.
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