NETRAKONA Mar 18, 2020 (BSS)-Jyotirmoy ,45, a poor small farmer has come out of poverty cycle and become self-reliant with help of Ekti Bari, Ekti Khamar (EBEK) now renamed as Amar Bari, Amar Khamar (ABAK) project, one of
the ten initiatives of the Prime Minister.
Earlier, Jyotirmoy, who hailed from the Kudra Nree Gustee ( small ethnic community) in the hilly areas at Chegni Gupalbari village under Kalmakanda upazila of the district, passed many days of hardship even with starvation
due to his extreme poverty.
He could not collect food for three times every day for his family thus he
used to work in paddy fields as day-labourer .
He came to know about the EBEK project after going through a story based
“news-item” on EBEK network which telecast by Bangladesh Television in 2012.
Then , he could manage to meet with an officer of EBEK project in
Kalmakanda upazila town and informed the officer about his impoverishment.
The officer told him that the government took the EBEK project at the
directives of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina for helping the poor and
distress people to come out of the poverty-cycle.
At certain stage, he requested the officer to help him through the project.
“Due to my request, the officer enlisted me as a member of Chegni
Gupalbari Village Development Samity (VDS) which constituted with 57 extreme
poor members in 2012”, Jyotirmoy said.
“Following the guide line of the samity, I deposited TK 200 per month that
created a fund of TK 2,59,400 in two years”, he said. In that time, the
government allocated TK 2,59,400 as welfare fund and TK three lakhs as
revolving loan to the samity.
As a result, the fund of the samity rose to 8,18,800 lakhs by two years.
The transformation of his life began in 2014 when he was imparted training
on income generation activities by EBEK.
“After getting the training, the EBEK provided me TK 10,000 as first loan
from the Chegni VDS for rearing livestock in the year of 2014” he said.
He purchased two goats for rearing which gave birth to two cubs after
eight months. He got profit of TK 10,000 by selling two goats in that year
and paid back the loan money to the VDS.
“I got loan amounting to TK 20,000 from the VDS in 2015 when I bought a
bull and sold the bull at TK 50,000 after fattening the bull in 12 months”,
he said.
In 2016 and 2017, Jyotirmoy made a good profit by rearing two milking cows
, poultry birds, selling cow milk, eggs of poultry birds and fattening bulls.
In 2018, he connected with Palli Sanchoy Bank (PSB) and got TK 30,000 as
loan. This time, he purchased a big size milking cow with a male calf and set
up a duck farm with 40 ducks in his house premises.
In 2019, the PSB again provided him loan amounting to TK 50,000.
After getting the loan, he built a tin-shed infrastructure on his house
premises and set up a cattle and poultry farm there.
He purchased a television set, some furniture and set up a sanitary latrine
and tube well in his house premises.
Now, his elder daughter studies in class four and his younger daughter
studies in class one in a local school.
At present, Jyotirmoy has 12 cows including 5 milking cows, two male caves,
one female calf , four bulls, five goats and 50 local varieties poultry
birds.
His total assets now rose to worth nearly TK seven lakhs.
Currently, he also earns taka 200 daily by selling eggs of poultry birds
and cow milk after meeting the demand of his family
“Now, I am very happy as I have found the way of regular earnings through
operating my house-cum cattle and poultry farm”, Jyotirmoy said giving thanks
and expressing gratitude to prime minister Sheikh Hasina for taking the ABAK
project.
“Like Jyotirmoy, number of 433 Kudra Nree Gustee ( small ethnic community)
people were enlisted as members in 39 VDS in the hilly areas under Durgapur
and Kalmakanda upazilas of the district and currently they have been able to
come out of extreme poverty with the help of the ABAK project” said district
coordinator of ABAK Netrakona KM Taifur Siddiqui.
“Apart from this, ABAK project is now benefiting 93,830 poor people of
2109 VDS across the district”, he added.
Deputy Commissioner (DC) Netrakona Main-UL-Islam said, the ABAK project has
been playing an important role for alleviating poverty in rural areas and
boosting rural economy across the country.
Rural poverty-stricken people have got special opportunities for becoming
self-reliant with the project, the DC added.