WUNRN
BANGLADESH - WOMEN ON CHARS, TINY
MUD RIVER
ISLANDS, LIVE AT THE MERCY OF
MONSOONS
January 26, 2010
The men of
GAIBANDHA, Bangladesh
(WOMENSENEWS)--Bits of gray land sprout shyly from the
It's futile to try to bolt anything--houses, schools,
hospitals and even dreams--into this ephemeral ground.
Home to at least 3.5 million people, these few hundred
chars, or tiny islands, are located seven hours north of the country's capital
Char-dwellers survive the best they can. They migrate
from char to char up to 40 to 50 times in a given life (the average life
expectancy here is late-40s), taking their collapsible, tin houses along with
them.
But most people just wait for relief, for food, said
Aneeqa Ahmad, a communications officer for Friendship, a nongovernmental group
based in
"Women and children are the ones who get stuck on
the chars," Ahmad said. "And women are the ones who actually handle
that situation."
Men typically head to the mainland for work each summer,
leaving the women behind to face the ferocious monsoon rains.
Those who can afford to flee the chars in bad weather
charter boats and relocate to more stable chars. They bury their few belongings
in the ground, in hopes of unearthing them if, and when, they eventually
return.
Many can't afford the price of passage to safety.
During the monsoons the char women and their small gaggle
of children often take refuge on the roofs of their inundated homes, waiting
for the heavy rains to subside and for emergency relief, or at least a boat, to
arrive.
The char-dwellers have engaged this lifestyle for two to
three generations, ever since river erosion broke off chunks of the mainland.
Studies analyzing climate change's potential effects on
the chars don't exist, since the only organizations present in the
region--Friendship and the Chars Livelihood Programme--focus on poverty
alleviation and relief.
Some long-term Friendship employees, like Dr. Shaiful
Azam, the head doctor on the
"It is getting worse and we know that it is because
of the climate change. The rains come earlier, but are inconsistent, the
winters are longer and isolate more and more people," Azam said.
Too poor to settle further inland, the people migrated to
these unoccupied, fickle chars.
Though the chars' uncertain status has become a constant
for its inhabitants, most "land people" would still struggle to fully
fathom char-dwellers' increasingly tenuous existences.
"We say that land is the most steady thing in the
world, but these people don't even have that kind of stable source," said
Ahmed Toufiqur Rahmad, a senior program officer at Friendship. "People
cannot think long term, because every year, everything is washed away,
everything is destroyed. If you don't even have land, what can you do?"
Friendship has focused on promoting female empowerment,
knowing that the women must properly care for themselves in order to ensure
their communities' survival.
To this end, the group recently launched a weaving and
dyeing center, where female teens manufacture cotton goods on wooden handlooms.
They earn about 35 cents an item, each one of which takes around 1.5 hours to
complete.
Though legally too young to work, the rules are broken to
safeguard other rules, like the legal age of marriage. Girls here commonly
marry when they are between 12 to 14 years old and they begin having children
shortly thereafter. Having employment can extend their childhood years a bit
longer.
The work also provides them with a portable skill to
carry off to another, ideally more stable, char when the tides and winds sweep
their birthplaces away.
Friendship also offers women an adult literacy and
education program, meeting six days a week.
"What's most important is that these women can write
their names, write an application, know numbers," said Enam Hague, a
Friendship education officer. "Every day the milkman comes and makes a
calculation, but it sometimes is wrong. These women are able to count that now
and understand when they are being cheated. They are better able to plan for
their futures and protect themselves."
Women in the class spoke of their heightened confidence,
but kept their mouths covered with the edges of their saris and their eyes
averted to open books on the dirt floor.
"Previously I was ignored because I could not write
a letter and I could not write a slip at the market," said one pupil,
identified only as Anissa, through a Bengali translator. "Now I can
communicate and I feel proud. I feel strong because of that."
But no woman in the class ventured to say how her life
might change or how her dreams have altered now that she can read and write.
"Even if they study it does not matter, they will
still be getting married and taking care of their children," said Naisha
Kader, Friendship's health program officer, at the organization's
Despite the challenges of living on chars, no
governmental program exists to relocate the few million char-dwellers, whose
public presence in
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