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Being
Productive is a
Blessing
This is a story of
socio-economic upheaval of 35 years old Rabeya Khatun’s life. On being
hard-up in life, Rabeya thought of alternatives for a living. She shared her
ideas of alternatives for increasing income with her husband. This sharing
has opened a gate for her to start a life as a BEES group member.
She lives in the
village Darikandi under Belabo upazila of Narsingdi district, with her
husband and five children. Rabeya was inspired by her neighboring Samities.
Once she went to the Area Office of BEES. There she met the Unit Manager Mr.
Sattar and then enlisted herself in a Samiti near her village entitled
‘Hossain Nagar Mohila Samiti’. Later she herself established a group in her
own village four years ago.
Rabeya took her fourth
loan of Tk. 7,000 about eight months ago. Her first loan was Tk. 3,000 with
which she bought a cow. She added to this money about Tk. 2,000 of her own.
Second time she took Tk. 4,000 as a loan from BEES and bought a cow with Tk.
8,000 adding to her own money again. Third time she bought a cow with Tk.
10,000. In this time again she added Tk. 4,000 of her own. Finally, almost
eight months ago she bought a cow with Tk. 10,000. She added Tk. 3,000 into
this money.
Rabeya possesses a
land. She cultivates the land and produces rice and vegetables from it. She
produces 90 mounds of rice in a year. They consume 30 mounds for the family
and sell 40 mounds at a price of Tk 250 per mounds and thus get the total
amount of production cost for rice. Investing Tk. 20,000 they produce
vegetables, and they earn Tk. 1,00,000 selling these. They themselves
consume vegetables, which cost Tk. 14,600.
Selling milk Rabeya
gets Tk. 8,000 in a month and consumes some milk costing Tk. 720 per month.
Yearly she earns from selling calves Tk. 20,000 as a net profit. She has 4
hens and 25 chickens. She gets Tk. 200 per month from the eggs and Tk. 2,000
from selling the chicken. They consume two-third of the eggs they get and
sell one third. She has seven ducks also from which she earns Tk. 1,300 per
year.
After becoming a member
of BEES she bought 99 decimal of land from the profit of her business.
Spending Tk. 6,000 she built one kitchen and a cow-shed. She bought
furniture spending Tk. 9,200. She bought a tubewell for Tk. 1,500 and all
her family members use it for all purposes. They have already got a sanitary
toilet.
In the previous period, the family earned in a month Tk. 7,300. But their
income has been increased dramatically in the present period. It has risen
sharply to Tk. 15,251. Along with their increase in income their expenses on
basic needs food, cloth, health, education as well as entertainment and
others also have increased. Previously they spent only Tk. 6,750 and at the
present period the expenditure becomes almost double amounting to Tk.
12,350.
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