June 2nd, 2024
Wave of Changes in Rural Bangladesh: Laily Begum, Rokeya Begum and Shilpi’s Story
Eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, and empowering women are two of the cornerstones of the Millennium Development Goals. While they are geared towards diverging areas and sectors, in many ways they are interlinked. Often, women are left behind in the development bandwagon; their marginalization eventually leads them into poverty, which is also a circle completed with hunger.
Women empowerment is just as important as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and if somehow an initiative can do both, then it is nothing short of a godsend. At Grameenphone such an initiative exists with the assistance of Grameen Telecom and it is called the Village Phone program. The Village Phone Program itself is empowered by the strong nationwide network facility of Grameenphone. The aim of this program is to provide a good income-earning opportunity to more than 500,000 rural people, mostly women who are borrower members of Grameen Bank, by making them Village Phone operators in rural areas.
In 2005, Bangladesh made quite a breakthrough. While there was gender parity in both primary and secondary education, the fact remained that there was no real parity at the tertiary education level, which left women without proper representation in educational institutions. When situations such as that occur, women must then turn onto their entrepreneurial spirit to succeed, and that is exactly what happened with the proliferation of the Village Phone.
Laily Begum, initially a housewife and day laborer in the village of Patia in Dakkhin Khan, is the first woman whose life has been changed radically by Village Phone. With her husband's suggestion. Laily took a loan from Grameen Bank and initiated her Village Phone enterprise, through which she started earning 20,000 to 25,000 taka a month and even managed to save a little. With the savings, she and her husband set up five shops, running some themselves and renting out the rest. That spelled an end to Laily's poverty. Her three kids now go to school.
Rokeya is another village phone lady from Manikganj. She transformed her life a few years ago after buying a mobile phone, and to this day she is reaping the benefits of that purchase. "Six years ago, I was just a simple housewife; I did not do anything except cooking, cleaning, and looking after our children.". One day, her husband fell ill and they did not even have enough money to take him to a hospital. That was when the alarm really started ringing, which helped her to step forward toward self-reliance and a village phone seemed to be the best option for her. Soon, she was earning up to Tk. 10,000 a month. "This was the biggest decision of my life, and I knew if it failed, my family would fall apart."
Shilpi, now owes her middle class way of life to the mobile phone. "Five years ago, I wanted to be more than just a housewife; so I purchased a mobile phone. Within weeks of taking out a loan, I was able to pay it back, and since then, I have continued to make good money to this day.". She stated that most of her income comes from reload charges, which is a sizable sum. Her husband, a constable in the police station, is proud of his wife. He says, "The shop next to our house is now better known as Bhabi's Dokan, and I am being identified as her husband rather than people calling her my wife."
Rokeya, Shilpi, and Laily are just a few out of thousands, who have - prospered through the village phone program. We are proud to have assisted them and hundreds of thousands of others like them in achieving their dreams, so that our development bandwagon keeps on striding forward.
Grameen Bank, Grameen Telecom, and Grameenphone's joint initiative like Village Phone, has thus been changing the lives of indigent women all over Bangladesh. Laily Begum is a pioneer; she has led the way for women to do away with poverty, bringing meaning to their lives.
With this end in view, it is proven beyond doubt that even illiterate poor women can confidently handle the state of the art information technology and thereby positively contribute to changing their lives for the better.
Source: The Daily Star on Friday Date: 29 October 2010
Women empowerment is just as important as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, and if somehow an initiative can do both, then it is nothing short of a godsend. At Grameenphone such an initiative exists with the assistance of Grameen Telecom and it is called the Village Phone program. The Village Phone Program itself is empowered by the strong nationwide network facility of Grameenphone. The aim of this program is to provide a good income-earning opportunity to more than 500,000 rural people, mostly women who are borrower members of Grameen Bank, by making them Village Phone operators in rural areas.
In 2005, Bangladesh made quite a breakthrough. While there was gender parity in both primary and secondary education, the fact remained that there was no real parity at the tertiary education level, which left women without proper representation in educational institutions. When situations such as that occur, women must then turn onto their entrepreneurial spirit to succeed, and that is exactly what happened with the proliferation of the Village Phone.
Laily Begum, initially a housewife and day laborer in the village of Patia in Dakkhin Khan, is the first woman whose life has been changed radically by Village Phone. With her husband's suggestion. Laily took a loan from Grameen Bank and initiated her Village Phone enterprise, through which she started earning 20,000 to 25,000 taka a month and even managed to save a little. With the savings, she and her husband set up five shops, running some themselves and renting out the rest. That spelled an end to Laily's poverty. Her three kids now go to school.
Rokeya is another village phone lady from Manikganj. She transformed her life a few years ago after buying a mobile phone, and to this day she is reaping the benefits of that purchase. "Six years ago, I was just a simple housewife; I did not do anything except cooking, cleaning, and looking after our children.". One day, her husband fell ill and they did not even have enough money to take him to a hospital. That was when the alarm really started ringing, which helped her to step forward toward self-reliance and a village phone seemed to be the best option for her. Soon, she was earning up to Tk. 10,000 a month. "This was the biggest decision of my life, and I knew if it failed, my family would fall apart."
Shilpi, now owes her middle class way of life to the mobile phone. "Five years ago, I wanted to be more than just a housewife; so I purchased a mobile phone. Within weeks of taking out a loan, I was able to pay it back, and since then, I have continued to make good money to this day.". She stated that most of her income comes from reload charges, which is a sizable sum. Her husband, a constable in the police station, is proud of his wife. He says, "The shop next to our house is now better known as Bhabi's Dokan, and I am being identified as her husband rather than people calling her my wife."
Rokeya, Shilpi, and Laily are just a few out of thousands, who have - prospered through the village phone program. We are proud to have assisted them and hundreds of thousands of others like them in achieving their dreams, so that our development bandwagon keeps on striding forward.
Grameen Bank, Grameen Telecom, and Grameenphone's joint initiative like Village Phone, has thus been changing the lives of indigent women all over Bangladesh. Laily Begum is a pioneer; she has led the way for women to do away with poverty, bringing meaning to their lives.
With this end in view, it is proven beyond doubt that even illiterate poor women can confidently handle the state of the art information technology and thereby positively contribute to changing their lives for the better.
Source: The Daily Star on Friday Date: 29 October 2010
