Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received further information regarding several elderly women living in destitution in the Palash Bari area of the Gaibandha district of the Rangpur division. As in the earlier cases reported by the AHRC, most of the victims have no one to look after them and are physically unable to make ends meet by themselves. Further, despite being both entitled to and most needy of various social welfare schemes of the government, they are denied the benefits because of endemic corruption.
The AHRC urges the Government of Bangladesh to immediately address the issue and save these women from starving to death.
CASE NARRATIVE:
The AHRC has learnt that an elderly woman named Saimal Beowa, widowed for 37 years is starving to death because of having no one to rely upon. Born on 12 November 1937, Saimal was married to a manual labour named LateKabsz Uddin of village Talukghorabandha, post-Pabnapur of subdistrict Palashbari in district Gaibandha. She has one son and one daughter both of whom are married now. Her husband was a landless labour and engaged in odd jobs as they came in the agricultural season to eke out a living. He died some 37 years ago after a brief illness. Saimal was forced to live on donations from neighbours and was ultimately forced into begging. She is very old and sick now and cannot even walk to beg. She is suffering with many diseases typical of old age like joint pains, back pain, weakness and is slowing losing her eyesight.
Being very poor, she has not been able to even get a proper treatment. Further, she did not know about the Government Community Clinic. She told the local activist who interviewed her is that the she gets to eat meat only once in a year, that is on the day of Muslim festival Eid-ul Ajha when her neighbours give her some out of pity. Her condition makes her eligible for social welfare schemes like the elderly and widow allowance. After knowing about such schemes, she claimed to have met local civic body’s Acting Chairman Mr. Mazed and women member Beauty but allegedly learnt that the union council did not allot any allowance card without securing a bribe. Being poor and therefore unable to pay the bribe, she did not get any reprieve. She is facing severe hardships now and might starve to death due to governmental inaction and apathy.
88 years old Rokeya Beowa is another victim of the cruel system. Born on 20 October 1925 she was married to the late Nurul Haque of village Ghorabandha, post Halimnagar of the same sub districrt Palashbari. Her husband died some 30 years ago. She has 3 sons who are all married. Unfortunately, none of her sons are in a position to help her. The eldest, Rafiqul Islam is a day labour and father of 5 daughters. Having lost almost all his money to marry off the first four ones, he is compelled to spend whatever little is left on the schooling of the fifth one. Similar is the story of her other sons, Sadequl Islam who has three daughters and Shafiqul Islam with one son.
Rokeya, like Saimal, is landless and is suffering with old age diseases like back pain, joint pains, Rheumatic fever and weakness. Being 88 years old, she is almost unable to engage in any kind of livelihood activity and is forced to beg for her survival. Like other elderly and widowed single women from the area, she too cannot afford private out of the pocket medical expenditure for treatment. She has approached the chairman and member of the union council several times for relief or an allowance card. She was, allegedly assured of being given an elder/widow/VGF card but the card never materialized. She too blames corruption and alleges that she was not given the allowance card for failing to bribe the officials. This happened despite the clear-cut rules set by Bangladesh putting the minimum age for elderly allowance at 65 while she is 88 years old according to her National ID Card. Similarly, she was not provided with widow allowance which also she is entitled to.
75 year old Khukhi Beowa’s predicament is no different than the remaining two. Being wrongly documented in the voter identity card prepared in 2007 as being born on 01 January 1951 complicates her attempts to survive even more. Khukhi was married to Ashkor Ali of village Kisamot Gopalpur, post-Badiakhali-5760 in sub-district Gaibandha in the district by the same name. She has been widowed for 28 years. She has 5 daughters named Nurjahan, Sadarani, Golapi, Jahanur and Posagi. The youngest of them Posagi is a widow herself.
Khuki has no farm land. Her condition is worse in the fact that she does not own even the plot she is living in which belongs to a neighbor named Abdur Rahim. Her husband had some farm land but was compelled to sell part of it for her daughter’s marriage and the remaining part when he fell sick. Khukhi used to live with her husband during those days but was forced to get back to her mother’s house as the family was not left with any livelihood opportunities. She was accompanied by other family members including the husband, daughters and a son who later committed suicide. Her husband fell sick soon after and died too.
She is dependent upon the charity of her neighbours for survival as she cannot walk even for begging. Even on the day of the interview in the afternoon of 11 June 2013, she had not eaten anything since morning as no one had offered her any food. She claimed to have approached ward member Mr. Shaidul for getting a relief card but did not get any as the ward member allegedly asked for a 500 Taka bribe. She asserted that if you do not have bribe to pay you would not get any government relief card. Khukhi is entitled to widow card but did not get that.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Gaibandha is a poor and regularly flood ravaged district in the northern part of Bangladesh which is a developing county. It is one of the districts that is officially declared as affected by havoc caused by MONGA twice an year. Monga, also known as Mora Kartik, refers to months of death and disaster because of floods in September to November and in March-April and renders people jobless for 5 months a year. The districts suffer the vicious cycle of a drought followed by floods every year. Every year this district gets flooded and then suffers drought. With no industry in the district, the loss of jobs in MONGA months renders people absolutely jobless and exposes them to the vicious cycle of debt and bondage. The agricultural department of the Government of Bangladesh has never tried to help the farmers in need, not even at the level of policy formation. Farmers have to play to the tunes of vested interests for seeds, fertilizer, diesel and even electricity. The situation is so bad that even in the years when farmers do manage to grow crops they fail to get good prices for them.
Conditions are even more arduous for the landless agricultural labourers who constitute more than 40 per cent of this particular village’s population. With no work available in 5 Monga months of year, they depend solely on the mercy of landlords.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities mentioned below demanding immediate intervention for ensuring food security of these destitute elderly women in the village. You may also demand an inquiry into why they are not provided with any of the relief cards and other welfare schemes they are entitled to.
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ………….,
BANGLADESH: Government must save the old and destitute widows of Gaibandha now
Name of the victims:
1. Ms. Saimal Beowa aged 76 years, village Talukghorabandha, post-Pabnapur of subdistrict Palashbari in district Gaibandha
2. Ms. Rokeya Beowa, 88 years old, village Ghorabandha, post Halimnagar
3. Ms. Khukhi Beowa, 75 year old, village Kisamot Gopalpur, Post-Badiakhali-5760 in Gaibandha Sadar sub- district, District- Gaibandha
Place of incident: Palasbari sub-district, Gaibandha district, Rangpur Division
Alleged Perpetrators: Officials of the Union Health and Family Welfare Centre (UHFWC) in Monohorpur and local Union Council members
The AHRC has learnt that an elderly woman named Saimal Beowa, widowed for 37 years is starving to death because of having no one to rely upon. Born on 12 November 1937, Saimal was married to a manual labour named Kabsz Uddin of village Talukghorabandha, post-Pabnapur of subdistrict Palashbari in district Gaibandha. She has one son and one daughter both of whom are married now. Her husband was a landless labour and engaged in odd jobs as they came in agricultural season to eke out a living. He died some 37 years ago after a brief illness. Saimal was forced to live on donations from neighbours since then and was ultimately forced into begging. She is very old and sick now and cannot even walk to beg. She is suffering with many diseases typical to old age like joint pain, back pain, weakness and is slowing losing her eyesight.
Being very poor, she has not been able to even get a proper treatment. Further, she did not know about the Government Community Clinic. She told the local activist who interviewed her is that the she gets to eat meat only once in a year, that is on the day of Muslim festival Eid-ul Ajha when her neighbours give her some out of pity. Her conditions make her absolutely eligible for social welfare schemes like the elderly and widow allowance. After knowing about such schemes, she claimed to have met local civic body's Acting Chairman Mr. Mazed and women member Beauty but allegedly learnt that union council did not allot any allowance card without securing bribe. Being poor and therefore unable to pay bribes, she did not get any reprieve. She is facing severe hardships now and might even starve to death in case of governmental inaction and apathy.
88 years old Rokeya Beowa is another victim of the cruel system. Born on 20 October 1925 she was married to Late Nurul Haque of village Ghorabandha, post Halimnagar of the same sub districrt Palashbari. Her husband died some 30 years ago. She has 3 sons who are all married. Unfortumately, none of her sons are in a position to help her. The eldest of the, Rafiqul Islam is a day labour and father of 5 daughters. Having lost almost all his money to marry the first four ones, he is compelled to spend whatever little is left on the schooling of the fifth one. Similar is the story of her other sons, Sadequl Islam who has three daughters and Shafiqul Islam with one son.
Rokeya, like Saimal, is landless and is suffering with old age diseases like back pain, joint pain, Rheumatic fever and weakness. . Being 88 years old, she is almost absolutely invalid to engage in any kind of livelihood activity and is forced to beg for mere survival. Like other elderly and widowed single women from the area, she too cannot afford private out of the pocket medical expenditure for treatment. She has approached the chairman and member of the union council several times for relief or allowance card. She was, allegedly, assured of being given an elder/widow/VGF card but the assurance never materialized. She too blames corruption and alleges that she was not given the allowance card for failing to bribe the officials. This happened despite the clear-cut rules set by the Bangladesh putting the minimum age for elderly allowance at 65 while she is 88 years old according to her Nation ID Card. Similarly, she was not provided with widow allowance which also she is entitled to.
75 year old Khukhi Beowa's predicament is no different than the remaining two. Being wrongly documented in the voter identity card prepared in 2007 as being born on 01 January 1951 complicates her attempts to survive even more. Khukhi was married to Late Ashkor Ali of village Kisamot Gopalpur, post-Badiakhali-5760 in sub-district Gaibandha in the district by the same name. She has been widowed for 28 years. She has 5 daughters named Nurjahan, Sadarani, Golapi, Jahanur and Posagi. The youngest of them Posagi is a widow herself.
Khuki has no farm land. Her condition is worse in the fact that she does not own even the plot she is living in which belongs to a neighbor named Abdur Rahim. Her husband had some farm land but was compelled to sell part of it for her daughter's marriage and remaining when he fell sick. Khukhi used to live with her husband during those days but was forced to get back to her mother's house as the family was not left with any livelihood opportunities. She was accompanied by other family members including the husband, daughters and a son who later committed suicide. Her husband fell sick soon after and died too.
She is dependent upon the charity of her neighbours for survival as she cannot walk even for begging. Even on the day of interview in the afternoon of 11 June 2013, she had not eaten anything since morning as no one had offered her any food. She claimed to have approached ward member Mr. Shaidul for getting relief card but did not get any as the ward member allegedly asked for a 500 Taka bribe. She asserted that if you do not have bribe to pay you would not get any government relief card. Khukhi is entitled to widow card but did not get that either.
I, therefore, urge you to immediately intervene into these cases from Gaibandha district for pulling the women back from the brink of starvation. I would request you, for the same, to
1. Ensure that the three women are provided with the allowances cards they are entitled to with immediate effect,
2. Ensure that a thorough investigation is conducted to study the loopholes that make the needy slip through the safety nets provided by welfare schemes launched by the government,
3. Ensuring that the public health services are overhauled and made available, accessible and affordable to the needy as it is often health problems that are forcing the victims to lose their livelihood and make them vulnerable to hunger,
4. Ensuring food security to all those who are entitled as well as those who are in need,
4. Ensuring that a speedy and impartial investigation is carried out into the recurring charges of corruption and the guilty are prosecuted,
5. Ensure that new livelihood opportunities capable on taking on Monga are created in the area so that the citizens are not left to the vagaries of nature and exploitation of landlords.
Sincerely,
…………………………………………...
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mrs. Sheikh Hasina
Prime Minister
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Office of the Prime Minister
Tejgaon, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 811 3244 / 3243 / 1015 / 1490
E-mail: pm@pmo.gov.bd or ps1topm@pmo.gov.bd or psecy@pmo.gov.bd
2. Dr. Muhammad Abdur Razzaque
Minister
Ministry of Food & Disaster Management Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 7160762/+880 2 71615405
E-mail: info@mofdm.gov.bd
3. Syed Ashraful Islam
Minister
Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives Affairs
Bangladesh Secretariat
Building No. 7 (6th Floor)
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 7174255 / +880 2 7164374
E-mail: lgd@cgscomm.net
4. Enamul Huq Mostafa Shaheed
Minister
Ministry of Social Welfare Affairs
Bangladesh Secretariat
Building No. 6 (2nd & 3rd Floors)
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 7169766
Fax: +880 2 7168969
E-mail: sseba@citechco.net (Department of Social Service)
5. Mr. Md. Shahidul Islam
Deputy Commissioner
Office of the Deputy Commissioner
District-Gaibandha,
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 541 61486
E-mail: dcgaibandha@moestab.gov.bd
6. District Social Welfare Officer
Office of the district Social Welfare
District-Gaibandha
BANGLADESH
7. John Aylieff
Country Director
World Food Program (WFP)
IDB Bhaban 14th, 16th and 17th Floor E/8-A Rokeya Sarani Agargaon,
Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka-1207
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 8119069
Fax: +880 2 8113147
E-mail: WFP.Dhaka@wfp.org
8. Prof. Ghulam Rahman
Chairperson
Anti Corruption Commission
1, Shegunbagicha, Dhaka 1000 BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 9353004-8
Fax: 880 2 8333354
Email: info@acc.org.bd
Thank you
Hunger Alerts Programme
Right to Food Programme (foodjustice@ahrc.asia)
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
