Gram Bikash Kendra (GBK) is a local-level, non-profit development organization working in the Northwest Region of Bangladesh. Since 1992, GBK has worked as an enabling force for vulnerable section of the community. In particular, GBK's work focuses on women, children and indigenous people. We have strong links with National and international organizations, including HEKS - Switzerland, ICCO - Netherlands, PKSF - Bangladesh, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), Nayantara Communications-Bangladesh and Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).
POWER Project
People’s Opportunities Wider through Education and Rights-POWER’ Project
POWER Goal:
Northwest indigenous and marginalized peoples are free from poverty and exploitation and are enjoying equal rights.
Introduction
GBK has been working with the Indigenous Peoples of Northwest Bangladesh through the POWER project since 2005. Indigenous People experience human rights violations on a daily basis, including harassment, poverty, education and gender inequality, political and social discrimination and denial of land rights.
The POWER project piloted in 2005-2006 and focused on Education, Land, Health & Sanitation and Livelihood. Since then, it has been expanded to include
The year 2007/2008 has been highly successful across all project areas, despite external problems such as bird flu, political unrest, cyclone SIDR and the global increase in food prices. In key areas such as sustainable livelihoods, education and advocacy, GBK has made important strides forward. It is vital, however, if gains are to be consolidated that key initiatives such as the CDCs maintain momentum.
Working Area:
Gram Bikash Kendra has been implementing the project with the cooperation of five local level NGOs:
|
Name of the Organization |
Upazilla |
Sustain Chiribandar
Gonno Kolayn Prochesta (GKAP) Dinajpur sadar
Somaj Unnayan Proshikhon Kendra (SUPK) Khaharol
Surovi Mahilla Unnayan Kendra Birol
Polli Artho Samajik Unnayan Kendra (PAUP) Birganj
Objective - 1: To build up peoples’ organizations operating at different tiers of government. To promote greater unity with other stakeholders as a means of obtaining rights and interests. To strengthen GBK’s organizational capacity.
Background: Networking and alliance building is a core part of GBK’s work. Working closely with different stakeholders facilitates knowledge sharing and strengthens advocacy efforts. Building capacity at local level empowers IPs financially and enables them to lobby for their rights, including cultural expression, and educational funds which previously have often been misallocated.
Objective - 1.1: At least 675 primary organization (groups) will be developed at community level during the two years of the project.
Achievements - 1.1: The project has formed 401 primary groups with 9,613 (5,144 male and 4,469 female) group members. In the primary groups, project staffs have been conducting fortnightly meetings on different social and rights based issues. This has enabled participants to deal with different service providers in order to take advantage of different opportunities.
15 land problems and six family conflicts have been mitigated by local mediation.
113 bank accounts have been opened by the primary groups.
2888 households now regularly pay land and holding tax.
84 groups now save money on a weekly basis with total savings amounting to 178,003 Tk.
Objective - 1.2: One hundred indigenous leaders will be supported and trained to mobilize their communities. They will thus act as ‘change agents’ at the grass roots level.
Achievements - 1.2: So far, 25 indigenous leaders have, through training, meetings and mentoring, developed themselves to the point where they can communicate effectively with government organizations, NGOs and other stakeholders. They are thus in an excellent position to take active leadership roles within their community, carrying out the following activities:
Planted trees in the community.
Communicated with the government primary school allowing 210 students to receive scholarships.
Mitigated four conflicts of the indigenous people.
Actively participated in Indigenous festivals and days observation.
Objective - 1.3: The existing relationship with the Upazilla will be strengthened and exploited to address IPs’ rights.
Achievements - 1.3: A good rapport has been established between the Upazilla indigenous committee and the project. The IP committee participated in International Indigenous Day on 9th August and has also distributed stipends to indigenous students.
Objective - 2: To develop land-related awareness among project participants, promote solutions to land problems and increase project participants’ access to khash land.
Background - IPs from the northwest of
Objective - 2.1: At least 20% of landless project participant households will apply for khash land in each year of the project.
The problem of landlessness means that IPs are often forced to live on khash land (government-owned land) without the proper documentation. The POWER project is assisting landless IPs to acquire this supporting documentation in order to secure an official khash land allocation through communication with the local land office.
Achievements - 2.1:
223 households have submitted applications for khash land allocations, amounting to 3143 decimals of land.
Objective - 2.2: 25% of participating households who do not have land documents will recover these land documents in each project year.
Background: One result of the IPs’ lack of awareness regarding the land management system is the absence of necessary documentation for land ownership, which contributes to their land-related problems. With the help and financial assistance of the POWER project, IPs are now able to collect the documentation necessary to guard against future landlessness.
Achievements - 2.2:
91 households have recovered their land documents, for a total of 6087 decimals of land (market value 243 480 000Tk)
7 households have recovered land amounting to 1086 decimals of land (market value 3 909 600Tk)
28 households have submitted applications to recover their land from the Forest Department, amounting to 4952 decimals of land
Objective - 2.3: 20% of land holding households will have mutation of their owned land in each year of the project
Background: Most of the indigenous peoples are not so much concern to do their land mutation. All most all the family lands are not separated by the name. Due to this, complications arose when land surveys were undertaken, and later land grabbers took opportunities to occupy the land. Through discussion in group meetings and by personal contact with project staff, the project participants to do their land mutation. ???
Achievements - 2.3:
371 households applied for land mutation amounting 8107 decimal of land
Objective - 2.4: 25% of land owning households who currently do not pay land tax will begin to do so in each year of the project.
Background: Due to their lack of awareness, many IPs do not regularly pay land tax, which can contribute to landlessness. The POWER project is using group meetings and personal mentoring to encourage IPs to pay land tax.
Achievements - 2.4:
1204 IPs have paid land tax on a total of 35 550 decimals of land, amounting to 130,261Tk
Objective - 2.5: 10% of households involved in land cases will get legal aid support from the project in each project year.
Background: Court cases involving IPs’ lands are often procrastinated in the courts. The POWER project provides support to IPs involved in court cases, in order to facilitate the swift resolution of these cases.
Achievements - 2.5:
Project staff have collected information on 171 land cases
17 cases have been provided with financial assistance
336 project participants have been provided with legal counsel
Objective - 3: That at least 50% of students enrolled in CDCs complete primary education.
Background: Education remains one of the principal problems facing IP communities. IP children face high levels of discrimination at government primary schools because of their distinct cultural heritage. There is also a language barrier; having been brought up speaking the language of their respective community, IP children often do not speak Bangla. As a consequence, the rate at which IP children drop out of primary school is very high. CDCs have thus been established in the IP villages to prepare IPs student for admission into government primary schools.
Objective - 3.1: 875 students will have graduated from CDCs and have enrolled in government primary schools by the end of 2007.
Achievements - 3.1:
35 CDC established were in 2007, enrolling 901 students in total (430 boys and 471 girls).
836 students (417 boys and 419 girls) completed the CDC course and 641 students aged six or older enrolled in primary school.
Of these students, 150 received stipends from the Government and other institutions.
295 students aged younger than 6 years continued attending CDCs in their respective communities.
40 IP female teachers have been recruited for CDCs in 2008.
40 CDC established in 2008, enrolling a total of 894 students (468 boys and 426 girls).
40 CMCs (280 members) and 40 Mothers forums (890 members) formed.
40 CDCs conducted Monthly Advocacy meeting activities with Government Primary School Teachers (with CDC children’s participation).
40 CDCs participated in a number of significant days and events (eg. Global Action, National Victory Day, International Mothers Language Day, Mothers Rally).
Objective - 3.2: 1000 students will have graduated and enrolled in government primary school by the end of 2008.
Achievements - 3.2: During the project year of 2007-2008, 981 students were enrolled in the 40 Child Development Centres. After graduating from the CDC after one year the students will be enrolled in the government primary school by the end of 2008.
Objective - 3.3: 1000 students will be graduated and enrolled in government primary school by the end of 2009
Achievements - 3.3: In the second phase of the two years planned project 40 CDC will be started in the area. After completing the one year CDC course the graduated students will be enrolled in the government primary school.
Objective - 4: To develop awareness, practice and documentation of culture, traditions and livelihoods of indigenous and marginalized peoples.
Background - IPs have a culture and history that is distinct from the greater community. They observe several significant days that are not well known by the wider community. Plain land IPs also live in a dispersed way in the northwest of
Achievements - 4
A variety of significant days were observed this year, including: International Indigenous Peoples’ Day; Santal Revolution Day; Tevagga Day (Tri-Share Movement), and International Mother Tongue Day
IPs have begun to willingly observe tradition cultural events
Government officials and people from the greater community have attended several of the IPs’ cultural functions.
Objective - 5: To increase new employment opportunities for IPs. To increase IPs access to government food security programmes and household income for sustainable livelihoods.
Background: IPs’ access to government services is low. Due to lack of awareness, IPs fail to receive certain services from the state. In response, GBK project staff have been supporting IPs in lobbying relevant government agencies for these services.
At present 80% of IPs are dependent on agriculture for their survival, mostly as hired labourers. Recent changes in the job market, linked to the global increases in food prices, have thus had a serious impact on IP communities, with indigenous people unable to sell their labour as they did before. Indigenous women suffer disproportionately in these circumstances; IP women used to get working opportunities for 20-25 days, now they are selling their labour for not longer than one week.
To overcome these difficulties, GBK has arranged training on alternative sources of income which has increased project participants’ knowledge and skill.
Objective - 5.1: At least 7% of households will implement alternative income generating projects, such as poultry and livestock rearing, in each project year.
Achievements - 5.1: The following training courses have been arranged:
Homestead vegetable cultivation for 250 participants.
Livestock rearing training for 245 participants.
Residential training on homestead vegetable cultivation for 36 project. staff.
Food security workshops for 9 Upazila Administrators.
The project has had the following impact on IP communities:
907 participants cultivated 2328 decimals of homstead land, growing 2571 kg of vegetables which they sold for a total of 57,583 Tk.
227 households have successfully reared a total of 4540 chickens.
206 households have successfully reared a total of 218 cattle.
27 households have participated in cow fattening programmes. They have fattened 27 cows. At the time of writing 8 cows have been sold for a total of 24000 Tk.
273 households have successfully reared a total number of 819 pigs.
65 households have successfully reared a total of 195 rabbits.
24 participants have started tailoring.
34 participants have begun performing mechanical work.
6 participants are marketing their own hand made products.
49 vaccination camps have been conducted in the field with the assistance of Upazilla livestock office with 1308 cows, 412 goats, 12 Buffaloes, 1541 chickens and 54 pigs 54) vaccinated.
Objective - 5.2: To increase government food security services (VGD, VGF, old age pension scheme, disabled pension scheme, widow pension scheme and freedom fighter pension scheme) by 10% in each project year during the period 2007-2009.
Achievements - 5.2: A total of 5115 group meetings were conducted in the primary groups where local resources, citizen rights, state services, responsibilities of citizens and responsibilities of the service providers were been discussed. Nine meetings have been conducted with Upazila level officials with the aim of sensitizing them on the IPs’ situation. Nine meetings have been conducted with government service providers on food security and the project staff have also liaised regularly with different institutions to arrange alternative work for IP’s. As a consequence:
188 participants obtained VGD.
981 participants obtained VGF.
24 widows obtained widow allowance.
13 disabled people obtained disability allowance.
3 veterans of the 1971 War of Independence obtained Freedom Fighters allowance.
1147 participants collected sanitary latrine from local government (UP).
Conclusion