A LARGE number of ultra poor women living in the vast sandy char areas of the Brahmaputra, the Dharla and Teesta rivers under five northern districts have been able to change their fate in the past few years by rearing livestock and poultry birds.
   As the women are becoming self-reliant economically, a sense of awareness is also being developed among all in those areas on sanitation, safe drinking water, healthcare facilities for children and mother, dowry, child marriage, repression on women and trafficking of children and women.
   According to local people, earlier in the past they used to depend totally on relief during monga (a famine-like situation during the agricultural lean period) and floods.
   But now hapless people, mostly women, in hard-to-reach char areas of Nageshwari, Ulipur, Chilmari and Roumari upazilas in Kurigram; Aditmari, Kaliganj and Hatibandha in Lalmonirhat; Gaibandha, Gangachara, Kaunia and Pirganj in Rangpur; and Dimla, Domar and Jaldhaka upazilas in Nilphamari have achieved success by livestock and poultry farming.
   Momtaz Alai and Johra Khatun of the same village said that they purchased three sheep at Tk 1,500 two years back and sold these at Tk 7,500. Momena Begum bought 10 goats at Tk 9,000 two years ago and sold those at Tk 32,000 in phases.
   Ambia Khatun, wife of a disabled person of the same village, has 300 ducks and on average she earns Tk 30,000 per year. ‘The ducks lay eggs and every year I sell about 100 ducks,’ she said.
   Quddus Ali of village Barchar said he got more than 25 litres of milk from eight cows and he had to spend Tk 80 to 90 to reach the milk by boat to Chilmari or Roumari. ‘So selling milk is not profitable for me,’ he said. Left with no alternative he now makes cream from the milk.
   Amena Begum and Amir Hossain of Fulkar Char said that they prepared yogurt and ghee from the milk and sell those items to sweetmeat sellers in the towns. Yogurt is being sold at Tk 150 per kg while ghee at Tk 400 per kg.
   These self-reliant women proudly mentioned that each of them has sanitary latrines in their houses. Water-borne diseases have been reduced, their children go to schools, and cases of child marriage and dowry have also been reduced significantly.
   Setting up of dairy farm, milk processing factory at government and private initiatives, making the availability of loan easier and supply of technology may contribute a lot in changing the lots of the common people as well as in the development of the area, local people said.

FOUR persons were killed by lightning strike in Chapainawabganj and Comilla on Tuesday.
   In Chapainawabganj, thunderbolt killed three young girls in the Professorpara area.
   The deceased were Ruli Begum, 25, Chini Khatun, 18, and her sister Sonia, 20. All were the inhabitants of Chunaripara of the district town.
   Local said Ruli and Chini died on the spot and Sonia injured as a thunderbolt hit them when they were collecting mangoes in a garden during nor’wester at about 3:00pm. Later, Sonia died in Chapainawabganj General Hospital.
   In Comilla, a thunderbolt killed one Md Kapiluddin, 35, when he was returning home from a local market at village Kacharikandi at about 4:00pm.