BSS, Rangpur

The char women, who lived in utter miseries even few years back, overcame their differences and jealousy on petty issues in an exceptional manner for accelerating their developments, empowerment and building a better future for their children.
They have done it by observing the World Love Day (Valentine Day) in an exceptional manner and cemented their social relations and love through exchanging flower and litchi saplings among themselves on last February 14 for accelerating their advancements.
Under the ongoing Char Livelihood Programme (CLP) of Rangpur- Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), the women living in remote Kawniar Char village under Roumari upazila on the Brahmaputra bed in Kurigram achieved mentionable success since 2008.
They remained deprived of basic human rights for decades together and many of their good initiatives became unsuccessful for petty differences and jealousy that led to severe sequels and quarrels frequently among them hindering their unity and developments.
But, now they have become strongly united to eradicate their differences and jealousy and vowed to boycott en masse social curses like child marriage, dowry, polygamy, divorce, human trafficking, violence against women and children for their own interests.
Under the CLP assistances, the char women have largely changed their fates by achieving self-reliance and empowerment through various income-generating activities and improved their infrastructures, livelihoods and have been educating their children. Side by side, they have already achieved successes in bringing down school drop outs and their population growth rate by adopting family planning and brought the rate of maternal and neonatal deaths to the minimum.
They are thinking for a better future of their children by building a developed digital Bangladesh, but still then, minor differences, jealousy, enmities and petty issues among them had been hampering their social relations and overall advancements.
Considering these circumstances, the CLP and RDRS took special initiatives for reducing the differences, gaps and minor enmities among the char women, who are neighbours of each other, by arranging an exceptional Valentine Day.
Accordingly, the women of Kawniar Char village were motivated for resolving their minor issues, enmities, sequels and cementing their relations by exchanging saplings of rose and litchi plants on February 14 last.
The special occasion was arranged at nearby Char Goytapara Registered Non- government Primary School where 150 beneficiary women members of the ongoing CLP activities being conducted by RDRS actively took part.