Despite some success, schemes for the unprivileged fail to meet promise: Study

Baby Begum, a 35-year-old woman from the Bede community living in Saudagar Para of Narsingdi Sadar upazila, took a beautician training course under a programme initiated by the Department of Social Services (DSS) in 2016.

She set up a beauty parlour in her house with an investment of Tk10,000 – an amount, provided by the DSS on completion of the training. The endeavour has secured an average monthly income of around Tk4,000 for Baby.

The income has given some comfort to the family as it was earlier very difficult for Baby's husband, Ujjal Miah, to run the family with his earnings from rickshaw pulling. 

Swapna Rani Rishi, another woman living with her cobbler husband, has found a way to maintain her four-member family with tailoring training and capital support offered by the DSS. 

Like Baby and Swapna, Hawa Akhter, a third gender from Netrokona, could improve the financial condition of her family while one Mahfuza from Sylhet could complete her graduation, thanks to DSS assistance.   

These are some success stories, weaved at individual levels by different welfare programmes of the social services department, such as vocational training, capital assistance, stipend, and old-age allowance, however, the initiatives – aimed at improving lives and livelihoods of the underprivileged communities – have failed to play a significant role in the overall development of the communities, claims the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS).

The monthly allowance of Tk500-600 for adults is not proving enough to improve their living standards, while stipends Tk500-1200 per month is not adequate to meet the cost of education, finds a research, entitled "Evaluating the Impact of Development Programme for Improving the Living Standard of the Hijra, Bede and Underprivileged Community", by the BIDS.

While presenting the findings of the study at a virtual seminar on Wednesday, BIDS Research Fellow Mohammad Harunur Rashid Bhuyan said it is not possible to start a good business with a capital of Tk10,000, received upon completion of a training.  He recommended the cash amount be raised to Tk50,000.

Binayak Sen, director general of the BIDS, said although the amounts of allowances are the same for all target communities, the programme has a left a very positive impact on the Dalit community in improving their income, employment and quality of life. 

The initiative has also had some positive impact on the Bede community, but the impact on the transgender (hijra) community is very insignificant.

Harunur Rashid said DSS training has failed to significantly improve the respondents' income, number of days in employment and working hours for the hijra community.

People out of the programme are ahead of the beneficiaries in terms of the number of days employed at work, the number of hours worked per day, savings, and some other indicators. Monthly income of trained hijras is only 0.10% higher than those not trained under the programme, which is not statistically significant, he added.

Nonetheless, the programme has helped to improve the transgender community's healthcare and food expenses, and attendance at schools, the report says.

Narayn Das, a member of the research team, said told the event that there was no reason to think that just training or giving cash will improve the quality of life of transgender people. Mentioning that begging is an easy option for hijras, he said they will not be motivated to work unless the potential income through employment is higher compared to that from begging.

According to the study, 54% of the beneficiaries feel that the allowance allocated for adults is not enough to meet their medical expenses.

Meanwhile, 66% of the respondents do not think the training allowance of Tk10,000 is enough. According to research, only 20% of people can use this allowance as a capital for a new venture while 40% of the beneficiaries spend this allowance on unproductive sectors.

The Bede people who have obtained training under the DSS programme also are lagging in terms of the number of days they are employed and the number of working hours in a year. Besides, their earning is only 0.38% higher than those not trained.

Economist Mohiuddin Alamgir said the government must first take steps to ensure housing, food, drink and sanitation for the poor. Training, education, and quality of life should be given importance thereafter, he added.