Hanufa Begum lives with her husband and children at Charnagaliya in the coastal subarnachar of Noakhali. We talk to him about how family life is spent in this remote area. He said he does all the housework alone. He has to deal with various problems including drinking water crisis. Drinking water has to be fetched from a distance of half a kilometer. There is pain in the waist. However, she has been doing this for 15 years since her marriage. When the pond dries up in the dry season, the children have to suffer more. Then you have to go to someone else's house to take a bath. Suffering increases in the rainy season. When the water rises in the house, there is no end to the suffering of the service. Unable to cook, Khawadawa almost stopped. Despite all this, Hanufa Begum cultivated vegetables in the corner of the house, raised cows, goats and chickens and also helped her husband in farming. Yet there is no evaluation of this work in the family. Even if the income from his work increases, that money does not come into Hanufa's hands.
Going to the villages of Subarnachar and talking to the women, we found the same story as Hanufar. But the lives of coastal women are a little different than in other regions. In addition to managing the family, they have to fight with natural enmity. Talking about those struggles, Rahena Begum, a resident of Hatiyar Caring Char, said, 'I can't take water from the pond due to salinity in summer. But that's all you have to do, including bathing. It has caused various diseases in the body. The danger increases during natural disasters. Rahena said their cooking is not easy either. They cook in the earthen stove with the help of wood and dry straw huts. Smoke causes various problems in the body including eye irritation and shortness of breath. Even after fighting so much, the food does not come together properly for three days. Far from treatment, agriculture has to be done to provide food in the midst of mourning.
Growing up in deprivation and neglect from birth, coastal women place more importance on domestic work than on education. Therefore, in order to manage the family, the educational life is ended by crossing the boundaries of primary school. Despite significant contributions to poultry farming, agriculture, cottage industries, family prosperity and various economic activities, women's work is not evaluated. On the contrary, in the world where women are carrying the burden of hard work, some people have to be tortured.
Aleya Begum (pseudonym) is a resident of Bayarchar, Hatiyar, Dwip Upazila. Talk to him. He said, I have seen since childhood that women have no respect in the family. Even after working from morning till night, the husband often beats her on various pretexts. Aleya now wants recognition for her work. They want to get rid of neglect by increasing their participation in activities like earning income.
According to a research report by ActionAid Bangladesh on 'Women and men use time in household chores', a woman spends about 8 hours a day in household chores. Where men spend an hour and a half. A study conducted at the end of 2016 on the use of time in various activities of grassroots men and women in Lalmonirhat and Gaibandha districts under the company's power project has revealed such information. However, the situation has improved in those two districts. The latest study in 2019 found that women spend 2 hours and 13 minutes on income-generating work and 4 hours and 50 minutes on household chores. But in 2017, it is seen that women spend 1 hour and 36 minutes in income-generating work and 8 hours and 56 minutes in household service work. Besides, they spend 3 hours and 32 minutes in productive work and 3 hours and 60 minutes in socio-cultural and individual work.
With the help of ActionAid Bangladesh's 'Power' project, a number of steps have been taken to alleviate the burden of women in household chores in rural Bangladesh. The company is working in three districts. The agency's observations say that due to the lack of recognition of domestic work as 'labor' in labor surveys and policy frameworks, necessary steps are not being taken to evaluate, allocate and redistribute and reduce this work.
For a long time, the Participatory Research Action Network (PRAN) has been working on various issues of the coast, including rural women, agriculture and natural disasters. The company's chief executive Nurul Alam Masud Bal
