Sustainable uplift of the ultra-poor from grinding poverty has long captured the centre stage of development discourse. One school tends to reckon that mere asset transfer may do more harm than good while others cling to the veracity of the programme. By sustainable uplift, it refers to a situation when the poor survive well even after the interventions are withdrawn. This study deals with two-year intervention of asset transfer and five years after the intervention.
Beauty Begum (30) is the daughter of a former day labourer and a maid. She has been living with her parents. Early marriage, at15 fell through and she came back to her parents. The bride-groom was a 'vulnerable' vegetable vendor where the vulnerability owed not so much to the lack of wealth or income as it was to his addiction to drug 'heroin'.
For parents struggling hand to mouth, it was not a welcome comeback but the daughter could hardly be driven out. In a very small room she housed herself with two sons. Beuty worked in agricultural fields to pluck crops like onions, threshing paddy after harvest, cleaning and cooking in other households as maid -- everything she could to eke out a living.
However, she came to know that BRAC's Targeting Ultra-Poor (TUP) programme could possibly provide her with a clue, if not a cure, to overcome the socio-economic complexities in the offing. In 2010, along with many in and around, she qualified for a grant that comprised of: (a) an asset like a cow costing Tk 8,500; (b) 10 poultry birds worth Tk 2000, and (c) a consumption allowance for 32 weeks worth of Tk 6,500.
In 2017, seven years down the road, the writer of this column decided to collect information on Beauty's socio-economic conditions with a hypothesis in mind. Of course, this hypothesis has been hovering around development discourse for pretty long time. It is that, asset transfer of a BRAC kind is necessary but not sufficient for a sustainable graduation of the ultra poor.
Here is a comparative picture. Taramon Begum (66) and Beauty (30) of the Mirpur village under Mohonpur, Poba, Rajshahi, accessed the grant at the same time. For the last seven years after receipt of the grant, the former continued to groan under poverty. Still she depends on others for food. Three main factors could be responsible for her failure to graduation : (a) sale of assets for meeting expenses of daughter's dowry; (b) illiteracy; (c) age factor foiling any attempt to take up challenges; (d) lack of enterprising attitude; and (e) lack of hopes to rise above poverty.
On the other hand, the latter had success in combatting poverty. This contrasting scenario should serve as a lesson for poverty alleviation. Now let us look at the success story.
A journey through the village in a foggy morning unfolded a rural picture where sheaves of ripen amon paddy was waiting to be harvested soon and in relatively high lands, betel leaf orchard (paner boroj) were huddling in rows. Both seemed to show that livelihood in Mirpur centres around these two crops called dhan and pan.
Still, after seven years, Beauty Begum has a cow, and a calf worth Tk 40,000. The cow is going to be mother very soon. That news should be encouraging as she did not dispose of assets in the face of poverty.
It needs to be mentioned here that six months after receiving the assets, she joined a jute mill as a daily worker to earn Tk 200 per day. In her view, 'it would take some time to get income from livestock or poultry birds; to meet seasonal income shocks I got the work'.
According to Beauty Begum, she has already sold three livestock animals worth Tk 1,24,000. She invested the money in two ventures (a) buying an auto van and renting it out to her father in exchange for daily Tk 200, and (b) buying the piece of land her father was selling to meet his second daughter's marriage. The six decimal plot is used as betel leaf garden (paner boroj). She leased out the land for five years at Tk 15000. Her small room has a fridge, and a costly almirah, among others. She has also bought a rice cooker to help mother cook rice quickly; she now has Tk 100,000 as savings. She spends Tk 4000-5000 per month on education of her two sons. Three of them in the household can now afford to consume eggs, meat, milk, fruits regularly - never ever done before.
We observe three major impacts of the programme on Beauty Begum's life: (a) Structural level - endowments of assets with diversity increased; (b) at agency level, she has been more empowered than before; in fact most of the decisions come from herself unless she intends to share with others (father and mother), and (c) at relations level, she has high mobility inside and outside village. More importantly, she now gets invitations and words of praise from those who once looked down upon her. The most important observation is that the programme has enabled her to dream of a bright future.
In conclusion we can possibly submit the following points in case of the TUP carried out by any agency in Bangladesh: (a) age matters and relatively younger ones perform better; (b) education up to secondary level possibly helps decision making and choices; (c) supplementary income generation seem to maximise the gains from TUP package; (d) entrepreneurial zeal or capacity matters most, and finally (e) the endowments must match the windows of opportunities in and around.
When asked how far she wanted to get her children educated, she replied, 'Till they get a job like yours' was the reply from a smiling Beauty. "What is the plan or strategies in the coming days?" In answer she said, "I am waiting to see that my father needs money to meet my youngest sister's marriage. I shall buy this homestead from father and build a building. I may be poor and small but what is the harm in dreaming?"
Her reply reminds one of a song by Hemanta Mukherjee, "nir chhoto khoti nei, akas to boro (if the nest is small no harm, the sky is big).
