QUALITATIVE MONITORING of SHIREE INTERVENTIONS: CMS5 INTERVENTION TRACKING Top up ROI (2)

QUALITATIVE MONITORING OF SHIREE INTERVENTIONS: CMS5 INTERVENTION TRACKING – ‘TOP UP’ ROI (2) REFLECTIONS ON THE INTERVENTION (2) FOR MARIUM BEGUM

Shiree Q2 Research on Extreme Poverty in Bangladesh Author Md. Abdul Baten, Mustak Ahmed and Dr. Tofail Md. Alamgir Azad Institution Dushtha Shasthya Kendra (DSK) CMS1 Reference 326- 99999_5264 (Household ID from CMS1) Interviewee's Marium Begum Sex Female Age 30 name Union, Upazilla Jannatbag, Kamrangirchar, Dhaka and Zilla Dates of 22/05/11, 19/10/2011, 11/12/2011, 16/01/2012, 04/04/2012 and 12/05/2012 Interview Livelihood Before the intervention Oct 2010 April 2012 before and after 1. Housewife 1. Working at earring factory the intervention Husband (Badal) Husband

1. Rented rickshaw puller 1. Pulling own rickshaw

Two sons–10 and 11

1. Working at ear ring making factory Well-being Destitute Moderate poor Status Marital status Married and has 5 children (aged Married and has 5 children (aged and household between 6 months to 9 years of age) between 1 and half to 10 years of composition age) Keywords Isolated from the parent-in-laws, illiteracy, weak physical fitness due to numbers of road accidents and sickness, lack of family planning, lack of skills, snatching away of business capital by a group of Mastaans, received second time asset as a part of compensation options, new employments for two children and Marium, child labour

INTRODUCTION

This is a top up reflection on the intervention of Marium Begum, who lives in Kamrangichar slum in Dhaka. Her life history and more comprehensive first reflection on the intervention are published on the shiree website

(http://www.shiree.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DSK_5_BL7-MariumBegum-Baten-Ldc- Joe_Baten_2011_Nov-02-1.pdf and http://www.shiree.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/DSK_Mariam- Begum-ROI_AB_updated.pdf

From her life history we learn that the main reason for Marium’s descent into extreme poverty was a severe leg injury suffered by her husband which meant that he was not able to work as hard as he had previously. Slum families are particularly sensitive to alterations in their labour power as there are fewer sources of common property where they can forage in times of stress. Support networks also tend to be much less common than in rural areas, which was a critical issue in Marium’s life history as her family had lost their key relatives/contact within the slum through a disagreement and accusations of black magic. Their relationships with Marium’s parents-in-laws and others in the village were also not supportive. There had always been tensions between her husband and father-in-law, who had refused to support them on a number of occasions, and although Marium’s parent’s family had always

1 QUALITATIVE MONITORING OF SHIREE INTERVENTIONS: CMS5 INTERVENTION TRACKING – ‘TOP UP’ ROI (2) been helpful, they did not have the capacity to give any substantial financial assistance. Badal’s family had influenced their descent into poverty in other ways too, as one of his uncles defrauded him of a large amount of savings that he had acquired when he was still a bachelor. A final factor which compounded their poverty was that Marium had given birth to five children within ten years of marriage. This large family size put increasing pressure on Marium and her husband, and they realised too late the problems associated with having such a large family.

From the first reflection on the intervention (ROI (1) from January 2011 to January 2012 we learn that despite receiving support from DSK to start a fruit selling business, Marium and Badal had failed to do well and were still living in a state of destitution. They lacked the skills and experience to run a business and were thus not able to manage their business efficiently. While they were struggling to overcome these difficulties, they had lost the major part of their working capital when it was stolen from her husband by a group of local mastaans.

The mastaan was known to local people – a drug user with political connections who just came into Badal’s shop at night and took all his cash together with some fruits. They knew that they would escape prosecution because they have the supports from political elites but as an extreme poor family Marium and Badal had neither the cash nor political connections necessary to take them to the court. The political elites support these mastaans because the need mastaans to organise people for political marches, and to finance their political campaign. The threat of politically supported mastaans was severe before ninety’s especially during non-political governments, it reduced considerably since then, but still remain a threat to extreme poor beneficiaries particularly in the slums.

This happened within two months of them receiving the support, and Marium’s husband was greatly depressed by the incident and lost all interest in continuing the business. They were forced to close, and Badal went back to pulling a rented rickshaw, but due to his physical weakness and depression he was unable to work as hard as he had before. However towards the end of 2011, DSK offered them a compensation package and they opted for a rickshaw which Marium’s husband could run following flexible time schedule. Even they could then rent out if her husband would sick.

In this top up ROI (2) – e.g. July 2011 to April 2012 - we find that they have significantly improved their general wellbeing and have pulled themselves out of extreme poverty. They are now moderate poor, due to the benefits of owning their own rickshaw and the fact that their two oldest sons, and Marium herself, are now generating an income.

SUMMARY OF CHANGE IN KEY INDICATORS SINCE INTERVENTION

Indicator Just before the Last interview (Jan 2012) May 2012 shiree intervention (Dec 2010) Well-being Destitute Destitute Moderate poor category Diets Often unable to Often unable to have 3 full Can manage 3 full meals manage 3 full meals per day. They have to a day but consumption of meals a day depend on limited and low expensive food items is cost food items, and the limited as they have to

2 QUALITATIVE MONITORING OF SHIREE INTERVENTIONS: CMS5 INTERVENTION TRACKING – ‘TOP UP’ ROI (2)

frequency of consuming of spend a large portion of fish, meat, eggs, pulses and income on repaying loans vegetables has been and savings instalments reduced Livelihoods now Marium Marium Marium 1. Housewife 1. Housewife 1. Factory worker (making For other principal earrings) adult member Badal Badal 2. Housewife 1. Rented rickshaw 1. Rented rickshaw puller puller Badal 1. Pulls own rickshaw Badal is unable to They started a fruit selling work hard due to business but were forced to Two eldest sons poor physical close it within two months. 1. Factory workers fitness. (making earrings) Productive assets None, except for Were given money to set up 1. Rickshaw worth 15,370 ranked in terms of physical labour fruit business but this was taka value lost/stolen. In January 2012 received their own rickshaw House and Living in a poorly- No change, except owe two No change, but rent is homestead: constructed, rented months’ rent. As of Jan 2012 now 1,400 taka. Want to ownership, room made from tin rent increased to 1,400 taka leave the room due to rain condition of and bamboo for per month water leakages and tenure, condition which they pay irregular drinking water. of house. 1,200 taka per However they owe four month. Shared a months’ rent which they common cooking intend to take a loan to place, tube well and repay toilet.

MINI INTERVENTION MAP FROM JUST BEFORE SHIREE INTERVENTION TO MARCH /APRIL 2012

Nov ‘10S 2011 2012

NARRATIVE

Marium’s life and general wellbeing has improved dramatically since we last visited her in Jan 2011. Then she had just received a rickshaw from the DSK-shiree project as part of a compensation package, which was transferred in the hope that her family would be able to recover from the unfortunate losses they had incurred since the start of the intervention. At that stage they owed four months’ rent to their landlord and their children were facing malnutrition.

Fortunately the transferred asset had the desired effect on the family’s livelihood. Her husband has been able to pull their new rickshaw and they no longer have to pay any rental fees. He has also not suffered any periods of ill health since being transferred the asset. This may partly be because he is no longer suffering from mental stress and depression, but also because the increased income has meant that the family are eating better and therefore have more energy for work. Household income has also increased in other ways that are not directly due to the DSK-shiree intervention. Marium’s two oldest sons, although still relatively young, started working at a small factory making earrings in January 2012. The money they earned from this all went towards household income. A few months later Marium also started working as she was able to find a job which allowed her to make earrings from her home, meaning that she could still fulfil all her household duties.

The only major point of concern in their current situation is their reliance on the working capacity of their two eldest children who are still very young. The effect of them not going to school is likely to be felt in the terms of reduced income earning potential in later life. However considering their present situation, the current contributions of the children to household income is vital, which is why child labour is such a common problem among the extreme poor. Although they have had to send their two eldest sons to work, their only daughter has recently started going to a local primary school run by BRAC.

ANALYSIS DISAGGREGATED BY MATERIAL, RELATIONAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT

MATERIAL EMPOWERMENT: CHANGES IN ABILITY TO COMMAND MATERIAL WELL-BEING

The major reason the household appears to be doing so much better now is due to the increased income from rickshaw pulling by Marium’s husband. He has been able to pull the rickshaw himself for almost seven days a week and has a more flexible schedule. He usually puts his earnings from the morning towards family expenditure, and then the money he makes in the afternoon he puts towards their savings instalments. As they do not have to pay rental fees any longer, they are able to put all of the 300-400 taka he makes per day towards household expenditure.

Besides their savings instalments they have to continue a daily instalment of taka 50 instead of monthly house rent which is fixed at taka 1,400.

As mentioned, Marium’s two oldest sons have also started working in a small factory making earrings. Although they are still trainees, they are paid 500 taka each per month which they contribute to household income, and are provided with two snacks per day. More recently in May, Marium started earning herself by making earrings from a nearby factory preparing ornaments. Fortunately she is able to do this from her home in her leisure time and therefore is still able to care for her children and fulfil her other household duties. The factory provides her with some machine-made raw materials for her to make some changes which are only possible by hand. For this she is paid 100 taka per day, depending on how much she is able to produce, but the work is not available every day. Per month she earns around 1,000 taka on average. Altogether the household income is now 10,000 taka per month, which is far greater than the irregular income they were earning at the time of the last interview.

This increase in income has meant that the family are now able to afford three meals a day. However they have a large number of loans to pay off, so they are still only able to consume low cost foods. Consumption of meat and fish within the household is still very limited, but nevertheless their improved diets seem to be reflected in the better general health of the family. Hopefully their diets will continue to improve overtime as they begin to pay off more of their debts. The loan repayments have also meant that they have not been able to reinvest any of their income in purchasing new income- generating assets, and therefore still only own the rickshaw transferred to them by DSK.

There have been no positive changes in the family’s housing condition, and in fact it has deteriorated to the point where Marium has expressed a strong desire to find somewhere new to live. Not only has the rent increased to 1,400 a month, but they have a problem when it rains as the water leaks into the house. The drinking supply has also become irregular and so they do not think the house is suitable for them to live in. However they still owe four months’ rent to their landlord and cannot move out until they have the money to pay him. Marium has said that they are thinking of taking a loan from one of their saving sources to pay the dues of house rent.

As mentioned, Marium and her husband have a large number of loans that they are trying to pay off. The last time when her husband was sick they borrowed 6,000 taka and so far have only repaid 4,000 taka. They also still owe their landlord four months’ rent, which amounts to 4,800 taka. They do however have some savings, as their increased income has allowed them to meet the instalments which previously the usually could not do. Aside from the DSK-shiree project savings, they are involved with three other informal savings groups in which they deposit daily instalments of 120, 70 and 50 taka respectively including previous dues of savings instalments and house rent.

RELATIONAL EMPOWERMENT: CHANGE IN POWER IN SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL RELATIONS

Marium and Badal have always had a good relationship with each other. However weak relationships with others and a lack of support were key reasons for their initial descent into extreme poverty and destitution. Badal’s family in particular were causes of problems for the family, but in the last year their relationship with his parents has improved considerably. Marium’s family have always had a good relationship with them, but unfortunately they have never had the capacity to offer any form of financial assistance.

Outside of the family, Marium and Badal have benefited from support from both their landlord and Badal’s own employer (rental rickshaw owner). Their relationship with their landlord is such that he makes allowances for them when they are unable to pay rent as he understands their vulnerable position and is sympathetic. They currently owe four month’s rent and he has arranged a payment scheme in which they give him 50 taka per day. Without such an understanding landlord it is likely that they would have become homeless towards the end of last year when Marium’s husband was sick, or been forced to take out even more loans from money lenders. The other relationship they have drawn on heavily in the past is her husband’s former employer, who often lent them money in emergencies. Now that they has their own rickshaw her husband doesn’t work for this man anymore, but he still lets Badal leave his rickshaw in his garage for only 200 taka per month.

Marium also now values her son’s employers who have let her sons work at the factory even though they are too young because they understand the vulnerable situation the household are in. The connection with this employer was made through one of her neighbours, which reflects the good relationship that the family have with their community.

Child labour in the slums vs. rural areas

Marium is forced to send her 10 and 11 year old son to work, the key reason is that they are still struggling to pay consumption and rent costs for the 5 kids on her husband’s rickshaw income. She and her husband would like send them go to school but can’t afford it. As family they still look undernourished and wear raggedy clothes. Moreover, education tuition costs are more expensive in the slum relative to rural areas (where we see families in most rural shiree projects succeeding in sending their kids to school).

Enrolment of kids in general is lower in the slums relative to rural areas because:

1. Many older kids (5-7 even) have to take care of 3-5 year old younger sibling hen mother goes to work, and more women have to work in order to cover food rent costs;

2. The range opportunities of work is much higher for children in slum areas compared rural areas – a child of 13 or 14 can go for garment work, or younger children in small factories such as earrings, ornament – the need cheap labour is high

3. School costs – notebooks, pens, snacks clothing – are high even in primary school and tuition later.

4. Informal primary schools are available through NGOs, but not high schools.

PSYCHOLOGICAL EMPOWERMENT

The psychological stress caused by the failure of their fruit business was obvious. Marium’s husband especially was deeply shocked and depressed by the incident, seeing the failure of his business as a failure of himself to take the opportunity to bring his family out of poverty. However over recent months the comparative success the family has enjoyed has impacted on their self-esteem and feelings of control over their situation.

As her husband now pulls his own rickshaw, when he feels weak or tired he can go for a rest. Not only does this make him feel more psychologically empowered, but it has also helped him maintain enough strength to pull his rickshaw seven days a week. He reported feeling a strong sense of pride in his rickshaw and has made an effort to decorate his rickshaw and keep it looking nice and clean.

Besides the regular earning from the rickshaw, within a very short time three other family members also started to contribute to household income. The two sons are getting money from their trainee scheme at a nearby factory, while Marium is working part-time from home. It even seems likely that over time their situation will improve further as Marium’s eldest son has already been offered a better job from another factory with a salary of 1,500 taka per month. Although Marium wants her son to continue at the current factory for now in order to develop better skills, it is a promising indicator of future income potential.

Now they are able to ensure three full meals per day and their daughter started schooling. Besides continuing the daily savings instalments, they are also paying the dues of cash loans as well as the house rents. They are also thinking to move house which they would never have thought possible before.

Marium is now enjoying her life more than earlier, and commented that “Basically I like to enjoy life. My husband teases me and says, ‘You have no tension as you take food from the government and sleep at the mosque (Ami sorkari khai, mosjide ghumai, amar kuno tension nai)”.

GENDER EMPOWERMENT

The primary owner of Marium’s asset is her husband, Badal, as they opted for a rickshaw as compensation which he alone could operate. This is a step back from their initial fruit selling business which Marium was able to get involved with. It was Marium rather than her husband who received the training, and as the main beneficiary, it was her that the 14,000 taka for setting up the business was transferred to. Marium however did not go out to sell the fruit, and stayed in the small shop they rented opposite their house, while her husband went nearby to the market.

Interestingly, despite having to struggle to make a profit and then getting their working capital stolen, it was Marium who wanted to continue the business while her husband became depressed and lost all interest. Despite Badal’s reservations, he agreed with Marium that they could purchase some jujube to sell on the footpath near their house. Although this ultimately failed as the fruit they got was low quality, it shows Marium’s desire to do business and her involvement in the household decision making processes.

Marium is now also contributing to household income. Although she is working from the home and not going out to work, this is still an important development for her empowerment. Although her husband contributes the most to household income, he always shares details with Marium. He said that he felt obligated to do so because whenever he had suffered accidents or illnesses, Marium had been forced to manage their family using her own relatives or her husband’s linkages. One difficulty to working full-time is her small children; access to day care would help.

Prior to the intervention Marium took a big personal decision relating to her reproductive health. She went to get a tubal ligation operation to stop her from conceiving anymore children, but she did not consult her husband beforehand. Although when he when found out he was not angry, she still feels guilty about it. She also said that she has always felt tired since the operation, which she believes is a side-effect.

WIDER CONTEXT – CHANGES SINCE THE INTERVENTION

Many people, especially the extreme poor, come to live here from various parts of Bangladesh after facing various crises such as poverty, unemployment, natural disaster- river erosion, flood, water logging, drought, Monga, effects of climate change. Most the extreme poor slum dwellers are illiterate and do not have skills except their own physical labour, and many of them are not physically fit. They are also socially isolated and struggle to cope with a new social context of urban slums as well as new economic system.

The advantage of work opportunities in the slum economy

The slum dwellers that migrate from various parts of Bangladesh have neither working capital nor any specialized skills. So to survive within the urban situations, they are ready to do any types of laborious job at a low wage. By targeting the low cost manpower, a huge number of large or small industries have been established within or nearby the slums. In other words, slums have been developed nearby where the working opportunities are available. If we consider it from a different view, totally unskilled Marium and her two sons (the eldest one is only 12) are easily earning more than taka 2,000 per month at a factory as trainees which is not easy in rural areas.

Price hike/income increase

Over the recent years, a huge price hike has occurred in the country. This type of price hike has negative and positive impacts, especially for the extreme poor, who are not able to manage three full meals per day. The extreme poor who works for a monthly salary often faced negative impacts as their salary does not increase enough compared to inflation. On the other hand, the peoples who are on a daily wage such as day labourers, construction workers and rickshaw pullers are earning incomes which track the rate of inflation more closely. Many poor people in the major cities including Dhaka are getting an additional benefit from the Open Market Sales (OMS) of rice by the government and the respective dealers. They are getting the opportunity to purchase rice with a subsidized price by paying only 24 Taka per kilogram. Each person can purchase up to 5 Kilograms of rice in a day.

Incidents/Accidents

It is well known that urban life is more complex and challenging compared to in rural areas especially for the extreme poor. There is a huge competition to survive and many times people use illegal tactics to benefit. Social bondage is weak in urban areas and incidents such as road accidents, drug addiction, theft, mugging, eviction, fire explosion, and harassment by the police and mastaans are very common. In the early stage of Badal’s life, one of his maternal uncles cheated him in an economic transaction and within his married life he has faced two severe road accidents, black magic practiced by one of Marium’s relatives and their business capital being stolen by two of the local mastaans. All these incidents and accidents had a strong negative influence of Marium and their family.

Increase of house rent

As with most of the other urban areas, the rent of the slums in Dhaka city has also been increasing every year. Now Marium has to pay Taka 1,400 per month as house rent compared to just 800 in the year of 2008. This is one of the burdens of the family.

SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN PERCEPTIONS OF POWERFUL

Besides family, in particular Marium’s parent-in-laws and aunt have previously been a negative influence on the well-being of the family. However in the last year her husband’s parents have become more helpful. When her husband had his last accident, and when he has been sick at other times, he has visited his parents and got lots of care from his mother. On his last visit they have him food support including rice, pulses and vegetables to take back to Dhaka.

This relationship is likely to have changed because Badal’s parents are getting older and beginning to think that they may need him to look after them in the near future. They expect that he will go back to live in their village with his family so that he and Marium can look after them when they become unable to look after themselves.

Usually the local money lenders were not interested to lend money to Marium and Badal as they were not potential clients. At the same time, the couple were also not confident enough to borrow more money as they had no potential income sources. Instead they used to take small loans from the rickshaw/garage owners when they were in serious need. However when Badal was ensured that they are going to receive a rickshaw under the compensation package from the project, he borrowed 2,000 taka for medical treatment. After receiving the rickshaw, he borrowed another 4,000 taka for decorating the rickshaw.

OTHER FAMILY MEMBER’S EXPERIENCE OF THE INTERVENTION

Marium’s husband’s expression was, “After receiving the rickshaw from the office, we are much better than earlier. But I have to be more conscious about the snatching of the rickshaw as recently some rickshaws have been snatched away by the different miscreant groups from some of the rickshaw pullers. So, I start slightly late in the morning and come back in the early evening, and pull the rickshaw 7 days per week.”

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

SUMMARY

The initial support received by Marium from the DSK-shiree project was not well suited to them. Although they requested support to set up a fruit business they had a lack of relevant experience and

9 QUALITATIVE MONITORING OF SHIREE INTERVENTIONS: CMS5 INTERVENTION TRACKING – ‘TOP UP’ ROI (2) skills and the business suffered as a result. This is not particularly surprising as their life history suggested that they were in poverty due to having to rely on their physical labour. The problems they were facing with running the business were further compounded when their remaining working capital was stolen by a group of Mastaans. This deeply shocked the couple and Badal especially took the incident very badly and was unable to work for some time due to his resulting depression.

However the couple benefited from a compensation package that was offered to them. Sticking this time with an IGA which they knew they could operate, they opted for a rickshaw van. This is perhaps an interesting choice as one of the main reasons they fell into destitution was because Marium’s husband was often too sick to pull their rented van. However the rickshaw van has increased the family’s wellbeing dramatically and has led to vast improvements in the psychological outlook of Badal. He is now proud of his rickshaw, and also has improved health which he attributes to flexible working hours.

The sustainability of the family does however remain questionable. So far they have been fortunate as Badal has not had another accident. However if he does their earning potential will go down. This was the major cause of their poverty before and it still poses a risk. They are offered some insurance against this now however as they are able to rent the rickshaw out if they are in desperate need.

The reflection also shows that Marium and are children are engaging in work outside of DSK. This indicates that perhaps as the children get older they will be able to support their family. Still currently however their dependency ratio is high, which was one of the major reasons they descended into poverty in the first place.

ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABILITY

The sustainability of the family depends on two major factors; the rickshaw and the health of Badal. Currently Badal’s physical condition is much improved and he is pulling the rickshaw 7 days a week on a flexible schedule. He is earning well at the moment and they are using the majority of this income to pay off their loans and their rent dues. Their progress is good, but it seems that the family is relying too heavily on Badal’s capacity to pull the rickshaw. Although they can rent it out if he gets sick, they are worried that damage might be done to it. Furthermore there have been many incidences of rickshaws being stolen or damaged, and if this were too heavy it would be catastrophic for their earning potential

If Badal did become too sick to the work in the future, the family may be able to rely on the earnings of their children. However this will not be for a few years when the children become old enough to earn a proper income. Although the two oldest are already working, they cannot contribute too much. By sending them to work at such an early age they are missing out on an education which may have increased their earning potential in the future. It is unclear therefore how sustainable any graduation from poverty will be inter-generationally. However Marian wants to keep her sons working in the same factory as her sons are becoming skilled and she thinks it may actually help them towards achieving the sustainable graduation.

Marium however is also working currently. Again although this contribution isn’t substantial, it is at least a starting point.