POVERTY REDUCTION AND SELF-

EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMME OF
HOBBY INTERNATIONAL, BANGLADESH
Bangladesh is at the take-off stage of economic and social development. It has
achieved much, but much is yet to be done; democratic institutions are stronger
today than ever before. Bangladesh is full of potential and promise and its people
have manifested their conviction and courage to survive against all adversities.
The devastating tidal bore and cyclone of 1970 displaced a huge population and
made millions homeless. Subsequently after the liberation of Bangladesh, the
Government came forward with programmes to rehabilitate those affected and other
landless people on Government owned khas land of the country. The then Ministry
of Land Administration and Land Reforms took initiative for rehabilitation of
assetless, rootless and landless families for maximum utilization of Govt. khas land.
The then Land Administration and Land Reforms Division took the initiative to
maximize the utilization of Khas land by establishing the "Cluster Village" for the
rehabilitation of cyclone and river erosion affected assetless and landless families in
the Char Areas of Noakhali District as a pilot project. The Land Administration and
Land Reforms Division submitted a Project Proposal to the Planning Commission for
the establishment of seven Cluster Villages to rehabilitate 1470 landless and rootless
families. Four Cluster Villages were established at Char Clerk under Shudaram
Upazila, one at Char Diara Balua under Companiganj Upazila of Noakhali District,
one at Char Poragacha under Ramgati Upazila of Laxmipur District and one at Char
Darbesh under Sonagazi Upazila of Feni District. In 1982-87, 21 ponds were
excavated in each above-mentioned Clustered Village in order to raising individual
homestead plot for safe shelter against tidal bore.
The programme of rehabilitation for assetless and landless families was followed
through various land reform initiatives focusing on the distribution of khas land to
landless families. Since that date the ‘Cluster Village’ or 'Adarsha Gram' approach to
land reform and poverty alleviation (albeit under different titles) has been included in
all relevant planning documents of GOB. In order to overcome the misery of about
50 percent of its population who live under the poverty line the GOB is giving first
priority in its development plans to the alleviation of poverty.
Bangladesh is a country where natural calamities like flood, drought, tidal wave,
cyclone, etc. are constant companions of the people. However, our people are very
brave. If they get proper guidance for facing the natural calamities, they are able to
protect themselves. Adarsha Gram Project is working for giving the more durable
housing facilities on gratis to “the poorest of the poor” of the society.
According to the Agriculture Census of 1996, 20.18 Lakh families of the total
population of the country in 88,500 villages are landless and assetless. They have
no land at all for construction of shelter or cultivation. 50.65 Lakh families of the total
population of the country have only homestead plot. They have no other land for
cultivation.

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To provide better housing and self-employment as well as other human development
facilities to the assetless, homeless and landless families of the rural Bangladesh
HOBBY INTERNATIONAL, BANGLADESH established, which is a nonprofit and
non government organization ( NGO ) working in Bangladesh to implements her
programmes activities. The main aim of the organization is to provide better
housing and self-employment as well as other human development facilities to the
assetless, homeless and landless target group families of the rural Bangladesh.

Overall Objectives of the Programme :

The overall objective of the Programme of HOBBY INTERNATIONAL,
BANGLADESH is to alleviate the state of poverty of landless, assetless and river
eroded homeless families of rural Bangladesh by focusing on human development.
The Programme aims at improving living conditions, providing safe drinking water,
education, health & family planning and earning opportunities through
implementation of micro credit programme among the target group.

Specific Objectives :
The specific objectives of the Programme comprises provide better environment to
the landless, assetless and river eroded homeless families of rural Bangladesh as
well as the provision for each family with living accommodation, title of ownership of
the house jointly in the name of wife and husband. In the case of a family of widow,
the single ownership may be awarded. Ownership of the house is not transferable.
The Programme aims at creating dynamic villages and stimulating socio-economic
development of the peoples of the rural Bangladesh.

Main Components of the Programme :

Human resource development :
Establishment of Main Programme Office at Dhaka and 4 (four) Regional
Programme Offices at Barisal ( Barisal & Khulna Division ), Comilla (Chittagong &
Sylhet Division), Dhaka ( Dhaka Division ) and Bogra ( Rajshahi Division ) District
level where poverty is acute.
Appointment of experienced programme personnel for implementing the
programme activities.
Appointment of 6 programme related Local Consultants.
Physical Components :

Earth Work for development of the land of the target group under food / cash
for work programme.
Maintenance of homestead plots, re-excavation of ponds, re-construction of
excess / internal roads of the existing villages of the target groups.
Vulnerable Group Feeding & Test Relief Programme for the target groups
families of the rural Bangladesh.
Reconstruction / Repairing / maintenance of 1,00,000 houses ( including
kitchen, water sealed latrine etc. ) of the target groups who are landless,
assetless and river eroded homeless families of rural Bangladesh.

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 Construction of 5,000 Community Centers for implementing socio-economic
development activities including arrangement of training for self employment.
Installation of 5,000 Deep Tube-wells etc. for providing safe drinking water.
Provision for providing alternative options for arsenic contaminated and saline
free drinking water.
Construction of Guide Walls, Retaining Walls, Slope Protection Works and
other works.
Socio-economic development activities :

Support for implementation of socio-economic development activities among

the target groups who are landless, assetless and river eroded homeless families
of rural Bangladesh.
Provision for massive tree plantation on the homestead plot.
Provision for Improve Stove for saving of trees.
Support to the Village Workers of the target groups families of rural
Bangladesh.
Training support for the target groups who are landless, assetless and river
eroded homeless families of rural Bangladesh.
Credit operation for self-employment :

Revolving Micro Credit for the target groups families of rural Bangladesh.
Social Micro Credit ( Group / Enterprises ) for the target groups families of
rural Bangladesh.
Social security :

Fund for purchase of land for homestead plot and registration of title deeds,
mutation of lands provided to the target groups of the rural Bangladesh.
Fund for completion of incomplete registration of title deeds, mutation of lands
provided by the government to the target groups of the rural Bangladesh.
Acquisition / purchase of assets :
Purchase / acquisition of land for establishment of villages for who are
landless, assetless and river eroded homeless families of rural Bangladesh
where necessary khas land plots are not available but poverty is acute.
Bearing cost of Registration for donated land for establishment of villages for
that are landless, assetless and river eroded homeless families of rural
Bangladesh.
Purchase of 6 Jeeps / Cars ( 1 for each Regional Programme Office and 2 for
project’s head office ).
Purchase of at least 10 Motor Cycle for supervision and monitoring of the land
development, reconstruction / maintenance / repairing works and socio-economic
development activities.

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 Purchase of Office equipments & soft wares, land & mobile phones and
furniture.
Installation of internet / broad band connection.

Justification for take-up the Programmes activities :

For the following justified reasons the proposed Programme of HOBBY
INTERNATIONAL, BANGLADESH has been take-up for implementation :
 Riverbank erosion displaces per year 2,00,000-3,00,000 people in
Bangladesh, resulting in devastating social and poverty impacts along the
country's major rivers, where poverty is highly concentrated.
 Rivers are the life-blood of Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh's land territory
owes its physical existence to rivers that have carried billions of silt for millions
of years from the Himalayas. Thus the land formed was known as Banga,
Bengal, East Pakistan and Bangladesh. Rivers are a boon to the people of the
country, and at the same time they create havoc in the normal life of people.
 Some human activities also cause erosion of land. Barrage, dykes, dams and
other structures on rivers impede the natural flow and direction of rivers. They
change the normal flow of rivers and have an impact on banks, which
gradually are lost to rivers.
 Since the liberation of Bangladesh, it is reported that 45 Lakh (4.5 million)
people have lost their homes and lands.
 During the last five years, more than 26 Lakh people have been become
landless and displaced from their lands and 5 Lakh 50 thousand acre lands
have been lost to the rivers.
 The displaced persons have nowhere to go and eventually they gravitate to
the cities and live in slums. Most of them have no assets, are poor,
unemployed; and the young among them create or are responsible for social
ills.
 Women are vulnerable to exploitation and so too are the children. Human
trafficking takes place with women and children. Sales of drug and small
firearms are rampant in the slums. Many young males of the slums join
criminal gangs.
 In 1993 the government recognized the displacement of people as a
"disaster". However, to date there are no available or reliable statistics of
displaced persons due to river erosion with any agency of the government.
 Another fact is that the landless people do not have any right or priority of
claim on chars (small islands) if they are formed on the rivers or on newly
formed lands on the other side of rivers. The accretion of lands or chars
becomes Khas (government) lands under the existing law.
 Ordinarily, empirical evidence suggests that these lands are allotted to
influential people. As a result, poor people are deprived of the newly formed
lands because they have no voice in the community.
 The programme of rehabilitation for assetless and landless families was
followed through various land reform initiatives focusing on the distribution of
khas land to landless families. Since that date the ‘Cluster Village’ or 'Adarsha

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 Gram' approach to land reform and poverty alleviation (albeit under different
titles) has been included in all relevant planning documents of GOB.
 All people must have four freedoms: freedom from want, freedom from fear,
freedom of speech and freedom of religion. It is the responsibility of
governments to ensure these basic rights of all people in all countries.
Otherwise instability may set in.
 Bangladesh is a deltoid land crisscrossed by several major rivers. River
erosion has been a problem from time immemorial for villagers who through
the generations have lost homestead and agricultural lands in the depths of
riverbeds.
 As the proposed project will be an agricultural oriented project, other aspects
were considered necessary for reaching the main objective “the poverty
alleviation”. First of all the management of the community itself as the
environment in which the beneficiaries could find the ideal ground for their
sustainable activities, generating income security, health protection,
environment respect and social up-grading.
 The second major aspect is the condition of destitute women, who will be
entitled of at least 30 % of the global homestead attribution. Particular
importance has given to this aspect, considering the social and cultural
conditions of the women in Bangladesh.
 The relationship between land and people in Bangladesh is deep and
profound and many millions of poor and landless rural dwellers are alienated
from that basic relationship. They are at the lowest level of poverty, their
miseries are inestimable and most of them are uninvolved in and alienated
from national development.
 Over the last decade, several practicable measures have been taken to
establish the right of the rootless, landless families over the land and to
ameliorate their poverty. Consequent upon the recommendations of the Land
Reforms Committee of 1982, the Land Reforms Ordinance and Land Reforms
Rules were promulgated in 1984 and, by 1987; the Land Reforms Programme
had gathered momentum. Initiatives were taken to distribute khas land among
the landless and near landless and to establish Villages for landless families’
settlements.
 Gender and rural poverty are inter-linked in different ways. Gender appears to
be a principal criterion for the allocation of scarce resources in communities
and households. The effects of intra-household and societal gender inequities
leading to women’s lesser access to food, health care, education and skills for
productive employment are significant with regard to poverty creation and its
perpetuation. Gender inequities are also exhibited in the process of
development thinking.
 Rural women have often been the victims of development processes and
outcomes, as evident from the increasing duration of their workday, the
widening gap between male and female incomes and gradual trend towards
their greater responsibility in the management of household affairs.
 To achieve the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations
Millennium Declaration by the year 2015, signed in September 2000 by the all
191 member states, which have eight goals that are :
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
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 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
For the above reasons, to provide better housing and self-employment as well as
other human development facilities to the assetless, homeless and landless families
of the rural Bangladesh HOBBY INTERNATIONAL, BANGLADESH is to be
considered for providing necessary fund to take-up for implementation of her
programme activities. Because of number of landless, rootless and river erosion
assetless families are increasing day by day and they are burden of the society. They
always create problems in rural areas and devoid of beautification of the capital city
and other towns of Bangladesh by creating slumps.
Poverty eradication has become a central issue in the global development agenda.
This was clearly established by the 1995 World summit for Social Development,
which considered poverty alleviation as one of the three core issues of social
development. It is also reflected in the designation of 1996 as the International Year
for the Eradication of Poverty and in the declaration of a United Nations Decade for
the Eradication of Poverty, 1997-2006, by General Assembly resolution 50/107 of
December 1995. To stop migration and crimes in the slumps, and , to provide better
housing and self-employment as well as other human development facilities to the
1,00,000 landless, rootless and river erosion assetless families.
To implement the above programme, we needs assistance / contribution from the
donor and funding agencies as well as from the well wishers to provide better
housing and self-employment as well as other human development facilities to the
assetless, homeless and landless families of the rural Bangladesh to provide better
housing and self-employment as well as other human development facilities to the
assetless, homeless and landless families of the rural Bangladesh
Orga niz at ion : Hob by Int ern at iona l, B an gl ad esh
Mi ss ion : To provide better housing and self-employment as well as
other human development facilities to the assetless, homeless
and landless families of the rural Bangladesh
Co nt act : Md. Hafizur Rahman, Chairman, Em ail :
mahadhi1@btcl.net.bd
Mrs. Meherun Nessa Rahman, Executive Director
Email : meherun66@gmail.com
Addr ess : GPO Box # 2032, Dhaka-1000, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Ph one : +8801718175864, +8801914198052
Webs it e : http://www.hobbyinternational.com ( under process )
Area o f Oper ati on : National ( Whole Bangladesh )
Ba nk A cc ou nt # f or T ra ns fer / depos iti ng Co ntrib uti on o r F und :
Mrs. Meherun Nessa Rahman,
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Account # SB 1514100722137001,
BRAC Bank Limited, Shamoly Branch,
Ring Road, Shamoly, Dhaka-1207,
Dhaka, Bangladesh.