About 30 women led by Lebubala, wife of Amal Das, made the 1,500 long fishing net with the financial aid of the Department for International Development (DFID). Working relentlessly for one month, the rural women finished its work in November last year.

An amount of one and a half lakh taka was spent for the net, 'Tonir Ber,' which was officially handed over to them on July 8 this year.

The expectation was the net would provide square meal to the fishermen family members thrice daily. Thirty-two women own the net while the fishermen of Majhipara village only will catch fish by it.

Amal Das believes that from now on no member of the 32 families will have to starve for days together. He and his family members may not be able to take a square meal thrice daily but they will not have to buy rice and pulse taking loan from the money-lenders at high interest rate during Monga (famine-like situation) period every year.

'The net will definitely bring something for them from the Brahmaputra riverbed', the fishermen families believe so because now they possess a fishing net.

Although it is a rule that net owners will automatically be owners of water body too, but it is not true for fishermen at Majhipara, a locality adjacent to Chilmari Bandar, most part of which was vanished by river erosion. This is because local influentials deprived the fishermen taking possession of water bodies by force.

Char Livelihood Project (CLPP) Kurigram district infrastructure manager Hosne Ara told this correspondent each woman received Tk 80 for 8-hour work daily.

Although it is a successful poverty alleviation project but the government has no plan to emulate it, informed Chilmari Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Abdur Rouf. Although he admitted that the project had benefitted many people, but he said the project may not succeed at the nearly villages because the nature of food and job crisis varies from village to village in Chilmari upazila. The fishing net will help alleviate poverty of 32 fishermen families at Majhipara village but it does not mean the net project will help combat Monga at erosion prone Putimari-Kajaldanga and other villages, the UNO said.

Hosne Ara further informed the DFID has no future plan for the time being because this project was a pilot project which could not be extended to other villages.

Like Hosne Ara, local chairman Md Abdul Jalil too believes the net will provide three-time square meal to 150 members of the 32 families.