Good dream

The government has undertaken a new project called “SWAPNO” through which the extremely poor women in rural areas will be able to materialise their dreams of coming out of the poverty trap. 

Under the project, a woman will get a daily wage of Tk 200 for work from which she could save Tk 25,000 in one and a half years for taking an initiative to create self-employment.

In a meeting at the planning ministry yesterday, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved a Tk 853 crore project for these poor women. The UNDP would finance 75 percent of the project cost as a grant.After the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told reporters that the government had undertaken the project to provide social protection to the ultra-poor women by creating part-time job opportunity for them in the seasons when there is no work in the rural areas.

The minister also said under the scheme, a poor rural woman would be given Tk 200 as daily wage for working in rural road repair and maintenance. She could save Tk 50 in bank every day which would become Tk 25,000 in one and a half years.

Kamal said the woman could later invest the money in small businesses, which would help her come out of the poverty trap.

The project has been named “Strengthening Women's Ability for Productive New Opportunities” which will be called SWAPNO in short. This project will help the ultra-poor women to fulfil their dreams, said a planning ministry official.

The official said these women would be provided training by the NGOs so that they could create self-employment.

Around 22 NGOs would be engaged in the training which would cost around 4.99 percent of the total project cost and 3.62 percent would be spent on encouraging the women to participate in the training programme, the official added.

The women will be selected for the programme from 1,030 unions in 22 districts in the coastal areas, which are prone to poverty.