Not long after her husband suddenly died in 2012, Kunti Rabi Das struggled to put three square meals on the table for her family of three. Kunti, a member of the minority ethnic dalit community and living in the remote Rajnagar upazila under the Moulvibazar district of Bangladesh, simply didn't have the means to produce enough to live on. Moreover, her prospects for any work that could support her family were dim.
That was her predicament until a Union Parishad (or village administrative council) representative introduce her to the Performance Based Maintenance Contract, or PBMC, program. Under PBMC, Kunti cleans drains, fills pits, clears minor blockades and plants trees on roadways near her home. Working six days a week, she earns up to 4,500 Taka per month.
The program provides a cost-effective and time-saving approach to keeping Bangladesh's rural roads in optimal riding condition during every season. At the same time, it improves the lives and livelihoods of the country's poorest women, who are given priority among other contractors vying for the work, according to the World Bank's women's empowerment principles.
Operated under the Bank's Second Rural Transport Improvement Project (RTIP-II) and implemented by Bangladesh's Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), a pilot of the PBMC program has focused on the maintenance of 428 kilometers of rural road network in eight districts across the country. It also employs 428 poor women contractors like Kunti, who report to LGED engineers at the district and upazila levels and are required to meet standards based on 23 indices of quality.
With this opportunity, the program has given voice to disadvantaged women in rural areas in the country. Now they find self-respect as they can take part in the decision-making process of their family as an earning member.
"Once, my husband was the lone bread earner," says Uzzalla Rani Kar, another women who works in the PBMC program in Rajnagar upazila of Moulvibazar. "It was really a burden for him to maintain the family. Today, we can share our responsibility for ensuring better health, education and food for our children."
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