Minoti Ranidoes not belong to the rich category as per the wealth ranking prepared by the community through a participatory community situation analysis. Actually she is from a disadvantaged community in Nalita Bari Pouroshava under Sherpur district in Bangladesh. Minoti Rani is dependent on her own income she earns from pottery. She makes clay pot and show-pieces and sells it in the local market. The small income that she earns from it is barely enough to live a decent life. But, she has never given up the trial of changing her condition in which she has been living for last 32 years. She keeps her eyes opened always to add additional value to her life. Coincidentally, the GOB-UNICEF project came forward with the hardware and software support for the low-income communities in Nalita Bari Pourashava. The project did a lot of community mobilization activities to make people aware of using safe water, safe sanitation and hygiene practice. Software support covered all the population living in the project area while hardware support went only to the households who met the project’s criteria. One of the supports from the project is to provide a latrine for each 3-5 households who are poor as per the community wealth ranking. Though Minoti Raini is poor, she did not get this latrine because she has no other households with whom she can share it as per the rules of the project. The project regretted but she did not lose her hope. When she understood she will not get the toilet she decided to build a toilet from her own resource. The small amount that she has been putting aside from her saving in each month for last few years she spent to build a latrine. And she did that. Her toilet is decent, well maintained and beautiful. Minoti Rani proudly said, “my toilet is better than the toilets you (she meant the project) gave to my neighbours”. I admitted that. I looked at her house and took a photograph of her with the house. I found her toilet is better than her house!!
Noormohammad lost his leg long before in a road accident. Now, he sits in a small shop and earns 100-150 taka daily. With this little earning he is somehow managing his five members’ family. Noormohammad had a dream of a decent life with his wife and children which did not come true because of his disability. But, still he goes on trying. He does not want to surrender his fortune to his disability. He always looks for the opportunity. Opportunity comes sometimes but because of the societal process of exclusion he misses it also. The GOB-UNICEF project at Nalita Bari was also an opportunity for Noormohammad. But, like Minoti Rani, Noor Mohammad has also missed it. He applied for latrine but finally he finally did not get as his relation with the ward councillor was not good!? Noormohammad become critically aware after understanding the faecal-oral transmission route ( F diagram) in a hygiene session. He decided to have a latrine anyhow. Being refused by the project, he decided to construct it from his own cost. He found his saving is not enough to build a quality latrine. He borrowed an amount from one of his relatives who works in garments in Dhaka. Finally his dream came true. He constructed a latrine which costs tk 7000. He keeps the key of the toilet tied with his waist. I called him to show me the latrine. He opened the lock. I found it clean and well-maintained. Noormohammad has widen his smile in his whole face with prud and told, “sir, it is not from the project, I built it with my own cost”. I told, “congratulation chacha,(uncle), this is why I have come to see you” Anybody will blame that the project has not addressed the equity in this case. It is true. We will have to look into that. At the same time I will be going on appreciating the inner power of the people: people like Minoti and Noormohammad. (This case is documented by Md. Firoj Alam, Program Officer, WASH, UNICEF)
Minoti Ranidoes not belong to the rich category as per the wealth ranking prepared by the community through a participatory community situation analysis. Actually she is from a disadvantaged community in Nalita Bari Pouroshava under Sherpur district in Bangladesh. Minoti Rani is dependent on her own income she earns from pottery. She makes clay pot and show-pieces and sells it in the local market. The small income that she earns from it is barely enough to live a decent life. But, she has never given up the trial of changing her condition in which she has been living for last 32 years. She keeps her eyes opened always to add additional value to her life. Coincidentally, the GOB-UNICEF project came forward with the hardware and software support for the low-income communities in Nalita Bari Pourashava. The project did a lot of community mobilization activities to make people aware of using safe water, safe sanitation and hygiene practice. Software support covered all the population living in the project area while hardware support went only to the households who met the project’s criteria. One of the supports from the project is to provide a latrine for each 3-5 households who are poor as per the community wealth ranking. Though Minoti Raini is poor, she did not get this latrine because she has no other households with whom she can share it as per the rules of the project. The project regretted but she did not lose her hope. When she understood she will not get the toilet she decided to build a toilet from her own resource. The small amount that she has been putting aside from her saving in each month for last few years she spent to build a latrine. And she did that. Her toilet is decent, well maintained and beautiful. Minoti Rani proudly said, “my toilet is better than the toilets you (she meant the project) gave to my neighbours”. I admitted that. I looked at her house and took a photograph of her with the house. I found her toilet is better than her house!!
