The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Rangpur

The campaign for eradication of social superstitions has been proved successful with positive results in the remote char areas in all five districts of greater Rangpur.

Nari Adhikar Unit (NAU) of Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) with financial support from the Embassy of Netherlands in Dhaka has been conducting the motivational works among the poor backward people of the disaster-prone char areas in Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Gaibandha.

The activities are focused on creating mass awareness about legal aids, gender issues, repression on women and children, human trafficking, child marriage, dowry, marriage and birth registrations, polygamy, safe motherhood, maternal mortalities, health and sanitation, safe drinking water and other related issues.

As a part of the activities, NAU has been organising village and union level workshops, public hearing meetings, discussion, staging of Gononatoks and rallies in the char areas.

Local elite, community leaders, UP chairmen and members, teachers, journalists, imams, matchmakers, guardians, adolescents, students, farmers, workers, day-labourer have been taking part in the programmes.

The two separate committees were formed earlier at every union of Roumari upazila in Kurigram for preventing trafficking of women and children and eliminating repression on women and children, dowry and child marriage, are successfully running their activities that achieved huge successes so far.

Since beginning of the activities, the NAU had saved dozens of adolescents from child marriages in the char areas by motivating their parents and now the char people have started their own efforts of getting rid of all sorts of social superstitions there.

Earlier, it could not be even thought about of a dowry-free marriage and almost all the marriages were child marriages in the char areas of these districts.

Talking to BSS, Rabeya Khatun of RDRS said that their campaign has created an atmosphere in the char areas for combating the social curses. The common people are cooperating everywhere for making a society free from any such curse and superstition.

Local public representatives and elite told BSS that the ongoing motivational activities would have positive impacts in the society.