By Md. Abdul Alim from Satkhira
28-Year old Anjali Rani is one of many tiger widows (in Bengali: bagh bidhoba are women whose husbands have been killed by tigers) lives in the remote village of East Chunkuri of Munshiganj union in coastal Satkhira district of Bangladesh which faces the fury of nature as it is hit-hard by cyclone almost every year. Excessive rains destroy the entire land, leaving the villagers in a state of dire poverty and misery. Anjali got married to Tapan Kumar at the age of 16 and settled herself at husband’s house. Despite hardships, she had a joyful life with her husband, son and in laws parents.
In 2008, her husband Tapan Kumar was killed in a tiger attack while fishing in the Sundarbans close to residence, leaving a child of 2 years old and old-aged parents. After her husband’s demise, Anjali Rani became the family’s sole breadwinner and ventured to the same dense forest to catch crab and get firewood to provide food for her son and in laws parents. She said, “It was pretty dangerous but I had no alternatives, the thought of being attacked by the tiger haunted my mind, but the desperation to earn bread for my family was greater than my fears.” A few days later, her mother-in-law also died of acute mental shock and soon after her father in law paralyzed at his age of 56. Anjali Rani now has the responsibility of the entire family, including the cost of her child’s education, the cost of medicine of her sick father in-law, who is now bedridden.
In 2021, Anjali Rani joined to a CSO called Bain (name of fish) under PORIBESH project. With the assistance of the project she received boat and climate resilient agriculture training; gave her ray of hope. She found a way to get fresh chemical-free vegetable from her kitchen garden. Being located in the ecologically fragile areas, the CSO members of PORIBESH project decided to save money from their daily expenses that will keep in an earthen pot popularly known as disaster bank which provides financial assistance in disaster loss. Thus, she also saved money as per discussion in her CSO.
Cyclone “Sitrang” lashed Bangladesh on 24 October 2022 evening. After hearing the cyclone signal, Anjali Rani brought her father-in-law and her son to a cyclone shelter, 5 km far from their residence, along necessary documents like, national identity cards, CSO’s saving books, some dry food, fire box, candles and essentials living. But she stayed at home alone so that the house would not be theft by miscreants.
Sitrang destroyed Anjali’s kitchen’s roof which was made of asbestos and mud wall collapsed, cooking stove was filled with water. Anjali Rani decides to repair the kitchen with 500 BDT that saved in her disaster bank. Savings at disaster Bank has been effective in post-disaster construction of her kitchen.
It is to mention that with the support from NETZ-Partnership for Development and Justice, BARCIK has been facilitating a total of 1600 marginal families in Shyamnagar and Assasuni upazila of Satkhira district since September 2021 for establishing rights through advocacy, awareness and providing training to develop skills for climate resilient sustainable livelihoods of south-west coastal regions.
Rewritten by ABM Touhidul Alam
