By Maloy Kumar Dutta back from Faridpur 
 
FARIDPUR, June 29, 2022 (BSS) - Sabirun Akhter, a homeless destitute woman of Nagarkanda upazila in Faridpur, took refuge to residence of her brothers after being deserted by her husband four years ago. She had to contribute to poverty-ridden households of her brothers by sewing clothes.
      
One and half years ago, she got a semi-pucca house along with 2 decimal land of her own under ‘Ashrayan-2 project’, one of the Ten Special Initiatives of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
 
“I led my life miserably with my small earnings at the shelter of my brothers as my husband left me four years back. When I got the new house my husband returned. With my savings, I bought an auto-rickshaw for husband,” Sabirun Akhter, a beneficiary of ‘Ashrayan-2’, told BSS at Poradia Balia Ashrayan project at Nagarkanda upazila in the district.

She added: “Then I started a small business of clothes apart from sewing at my new house. At present our monthly income is Tk 18,000 to 20,000. I am very happy as I can restart my household after getting my new home.

 Now I have a dream to build a small garment factory after buying some sewing machines.”

Mid-aged Sudha Rani Malo, who is a member of Dalit (Jele) community, had to maintain life amid many hardships as her six-member family had no shelter for their own. Sometimes they used to stay in a small shabby hut beside a house in Kaichail union. Her husband Subhash Malo used to lead his family with very little earnings by fishing and they had to pay rent for their stay in the hut.  
   
“Now we are very happy as we got a shelter and roof above our heads of our own, thanks to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,” Sudha Rani said.

Ratan Shikder, 60, who having five-member family including his grandchild used to stay in rented shelter, also got a house under the project.

“We have to stay in rented shelter in Nagarkanda.

 We suffered a lot due to poverty as we have no own shelter. We had to roam from one shelter to another.

 Now we got a permanent shelter of our own. We are very pleased by getting it,” he said.
The story of Pabitra Malo is also the same who also received a semi-pucca house under the project.
     
Faridpur Deputy Commissioner Atul Sarker said Poradia Balia Ashrayan project was built on the bank of river Kumar at Kaichail union under Nagarkanda upazila and 110 houses were distributed here.

He said the government has a target to provide houses to 4,994 landless and homeless families in three phases in the district under the Ashrayan-2 Project. 

In first phase, 2035 families were given houses while 1,572 families got shelters in the second phase in the district, he said, adding that keys of 696 houses were handed over to homeless and landless families as gifts before the Eid-ul-Fitr under the third phase on April 26 last.

Works are underway to build 691 more houses as a total of 1,387 families will get shelters under the third phase, he mentioned.
 
Talking to BSS, Ashrayan-2 Deputy Project Director Md Mahmudul Haque today said they are working to ready 35,000 more houses under the third phase as the government has set to distribute 65,674 houses among the landless and homeless people across the country under the third phase of the Ashrayan-2 Project.

Of those, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already handed over 32,904 houses on April 26, he mentioned.

Haque said so far, 150,233 houses were handed over in three phases under the Ashrayan-2 Project as part of the government pledge to bring every landless and homeless people across the country under housing facilities in the Mujib Borsho.

On January 23 in 2021, 63,999 homeless and landless families received houses under the first phase while 53,330 families got a roof over their heads under second phase of the Ashrayan-2 Project on June 20 last year, he said adding that the houses were constructed in 492 upazilas across the country.

According to the project details, so far 1,17,329 houses were constructed under first and second phases of the project while 1,83,003 houses have been allotted till the current fiscal year of 2021-2022.

Under the project, ownership of land and house is being given in the joint names of husband an wife of landless, homeless, marginalised and uprooted families, it said.
 
Each unit has two rooms, a kitchen, a toilet and a veranda costing TK 259,500 without tax and VAT. The amount is TK 330,000 with tax and VAT.
 
In the third phase of Ashrayan-2 project, the government has raised the cost and brought changes in design to make the houses more sustainable and climate-resilient.
 
The cost against each house has been increased to Taka 2,59,500 from Taka 1,91,000 to make the houses more durable.
 
The government is constructing the houses having strong great-beam, lintel and Reinforced concrete column (RCC) pillar for making the houses more sustainable.
 
So far Taka 3,972 crore 7 lakh 5 thousand was allocated for construction of houses as of current fiscal year.
 
Apart from khas land, the government has purchased 168.32 acres of land for rehabilitating homeless and landless people. Taka 115.33 crore has already been allocated for purchasing lands.
 
The government recovered 5,512.04 acres of khas land worth of Tk 2,967 crore 9 lakh from illegal occupation across the country for constructing houses under the project.

Some 1242 specially designed houses have been allotted for char region under the third phase.

Special design has been made so that the houses can be shifted to other places in view of any natural disaster like cyclone or flood.

 Under the Ashrayan project, a total of 5,07,244 families have been rehabilitated till March, 2022 from 1997 while the rehabilitated families are brought under VGF programs for three months.
 
Rehabilitated family members are provided with practical and technical training to engage in various productive and income-generating activities.
 
Micro-credit for their socio-economic development is disbursed from various government agencies such as Bangladesh Rural Development Board, Cooperatives, Department of Women and Children, Department of Social Services.
 
Free electricity connection is provided to the rehabilitated families and tube-wells are being sunk for safe water at the project site.

The housing schemes are having community centres, prayer houses and graveyards, ponds and roads for internal communication.