| Around 1980 most of the roads in the project area were in very poor condition. NRDP took initiative to improve and maintain some selected roads in the three upazilas Chhagalnaiya, Lakshmipur and Raipur. All the nine roads studied were in existence before NRDP, but narrow and in poor condition. These roads were reconstructed/ improved by NRDP during 1980-81 by widening and raising them and constructing a number of bridges and culverts. Afterwards they were also maintained until the project was terminated in 1992.
After 1992 all the roads were handed over to Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), which had collaborated with NRDP during project implementation. The majority of these roads are today being maintained by LGED with cooperation of local government. LGED selects the road for maintenance according to their priority in terms of the road condition, its importance in terms of communication and budget allocation and influence of local people. However, some roads are maintained by the Roads and Highways Department (RHD). In the 1990s most of the study roads have been further improved by LGED and/or RHD. Several of the roads have been given a new pucca surface (bituminous carpeting or water bound macadam). Three of the study roads have recently been selected for renovation/ improvement under the RDP-23 project funded by Danida under the supervision of LGED.
The topical report provides details about the current standard of each of the nine roads as well as the bridges and culverts, ranging from good to very poor. However, after almost a decade of maintenance and further improvement by LGED and/or RHD it is next to impossible to assess the quality of the work – construction as well as maintenance – carried out during NRDP. But by and large the bridges and culverts constructed then are in reasonably good shape today, although many need repair and further maintenance. The standard of the surface of the roads on the other hand largely mirrors the efforts (or lack of the same) by LGED/RHD in the last decade.
Before the improvement of the roads most people used to walk in the dry season and in the monsoon season they used to move by boat where they could not walk. With the improvement of the roads various kinds of development activities took place in the locality. This development has eventually had a positive impact on the socio-economic conditions of people in the area. Of course many other factors have contributed to this, but the improved roads have played a significant role.
At present the principal means of transport are bicycle, motor cycle, rickshaw, baby taxi, tempo, rickshaw van, pick up, truck, bus and occasionally private cars and micro bus. Many sub-roads and by-roads connecting to different places from the main roads have developed and gradually a good network has emerged in the area. Varying from road to road, between 500 and more than 2500 persons use each of these roads daily. They go to office, school, college and other educational institutions, business centres, hospitals, banks, upazila head quarters, other urban centres and relatives house. It is remarkable that in all the roads (only) about five to 10 per cent of the adult road users are women. A small survey in one of the roads (Mandari-Dasherhat) disclosed that approximately 50 per cent move for official purpose, 20 per cent for going to the work place, 20 per cent to do marketing, 2 per cent to see the doctor and 8 per cent to see relatives and other purposes.
Now farmers get different kinds of agricultural inputs easily and of different types including modern fertilizer, pesticide, improved HYV seed etc. Farmers also can get better access to the markets for their products in different seasons because of these roads. This is especially important for winter vegetables that fetch good prices. The drainage facilities through the culverts and bridges have helped the farmers to cultivate IRRI Boro and other HYV rice. In some of the roads, however, the road in itself creates drainage problems. In some cases the roads with bridges and culverts help the farmers to save their crops from flash floods. Some canals are being used as irrigation canals for the locality. Some modern poultry and dairy farms have developed beside the roads. The roads have also facilitated the farmers to use tractors for cultivation. Nowadays traders come to the doorsteps of the farmers to buy their products. The farmers can also carry their products to the nearby markets by rickshaw and other modes of transport. Farmers are facilitated with modern threshing and husking machine at home as well as quick and easy marketing facilities. So it can be said that these roads have contributed to enhancing the production and income of the farmers of the project area.
A number of shops, institutions and small industries have developed at road-connected markets as well as along the roads. There are all kinds of shops selling daily commodities, but also service shops like mobile phone, TV dish antenna connection, photocopy machine and different kinds of offices established in the markets as well as along the road. For instance around Raipur-Kalfilatoli road three new markets developed after 1980 as well as a high school, a charitable dispensary, three ward health sub-centres, one cyclone shelter one mobile phone shop and almost 200 shops in the old and the new markets. About 100 new houses have also been constructed along the road. Around Mandari-Dasherhat road there was a similar development. In 1980 there were about 125 shops in Dasherhat market, but today the number of shops is more than 400. In Dighali bazar the number of shops increased from 30 to over 100. Dasherhat market got electricity in 1980, Dighali bazar in 2000. Along the road about 70 shops have been set up, including stationery, furniture, cement, vehicle repair, mobile phone and TV dish antenna connection. There are also sawmills, brickfields as well as different offices. Around Chhagalnaiya-Amjadhat road there are about 1500 shops as well as a number of small industries, most of which have been established after 1980. This area got electricity in 1984. Today there are 17 telephone shops along this road.
About 200 to 400 people worked on each of the roads for improvement during the NRDP-I period. Most of these were men, and the work was temporary, only for a few months. In contrast most of the maintenance work was carried out by groups of women afterwards, and this work lasted for the duration of the project. According to the project completion report (Danida, 1995:32) in the entire project area there were 46 women road maintenance groups involving a total of 687 women (1984-82). But some men were also involved in road maintenance. In Chhagalnaiya upazila priority was given to male landless labourers. CARE, the big NGO, developed a special programme for rural road maintenance under the Food for Work Programme. The programme was initiated as a pilot scheme in February 1983 in collaboration with NRDP. Destitute rural women have been involved in Food for Work Programmes in other areas of Bangladesh earlier, and it has been proved that women do come forward for this untraditional kind of labour given the opportunity. Apart from getting work they were also being given functional literacy training under the Mass Education Programme (MEP) of NRDP.
The men and women workers were recruited from the locality. They were very poor and destitute. These labourers were identified with the help of local members and chairman of the Union Parishad. Most of the male workers are presently involved in various other kinds of activities including day labour, rickshaw and van puller. Only a few of the members of NRDP women maintenance groups are today working with road related activities under LGED. For instance, out of 30 women workers on Mandari-Dasherhat road, 10 are involved in road maintenance work under CARE today. Most of the NRDP women maintanance workers are unemployed now, and many have faced great hardship after the termination of the project. The life story of Hanufa Begum can illustrate this (see box). Other life stories can be found in the topical report (annex 2).
| Life story of Hanufa Begum, woman maintenance worker of Raipur-Kafilatoli road
Hanufa Begum is about 50 and widow. She is from the lower socio-economic class of the society. She got married at the age of 20. Her husband was an illiterate day labourer. After 15 years of her married life her husband got sick and died within six months without proper treatment. She got two daughters and one son. She had only the homestead and no earning. So she started working in other wealthy people’s house in the village. But she did not get the job regularly and eventually she started begging. The daughters became grown up and it was difficult for her to arrange their marriage.
In 1985 she got the job in NRDP road with the help of local UP members and chairman. In the beginning she used to attend the MEP school from 7-10 AM; from 10 AM to 1PM she maintained the road (earth cutting, filling, compaction, turfing and watering the grass etc). After six months she used to go to MEP office once a week. This continued till the end of the project. She still has the benefit of the functional education given by MEP.
She worked there for seven years at the rate of Tk. 20/day. Her earning was Tk. 600 per month. She used to get Tk. 450 per month in hand and Tk. 150 was kept as savings and deposited in her own account in the local bank. At the end of the project she received Tk. 8,000 in cash from the bank. During the NRDP period she had a good time with the children. Her eldest daughter got married at that time. She paid all the debts she had when her husband was sick.
She lost the job and her earning as the project was closed. She is begging again. The son is working as day labourer. The first daughter’s husband left her. Hanufa is again back to her poor condition and remembers the glorious days during NRDP.
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The roads have had a positive impact on shop keepers and people engaged in transportation; they are virtually all men. Today a significant percentage of the shop operators are old persons. This indicates that the development helped the older people to remain active through the new opportunities facilitated by these roads. Transport employs a growing number of people in the area, and the majority of transport operators in contrast are young people. But it is not all workers within the transport sector that have benefited from the improved roads. Many hundred boat operators and cart pullers had to give up their traditional occupation when it became possible to ply the roads with more modern and efficient means of transportation throughout the year. Some of them had to endure periods of unemployment, but after a couple of years most of them had succeeded in changing to a new occupation.
In terms of present day use of the roads – and the markets, shops and institutions linked to these – it is evidently men who most directly enjoy the benefits of better roads and transportation. More than 90 per cent of the adult road users are men and their share of marketing and shopping is of the same order. But of course indirectly it benefits the whole family. Moreover, women can and do increasingly avail local transport and go anywhere necessary, for instance to health and family planning clinics.
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