Eid passion prevails in Rangpur char areas

Overcoming the two-year-long stress of the Covid-19 pandemic, people are preparing to celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr amid festivity and passion in the riverine char areas of the Rangpur region.

Officials, development experts, and public representatives said char people have come out of the pandemic strains with various initiatives of the government, including the social safety net programs.

They are now engaged in diverse income-generating and daily normal activities like before the outbreak of the pandemic.

Even around 13 years ago, char people had to live in untold miseries and struggle to survive for lack of jobs and employment as the vicious cycle of poverty gripped their fortunes.

Besides, social curses like child marriage, dowry, and repression of women and superstitions along with malnutrition and lack of pure drinking water and hygienic sanitation had made their life miserable.

“With effective interventions of the government, char people have improved livelihoods and eradicated social curses,” said Dr Syed Samsuzzaman chairman of Rangpur-based research organisation Northbengal Institute of Development Studies.

A considerable transformational change has taken place in the socio-economic conditions of char people following the implementation of the government’s massive social safety net and other programs and developments by other organisations.

“Despite the tough situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, massive government interventions helped them turn around again. Most of them are busy purchasing clothes and other Eid items to celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr festivity,” he said.

Chairman of Laksmitari union in Gangachara upazila of Rangpur Abdullah Al Hadi said many char people living on the Teesta riverbed in the union are purchasing clothes and other items for family members for Eid.