Munni Akhtar, 26, grown up at a village in Sylhet. She started her family life at the age of 15. Her husband Rubel sometimes pulls rickshaw, sometimes works as hawkers or collects discarded wastage.
Most of the time in a year, Rubel stays at home as he does not like to work.
Munni earns money by working in people’s houses. On Eid or any other festival, Munni fulfills the demands of her two little daughters by working as a domestic worker.
Even sometimes, she works in 4- 5 houses and brings smiles to the faces of the whole family.
Rima got married to Mahin following a love affair. After Mahin’s death in a tragic road accident, Rima’s new journey began centering her only child, Ratul.
Working as a sales manager in a multinational company, she runs the family along with sending the son to school.
Rima, who was deprived of her father’s property, decided to be self-reliant instead of getting married for the second time.
She choose the path of keeping the head high through becoming self-reliant.
Dolly is the only child of her parents. After completing her studies in medicine, she is now a full-time doctor in Gynecology Department at a hospital in remote area.
Besides leading a comfortable life, she looks after her parents as her earnings pretty well.
Dolly did not get marry so as not to lack the care of her parents. She is a unique example in the society that considers sons to be the luminaries of the lineage.
Nazma Khatun works as an employee at an online make-up company.
She makes door to door visit and provide parlor service. “My daughter Maisa, a university student, earns Taka 80 thousand – one lakh per month by live sales of various showroom products.
She is studying with her own income,” she said in a smiling face.
Like Munni, Rima, Dolly, Nazma and Maisa, many women now run the family with their earnings in the village. These women are leading their lives with keeping their heads high.
They also look after the rest of the family members.
Economists hoped that if the number of such women increases, the per capita income of the country will be quite strong.
Economist Mahfuz Kabir said since women constitute a large portion of the population in a country, their growth is needed for “inclusive development” of a nation.
“Bangladesh’s per capita income has already increased significantly as women’s earnings have increased along with men. In most cases, working women of middle and lower class live on their income.
Besides, if we calculate the financial value of the service they provide to the family, we will find that this contribution is playing a very important role in society and nation building activities,” he added.
Dhaka University Prof Md Mofizur Rahman said in a patriarchal society, when a family is run by the income of a woman, then the idea that the man will be the head of the family which has been going on for long is faded and in many cases women's challenges increase.
“In most cases, women who earn have to do outside job besides the family chores. Thus, most of the women find it difficult to handle the house and outside. In some cases, even if women earn, they cannot spend that money as they wish. The family took the money by force, resulting the financial crisis of women to continue. To address these problems, besides changingthe mindset, it is necessary to support the economic freedom of women socially,” he added.
Last but not the least, according to experts, if men and women earn simultaneously, women will have an opportunity to play an important role in increasing the per capita income of the country further along with solving financial crisis in the family.
