Hill women building their own place through their earnings

Nanta Tripura, Ripai Marma and Cheung Marma are three women from Panchhari upazila of Khagrachhari. Their work and lifestyles are different. However, they share similar experiences of daily labour, livelihood uncertainty, responsibilities towards their families and dreams for their children’s future. Their lives are not just stories of struggling with poverty; they are also stories of creating their own sources of income and establishing their positions in their families and society.

Nanta Tripura, 50, lives in the remote Padminipara area of Panchhari in Khagrachhari. Her day begins before daybreak. Accompanied by her son, who is in class four, she walks nearly a kilometre along a hilly path to fetch water. After returning home and finishing the cooking and household chores, she has to head to the jhum field with her husband. The couple spend the entire day farming there.

From burning creepers, bushes and trees in the jhum fields to sowing seeds, tending crops and harvesting, Nanta takes an equal share in all the work. They cultivate paddy, sesame, turmeric, pumpkin, ginger, marfa, chinal, eggplant and hill spices in their jhum fields.

To earn some extra money, Nanta weaves traditional clothing called rinai-risa on a backstrap loom. She not only sells these garments but also wears them herself. It takes a week or more to make one rinai-risa. Besides, she rears pigs, goats and poultry. She also collects various forest foods, including dheki shak, taro and bamboo shoots, from the forest and sells them at the market. She uses the money earned from these activities to buy essential household items.

Neither Nanta nor her husband had the opportunity to receive formal education. That is why they want their three sons to study. Their eldest son lives with relatives and studies at Khagrachhari College. The second son lives in a monastery-run hostel in Gazipur and is in class ten, while the youngest studies in class four at the village school. Nanta has to take up additional work alongside jhum cultivation to meet her children's educational expenses.

She says, “We could not study. That is why we want our sons to get an education. We do not want them to be compelled to spend their lives doing hard labour like us. It is not easy to bear their educational expenses. Still, I feel that these hardships will be worthwhile one day.”

Ripai Marma, 35, wakes up before daybreak. After finishing the cooking and other household chores, she sets out for Panchhari Bazar, about four kilometres away, at around 8:00am. She sells vegetables there. Her daily earnings range from Tk 300 to Tk 700. However, the income is not regular. When it rains, she cannot sit outdoors and sell vegetables. Since vegetables are perishable, she incurs losses if they are not sold on time.

Ripai's husband, Swapan Chakma, is an irregular worker at a sawmill. Their elder daughter studies at college, while their younger son is in class three. Although they own an eight-decimal homestead, both have to struggle to meet household expenses and their children's educational costs.

Ripai previously reared cattle and goats and worked as a day labourer. Later, she and her husband opened a grocery shop and a tea stall in their neighbourhood. However, their debts increased as they continued selling goods on credit, and they could not keep the shops running. She then started selling vegetables.

Initially, she collected vegetables grown in neighbours' gardens and sold them at the market. Now she buys vegetables from different places and sells them. She has been trying to support her family this way for the past five years.

Ripai has noticed changes in her life since she started earning money herself. She says, “Previously, my husband made all the decisions about the household. Now we make decisions together. What to buy from the market, how much money to spend and where, and how to set aside money for our children's education — I discuss these matters with my husband and clearly express my own views.”

She also speaks about her husband's support. “Sometimes it gets evening by the time I finish selling vegetables. If my husband is at home then, he prepares dinner,” she says.

However, financial constraints remain a major obstacle to Ripai's work. If she had more capital, she would buy and sell more vegetables. Now, with limited capital, she brings only a small quantity of produce to the market. If she incurs a loss, arranging money to buy vegetables for the following day becomes difficult.

Cheung Marma, 26, lives in Joint Farm Marma Para, about five kilometres from Panchhari Sadar. She is the seventh of eight siblings. Her father, Mongthak Marma, is a jhum cultivator. It was difficult to meet the food needs of the entire family with the crops grown in the jhum field. It was also difficult for him to bear the educational expenses of his children. Her four elder siblings could not go beyond primary education.

In such circumstances, Cheung kept looking for ways to continue her studies while reducing the financial burden on her family.

Cheung started tutoring younger students when she was in class nine. She says, “At first, I did not earn much from tutoring. But even that small amount meant a lot to me. I could buy books, pay examination fees and meet my own needs with that money.”

Cheung passed her SSC examinations in 2015 and enrolled at Panchhari College. After passing the HSC examinations, she completed her bachelor's degree at the same college. However, completing her undergraduate studies involved considerable struggle. At that time, it was becoming difficult to meet her educational expenses through tutoring. She then learned candle-making as an alternative source of income.

After that, she started supplying candles to various small shops in the area. Most people in her locality are Buddhists. They need candles every day for prayers and religious rituals. When someone calls to place an order, Cheung delivers the candles.

Cheung says, “When I was learning to make candles, many people said, ‘What will you achieve by doing this work?’ But I believe no work is insignificant. If you can make something with your own hands and sell it, you can at least become self-reliant.”

In 2021, Cheung enrolled at Chittagong College and obtained a master's degree in sociology over two years. She continues to make and sell candles. She has bought an old motorcycle and uses it to deliver candles to different places. She earns around Tk 20,000 a month from selling candles and tutoring.

Drawing on her own life experiences, Cheung knows that many children's education is disrupted because of financial hardship. That is why, alongside earning her livelihood, she teaches children without pay at a local private primary school.

She says, “I had to struggle a lot to pursue my education. As there is no electricity in our area, children still have to study by the light of kerosene lamps. Many families here are not financially well-off. So, I want children in the village to stay in education rather than drop out because of poverty.”

During her school years, Cheung received recognition as the best player for playing football. She also received karate training. She teaches karate free of charge to women and children in her locality.

She says, “I want them not to consider themselves weak. Alongside learning self-defence techniques, they must also have the courage to speak up for themselves.”

The lives of women across the Chittagong Hill Tracts are not all the same. Their realities differ according to their ethnic communities, families, settlements and livelihoods. The experiences of these three women highlight some aspects of their labour and aspirations amid this diversity.

* Joyanti Dewan is Prothom Alo's Correspondent in Khagrachhari