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The 3rd Asia-Pacific CBR Congress

Self Help Groups
A Community Based Experience from Bangladesh.

Taslima Akter
Project Manager
Centre for Disability in Development (CDD), Bangladesh

1. Introduction to the paper:

This paper presents the experience and learning of the pilot project Promotion of Human Rights of Person with Disabilities in Bangladesh (PHRPBD), implemented in Bangladesh by Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) in partnership with 12 local partner organizations located in 11 districts. The project was implemented with the support of by CBM Australia and is an Australian Aid project funded by the Australian Government.

This project has served as a catalyst to bring changes at different levels to achieve its broad objective of improving the quality of life of persons with disabilities through promotion of their rights. Persons with disabilities as Self Help Group members has collectively demonstrated and created evidences that they can meaningfully contribute in society if their leadership capacity is built, relevant information is accessible by them, and the environment is made disability sensitive.

2. The context of Bangladesh: Disability and their rights

Bangladesh is a country of 147,570 sq km. with 158.51 million people. 72% of the population is living in rural areas. Almost 1/3rd of the total population lives under poverty line. The situations of persons with disabilities are more vulnerable. They don't have information and has little access to government services. Policies and legislations pertaining to rights of persons with disabilities are not adequately implemented or enforced. Resources for capacity building of persons with disabilities are also limited. As a result persons with disabilities are not organized, not adequately skilled, and not empowered to promote their rights.

There is ignorance, lack of awareness and understanding on disability issues among stakeholders, especially development agencies and the duty bearers. Persons with disabilities experience poor quality of life as they have limited access to health, education, livelihood, social inclusion and empowerment process. Therapeutic services and availability of assistive devices are also extremely limited. The people with disabilities are left out of the development process mainly due to lack of awareness, negative attitude, scarcity of resources and lack of skills on how to address needs of people with disabilities in the development programs

3. About CDD

Centre for Disability in Development (CDD) is working in Bangladesh since 1996 for building capacity of development actors and mainstream disability issues into development including health, education, livelihood and in social actions. CDD is also actively working in the empowerment process of persons with disabilities by building capacities of self help groups and DPOs; and by extending rehabilitation services to people with disabilities. At country level CDD works with a pool of 300+ partner organizations

4. Project actions

Objective-

The PHRPBD project aimed to sensitize people, policy makers and civil society organizations in Bangladesh on the potential, leadership qualities and rights of persons with disabilities in order to improve their inclusion, equity and access in the society.

Methodology-

Under this project 96 self-help groups (SHGs) and 12 Apex bodies were gradually formed since 2010 consisting of 1,202 persons with disabilities (678 female, 524 male) as members. Before forming the SHGs, CDD provided 28 days training on Leadership and Rights to two interested person with disabilities from the project locations of each of the 12 partner organizations. Once trained, the persons with disabilities took initiatives to form SHGs in their respected areas with the support of the trained staff members of the partner NGOs. Each of the SHGs comprised of 12-15 members with an executive committee of five-members. Out of the 8 SHGs formed under each PNGO, one group is exclusively for women. Other seven groups are mixed, where 40% group members are women with disabilities. The 12 Apex Bodies were formed in 12 partner locations with 16 selected members from the SHGs. The primary purposes of the Apex Bodies are to engage with sub-district and district level local government offices and drive the advocacy campaign with other relevant stakeholders. The Apex Bodies also plays an important role in identifying the weaknesses of SHGs and helping to resolve their problems and making them proactive.

Emergence and role of SHGs

Each SHG organizes 2 meetings every month. In the 2nd meeting of the month they make the monthly activity plan for the next month. They regularly communicate with the Union Parishad (local body of elected public representatives) members, local government offices and other stakeholders. The group members engage with community awareness raising, local resource mobilizations, inclusion activities, advocacy campaigns, etc. They identify different advocacy issues during their regular group meetings, discuss among themselves on those issues. By using their training-learning on advocacy campaign design, they make their advocacy plans on various issues. They make lists of school age children with disabilities and involve with counseling and advocacy activities for the admission of those children. Many of the groups have started group savings scheme. Among those some of the groups have started providing loans to the group members from the savings for different types of livelihood activities like, poultry, cattle rearing, running grocery stores, etc. They also take advocacy initiatives to be involved in safety net programs of the government. The groups also maintain record of activities on a regular basis.

Ape bodies of SHGs as a coordinating structure at community level

The Apex bodies have a meeting every two months. They develop a quarterly action plan in their meeting. They are involved with sub-district and district level advocacy. They also participate in divisional and national level advocacy events. Apex bodies regularly visit other SHGs of their working areas. They share the findings of the visit in their quarterly meeting and include in their plan for further follow up. They collect and collate information and share with other stakeholders. They are also involved in local resource mobilization. They have lists of local resources like– different service providers, hospitals, Government departments etc. and they refer persons with disabilities as well as other marginalized people from community so that they can be involved in the mainstream development process.

SHGs and Apex bodies evolved as a resource in their respective communities. They play a vital role to stop rights violation and establishment of rights of persons with disabilities. Group members and other persons with disabilities think that “SHGs and Apex bodies are the core strength for persons with disabilities. If they are active all over Bangladesh then persons with disabilities, especially women with disabilities, will be able to enjoy equal rights and live with dignity”. The activities of the SHGs, Apex bodies and partner organizations match with the following components and elements of the CBR matrix:

 Figure 1(Figure text)

5. Good examples and learning:

  • Meaningful involvement of SHG and Apex body members in participatory planning and decision making processes has built their confidence and dignity which has led them towards self actualization.
  • Persons with disabilities can contribute equally to the society and economy, as evident from their success through the project to become active members of various committees at the government, school, organization and market level. Their leadership roles and involvement in decision making processes have not only changed their lives but also community perceptions about the potential and ability of persons with disabilities.
  • Dialogue with elected representative creates effective links between persons with disabilities at the parliament and is an effective way to raise disability related needs/issues at the all level government institutes.

6. Major Challenges

  • The attitude and perception of the local community and local government towards disability were more charity and individual focused. They had limited understanding how disability issues can be mainstreamed and the role that can be played by the people with disabilities.
  • Education is a major challenge for children with disabilities. Lack of trained teachers and education materials such as braille, sign language etc. make it difficult for children with disabilities to successfully complete their education.
  • Most of the SHG members are living with poverty; their first expectation is receiving livelihood support, which at times causes impediments to project focused actions on advocacy and rights promotion.
  • People with disabilities and their families seek short-term & tangible changes and are in the beginning unclear how they will be benefited through sensitization and advocacy.

7. Conclusion

From the project implementation CDD has observed the positive changes in the self-help groups and apex bodies. The training they have received and their involvement in different activities have made positive changes in them and many of them are progressing towards being empowered. They are also aware about government safety net programs and they know the process of obtaining it. However due to limited allocation by the government most of the SHG members are not able to receive or access the safety net schemes of the government.


1 http://www.indexmundi.com/bangladesh/demographics_profile.html (July 2011 estimates)


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