Sherpur shelters save children

A casual visitor to the villages around Sherpur town, one of the poorest districts in Bangladesh, would see men and women working on the fields just like any other place. There is, however, a difference. These peasants working the fields do not have worry about their children’s safety while they are not home. Indeed Sherpur Sadar Upazila has become a glowing exception, and example, preventing children from one of the scourges that still haunt Bangladesh — drowning. The villages, not far from the district town, under the central sub district have adopted a unique strategy. They call them ‘anchal’ — derived from the part of the sari that hangs over women’s shoulders. It is also synonymous with motherly care and watchfulness. While drowning accounts for the highest proportion of child deaths in Bangladesh — at least 2 out of every 5 child death is by drowning, which comes to a staggering 18000 every year — not a single child has drowned in the flood that has inundated much of the northern countryside in recent times. Seven unions of the sub-district run 702 anchals — day care centre of sorts, but more like shelters for pre-schoolers — where children are kept busy with all kinds of activities as they socialise with other children when their parents are busy working outside the house. According to surveys and research, most children were found to have drowned when they strayed near ponds or rivers particularly at times when there were no adults around to watch over them. The anchals house around 25 children aged between 9 and 36 months in designated houses have been volunteered as an anchal from the community. These day care centres, staffed by hundreds of local women, has changed the lives of the children of the sub-district. It was not always like this at the remote villages. Not until the Centre for Injury Prevention and Research, Bangladesh (CIPRB), began its free rural daycare initiative. Till then there were no comparable institutions anywhere in rural Bangladesh. The people are now better aware and better equipped to prevent childhood injury and drowning because the infrastructure and know-how has been put in place. Participating villages have a number of anchals keeping children safe. “Men are busy in the field while the women assist them and remain busy through the day. While the men are done with their work once they hand over the paddy to the women at the house. The women remain busy with the crop for processing along with other household chores,” said Khursiduzzaman, chairman of the union explaining how adults have little time to look after their children during the day. He also said the whole union was inundated recently. “But we did not lose a single child due the Anchal projects.” Sathi Yeasmin, a housewife and also an anchal mother at Munshirchar village of Char Mucharia Union, said, “Whenever we get busy with household chores, it becomes difficult to watch over children but with the children at anchal, it is reassuring that they are safe.” She said, “I have a two and half year old daughter myself. I treat all the kids at anchal like my own.” Sathi pointed out that her village surrounded by water bodies like ponds and rivers and every year they would lose at least one child to drowning. “But not a single child was drowned in my village since the initiative began.” Joba Khatun, a housewife of the village, said, “Earlier, women were confined to household works, but now women can contribute as they got some money from the school and that too for doing good. It is prestigious also. People respect us.” Sanuar Hossain Sanu, Upazila Chairman, commended the project saying that it was a model of early childhood development. He said that the government should take up similar initiatives. “It is really amazing that such facilities with so little resource can do so well in these remote villages.” Currently there are 37000 children housed at 1448 anchals in three sub districts of Bangladesh in Sirajganj and Narsingdi beside Sherpur.