Location: Daserhat Union, Lakshmipur District, Bangladesh,
Date: September 2nd, 2025
Organization: ALO (Animation Liberate for Organize)
Report By: Kazi Altaf Mahmood
Video Link: https://youtu.be/BgH1x6sIQHI
Executive Summary
Tazuri’s family in Daserhat Union, Lakshmipur Sadar Upazila, faces a daily grind to survive. She, her disabled daughter, and her disabled grandchild squeeze into a rented kutcha shack, scraping by on what begging brings. They own a patch of land, but building a proper home is a distant dream. Medical care for the disabilities is out of reach, no bKash or bank account to ease the burden. Lakshmipur’s poverty, hitting over 26% of folks, and scarce rural healthcare make their struggle all too common. Nationally, Bangladesh has cut poverty sharply, but rural families like Tazuri’s slip through the cracks. A modest house, affordable doctor visits, and a small cash boost could change their lives. This report lays out their needs and calls for practical help, rooted in their own words and the region’s realities.
1. Individual and Family Needs
1.1 Key Findings at the Family Level
Tazuri holds her small family together: just her, her daughter, and a young grandchild. The daughter’s husband walked out after their child was born disabled, a pattern too common in rural unions where stigma hits hard. Tazuri’s own husband lies sick, unable to pitch in. They survive by begging. Their home? A rented shack, barely holding up against rain or heat. They’ve got a tiny plot of land, but no money to build. The daughter and grandchild need medical care for their disabilities, but Tazuri can’t even cover basic medicine. A simple house with a tin roof would mean the world. So would doctor visits they don’t have to skip.
1.2 Methodology for Family-Level Data
Mahbubur Rashid, host of People’s Voice, sat down with Tazuri in Daserhat Union for a heart-to-heart. The interview dug into their daily life: who’s in the family, how they get by, what they call home, and what keeps them up at night. Open-ended questions let Tazuri speak freely, giving a raw picture of their struggles. This firsthand account anchors the report, backed by data from reliable sources to paint the bigger picture.
2. Regional and National History of the Issue and Need
Tazuri’s story isn’t hers alone. To understand it better, we looked at the wider picture of Lakshmipur and Bangladesh.
2.1 Regional Context
Lakshmipur district, especially rural spots like Daserhat Union, carries a heavy poverty load—over 26% of people live below the line, worse than the national average. Most homes here are kutcha, flimsy setups of bamboo and tin, with 79% barely standing and 89% of folks owning little to no land. Healthcare is a distant hope; local clinics lack staff or supplies, and travel to better ones costs more than families like Tazuri’s can spare. Disabilities hit 3.4% of rural folks, and the poor get it worst, facing both stigma and empty wallets. Tazuri’s rented shack and begging routine fit this grim pattern.
2.2 National Context
Bangladesh has come a long way, slashing poverty from 90% in the 1970s to 5% by 2022 for the extreme poor. But rural areas trail behind, with 35% still struggling in the 2010 data. Disabilities touch 3-4% of the population, hitting hardest in villages where healthcare is spotty and stigma shuts doors. Begging keeps 700,000 people afloat across the country, especially the disabled or elderly with no other way. Government programs like cash transfers or job schemes exist, but they miss families like Tazuri’s, who fall outside patchy safety nets.
2.3 Alignment of Needs
Tazuri’s needs—a proper home, doctor visits, a way off the streets—line up with what Lakshmipur and rural Bangladesh lack. Her housing struggle reflects the region’s kutcha-heavy villages. The family’s unmet medical needs echo the national gap in rural healthcare, especially for disabilities. Begging ties to the broader trap of poverty and exclusion. Simple fixes like a one-room house or a monthly cash stipend could lift them up, matching national pushes for better housing and health access.
3. Methodology
This report blends Tazuri’s own words with hard data. Mahbubur Rashid’s interview in Daserhat Union asked about family life, income, housing, and health struggles, letting Tazuri share her reality. Secondary sources—Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, World Bank reports, and studies on poverty and disability—add weight, showing how her story fits into bigger trends. The approach keeps it real, sticking to what Tazuri said and what the numbers confirm.
4. Needs Assessment Findings
4.1 Family Needs
- Stable Home: A small house on their land to escape the rented shack’s leaks and instability.
- Medical Care: Treatment for the daughter and grandchild’s disabilities, from check-ups to therapies.
- Income Support: A steady cash flow to replace begging, maybe through small grants or work programs.
- Community Help: Programs to ease stigma and open doors for the daughter, like skills training.
4.2 Existing Resources and Gaps
- What They Have: A small plot of land, a starting point for a home. Some national programs, like Union Parishad grants or BRAC’s health outreach, operate nearby but haven’t reached them.
- What’s Missing: No housing support to build on their land. Rural clinics in Lakshmipur lack disability care, and costs are too high. Social programs skip ultra-poor families like Tazuri’s. Stigma blocks the daughter and grandchild from community life or work.
5. Resource Requirements
- Housing Grant: 200,000-300,000 BDT for a basic tin-roof house on their land. Even a one-room home would mean safety and pride.
- Healthcare Support: 50,000 BDT per person yearly for doctor visits and therapies, ideally free through subsidies.
- Cash Stipend: 5,000 BDT monthly to cover basics and cut begging, delivered via bKash or local offices.
- Community Programs: NGO-led training for Tazuri’s daughter and stigma-busting workshops, needing local coordination.
- Infrastructure Boost: Better rural clinics and roads to reach them, a longer-term fix requiring government funds.
6. Conclusion
Tazuri’s family carries the weight of poverty, disability, and abandonment in a rented shack in Daserhat Union. Their plea for a home, healthcare, and a way out of begging mirrors the struggles of countless rural families. Bangladesh’s progress on poverty hasn’t fully reached villages like theirs, where kutcha homes and bare clinics are the norm. A small house, a doctor’s visit, a monthly stipend—these could give Tazuri’s family dignity. People’s Voice shares their story to push for real help, not just promises, for those left behind.
7. Appendices
- Appendix A: Summarized transcript of Tazuri’s interview (Section 1.1).
- Appendix B: Poverty and disability statistics for Lakshmipur and Bangladesh (from references).
8. References
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. “Population is 16 Crore 98 Lakh 28 Thousand 911 (until June 2022).” Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Accessed September 2, 2025. http://bbs.ramganj.lakshmipur.gov.bd/en/site/focal_point/Md.-Nur-Nobi.
Daily Star. “Poverty Rises Sharply in Multiple Districts.” The Daily Star, March 25, 2025. https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/poverty-rises-sharply-multiple-districts-3856316.
Wikipedia contributors. “Poverty in Bangladesh.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Accessed September 2, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_Bangladesh.
Hossain, Mohammad Imran, et al. “Socioeconomic Inequalities in Disability Prevalence and Health Service Utilization in Bangladesh.” Scientific Reports 15, no. 1 (2025). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12222740/.
Mactaggart, Islay, et al. “Factors Associated with Disability in Rural Bangladesh.” PLOS ONE 11, no. 10 (2016). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0165625.
Islam, Mohammad Sohailul. “Exploring Cruel Business of Begging: The Case of Bangladesh.” ResearchGate, January 11, 2021. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348392774_EXPLORING_CRUEL_BUSINESS_OF_BEGGING_THE_CASE_OF_BANGLADESH.
Hossain, Farid. “The Economy of Begging.” The Business Post, October 3, 2021. https://businesspostbd.com/opinion-todays-paper/the-economy-of-begging-30413.
Animation Liberate For Organize. “The People’s Voice 26: Struggles of a Family in Khajurtali Village.” Animation Liberate For Organize. Accessed September 2, 2025. https://animationliberate-bd.org/peoples-voice-26-struggles-family-khajurtali/.
