For hundreds of years, female farm labourers of Barind region are being discriminated over payment of their wages. Still, a huge number of female farm labourers remained unemployed during the off-season of farming. Though underpaid and discriminated, those female farm-labourers used to work more with efficiency than those of their male counterparts.
It is learnt, each male farm labourer used to get Taka 300 to 350 wages for a day while a female farm labourer earns only Taka 150 to 200 even after working for the same period of time.
Female labourers, mainly from aboriginal communities, are seen to work as farm hands in agricultural farms like in automatic rice mills, rice-drying fields, crop-fields and in various government projects. In recent years, Muslim and Hindu women are also joining with the aboriginal women as farm work force.
On the other hand, most of the female aboriginal farm hands being engaged in works from their early adulthood, they are being deprived of their education. As a result, for thousands female labourers, mainly of aboriginal, education was just a sort of luxury because they have to spend most of their day-time in search of job or in working as day labourers to manage a handful of morsel.
Moreover, most of the poor aboriginal women of Barind region of Tanore, Godagari, Manda, Nachole and Nimatpur upazilas have been trapped by the loan of NGOs. As a result, often they have to work in the fields to repay installments of their loans.
Anita Kishku, 15, an adibashi farm hand of Laladighi village under Godagari upazila said, she used to work at the farm to meet cost of her studies. She further said, the cost of education was very high now a days that is why she will have to stop study if she does not work.
Golapi Marandi, 22, a female adibashi farm labourer of Kaliganj village under Tanore upazila informed, she has to work in the field to maintain her family and to repay installment of loan from NGO.
Hamanati Rani, 53, a widow of village Saronjoy under Tanore informed, she used to work as a labourer. But, now there having no work in the field, she remained unemployed. She lamented that though government pays ‘widowed allowance’ and ‘elderly people allowance’, she gets none of those. She further said, though female labourers work equal as male labourers, females are paid less than those of males. She demanded same wages for male and the female labourers.
Shimul Billa Sultana, Women Affairs Officer of Godagari upazila informed, though a large number of females of rural areas are now coming out of their houses to join as work force in agricultural farms but they are being discriminated in case of wages. Such discrimination must be stopped, she said.