Sharing Stories - A Glimpse into Another's Life - Memoirs of the St. Martin's Island
BANGLADESH | Saturday, 6 April 2013 | Views [197] | Scholarship Entry
The experience I am going to share here is about my exploration in a remote island of the southern Bangladesh. I visited it on an occasion of conducting a few training workshops for community people.
The beautiful “Saint Martin's coral island" have more than 10,000 population. Most people don't adopt family planning; early marriage and child labor is common and many children are engaged in fishing or sales. There is only one primary school and one high school, but several religious schools as Islam is the Major religion of the Island. People of St. Martin lack awareness and lead their lives in sufferings only for their ignorance. In fact, some people earn much cashes in tourist season (October to March) but remain out of work the rest of the year.
The island is made up of Corals that had been increasing in size since decades. In 1912 a group of marine scientist named it "Saint Martin's coral island". There are approximately 16500 coconut trees in the island and hence it is called Narikel jinjira -- the original old name of the island (the meaning of the word Narikel is Coconut).
The Island's coast is full of biodiversity like turtles, different types of fishes, crabs etc. Several kinds of dishes of fishes (Shundari, Hilsha, Shurma, Vetki, Koral, Promphet,Lobster etc.) are served at the local restaurants.
But, what I knew from observation and my interaction to the inhabitants of the island is shocking! Most of the girls didn’t cross primary education and stayed inside house as soon as they would reach their puberty. The custom in this case was -- girls don’t need to study more and if they move around or study again, there would be a bad reputation for the family. They still believed that women shouldn’t go outside and work; it is against the order of God prescribed by Quran where women should hide themselves from head to toe except the eyes (Pardah). I tried to make it clear in some sessions that “Pardah” doesn’t mean covering the whole body rather properly worn dresses like Salwar Kamiz and Scarf is enough to abide by the custom. But, it didn’t always work and the misinterpretation of Quran’s verses was keeping those people in dark.
When we think about development, we think that change is possible and we impose some development intervention upon targeted people. But, people here just stopped trying to be changed and believed predominantly in predestination. No one can change somebody who himself doesn’t want change.
Tags: Travel Writing Scholarship 2013
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