After selling their valuables, cattle and even future harvests, many villagers living under corrugated tin-roofs in the Gobindaganj upazila of Gaibandha remain indebted to loan sharks or NGOs that demand high interest rates. They have little hope of repaying the loans carrying annual interest rates of 15 to 17 percent or more, they say.

"During the floods my sister was sick," said Rajib Sarkar, a youth in Thana Kalsi. "We had to take Tk 2,000 loan from one of our neighbours on the condition that we give them two maunds of rice when we harvest."

The Sarkar family is selling its goats to sustain itself. "Yesterday I had to sell a goat for Tk 400, as we need 15 more days to harvest the rice," said Sarkar. "Still, we have something to sell. The situation of some other people is really miserable."

So far, government aid has not helped the people of Thana Kalsi escape the loan trap. Some got monthly 10 kg of rice under the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) cards, but most did not know about the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme for rice. Most are landless, thus ineligible for under the governments agricultural rehabilitation programme initiative.

Many in this village took loans from NGOs such as Brac, Asa, Heed Bangladesh and TMSS at up to 15 to 17 percent per year (weekly Tk 25 instalment for per thousand taka loan and paid in 46 weeks).

During the floods, Shafique Mia sold his rickshaw-van to feed his family of four. He then had no way to earn a living, and fled his house without warning his wife, Morsheda.

Morsheda wife of Shafique Mia, who had a Tk 4,000 loan from an NGO (Asa), had repaid 30 of 46 scheduled weekly loan instalments, but had no means to pay the next instalments. She was forced to sell the corrugated tin of their house and move in with relatives.

"As my son was away from the house, my daughter-in-law sold the corrugated tin from their small house," said Md Majed Mia, father of Shafique.

Habibur Rahman, an official of Asa tells The Daily Star, "This is an isolated incident though we are not sure whether it happened or not." He adds, Asa has launched a complimentary loan programme from last September under which loans will be given to those who are unable to pay their weekly instalments.

"This complimentary loan is soft and they don't need to pay it in weekly basis," Habib points out.

The villagers said, when they are unable to pay an instalment to a loan shark, some borrow from an NGO to clear the debt. Later, they must sell their valuables to pay the NGO loan.

"We have lost almost everything during the 20 days long floods and could not earn at that time. But we had to continue the weekly instalment during that time also. The employees of the NGOs do not move from our yard until we pay them the weekly," said Majed Mia, father in law of Morsheda from the Thana Kalsi village.

Meanwhile, a report by the Disaster and Emergency Response Group of donor agencies this month said millions of those affected by floods will struggle for another year with no guarantee of stable food supplies. The monga, a season when there are no crops to harvest and food runs short in the north, exacerbates these needs.