The RMP was undertaken in 1983 with the goal to contribute to long-term sustainable socio-economic development of rural Bangladesh.

Although the programme, jointly funded by the Government of Bangladesh, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the European Commission (EC), had been designed in line with the 'food-for-work' concept, within a few years it was redesigned to provide employment to approximately 42,000 rural disadvantaged women, and to maintain 65,000 kilometres of rural earthen roads. The government provides 55 percent of the fund for the programme, which is scheduled to end in June 2006.

It was expected that after the completion of the programme these women would be adequately skilled to lead their lives towards a sustainable and secured future.

Under the programme, there are road maintenance associations (RMA) with 10 members in each union. These associations are basically self-managed teams. Each RMA member is recruited for a four-year cycle to experience two major components of the RMP, road maintenance component (RMC) and income diversification component (IDC).

CARE Bangladesh also plays a role in maintaining quality of the roads and provides technical support and training to the RMA women so that they can learn different income generating activities. It is mandatory for every road maintenance crew to save Tk 14 out of her daily wage of Tk 55.

However, due to the suspension of salary payments for six months these women workers have been thrown back to their previous situations. They have been incurring huge burdens of loans following the suspension.

During a recent visit to Mymensingh, The Daily Star talked to some of the RMA women in the district.

Halima, 33, a road maintenance worker of Satroshia village under Muktagachha upazila, whose eight-year old daughter Shilpi died of diarrhoea within 42 hours without having proper treatment, expressed grave sorrow and said, "I begged for money from everybody, the neighbours, the union chairman and its members, but nobody helped me with a single paisa for my daughter's treatment. If I were given a little support, I could save my daughter."

She said when diarrhoea affected her daughter in the morning of the last Eid-ul-Fitr, she sought money from her neighbours but everybody refused her. Disappointed, she ran to a local doctor, Mohan. He provided a bag of saline but refused to do anything more without money and said, "Females cannot be trusted."

Without treatment her daughter died at dawn after a day and a half. Halima had no money to arrange her daughter's burial. She did not even have enough money to buy a shroud. One of her neighbours lent her the money and helped her to arrange the funeral.

"I could not save my child for money nor could I give her a proper burial, what sort of a mother I am," Halima lamented.

Her tragedy did not stop there. Now the lender, Dulaler Ma, is pressing to get her money back and threatening to break down Halima's newly built tin-shed house if she fails to pay immediately.

The story of Jyotsna, another worker on the same team of road maintenance workers, is almost the same. Her seven-year old daughter, Rozina, had been suffering from typhoid for a couple of days. She was taken to the upazila health complex where the doctor advised regular treatment for six months straight.

"I don't know how I will manage the money to purchase costly medicines to save my child" Jyotsna said.

"The government should pay our dues or let us leave the job. What will I do? I have children. If I worked as a domestic worker in somebody's household rather than working for the government, the employer would understand my pain, he would support us," she said sobbing.

The RMA women work on the roads from 8:00am to 2:00pm. They have no chance of doing anything else during the period.

Amena Begum who came to the Satroshia union administrative headquarters with her 6-year old son said, "I have taken goods of over Tk 2,500 on loan from a local shop. Now the grocer does not trust me and does not want to give me any more foodstuffs on loan since I could not pay back the previous one yet. I try to avoid going to the shop. Other shop owners also do not trust us enough to give food on loan."

She said her son had been suffering from fever for three days.

Amena's another colleague Mina Begum said, "I leave home early in the morning while my children are still asleep. I can't look at their faces. I have no word to say to them if they ask for food waking up in the morning."

The road crews of Satroshia union said they met with the thana nirbahi officer (TNO) and the chairman of the union several times and sought their salaries. But the officials said they could not help the women if the government had not released the salary fund. They said their job was just to supervise the women's work.

Two of the donors to the programme, CIDA and EC, have been pursuing the ministry concerned to release the fund to reduce the sufferings of these poor women workers. But their requests remain unheeded.

In a recent letter to Local Government Division Secretary Md KM Zahirul Islam on January 23, 2006, Counsellor and Head of Development Corporation of the Canadian High Commission Robert Beadle, and First Counsellor and Head of Operations of the EC Francoise Collet urged the government to release the fund.

"The situation is dire since the impoverished women have not been paid wages for over six months. Consequently, the women and their families are suffering as they are unable to afford basic rations, including food and medical supplies through the severe cold of this winter," the letter read.

"I have lost my daughter, my heart breaks, I have no food to eat, no cloth to wear, people do not trust us, what will I do," Halima posed a question to the government.

Halima and other RMA crews appealed to the government for quick payment of their salaries so they can pay off their loans and feed their children like before and continue their jobs.