::: Star Insight :::

She

From Rangamati
Beauty Barua - Breaking the Convention

Shantimoy Chakma

Nothing is impossible in this world. Just about anything is possible to achieve with hard work, dedication and honesty. It is with the help of these that women in our country have come so far. They are in no way less qualified than men anymore, and are well capable of matching strides with them in just about any field today! Their remarkable and lasting contributions to the society are something to be proud of.

One such capable woman is Beauty Barua. She is only twenty-five, a housewife, who with her relentless hard work and commitment has managed to become a successful woman. Her family was very hard up and needy even five years ago, when their only source of income was a mere two stroke auto rickshaw. Her husband used to drive it and the money thus earned was the only hope for the family to go on from day to day. They did not even have enough money to repair the vehicle whenever it broke down leaving them with hardly any way to survive!

Now, five years down the line, Beauty is the owner of Tk.7 lakhs, a four stoke baby taxi, two hand looms and an old private car.

Her wheel of fortune started spinning luck when she first borrowed some money from an NGO called 'ASA' in 2002.
The amount was only Tk.5000 at a 12.5% interest rate. With the money in hand, she got down to repairing their two stroke vehicle. She single handedly got the vehicle repaired- a task that had seemed impossible up until that point in time. The condition of her family started improving from then on. As the second phase of the loan. Beauty took Tk.8000 from the same organization and used the entire lot of money in getting the license and other necessary documents for the vehicle.

Consecutively, she took another loan of Tk.10, 000 with which she bought herself a hand loom. Once that became a good source of business, she took another loan of Tk.13, 000 as the fourth phase of her loan from 'ASA'. She bought another hand loom with the money and that too became a success for her. At the fifth and last phase of the loan, Beauty received Tk.1 lakh, and bought a 4-stroke auto-rickshaw with some of her already deposited money, at a cost of Tk.1 lakh 70 thousand.

Beauty Barua now weaves with the hand-looms in her house and sells the cloth in the local market while her husband drives the taxi. Both their incomes added together make up a fair amount.

This has helped to improve the condition of their family and they are now economically quite stable.

Beauty's family consists of three members- her husband Ratan Barua, herself and their four year old daughter, Suvra Barua. The total monthly income of Beauty's family at present is about of Tk.20, 000. From this amount, she pays a monthly installment of Tk.5208 to “ASA”. Their monthly expenses amount to about Tk.6000. So she saves Tk.8, 792 every month, as Beauty very proudly disclosed to the writer.

“Everybody can succeed in life if she or he is dedicated, active and, has the ability to utilize his or her money properly”, says Beauty. Beauty Barua plans to buy a pick-up truck with her savings sometime in the near future.