No Festive Joy for 200 Poor Rabidas Families in Ulipur as Puja Aid Fails to Arrive This Year

There is no joy of the Sharodiya Durga Puja among more than two hundred destitute Rabidas families in Ulipur, Kurigram. In other years these helpless families received various forms of assistance during the festival, but this year they have received nothing — so even in the festival days there is no festive mood in their homes.

Enquiries found that around eight hundred Rabidas families live across the upazila's 13 unions and one municipality. More than two hundred of those families live below the poverty line and have long been passing their days in hardship. These poor families have received no assistance, government or private, for the Durga festival.

A visit on Sunday afternoon to the Rabidas community homes in the Tentultala area of the municipality found no trace of the festival among the families. The words of local resident Bhulua Rabidas, 63, capture that picture.

Bhulua Rabidas said: 'The festival has begun, but not for families like ours. Because we live in such hardship, we cannot afford to buy new clothes for the children. Our business is almost at a standstill; whatever we earn barely runs the household.'

He added: 'The Puja days are just like any other days of the year to us. We are always neglected in society. In other years the administration helped us, but this time we received no help at all. We are always victims of discrimination.'

Josna Rabidas, 55, said: 'Even eating three full meals a day is difficult. What Puja is there in that? Today is the second day of the Puja, yet there is no joy in our home.' Her words reflect the daily struggle of running a family in poverty.

Chaita Rabidas, 77, of Indarar Para in Dhamshreni Union, Kartik Rabidas of Babur Hat in Bajra Union and many others expressed their sorrow, saying that although the Puja has begun, they could not shop for the festival for lack of money. No one keeps track of them, they said.

They said the joy of Puja comes once a year, yet the helpless Rabidas families are deprived of that joy. This year, no one — government or private — has given them any kind of assistance.

Anil Rabidas, general secretary of the upazila Rabidas community, said: 'In other years we received rice, cloth, dhotis and lungis from the government, but this time we received no assistance. Our community has many poor families who run their households in great hardship. Any help during Durga Puja would have benefited them.'

Upazila Project Implementation Officer (PIO) Khandaker Md Fizanur Rahman said there is no separate government allocation for the Rabidas community. Asked about the assistance given in previous years, he said: 'I am not aware of that. But I have heard the UNO sir will distribute clothes among the destitute Rabidas families.'

Upazila Nirbahi Officer A T M Arif said enquiries are being made about the Rabidas families, and that assistance will be provided to the destitute among them.

The administration's assurance has come, but the Puja has already begun. How the remaining festival days pass for Ulipur's more than two hundred destitute Rabidas families now depends on how soon that assistance reaches them.