(July 27, 2010) The Japanese government has provided financial assistance to poor
indigenous people in northeast Bangladesh to help eliminate poverty and promote self-reliance.
Some 70 Catholics and 20 non-Christians from the Garo, Hajong and Koach communities
in Dhobaura, near Mymensingh, each received 20,000 taka (US$287) through Bangladesh’s
Ministry of Cooperatives recently. Minister for Cultural Affairs Promod Mankhin,
a Garo Catholic, distributed the cash. “The welfare of indigenous people deeply concerns
the government. That’s why we’re able to receive funds from Japan to help improve
their socio-economic conditions,” said Mankhin, who is also the local Member of Parliament.
Recipients of the money were chosen by local cooperative officials and by the Tribal
Welfare Association, a rights forum of ethnic indigenous groups. Many of the beneficiaries
told Ucanews how the cash would change their lives such as by complementing uncertain
daily wage labour with crop cultivation and livestock rearing.