Nilmony Roy
This is Nilmony’s story - in her own words.
“We have agricultural work here for about three months in a year. We often have to take loans from moneylenders for various reasons, and then the moneylenders buy our labour in advance. We repay the loan by working on their land.
The fair value of the work in the market is 300 rupees, but the moneylenders buy our labour for 200 to 250 rupees in advance. Even if wages are high, moneylenders do not allow us to work on other people's land.
Moneylenders treat us like slaves! If we cannot pay the loan on time, they come to our house and abuse and beat us.”
“Now the price of goods is increasing day by day, we cannot express the situation in words. If we eat in the morning, we don't get anything to eat for the rest of the day.
My son's school bag has been torn for a long time. He always wants to buy a new bag but I can't afford it. The biggest festival here is Durga Puja, we always buy new clothes for ourselves and our children, but this time we couldn't buy anything. We couldn't even buy clothes for our child.
Earlier we used to use two bar soaps in 15 days, now we try to last a whole month with one bar of soap. The price of the soap was 15 Takas, now it’s 45 Takas.
I used to use a little oil while cooking, but now I don't use oil in any food. Earlier the price of edible oil was 70 Takas, now it is over 200 takas.”
“I was given the sewing machine after 15 days of training. I mainly make women's clothes and children's clothes with sewing machines.
I just learned how to work with a sewing machine. I am still practicing, now there are not many orders, so my income from sewing machines is small now. But in the future, if I can do better, my orders will increase and I will get a good income from the sewing machine.
Now I have a monthly income of 1500 to 2000 Takas from sewing machines. I'm still learning and orders are slowly increasing.”
“I want my son to complete his studies and become a good teacher and spread the light of education around.
I studied till class 8, after that I could not study. My father married me at a young age due to poverty.
I don't want my child's life to be like mine.”