“We want to change our lives. A debt-free life is like a free bird”
Gouri Mukharjee and her son, Credit: Transform Trade/GMB Akash
Gouri Mukharjee works as a field labourer in Bangladesh, earning as a little as £2 a day during harvest time to try to support herself, her husband and their two children. She has had no other way to earn an income - relying on borrowing small sums of money at crippling interest rates to survive, in exchange for the promise of future work. In her words:
“Without debt we can’t survive long in our life because we don’t have job opportunities here. Borrowing from moneylenders means paying high interest rates or working for less than fair market wages. Our wages never increase even a single rupee but the price of every essential thing is increasing every day and tripling.”
This system of borrowing and indebtedness is known as debt bondage - tens of thousands of people are trapped, often owing moneylenders for years, only able to clear their debt by working as underpaid labourers, who regularly face mistreatment. With the price of basic foods skyrocketing, the problem is set to get worse.
“Everything is so expensive that many times our children are sent to school on empty stomachs. Earlier three of us used to eat three eggs, now we buy one egg and share it among three.”
Without savings or a safety net, and with no alternative ways to earn a living, rising costs could trap families in debt for generations. Gouri has seen that things can be different.
“Many people from nearby villages have received training on salons, electrical work, sewing machines, and are now working and earning money. They no longer work as day labourers, they are independent. We also want to change our lives. A debt-free life is like a free bird”
Gouri has seen it’s possible for hundreds of families to break free of debt bondage – people are earning independent incomes, and saving together for the future. They are no longer at the mercy of moneylenders to help them survive hard times.
But there are so many families like Gouri’s who want to do the same. We need to act now.