The Manta community, whose life cycle centers around boat and livelihood on fishing, having no postal address now gets a permanent abode in Rangabali upazila of Patuakhali district.
A small community that roams around in boats in the southwestern Patuakhali for over a century took it as their fate to live in boats from birth to death.
Despite their unusual way of life for ages, the community members were in growing need of permanent addresses to establish their constitutional rights, having a piece of land.
Bangabandhu’s birth centenary celebrations appeared to be an occasion to ensure their privilege as the government incorporated them in the nationwide campaign to provide address to landless people under the Ashrayan-2 Prakalpa.
Officials concerned said they enlisted the first group of “Manta” community to realize Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s dream for a Bangladesh where everyone will have an abode of his own.
The government initially rehabilitated 29 Manta families . . . first they were given the national ID (card) recognizing them as citizens and then they were given the houses built under the Ashrayan project, Rangabali’s Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md Mashfakur Rahman said.
ASH
