Latifa’s Nice Home, but Bird Flu is Creating Havoc

Latifa Begum is a poultry farmer at Arpara village in the District of Magura. Her family consists of her husband and two children. Her total assets are two muddy houses and a small piece of land. Her husband Karim, sells poultry in the nearby market in the village. He stays there continuously. Their life is passing smoothly with this activity.

Latifa rears ducks, hens and pigeons of deshi breed by the side of organized poultry farming. This gives her extra money. She sells eggs and chicken in the market and keeps the money as savings. Her husband bears the expenditure of both the family and the education of her children. Shiplu her son is in class IX and Lubna, her daughter is in class IV. Mr. Akram, class teacher of Shiplu, describes a new disease in the class. The name of the disease is bird flu. He mentions that poultry hatchery in Bangladesh is attacked by the disease. All the birds are culled in the hatchery; Shiplu passed the information to his mother immediately. But they don’t know how to prevent the bird and what the treatments are.

One day Latifa Begum went to the surrounding to collect firewood. She found a crow fell dead in the bush. Already aware of the fact that the birds carry the diseases from outside, Latifa buried the crow immediately. Her husband brought lime and disinfectant from the market. Latifa sprayed the disinfectant and lime all around the farm. She prayed to God for saving the bird of the farm from the disease. The next day, she found a dead hen of deshi breed. The following day she found a few more dead birds. She sent a dead bird to the upazilla veterinary hospital.

After two days, suddenly at night, her village was fenced by the police and veterinary officers. They destroyed all the birds within one-kilometer area including hers. She became helpless. The education of her children was stopped. After ten days of culling, it was heard that compensation will be given to the villagers. A group of army came in the village and gave them compensation at a rate of Tk. 40 per bird. Latifa again tries to dream. She plans to start rearing poultry by using the savings and compensation. Her only dream is to get her children admitted to school once again so that they have a bright future ahead. 

Contributed by - Country Team Bangladesh

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