Utsho Bangladesh at 30: A safe haven away from stigma for children and employees

One afternoon in 1985, Mahbooba Mahmood Leena, saw a small child sleeping on a cold, damp floor in the Rayer Bazar slum. Clutching a toy, he slept soundly while being tied to a post with a long rope. 

Back then Leena was a development worker for Nijera Kori, an NGO working for the social mobilisation of women. She asked a few people in the slum why the baby was tied like that. 

They told her that the mother was a domestic help – she worked for a few families in nearby areas and was not allowed to take the baby to work. There was no one at home to look after him either. So, she tied him to a rope so he could not wander too far, or get hurt. 

It broke Leena's heart.   

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After spending a little more time in the slum, she learned that this was a fairly common thing. Most maids and domestic help who look after the children of their employers did not have anyone to look after their own children. 

So, the only option they had was leaving them alone at home and praying that they would be safe, or tying them to a post.  

In 1990, Leena had another similar experience. During that time, she started visiting the Kandupatti brothel for research titled 'Violence in urban slums.' It was conducted by Naripokkho, a feminist organisation in Bangladesh of which, Leena is one of the founders.  

Regular visits to the brothel made her a familiar face to its inhabitants and over time, a toddler grew very fond of her. She used to run to Leena and hug her legs with her tiny arms whenever she saw her. 

One day, when Leena picked up the little girl in her arms, an older sex worker made a snarky comment. It annoyed her and she asked the woman why she said such a thing. 

The woman replied, "You'll leave once your work is done. But the girl will stay here and become a sex worker just like every other girl born in this brothel." 

"Someone stole this girl's grandmother from a train and sold her here. Her mother was born here and she also became a sex worker. What other fate can we expect for our children?" she continued. 

Leena had no answer. Even though she wanted to say with conviction that this beautiful little girl would grow up with a choice to decide what to become and what to do with her life, she could not.

So, she came back home with a heavy heart, just like she did from the Rayer Bazar slum years ago. 

"People who can afford it never hesitate to spend thousands to buy their children toys and other luxury products. I'm no exception. So, I kept thinking, if we can do that for our children, why couldn't we do something for these innocent and helpless children of low-income, underprivileged mothers?" Leena told The Business Standard in a recent interview.

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With that thought, in 1993, she founded Utsho Bidyaniketan - a school for the marginalised, underprivileged and vulnerable children of working women. She had the help of a few friends and the encouragement of her husband. 

The school had a humble beginning – it started with only three students, three benches and chairs, in a rented house in Jigatola, Dhanmondi. Now, they have two residential and non-residential schools in Sreepur and Rayer Bazar respectively and five daycare centres named Astha Daycare, accommodating a total of 540 children.

The primary school at Rayer Bazar has 90 students. The school in Sreepur, which is both a primary and secondary high school, has 325 students. The five daycares have a total of 125 kids aged six months to six years. 

The first daycare centre was established in 2017 for the marginalised and underprivileged children. Berger Bangladesh provided economic assistance for their first daycare centre. However,  the daycares are not dependent on external funding entirely. 

"In six to seven years, we hope that the community will take over the daycare's responsibility. Funds will be raised locally through local resource mobilisation strategies of Utsho Bangladesh," Leena explained.

So why did you start a school when sponsoring the children and enrolling them into other schools would have been easier? 

She replied that before starting Utsho Bidyaniketan, she visited 22 government and private schools in Dhaka. Most government schools where these children could go barely offered good quality education. Many private schools, on the other hand, refused to take in children of sex workers or domestic help. 

"People with money are ready to donate hefty sums for building schools or other facilities for these children. But they couldn't imagine having them in the same school and same class as their own children," Leena explained. According to her, 45% of these children's mothers are sex workers.

Ensuring dignity and respect for every child thus became one of the cornerstones of Utsho Bangladesh, a community-based organisation. "All we want is a future filled with hope and aspiration for these children – a future that is not determined by their birth."

The principle of dignity and respect is also the reason behind the small monthly fee of Tk1,000 to Tk1,200 for the schools and daycare centres. 

"We take money from the parents for two reasons. First, we don't want the children to feel that they are charity cases; we don't want them to feel pitied. Second, we want the parents to be accountable. It's only fair for them and the children to feel they are fulfilling their responsibilities as parents," Leena said.  

"This is also why if someone decides to sponsor a particular child, we don't let the child know about it. No child should bear the burden of guilt and shame for receiving charity because of the circumstances of their birth," she added. 

This principle also led Utsho to operate as a business model from the beginning so that the organisation did not have to depend on external funds for its management costs. 

Leena received a stipend from Ashoka Bangladesh when she started the school in 1993. But she knew that she could not depend on funds for the hefty administrative costs of the school. 

So, she acquired a trade license for supply and catering, quit her job and started cooking to earn money to run the school. She also hired a few other people and started Utsho Tailoring. 

Now, overall, Utsho Bangladesh has 80 staff. The profit from the catering and tailoring business is mainly used to manage administrative costs. 

Other than that, they do five types of fundraising – sponsorship, zakat, musical nights/fundraising events, garage sales and donations for specific purposes to support their projects. 

"We receive clothes and other used items as donations from a lot of people. Every once in a while, we organise garage sales for fundraising," Leena told us. 

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Last year, for example, they received incredibly expensive sharees as a donation. This year, one of the leading RMG brands donated their sample products to Utsho. 

"We're planning to organise a garage sale soon to sell these clothes." Leena pointed to the stack of clothes, stored in plastic sacks for the upcoming garage sale, piled in her small office in Shantiniketan, Tejgaon.

She emphasised that Utsho is not doing charity work for the marginalised children or the staff. This has been one of the key challenges she has faced for the past 30 years. 

"Most of the time, people want to donate for either religious purposes or for showing off. But we're not selling tickets to heaven here. Neither are we interested in promotions or accolades." 

What is Utsho interested in then? "Provide underprivileged children access to proper education and a better life," she answered. 

According to her, 90% of the staff of Utsho Bangladesh is either partially disabled or a victim of violence. She hires them so that they can work and make a living. 

For example, the head chef of Utsho Catering has a speech disability. She has been working here for a few years and has become an indispensable organisation member. 

"We're not a charity. We're a business. I started this business, this is my livelihood. While doing it, I'm trying my best to help others make a living. I believe that economic empowerment is everything," Leena said. 

This goes with Utsho Bangladesh's slogan – local resources and the people are the driving forces for a nation's development. The schools and the daycare centres of Utsho Bangladesh aim to contribute to that development by nurturing these kids and giving them a chance at a better future. 

To prevent the underprivileged, marginalised and vulnerable children from falling victim to sex trafficking, drug use and other abuses, Utsho Bangladesh has an active group of volunteers, all of whom are school or college students. 

Besides, anyone can volunteer at Utsho if they want to contribute to the lives of these children. Recently, Brac University and Utsho Bidyaniketan signed an MoU – the ELT students of the university can do their internship by teaching English at the schools. 

"I didn't start Utsho for religious purposes, but I do derive a sense of spiritual satisfaction when I see the children getting a chance at a better future here. I'd be happy when I can hand over my responsibility to someone who is truly dedicated to the cause and to these children," Mahbooba Leena concluded.