2 officials manage operations across the upazila; rural women face travel hassles
Staff Crisis and Poor Location Hamper Faridganj 'Tottho Apa' Services
- Designed to extend IT-driven empowerment and essential awareness to rural women, the Faridganj 'Tottho Apa' initiative suffers severe operational setbacks
- Half of the sanctioned four positions remain vacant; one assistant bears dual administrative roles.
- Relocation behind an under-construction structure far from the administrative center causes acute navigational and financial strain on beneficiaries.
Conceived to bridge the digital divide for rural women by delivering technology-driven services, healthcare guidance, basic education, and legal awareness directly to doorsteps, the government’s flagship ‘Tottho Apa’ project is facing severe operational paralysis in Faridganj upazila of Chandpur. A chronic human resource shortage compounded by an obscure and inconvenient office location is depriving underserved communities of vital support, leaving marginalized rural women in acute distress.
According to institutional records, the Faridganj project unit is designed to operate with a dedicated four-member team. However, only two staff members are currently deployed. The positions of Information Service Officer and one Information Service Assistant have been lying vacant for a prolonged period. Consequently, Information Service Assistant Israt Jahan is forced to shoulder the executive responsibilities of the Information Service Officer under an additional-charge arrangement, assisted solely by Office Assistant Md. Jakir Hossain. Deploying just two workers across an entire upazila has severely strained service delivery and field outreach.
Further intensifying beneficiary dissatisfaction is the spatial placement of the project office. Instead of being situated within accessible premises inside the upazila parishad complex or municipal center, the office has been established on the second floor behind a semi-constructed private building far from central transit points. First-time visitors and rural women arriving from remote villages struggle to locate the facility, often wasting critical hours and paying extra transport fares.
Sharing her ordeal, service seeker Roksana Begum remarked, "We heard that essential digital services and welfare guidance are offered here for women. However, tracking down the office was exhausting. Coming from distant villages requires significant fare and time. Setting up this facility within the upazila parishad compound or an easily accessible commercial zone would alleviate our suffering."
Acknowledging the operational bottlenecks, Acting Information Service Officer Israt Jahan noted, "Running extensive outreach with inadequate staff is proving unsustainable. If vacant posts were filled, we could scale our reach to thousands more women across Faridganj. Relocating the desk to the central administrative hub or a prominent location would significantly streamline footfall."
Responding to the issue, Faridganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Md. Mehedi Hasan Manik stated that the institutional workforce deficit has been escalated to higher authorities for immediate redress. He added that the office is currently operating from a rented facility due to general space constraints within government quarters, assuring that administrative measures are being explored to resolve both location and staffing bottlenecks.
//DBTech/SICJN/SME/MSI//
