In Thota village beside the Sundarbans, children leave school for the river

In Joymoni Gholer Thota village of Mongla upazila in Bagerhat, beside the Sundarbans, almost every family earns its living by catching fish and crabs in the river and the forest. Here, education seems to have stalled in the face of money. Resident Mohazzem Khalifa, 58, said, 'There is not a single house here where anyone has passed class ten.'

This is the scene on the morning of 24 October, at a quarter to seven. Part of a house has been lost to erosion by the Shela river. Beside it, on a piece of concrete, sits a small clay stove. Five-year-old Labiba Akter was playing there with a plastic container and a spoon. Behind her, the sun was just rising over the Sundarbans. Then, hearing her mother's call, Labiba ran off.

Labiba walked along swaying, carrying a small pitcher from her mother. Behind her came her mother Kulsum Akter, 25, two large pitchers in one hand and her 13-month-old son Jisan Khan held in the other arm. They were walking 200 metres along the narrow road by the riverbank to fetch drinking water. After returning with the water, Kulsum spoke. She said, 'The hardship with water is still ahead. The river water does not have much salt yet. In two or three months it will turn very salty. Then all the water, for bathing and cooking, will have to be carried.'

Kulsum's home is in Joymoni Gholer Thota, in Mongla upazila of Bagerhat, beside the Sundarbans. The Shela river flows from east to south, and the Pashur river from north to south. The land at the confluence of the two rivers is said to be shaped like a narrow lip, which is why it is called Thota. There is river on three sides, and the Sundarbans lie across the water.

Mohazzem Khalifa added, 'There are more than a hundred families here. But no family has any education.' Almost every family in the village lives by catching fish and crabs in the river and the forest.

Three local teenagers, Abu Bakkar, Musa Saudagar and Shahjahan, were spoken to. They said they once studied at school. But there are many people here who never went to school at all.

Abu Bakkar studied up to class six at the local Chandpai Mecher Shah Secondary School. The other two studied up to class three. Abu Bakkar said, 'The system is, if you stay in this place, you cannot study. In the season, even small children earn a lot of money. Once you see the face of money, you cannot study any more.'

All three teenagers catch shrimp fry, crabs and fish in the rivers of the Sundarbans. It is not only teenagers, young men and older people who do this — women also go fishing in the Sundarbans.

Kulsum married Raju Khan eight years ago. Last Saturday at dawn, Raju Khan went to the Sundarbans to catch crabs. Asked why he went at dawn, Kulsum said, 'Everything here runs by the tide. You go at ebb tide and come back at high tide.'

Kulsum has not gone to the forest for a year and a half. Before that, she used to go too, catching fish, crabs and fry. She first went to the Sundarbans with her mother. Two children were born in between. Even when her son Jisan was in her womb, she still went to the Sundarbans.

Her mother Taslima Begum and six or seven neighbouring women still go regularly in groups to catch fish, crabs and fry in the Sundarbans. Kulsum is one of the few in this village who have studied. She studied up to class seven at a madrasa in the neighbouring Morelganj upazila. As a child, her dream was to become a police officer. She had dreamed of it since she was eight years old.

Kulsum said that one day, on her way to Khulna, she saw girls walking in clothes that looked like a police uniform. They were actually going to school in Mongla. She did not realise then that it was a school dress. Seeing their dress, she dreamed of becoming a police officer when she grew up. But poverty stood in the way of that dream.

Kulsum is the youngest of four siblings. Her father Mohazzem Khalifa still carries the regret of not being able to educate his daughter. He said, 'I could not educate my daughter. She wanted to study. But I was weak in money. Her studies stopped after class seven. Two years later I married her off.' Mohazzem Khalifa's ancestral home was in Samaddarkhali village of Baroikhali in Morelganj. As a child he settled in Joymoni Gholer Thota in search of a livelihood. He still lives there with his family. His one son and three daughters were all born in the Thota area.

From the moment she returned with the water, Kulsum looked busy. At one point she said, 'I have to cook. He (her husband) left in the morning after eating a few boiled rotis. The tide has come in, and when he returns he will eat some rice.'

Standing in front of the house, Labiba Akter was watching the ships. Large ships anchored at Harbaria are clearly visible from there. Talking as she watched, Labiba said she now studies in the baby class of the government primary school. Labiba said, 'I have seen many big ships. My father used to ferry people to the ships.'

Asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Labiba said, 'I will be a doctor.' Kulsum then asked her daughter what she would do as a doctor. Her daughter replied, 'I will make people well.' However big her daughter's dream may be, Kulsum knows how hard the reality is. She said that in the nearby villages, no one has become a doctor or a nurse yet. There is no one to be found who has a good job. All she knows is that she will try for her daughter what she could not have herself.