A housewife in Chitalmari of Bagerhat has accused officials of a local NGO of forcibly taking her gold ring, nose pin, and a brass vase as repayment for missed loan instalments.
The victim, Srabani Hira, 22, a resident of Aruabarn village, alleged that the incident occurred after she defaulted on several instalments of a loan she took from the Chitalmari branch of the DAM Foundation for Economic Development (DFED), an affiliation of Dhaka Ahsania Mission.
According to Srabani, she had borrowed Tk 40,000, to be repaid as Tk 45,120 with interest. But when her husband, Ripon, left the area for work, she was unable to make the remaining payments.
Speaking in tears, Srabani said NGO workers came to her house around 10:00am on October 29 and took her and her three-year-old daughter to the DFED office.
“They locked me in a room until the afternoon. When the officials came back from the field, they forced me to sign two blank stamps and took my gold ring, nose pin, and a brass water pot. They even recorded a video while my little girl was crying from hunger,” she recounted.
A video clip of the incident went viral on social media on Saturday, November 8, sparking outrage and criticism from locals.
However, the NGO’s officials denied any coercion. They claimed that Srabani had voluntarily handed over the items to settle her dues.
DFED’s Chitalmari branch manager, Basudeb Debnath, said, “Housewife Srabani was in default of her instalments. We have heard that the nose ring was taken from her. We will investigate the matter.”
According to the complaint, one NGO worker deposited Tk 8,000 for the ring and Tk 1,500 for the brass water pot in Srabani’s passbook – a move that has drawn further criticism from rights activists, who called the act “humiliating and exploitative.”
Locals have urged the authorities to take action against those responsible and to ensure that such incidents – where poor women are allegedly shamed and coerced in the name of loan recovery – are not repeated.