Case Study: 'The First Telephone Lady'

Laily Begum began her life as the first phone lady by calling then Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina in March 1997. Now Laily is an important member of the community, and her ownership of the phone has brought her prestige and economic solvency. Her previous life, however, was not that pleasant. Her husband, Atikullah, was a day laborer, and she earned extra income by sewing blankets and doing embroidery work for other people. With their combined income, they had enough for two square meals a day.

She noticed that her landless neighbors had improved their living standards by joining Grameen Bank, and she wanted to improve economic conditions for her family as well. She was fortunate enough to join the bank on September 15, 1992, as a replacement for a member who dropped out. Her first loan was for 4000 taka to buy a milch cow and some chickens. By selling the calves of the milch cow she made a profit and used the money to set up a tea stall business for her husband. She took out five more loans from the bank and sought other means to make more money for her family.

She learned that the bank was planning to give cellular phones to its members to start the village pay phone business. She knew nothing about cellular phones or how to use them. Besides, the whole thing seemed implausible to her. She had heard that only rich people could use such expensive gadgets. The poor people of the village have a hard time affording food for their families, she thought; where would they get the money to pay for phone calls, and whom would they call? When the center manager discussed the VPP program in the weekly meeting, Laily expressed interest in having one. She discussed the idea with her neighbors and relatives, who were skeptical and voiced comments such as "Grameen has told you this for nothing. Why will the Grameen authority give this costly and valuable thing to illiterate people?" Laily felt encouraged when the officers from Grameen Bank and Grameen Telecom visited her house, and even her neighbors began to get excited about the possibility of a new technology coming to their village.

All speculation ended when Laily got the phone on March 26, 1997. It was the most memorable day in her life as she became the first person in her village as well as in the bank to receive a phone and talk to the prime minister. After finishing the phone call with the prime minister at the bank's premises, Laily and her husband started walking to their house. On the way home, some people tried to touch the phone and wanted to make sure that it could be used to talk to others. By the time they reached home, twelve to fourteen people had used the phone and they had earned 100 taka.

Atikullah now operates the VPP business in a booth built and owned by the family. On average, they service a total of 600 minutes of phone calls per week, 100 minutes of which are for the more lucrative overseas calls. For outgoing calls they have to follow the schedule provided by Grameen Telecom, whereas for incoming call they can choose the rate.

Intially, Laily was earning 20,000 to 26,000 taka per month from her VPP business. With the increase in competition from landline and other mobile phones in the area, her net income dropped, but she was still earning a reasonable amount from the phone business, could easily pay the weekly installment of 160 taka, and was able to build sizable savings. On November 1, 1999, Laily paid off the loan for the phone in full.Prior to owning the phone business, Laily lived in a mud house. Now she lives in a brick house with two rooms and a veranda. In the veranda are two additional rooms, one for dining and another for sitting. She owns another house that is rented out to a doctor for a monthly rent of 1500 taka. On the roadside, Laily has built five rooms for rent. Atikullah uses one room as the VPP both. The other spaces are rented out as two grocery shops, a laundry, and a pharmacy. Laily's children are going to school, and she can even afford to hire a private tutor for them. When she joined the bank, her assets consisted of homestead land, one house, one cot, utensils, and clothing, with a total value of 75,000 taka ($1282).

Laily Begum, nearly destitute only a few years ago, is now a respectable member of society–all because of her ownership of the VPP.

Extracted from Chapter 3 of the book The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story. Published by Kumarian Press.