A boost to women empowerment

A new life for the ultra poor ... women making (top) and giving finishing touches to shoes and sandals at Sunanda Shoe Factory at Shutipara village in Nilphamari. PHOTO: STAR

Sunanda Shoe Factory, where all workers are women, is an example.

BRAC has set up the laudable example in Shutipara village in Kundopukur union, two kilometres from Nilphamari town.

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They produce fashionable shoes and sandals, now in good demand in markets beyond the district.

Each worker works six days a week and earns Tk 300 to Tk 350, depending on her work.

The remarkable success under BRAC's TUP (Targeting the Ultra Poor) project was achieved in less than two years. The work was started in April 2002.

Initially, BRAC selected 30 ultra poor women. Windows, women from landless and erosion victim families, wives having poor and ailing husbands and women having no access to any kind of loan either from government or NGO were given preference.

They were given one-year training on shoe-making. During training, each woman was given Tk 30 as allowance and Tk five for lunch a day. Another 30 women were trained in the second batch.

Now, 64 female workers are working there in eight groups, eight in each.

The Chief Trainer, Sheikh Md Safaruddin, said the women are doing all the work with hand. Each group is divided into two sections, one producing the upper part of the shoe or sandal and the other producing the lower part (sole).

They are also using machines for cutting the leather, sewing, preparing the sole from rubber, designing and colouring the product.

Now they are producing 400 to 500 pairs of sandals a week. The demand is less in the wet season.

There are two supervisors-- Nurul Islam and Abdus Samad.

Another NGO--JOBS--provided the initial technical support in setting up the factory, said Bazlur Rashid Sarkar, Chief Co-ordinator of BRAC's TUP project in Nilphamari. Now BRAC is running it alone.

There are other distinctive features also. Group meetings are held once a week where ten topics are discussed. These include health education, social development and awareness against dowry and early marriage, Bazlur Rashid said.

He also informed that each worker gets a tube well and materials for sanitary latrine for free.

Factory Manager Enayet Hossen said BRAC is now giving subsidy to run it. BRAC may decide to distribute the profit among the workers when the factory will be profitable, he said.

"It is our satisfaction that we are turning the ultra poor women into skilled workers. Soon we will raise that number of female workers to 100".

"Now 70 shops in 11 upazilas (in Nilphamari district) are our whole sale buyers", said Marketing Officer Tarun Shah. The products are now supplied to Panchagarh and Dinajpur districts also because those are cheaper, he said. Prices range from Tk 100 to 130, he said.

Sazzad Hossain, owner of Sazzad Shoe Factory in Domar Bazar in Domar upazila, said the designs of Sunanda shoes and sandals are attractive to customers and those are cheaper.

Factory worker Morzina Begum, 40, of Koipara village, said she became helpless with her three children including a retarded daughter after her day labourer husband became paralysed. She now feels secure after getting the job. Julekha Begum, 35, of Shipairpara village said her rickshawpuller husband used to beat her. She and her four children had to remain half fed with her husband's income. Julekha now supplements the family income. Her husband does not beat her any more. Two of her children go to school.

Chairman of Kundopukur Union Parishad said he is proud that such a factory is in his area.

"Many distressed women who used to queue for doles earlier are not see during relief distribution now. They are better off".