Embroidery gives Rangpur women self-reliance

Several thousand rural women in Rangpur division, who once lived in abysmal conditions, have achieved self-reliance through embroidery work in the last one decade.

They mainly work on women's clothing like saree and kamiz. Once decorated with bright sequins and colourful threads, they sell at higher prices across the country including the capital.

Activists of the NGOs, which took the opportunity to their doorstep with the help of the government, say 42,000 housewives, divorced women, unemployed young girls, widows and students are engaged with the profession and 23,000 have become self-reliant.

The initiatives were taken in 2006-07.

Head of Programme Coordination of RDRS Bangladesh Monjusree Saha said the rural women had fought back poverty and now dreamt of better future for their children.

Over 2,250 unemployed and distressed women, victims of domestic violence, divorced women, widows and physically challenged women have so far achieved self-reliance through needlework with the assistance of RDRS Bangladesh alone, she added.

A pioneering entrepreneur of embroidery industry, Chand Mia, of Chandkuthi Danga village in Rangpur's Badarganj upazila, said he had expanded the venture generating employment for many poor women and turned them into artisans.

Most of the housewives, school and college girls from poor families do the needlework in their leisure time sitting at their houses, he said.

He said, "Each saree sells on Dhaka's markets for Tk 7,000 to Tk 26,000 on an average, while the saree embroidered by a more skilled hand brings up to Tk 40,000." 

As the venture continues expanding faster, most of the women of all ages in the village have turned into craftspeople and earn Tk 800 to Tk 1,000 weekly, he added.

Craftswomen Shamima, Marjina, Sohana, and Mollika of the village said they earned Tk 2,500 to Tk 5,000 monthly, and their incomes doubled before Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja.