Nipa, Lovely, Fatima and Papry of Khaserhat village, aged between 11 and 15, had left school due to poverty.

They now earn at least Tk 1500 each per month by printing fashionable Batik design on sarees (woman's wear). Nipa is the team leader.

They work at the Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES), a local NGO, at Khaserhat in the Sadar upazila, about 15 kilometres from the district town.

Fourteen year-old Nipa said she left school two years back when she was a student of class six. Her father worked in a betel leaf field and earned only Tk 40 to 50 a day, which was not enough for buying even rice for their family with four brothers and three sisters.

She came to the centre and took three months training.

Now she earns Tk 1500 per month and contributes the family income.

The small NGO runs the fac-

tory at its office, where some distressed women also work. Many others want to join them but the scope is limited, Anisur Rahman, an official of the NGO, told this correspondent during a recent visit.

The sarees with Batic block print are marketed in Patuakhali and Barguna districts. Traders buy the sarees from the centre.

Nipa said she gets Tk 15 per sharee for printing. She can print five to six sharees a day.

Lovely was busy printing design on a sharee. "My father Abdur Razzak is a rickshapuller. I stopped going to school due to poverty."

But they have qualms because they are not getting the scope for education thought they want it.

The four girls now realise that education is necessary but they do not have the scope. They will go to school if they get the chance, they said.

Anisuzzan said he is thinking how to provide them the scope, either at the NGO office or at any school.