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Rural Women in Rangplir

Needlework changes fortunes

BSS, Rangpur
Over 22,000 rural women in the northern districts have changed their fortune in recent years through various needlework like embroidery and spangling on women's clothing.
The prospective venture continues to attract more unemployed, poor and distressed rural women to work at home or at small local enterprises and earn and attain economic self-reliance.
According to the successful women, their home-based embroidery adds value to the clothing which is being marketed at high prices in different markets in the country, especially in the capital.
As a result of their growing success, the needlework is getting the shape of a growing cottage industry', attracting local entrepreneurs to invest and change the rural macro-economy.
Many of the rural women, who initiated the venture a few years back, launched smaller enterprises now after getting necessary' training and assistance from different gov-ernment and non-government organisations and local traders.
According to the n o n -government organisation sources, some 40,000 rural housewives, divorcees, unemployed young girls, adolescents, students and widows are now engaged in this profession and 22,000 of them have already achieved self-reliance.
With the assistances of RD RS Bangladesh alone, 2,000 unemployed and distressed women, victims of repression and violence, divorcees, widows and physically challenged women have so far achieved self-reliance through needlework at homes.
Entrepreneur of a spangling industry; Chand Mia, said he has expanded the venture, generating employment for 350 poor families in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur by creating expert embroidery' and spangling artisans.
He supplies simple sarees, various spangles and beads, stitching tools and thread to women. "On completion, each saree is sold in Dhaka's markets at Tk 8,000 to Tk 25,000 while sarees prepared by a more skillful hand is sold at a higher price of up to Tk 40,000 in the aristocrat markets in the capital," he said.
As the venture continues to expand, most of the women in the upazila's villages have turned into craftswomen, earning a minimum Tk 700 to Tk 900 weekly.
Talking to the news agency, successful craftswomen Mollika and Shameema said housewives, girls, adolescents, divorcees and distressed women of their village earn between Tk 2,500 and 4,000 a month while the income doubles before the Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja festivities.
Similarly, over 900 women of all ages have changed their fortune through embroidery and spangling on sarees, sal war kameez, scarves and other women's clothing in seven villages under Sadar upazila ofThakurgaon in recent years.
Widow Sufi Begum, college student Chompa Begum and school student Sadeka of Shibganj village narrated how they got over poverty by earning from