RAJSHAHI, Nov 8, 2019 (BSS) – Rupali Khatun, 35, a housewife of Nalkhola
village under Paba Upazila in the district, has become a successful woman
entrepreneur after eradicating her deplorable condition.
Within a gap of six years, she is now the owner of Toha Boutique where four
women are working permanently and around 300 others are getting benefits
either directly or indirectly from the enterprise.
Simultaneously, she has also a fish farm on 30-bigha of water body and a
poultry farm with around 1,500 chicks creating jobs of around 50 people.
“I got a huge response from the people that inspired me to do the work
vigorously,” she said, adding that her monthly income is now around Taka one
lakh on an average.
But the success didn’t come overnight as she had to face various types of
constraints and hurdles to attain it.
Talking to BSS here on Thursday, Rupali said she had to face an awful
situation for around two years when her husband incurred a huge financial
loss in his fertilizer and insecticide dealership business in 2011.
Initially, she took a 14-day institutional training on sewing and tailoring
from department of youth development in 2013. After taking loan from the
department and some of her neighbours, Rupali started her sewing and
tailoring business the same year.
Within the next two years, she was given the national youth award as a
successful woman entrepreneur in 2017 as recognition to her remarkable
achievement in the field of women empowerment. This year, she was also given
an acknowledgement of successful young woman.
Nasima, a resident of Bhadra area in the city, got training from the
Department of Youth Development, and started block and boutique business on a
small-scale in 2010.
Around 1,000 women coming from poor and underprivileged families got
employment in Nasima’s Block and Boutique House.
Nasima Khatun, mother of three daughters, is now a successful entrepreneur
in Rajshahi city.
She said many underprivileged and distressed women have become self-reliant
through working in boutique houses in the metropolis contributing a lot to
the society.
Not only Rupali Khatun and Nasima Khatun, many other women entrepreneurs
are contributing a lot to intensifying the local economy.
Department of Youth Development imparted training to more than 2,035
unemployed women on various trades like modern tailoring, block-boutique,
fisheries, livestock and electronics in order to improve their living and
livelihood condition.
Additional Commissioner of Rajshahi division Zakir Hossain said women
empowerment is one of the Prime Minister’s Ten Special Initiatives.
More than 3.34 lakh beneficiaries were imparted life-skill training and
were brought under various financial supports worth Taka 492.90 crore in
order to infuse dynamism into the women empowerment process in the division
in the last two fiscal years.
Professor Iliash Hossain of the Department of Economics in Rajshahi
University termed the existing entrepreneurs development training and
microcredit as a laudable initiative for making the rural women self-reliant
together with boosting their social dignity as well as level of confidence.