DHAKA, May 30, 2020 (BSS) – Though Khairun Nahar is apparently seen alike ten other ordinary rural women, her dedication, courage and government’s initiatives of bridging women to financial institutes made herself an entrepreneur who is known as “mermaid” for her huge success in fish culture.
” It’s nothing but my hard work and dedication with courage to break the social wall that holds back women to appear as an entrepreneur,” said Khairun, owner of a hatchery at Mohechhatul village under Atharabari union of Ishwarganj upazila in Mymensingh, who achieved national award in 2015 for her contribution in the country’s agriculture sector.
“My success that you see now didn’t come smoothly. I had to struggle with many odds of the society. It is always difficult for a woman to remain stand on her will neglecting social aversion that a woman can work as like a man,” she said.
However, Khairun thanked her husband and neighbors for supporting her. “Actually, women need to prove their ability in front of the society. In my village, now everyone praises me … when they realized as a woman, I am able to work … my efforts are worth for a business, they started supporting me.”
She suggested that women need to step forward with courage to change the mindset of male dominated society. “I did it. I broke the taboo. Now it is accepted by all,” said the confident middle-aged women.
Khairun started the fish cultivation at the time when her husband had made huge loss in his hatchery business. “After failing in business, my husband was so broken. Then I thought why only man in the family has to take all the responsibilities of earnings, why not woman. I encouraged him to try again and told him I wanted to give a hand as well.”
Her husband Abul Kalam had been influenced by Khairun’s word and started his business again with her confident wife.
“Surely, my husband is not like other men in the village. He got confidence on me and he got encouraged when I proposed him that I wanted to work,” said Khairun.
It was in 2012, when the couple had made a plan to start fish culture afresh and accordingly managed a loan of Taka one lakh from their relatives.
“That time we had one pond only … we took three others under lease agreement and started our fish culture. We worked day and night … but failed to make profit in first six months,” she said.
The time when Khairun got frustrated and was passing days fearing of uncertain future, she came to know that the government has a scheme of providing soft loan to the rural women entrepreneur.
She saw a ray of hope and right away contacted the Sonali Bank branch in Ishwarganj while managed a loan of Taka four lakh.
“That was our turning point … we paid back our previous loans from that money and invested the rest cautiously,” she said, adding that “After that we didn’t need to look back as finally, we had started to make money.”
After paying back the loan with interest, Sonali bank gave Khairun Taka eight lakh more credit to help setting her own fish. “With that big amount, we had increased our ponds numbers from four to eleven,” she recalled.
The Khairun’s farm, named “Srishti fare fish hatchery” earned enormous fame in the entire district in short span of time for its high quality of fish fries.
“Not only from Ishwarganj or other parts of Mymensingh, even buyers from adjacent districts visit our farm to buy fries and fishes,” said Khairun with an enchanted tone.
Her husband Kalam said, “Khairun had started from where I failed. But now we are successful and honestly saying without her efforts and courage we can’t make it. We also created numbers of employments for the jobless youth of our village. I am proud of my wife and our farm as well.”
Senior fisheries officer of Ishwarganj upazilaq ASM Sanwar Russel said Khairun had proved that anyone can reach the zenith of success with hard work and dedication.
“Now farmers those are involved in fish culture and hatchery business here see Khairun as a model. If other women follow the footsteps of Khairun, a fisheries revolution will take place in the area,” he said.
In 2015, Khairun was nominated for the national award on agriculture development and received the prize from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka. “The award made me famous in the area. Now my village concedes me as their symbol of pride. They call me mermaid,” she said with cynical smile.
Khairun, who’s farm now worth more than Taka one crore, thanked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her various initiatives to lift the country’s womenfolk from the poverty level by turning them into entrepreneurs.
The present government facilitated women’s participation in agricultural production through ensuring access to agricultural technologies and loans given for agro-processing, fish culture, homestead gardens, nurseries, bee-keeping and other activities.
Enhanced participation and livelihood of rural poor women is a priority programme of the present government implemented through the “One House, One Farm Project”, which gives priority to female households in every village.
The government has provided a number of financial incentives to encourage women entrepreneurship. Between 2010 and 2013, banks and non-bank financial institutions has disbursed Taka 67 billion to 57,722 women entrepreneurs from their own sources.
Women are getting credit at concessional rate of 10 percent interest while 15 percent refinance fund is reserved for women entrepreneurs. Women are also entitled to SME loan up to Taka 2.5 million free of collateral, only against personal guarantee.
The number of working women in Bangladesh increased to 18.6 million in 2016-17 from 16.2 million in 2010 due to many government’s taken endeavors.
Bangladesh secured the 47th position among 144 countries in 2017 as per The Global Gender Gap Report, whereas India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Pakistan remain at 108, 109, 111, 124 and 143 positions respectively.