Eight years ago, Moshammat Afia of Jamalpur started the handicraft business with a capital of one lakh taka. A small shop in Bakultala area of the city. Name Afia Three-piece and handicraft.
Afia now sells various types of Nakshikantha, Hatpakha, Handbag, Punjabi, Fatwa, Girls clothes, Bed sheets for her company.
The products are made by the women of the surrounding villages. About 200 women sit at home and do needlework. Afia’s business capital is more than 50 lakh rupees due to good sales.
Afia said, ‘I started the handicraft business to bring prosperity to the family. Now the husband has also joined this business after leaving his job. Our family is going very well.
Like Afia and the 200 or so women who make products for her, village women in different districts of the country are employed through the trade in handicrafts. There are no women entrepreneurs, no women artisans, no women sellers in this supply chain. There are also men. Various products made by them are sold all over the country including the capital, as well as exported.
According to Bangladesh Handicrafts Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Banglacraft), there are about 400 handicraft manufacturing companies under their jurisdiction. Among them 25 to 30 companies export regularly. And the number of organizations associated with irregular export is like 20. Most are aimed at the local market.
In the National Industrial Policy (2022), handicrafts are defined as the extensive use of the artistic mind and labor of the craftsman or the talent, skill and craft acquired through heredity or by the creative person receiving training, if necessary through the use of modern technology and harmonizing the changes of time in aesthetic and practical ways. the product that is produced.
Handicrafts and handicraft sector entrepreneurs said that besides needle and thread, products made of various materials including bamboo, cane, clay, jute, brass-brass, wood, hogla, embroidery, hand-made flowers, vases made of brass-brass and wood, candle holders and pen holders, Handicrafts include various products made of wood, bags, various household materials, clothes etc.
Once upon a time these products were made in villages by families or in small factories. Now medium sized factories have been established.
