Photo : TDM
She lost her husband in a road accident and was disoriented. She did not know what to do with her three-year-old child. Laiju Bewa, the wife of the deceased Habibur Rahman of Paraamlagachi village of Betkapa union of Palashbari upazila of Gaibandha district took shelter with her daughter from her husband's house. The child fell into despair at the father's house with the child. Then he received training on Shataranji from the Palashbari Rural Development Board through a neighbor.
They gave him some cash along with shatranji equipment. In this way, Laiju, who started the business with only 13 thousand taka capital after training on the work of Shataranji, is now a successful woman entrepreneur. Apart from bringing back financial stability to her family through the work of Shataranji, she has also created employment for 15 women.
In 2014, after 60 days of training from Palashbari Rural Development Board, they made papos and carpets by hand with 13,000 taka and Shatranji tools. After that, Palashbari received 7 days IGA training organized by Women's Department and received a grant of 7 thousand taka from here. In 2019, 15 women from the village received training in a two-month ship project. After the training, she received a check of 50,000 taka along with a Shataranji machine from the local NGO Mass Development Center. After that, the life of successful woman entrepreneur Laiju changed.
In 2020, she formed the production team of the People's Development Center, a development cooperative organization with village women. They made and marketed papos, cushions, jainamaz, walmats with the machine provided by them. Buyers come and buy these products from factories and different upazilas of Gaibandha district at wholesale rates. Now Laiju is earning 20 to 25 thousand taka per month. The rest of the members working in his factory are also earning 8 to 10 thousand taka per month.
A 18 by 24 size papos produced in Laizur factory is sold at 200 taka, 20 by 30 size at 300 taka, jute papos at 600 taka, walmet 500 taka per floor carpet fit design is sold at 90 taka. After preparation, these products go to Dhaka, Palashbari, Gobindganj and Rangpur.
Garment Waste Jute, Raw Jute, Jute Twine, Recycled Yarn with 100% indigenous raw materials using completely indigenous technology in different designs and different sizes of shatranji products in the same weave Wallmats, Tablemats, Cushion Covers, Sofa Handkerchiefs, Jainamaz, Papos only bamboo, wood and Shataranji is prepared by pulling the thread on the ground with a rope and counting each thread and designing it by hand. Any size shatranji can be made without any pair. Its beauty is to be seen. Neighboring women have joined the work of making Shataranji of Laizur Salma Begum and Fatema have brought prosperity to the family with Shataranji training. Mahmuda Begum, Rikta and Urmila are training and working in the Shataranji factory in Laiju.
Salma Begum, who works in the factory, said that her husband is an auto driver and his income was always lacking in the family. After seeing the success of Laiju Apa, I am working with him.
Laiju Bewa said, I had to overcome a lot of difficulties to reach this position today. But never gave up. My daughter is now studying in school and thinking about her future, I set up this factory after learning Shataranji work. With the income from here, financial stability has returned to our family. Now I see many poor women expressing interest to enter this profession. I am personally helping them with advice and training.
Palashbari Upazila Rural Development Officer Md. Hasanuzzaman said that we have been giving various trainings to many helpless women like Laiju Bewa to turn around. After the training, we help them to become financially independent with business capital and equipment.
TDM/SD
