<i>Artistic needlework on cloth changes their lot</i>
ARTISTIC WORK AT REMOTE VILLAGE: Workers of 'Baufal Handicraft' at Bogi Bazar in Baufal upazila of Patuakhali district busy embroidering cloth as per designs supplied by a few dress houses in the capital.Photo: STAR
Fifteen women workers of 'Baufal Handicraft', a business firm at remote Bogi Bazar in Baufal upazila of Patuakhali district, are passing busy time as their products are sent to different shopping malls in Dhaka city and sold for good prices ahead of the Eid. Following designs specified by several dress house owners in the capital, they embroider clothes with artistic needlework on plain cloths meant for making salwar and kamese, a dress worn especially by young women. "We receive orders from owners of dress houses in different shopping malls at New Market, Gauchhia, Basundhara, Gulistan and Gulshan in Dhaka. They supply us plain cloths to prepare dresses according to specified designs. After doing the work, we send it to them," Morium Akhter, 20, owner of the firm, said. "We fix rates according to design. For a very gorgeous design, we take up to Tk 3,000 as four to five days are needed to complete such work on a piece of cloth. We need one or two days to complete a cloth with ordinary design," she added. "This season we got order for over 10,000 pieces of cloths from our buyers. During the one month before every Eid, we make a profit of about Tk 2 lakh on an average. Fifteen girls of different villages work in my firm, maintaining themselves and contributing to their families," she said. Morium's father Abdul Hai, 45, collects orders from different markets in Dhaka city and supplies the products to them after completion of work. Morium's elder sisters Salma and Jharna set up the firm in 2002 after receiving training on dress design in Mymensing town with the help of Tredas Nethrlands Homes, a local NGO. After Salma and Jharna got married, they handed over the firm to Marium. Rina Begum, 16, daughter of Khorshed Howlader of Bashbaria village in Dasmina upazila, has been working in the firm for four years. "My father fell in problem after losing all our landed property due to river erosion. Now I am contributing to the family as I can earn Tk 2,500 to 4,000 per month by working in the firm," she said. Kulsum, 22, of the same village also works in the firm and maintains their four-member family as his father is too old to earn.
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