Forging his own path

Beyond its inherent value, pursuing tertiary education is often considered the best way to land a plum job. When a new graduate encounters difficulty in securing suitable employment, it is understandably frustrating. Jahidul Islam, 28, from Sakrail village in Tangail sadar upazila found himself in just such circumstances. Rather than waiting for his job market fortunes to change, he decided to start his own poultry business.

“Even with higher education getting a good job without any work experience is really tough,” says Jahidul, who graduated with an Honours degree in social work in 2014, and subsequently completed his Masters.

“My family is financially insolvent so I couldn't wait for a good opportunity,” the youngest of the four children of a small-scale farmer recalls. “I am not engaged in politics. My family has no powerful relatives who could've helped me lobby for a job. Considering such limitations I started to plan.”

In 2015 with his meagre savings, Jahidul decided to establish a poultry farm on 41 decimals of ancestral land. “I also took a little money from my two elder sisters, both of whom were already married, to get me started,” he says.

Jahidul subsequently took a bank loan of Tk 8 lakh, which enabled him to increase the number of chickens to 3,000. The situation, it would seem, was looking up.

Then disaster struck. “Around half of my chickens died from a virus,” Jahidul explains. “Suddenly I had to manage the loan instalments and also spend a lot of money on medicines to save the rest.”

Jahidul didn't give up. “It was a disaster but I didn't collapse,” he says. “I believe that industry is the key to success. It's difficult to run any small business, especially to manage bank loan repayments. I had to persist.”

While Jahidul was willing to accept such a major setback, for his father Main Uddin it almost proved too much. “I had to overcome so many difficulties to educate my youngest son,” says Main Uddin. “I did it so he could take responsibility for our struggling family. And then he took the risk of engaging in small business without any capital of his own.”

With news of the poultry deaths, when things were at their worst, Main Uddin suffered a heart attack.

Thankfully both Jahidul's father and his business recovered over time. Indeed Jahidul has diversified, buying six cows for rearing. “From the cattle I already make several hundred taka per day in milk sales” says a smiling Jahidul.

Despite his surprise choice to pursue small business, Jahidul's family are nowadays proud of him. “My son really works hard,” says his mother Monoara Begum. “He does all the farm labour himself, just to save the cost of employing a worker.”

One of Jahidul's college teachers shares such sentiment. “Maybe he didn't get a good job but neither did he sit idle,” says Mozammel Haque. “He's working very hard to make a living and I wish him every success with his enterprise and in life.”