Stand with our women entrepreneurs

It is very exciting to see how women from various districts of the country are taking initiatives to be economically solvent using their entrepreneurial skills. Over the past decade, an increasing number of women have broken the social barriers and successfully started their own businesses. In the process, they have also engaged hundreds of other women in their areas with these endeavours. One such example was set by a group of women in Narsingdi who, according to a report in this daily, have achieved economic independence by selling handicrafts, Jamdani sarees, Nakshi Kanthas, yarn, jute products, food and various other daily necessities, mostly on social media platforms.

Reportedly, many of these entrepreneurs started their businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic when their families had to face financial struggles due to the shutdown of economic activities. One such entrepreneur is Sabrina Akter, who created a Facebook group to launch her business during the pandemic. The group named "Narsingdi Jela Nari Uddyoktader Mela" has now become a shared platform of 60 businesses with around 53,000 members. Sabrina now earns an average of Tk 40,000 per month from her handicraft business, while others are also earning as per their expectations. In recent years, we have seen many such commendable initiatives from women entrepreneurs across the country. We have seen how hundreds of women in Pabna have become economically solvent by launching small businesses.

Now the question is: how can we help these businesswomen sustain their enterprises through these challenging economic times? While the social barriers for women to become entrepreneurs have become somewhat relaxed, they are still held back by economic constraints; many women are still financially dependent on their families to run their businesses. Therefore, the government, banks as well as social organisations must come forward to assist these aspiring businesswomen with funds and other support. Small steps such as allocating a designated place where they can sell their products, and linking them up with potential buyers from the cities can actually go a long way and make more women take up such endeavours.

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