Nagorik Uddyog - In from the Margins
“We really want to work as embroiderers, tailors and designers – making beautiful saris, bedclothes and clothes. This work is enjoyable, we can work together at home or at our organisation and we can then earn a decent wage. This would be a dream for us. We could support our families and be independent. We want to work hard and make our businesses a success.” PaWA Member
Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 84% of its 147 million people living on less than $2 per day. Millions of impoverished women work in unregulated informal jobs such as rag picking, farming, brick breaking, domestic service, sex work and sewing. They are vulnerable to violence, illness and exploitation; and are without political power or influence.
In Dhaka, in response to the problems of urban poverty, inequality and unemployment faced by poor informal women workers, five community women’s associations joined to form the Partnership of Women in Action (PaWa) to better represent and support their members, take collection action and give the most disempowered women in society a voice.
In 2011, TRAID funded the Bangladeshi human rights organisation Nagorik Uddyog (The Citizens Initiative) with £18, 218 to provide opportunities for PaWa members by enabling 500 extremely poor women living in Dhaka’s slums to establish their own textile businesses. TRAID funding will provide start up costs for women to generate their own income, and a revolving fund in which all the women reinvest a percentage of the profits back into the business.
The project will form five textile businesses through which 500 PaWa women members will produce clothes and textiles earning a regular income of around $3 per day. Their wages will indirectly benefit over 3,000 wider family members. Each of the five textile businesses will be managed by one of PaWa’s member organisations and 100 women members who will be trained in advanced sewing and embroidery techniques, marketing, business and financial management.
The women will make saris, bed covers, cushions, salwar, kamezes and curtains, which will be sold door to door and in the PaWA shop. The businesses will also use some recycled cloths and materials, repairing damaged clothes and embellishing to add value. Each business is located in a different slum of Dhaka and all benefit from being part of the PaWA enterprise with access to training, shared equipment and the shop rent.
The project will be evaluated and circulated as a model for policy makers and practitioners both in Bangladesh and internationally.
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