RAJSHAHI, Sept 03: The number of female entrepreneurs is increasing in the district.
In every shopping mall and street corners of the city, small female entrepreneurs are seen to run their businesses independently.
In addition to running small businesses like tea stalls, grocery shops, restaurants, boutique houses, beauty parlours, female entrepreneurs are also now seen to drive rickshaws and battery-driven three wheelers as well.
Moreover, indigenous women in the district have long been engaged in all sorts of farm work including sowing seeds, transplanting paddy saplings and crop harvest. A good number of women are also work in brick fields.
It is learnt, to manage family, many female entrepreneurs started petty businesses like selling kalai roti, bhapa pitha, tea, biscuits and other evening snacks on vans at street corners.
In most cases the working capital of the business is limited to Tk 3,000 to Tk 5,000, excluding the price of the van which they hire on daily rent basis.
Seema Khatun (35) sells pitha, piaju, singara, nimki, puri and tea at a corner behind Shaheb Bazaar Boro Masjid. She said finding no job, she herself started the business.
"At the first stage of starting the business, many people criticised her but I continued my business. I earn over Tk 1,000 per day from this business", she added.
Parvin, a housewife of Seroil colony area, has started a road-side tea shop at the Station Road of the city. She said her husband is a day labourer and it was hard for them to manage a four-member family with a limited income.
As a result, she started selling tea, biscuits, banana, loaf and some fruits by placing a table beside the road. She earns more than Tk 500 daily.
Monuara Bibi (55) sells kalai roti over the last 23 years in front of PN Girls School.
Monuara said she was married at a young age and her husband has been suffering from different diseases 10 years after their marriage.
Then, she found it difficult to manage her family. Finding no other way, she started selling kalai roti.
She said this is the only way to make their living.
She has already arranged all cost of marriage of her elder daughter, one son has already joined a city shop as a salesman.
She said she earns around Tk 2,000 to Tk 3,000 daily.
Syeda Begum (38) sells vegetables at Sagorpara Kitchen Market. She started the business with a capital of Tk 1,500.
Syeda said she purchases vegetables from the wholesale vegetables market at Shaheb Bazar and sells those at Sagorpara Bazar daily. She said she makes a profit of Tk 300 to Tk 500.
Akhi of Premtali area under Godagari upazila runs a boutique house in Rajshahi court area. She said she employed some 250 workers to do needlework, stitching, sewing and designing of various types of garments.
Shila Khatun (50) of Mohishbathan area supplies cooked-foods to boarding houses and earns a handsome profit every month.
Women Affairs Officer of Rajshahi district Shabnam Shirin said females are not lagging behind in managing their own business. Hundreds of women of the city and surrounding areas are now self-employed through various small and medium businesses.
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