So far 855 women jobseekers got themselves enlisted under government database in Dhaka division during seven days of launching of the programme, according to Dhaka manpower bureau office.
Following a deal with Saudi Arabia to send domestic helps and also a good demand for the same in Hong Kong, the government took the step to enlist overseas jobseekers, said officials.
But the number of candidates is very lower against their high demand abroad, said a Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) official.
"If we unable to reach the desired number of aspirants, we will go for another registration programme," he said wishing unnamed.
On the other hand, registration for Rajshahi and Rangpur division will begin today (Thursday) and it will continue till March16. And the schedule for Chittagong and Sylhet division is March 17 to 23 and Khulna and Barisal March 24 to 28.
Officials expected that they will get good response from the candidates in the remaining days.
They also said lower salary structures for Saudi-bound female workers and media reports on security aspects might have discouraged the candidates.
The demand for domestic helps is very high in Saudi Arabia so government needs a rich database with a notable number of women aspirants, they added.
According to agreement with Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia will take 12 categories workers in its housekeeping sector. Of them, at first it will hire housemaids at a wage of 800 Saudi Riyal a month.
Registration is taking place at the union, city and municipality digital centres and district manpower office in from 9.0 am to 5.0 pm every day.
About 40,000 women foreign job seekers were enlisted under government database in 2013. Of them 12,288 were from Dhaka division.
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