Blacksmiths busy before Eid-ul-Azha in Sylhet
S A Shofiee, Sylhet :
Sylhet Blacksmiths are busy sharpening knives on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims throughout the world. They are busy making knives, machetes and choppers for slicing the flesh of sacrificial animals.
Blacksmith Shamim Ahmed at Kazirbazar said only this time in the year the demand of their products increases centring Eid-ul-Azha. Blacksmiths make indispensable household and agricultural appliances like chopper, axe, knife, crowbar, chisel, hammer, saw, spade, cleaver, yoke, shovel, blade, hook, mallet, punch, nail, hoe, sickle, pickaxe etc for the people demand, he added.
“We are expecting higher sale of our products ahead the Eid-ul-Azha,” he told this correspondent.
While visiting a densely populated area in Kazirbazar this correspondent found that all are passing busy moments in making and selling their products.
Blacksmith Prodip Kumar Karmokar of the Chintamoni Kamarpara in the Balagong upazila told that bank loan on easy term might help them make more iron-made goods for marketing in various haats, bazaars and fairs.
A decline in the demand of their products, lack of skilled craftsmen, high prices of raw materials like charcoal, files, cast-iron, steel and other inputs hiked the production cost making their profession a tough one He said.
Women changing life thru sewing training: Khadim para shows the way of social capital formation in a gradually developed livelihood from a miasma of poverty and drudgery. The inhabitants of the locality, once ultra-poor women and many victims to trafficking, have now started saving some money from a skill-based work.
For further uplift of their new life, the womenfolk of the reclusive village in Khadim para now think about having their own tailoring and stitching business with the skills learnt from a training programme.
Talking to the correspondent, many villagers said they were trying to get adequate market access and thinking about proper management of their capital.
They are confident about being able to recoup the losses inflicted by floods that inundated their croplands, houses, toilets, kitchens and roads.
CVDP women and children development organization has been opened to extend the financial support and impart training.
Some 400 poor women have obtained tailoring and hand-stitching training from December 2011 to 2014. A project titled ‘Livelihood Programme for Women’ started off with only three hand-stitch machines.
Shafa ferdous, one of the inhabitants of Khadim para village, has a plan to open an outlet of her own and start business with the skill she attained from the stitching training.
She came out from the miasma of extreme poverty and already repaid the entire amount of loan that her husband took from near and dear ones for overseas job. Shafa ferdous is now solvent and saving money for her daughter’s marriage.
Many women of Khadim para area have started planning their own future, as they have seen the scope for self-reliance with the skill of stitching. Even, massive damage to crops due to floods could not shatter their dream. The women were looking for an alternative, as natural disaster is common for them every year. The villagers can produce a single crop in a year. Most of the times they have to sit idle for lack of alternative earning source.
Only a few years back, the underprivileged section with extreme poverty had to go round door to door to get help or became a victim to trafficking.
They are now capable of supplying products all over the country. Already some of them are supplying stitching products to Sylhet. After having basic training many also planned to have advance training for better opportunities.
Additional director of CVDP Sylhet Sadar Md: Saifullah said the vulnerable class of women who were in a vicious cycle of irregular migration and hazards are now earning for their family. “Improvement of their lifestyle is visible. They are wearing new saris and carrying out family expenditures,” he said during the spot visit to the village cooperative. They need training for entrepreneurship development and team-building capacity, he said. Developing negotiation capacity and coming out of structural weakness are important too. Maksud Ahmed, Sylhet Correspondent of BSS, said livelihood development of the area is significant.
“Now management is necessary as to how they would get market access and how to manage the earning for their future betterment.”
Sylhet Blacksmiths are busy sharpening knives on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims throughout the world. They are busy making knives, machetes and choppers for slicing the flesh of sacrificial animals.
Blacksmith Shamim Ahmed at Kazirbazar said only this time in the year the demand of their products increases centring Eid-ul-Azha. Blacksmiths make indispensable household and agricultural appliances like chopper, axe, knife, crowbar, chisel, hammer, saw, spade, cleaver, yoke, shovel, blade, hook, mallet, punch, nail, hoe, sickle, pickaxe etc for the people demand, he added.
“We are expecting higher sale of our products ahead the Eid-ul-Azha,” he told this correspondent.
While visiting a densely populated area in Kazirbazar this correspondent found that all are passing busy moments in making and selling their products.
Blacksmith Prodip Kumar Karmokar of the Chintamoni Kamarpara in the Balagong upazila told that bank loan on easy term might help them make more iron-made goods for marketing in various haats, bazaars and fairs.
A decline in the demand of their products, lack of skilled craftsmen, high prices of raw materials like charcoal, files, cast-iron, steel and other inputs hiked the production cost making their profession a tough one He said.
Women changing life thru sewing training: Khadim para shows the way of social capital formation in a gradually developed livelihood from a miasma of poverty and drudgery. The inhabitants of the locality, once ultra-poor women and many victims to trafficking, have now started saving some money from a skill-based work.
For further uplift of their new life, the womenfolk of the reclusive village in Khadim para now think about having their own tailoring and stitching business with the skills learnt from a training programme.
Talking to the correspondent, many villagers said they were trying to get adequate market access and thinking about proper management of their capital.
They are confident about being able to recoup the losses inflicted by floods that inundated their croplands, houses, toilets, kitchens and roads.
CVDP women and children development organization has been opened to extend the financial support and impart training.
Some 400 poor women have obtained tailoring and hand-stitching training from December 2011 to 2014. A project titled ‘Livelihood Programme for Women’ started off with only three hand-stitch machines.
Shafa ferdous, one of the inhabitants of Khadim para village, has a plan to open an outlet of her own and start business with the skill she attained from the stitching training.
She came out from the miasma of extreme poverty and already repaid the entire amount of loan that her husband took from near and dear ones for overseas job. Shafa ferdous is now solvent and saving money for her daughter’s marriage.
Many women of Khadim para area have started planning their own future, as they have seen the scope for self-reliance with the skill of stitching. Even, massive damage to crops due to floods could not shatter their dream. The women were looking for an alternative, as natural disaster is common for them every year. The villagers can produce a single crop in a year. Most of the times they have to sit idle for lack of alternative earning source.
Only a few years back, the underprivileged section with extreme poverty had to go round door to door to get help or became a victim to trafficking.
They are now capable of supplying products all over the country. Already some of them are supplying stitching products to Sylhet. After having basic training many also planned to have advance training for better opportunities.
Additional director of CVDP Sylhet Sadar Md: Saifullah said the vulnerable class of women who were in a vicious cycle of irregular migration and hazards are now earning for their family. “Improvement of their lifestyle is visible. They are wearing new saris and carrying out family expenditures,” he said during the spot visit to the village cooperative. They need training for entrepreneurship development and team-building capacity, he said. Developing negotiation capacity and coming out of structural weakness are important too. Maksud Ahmed, Sylhet Correspondent of BSS, said livelihood development of the area is significant.
“Now management is necessary as to how they would get market access and how to manage the earning for their future betterment.”