The unemployed rural women in Rangpur district have set a rare example of becoming self-reliant by sewing readymade handloom garments.

Only two years ago Shikha Begum, a widow, had nothing in her possession and could barely feed herself and her only daughter, but today she brims with confidence as she can financially support herself thanks to a safety net project.

Women should prepare themselves with skills and competence in their early life to compete for leading positions in the society, Dr Kiran Bedi, former top Indian police officer and recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, said at a seminar here on Thursday evening. Bedi, the first woman officer in the elite Indian Police Services, [...]

Taharima Begum is quite happy with the way things are running with her small business. She makes Nakshi Kanthas, employing thousands of destitute women in the western district town of Chapainawabganj.

Taharima Begum is quite happy with the way things are running with her small business. She makes Nakshi Kanthas, employing thousands of destitute women in the western district town of Chapainawabganj.

After Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had made some critical observations on Grameen Bank following a Norwegian TV documentary late last year, many critics intensified their criticisms of the Bank and its founder Professor Yunus. The criticisms did not stop after a Norwegian government probe found that alleged transfer of funds to another Grameen enterprise was [...]

A simple village woman otherwise, Taslima Begum enjoyed the rare glory of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Grameen Bank on December 10, 2006. She believes the government could have dealt with Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus respectfully.

ON February 26, after a gap of nearly 2 years, I visited the village of Dakhin Tegori in Chowhali Upazila of Sirajganj District. I particularly wanted to see how Joneka was getting on, now that the activities of Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) have come to an end. Joneka was the subject of a detailed feature [...]

Shondhya Rani Sarkar’s eyes light up when she speaks of how well her son is doing in school. When Shondhya first came to the Aarong Production Centre in Manikganj, he was a year old. The self-assured Shondhya of today was then a desperate young widow with no means to feed her baby.

The Bangladesh micro-finance sector is regarded as the largest and most efficient in the world. According to the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) 2009 analysis report on Asia, Bangladesh caters to 22.8 million borrowers compared to 16 million in India and 57.6 million in the whole of Asia. Grameen Bank (8 million), Brac (6.2 million) and [...]

Once derided as a basket-case, Bangladesh now enjoys global attention for its economic resilience and social progress. Problems remain but the achievements speak for themselves. Gender parity has already been achieved in primary and secondary enrollment. Child mortality has been brought down from 146 in 1990 to 65 in 2008.

Grameen Bank borrowers from different parts of the country yesterday termed the government attempt to remove Professor Muhammad Yunus ‘motivated’ and ‘biased’ and feared the bank will not sustain after his exit.

The government will provide a special monthly allowance of Tk 350 to the working mothers in the garment industry from next June to help meet their own and ‘infants’ nutritional requirement. The government took the step as it was witnessed that malnutrition seriously affects ready-made garment (RMG) workers, particularly the working mothers. “We’ve decided to [...]

It was my first day at work training. Sitting in a room as the only Bangladeshi (or of Asian origin), I felt like the fish out of the water among the White English people. The very subject of our discussion was “Bangladeshi Girls”, particularly focusing on young teenage girls growing up in a Bengali dominated [...]

When the country’s billions dollar remittance generating manpower export industry is in trouble by the fast shrinking overseas job markets, Bangladeshi female workers have started tightening grip. Taking advantage of ever-growing demand for residential care-givers and maids in Middle-East and European countries, quick-to-adopt Bangladeshi female workers have managed to gain 20 per cent growth in [...]