Beyond hand-made products

Siri Handicrafts have made their presence felt as a beautifully woven Nakhshi and hand-painted clothes in this year’s ninth edition of the National SME Product Fair.

More significantly, the handicrafts entrepreneurship, which was kicked off in March, 2016 under the banner of Siri Social Welfare Organisation in Jamalpur Sadar, is making the local hijras or transgender persons as entrepreneurs.

Around 85 transgender people are now working to there to produce nakshi kantha-chador, hand-painted sharee, panjabis, fatuas, pillows and cushion covers, bedsheets, and three-piece sets.

A nakhshi three-piece set cost Tk 500-Tk 4,000 while hand-painted sharee Tk 2,800-Tk, 5000.

“These products are now being sold to traders and clients from various districts of the country as we get orders mostly online,” said Israt Jhahan Toma, a hand-painting artist who is also a diploma holder in Civil Engineering.

Toma joined this business after failing to grab a job as per her desire because of her facial appearance.

Previously known as Arif, Arifa Yasmin Mayuri had launched Siri Handicrafts. Now a ruling party politician, she has won multiple awards for her work.

The idea of running such a business came to the mind of Mayuri while she was a student at Mymensingh Polytechnic Institute in Electrical Engineering.

Upon completion of her studies, she could not succeed to get an official job, then she began her new journey as an entrepreneur with the transgender people. 

“As I saw the unthinkable miseries of the transgender people face, I questioned myself as to why these transgender people should live by the grace of other people.”

Mayuri blamed hijra chief or ‘Guru Ma’ as the main barrier in breaking the circle of their extortion and other image tarnishing acts because as chief she gets around half of the amount they collect in various means.

‘Some of us can’t do anything alone with the hijras involved in various misdeeds, including begging, because the number of bad ones is quite high. The government must intervene in this matter,” she added.

Hand-painting artist Toma says that financing is a barrier to growing her business, and it’s difficult for her to get loans from the banks.

“High bank officials on various occasions promised us that they will help us, but when we seek any financial help, they don’t pay any heed to us, which demoralises us,” she lamented.