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Bely Begum, a 30-year-old single mother of two living at Pathalia under Sadar upazila in Jamalpur, turned her wheel of fortune by sewing nakshi kantha and also doing needlework on dresses, bed sheets, wall mats, bags, and many more.
“My husband left me along with my two sons after he found out that my first son is a special child,” Bely said with tearful eyes.
“After my husband abandoned us, I was all alone. I had no money, no support, but all the responsibilities of two children,” she said.
“I never had a chance to continue my study after class 5. The only thing I knew was sewing. I got a small amount of loan and the disability allowance for my special child. I started my own business with that money.”
Jamalpur is known as the land of nakshi kantha, a type of embroidered blanket. The centuries-old art tradition of the people of Jamalpur is recognised and appreciated throughout the country.
Nakshi shilpa, the traditional sewing art, has become a way of women empowerment in the district. Now more than two lakh people are working in this field.
Needlework is something that women in Jamalpur learn at a very early age by watching elders. “I learned khejur vhorat, jhoshor stitch, kashmiri cross and boykha stitch at a very young age by watching my mother. We do not have any training for this work,” said Bely.
There is a huge demand for nakshi products in urban areas as well as abroad. Even the product prices are high as it is considered a luxury item.
Each blanket is sold for Tk 5,000-Tk 15,000, each saree for Tk 2,000-Tk 20,000, and the price of each dress starts from Tk 950. Depending on the design, it takes 20-30 days to complete a saree and 4-7 days to complete a full dress. Workers are provided with the fabric and thread; and, at times, if the brand is renowned, with the designs.
But the wages for the workers are not that high. Workers get only Tk 600-700 for each nakshi kantha or bed-sheet, Tk 80-150 for each dress, and Tk 700-1,200 for each saree which is very low considering the long time it takes to complete the sewing.
The reason behind this poor wage for workers is basically because of the supply chain. More or less three to four people work as middlemen between workers and boutique house owners. And now, even in villages, there are not many people of young age who know this art.
“I work as an artisan and spend my earnings to educate my daughter so that she can have a better life,” said Nargis Akter, mother of a 12 years old girl.
“My daughter also knows this work, sometimes she helps me as well, but I don’t want her to end up as a nakhshi artisan. I don’t want her to have a life like mine,” she said.
In earlier times when people in villages did not have readymade blankets, women used to sit in a group in their leisure time to do needlework on kantha or bed-sheets.
Villagers used those nakshi products to attend to their guests. This was a tradition in rural areas. Now, this tradition is on the verge of extinction with time. Workers like Bely are the reason why nakshi shilpa is not extinct yet.
At present, not only women but men are also associating themselves with nakshi shilpa. Young boys aged around 10-12 help their mothers with sewing nakshi kantha.
Like Bely, Joyonti Koiri, a middle-aged woman, also turned her wheel of fortune through nakshi work. She started her journey after her husband died in 2013.
She started as a person who collected dresses, nakshi kanthas, and bed-sheets from workers and sold those to others. With help from the district commissioner’s office, she now owns her own showroom. “Now I have four permanent workers. Each of the workers has 10 artisan workers under them,” said Joyonti Koiri who has been awarded by Bangladesh Sangskritik Oikkojot and Bangla Academy.
There are thousands of stories like Bely Begum and Joyonti Koiri hidden in the Jamalpur district.
Joyonti said, “My son was only four when his father died. I used to take my son with me wherever I went. He saw my struggle and now he helps me in my showroom as well.”
Even “Jamalpurer nakshi kantha, Bangladesher gorbo kotha” (Nakshi kantha of Jamalpur is the glory of Bangladesh) is the tagline of the district branding of Jamalpur. It is very famous across the country.
Many small and big boutique showrooms can be seen beside the main road of Jamalpur town.
Md Shahinur Alam, the owner of Jamalpur’s biggest boutique house Shotodol and also the secretary of the Jamalpur Handicraft Owners Association, said, “When we founded the association we started with 150 members and now we have 700 registered members.”
Some famous boutique houses are Dipto Kutir, Shuchika Hosto Shilpa, Gramin Saj. There is a huge demand for nakshi products but the supply is not enough.
Ayesha Abed Foundation, the sister concern of BRAC, is also working in this sector. Ayesha Abed is the person who first commercialised this art.
In 1986, Ayesha Abed Foundation started its project officially in Jamalpur. Ayesha identified and experimented with various crafts that women could easily produce at home. That was the time of the rebirth of nakshi shilpa.
More than 5,000 women from all over Jamalpur are now working under Ayesha Abed Foundation which gives the highest payment to the artisans. Now the major portion of nakshi products sold by the popular lifestyle brand Aarong is supplied from Jamalpur.
Considering the potential of the nakshi shilpa, the government has undertaken a project, “Jamalpur Sheikh Hasina Nakshipalli”, with an initial budget of Tk 722 crore. The project is expected to change the future of nakshi shilpa as well as the fate of Jamalpur district.
