Does Women’s Involvement in Handloom Industry Help Empowering Them? -A Case Study in Belkuchi Sub-district of Sirajganj, Bangladesh
Abstract
The Handloom industry is the largest traditional cottage and rural industry in Bangladesh. It helps empowering female weaver through creating income generating opportunities for them. The objective of this research is to investigate whether the involvement of women in the allied operations of handloom industry influence the likelihood of economic empowerment of women in Belkuchi,Sirajganj area through employment generation and change in income. The study is based on both primary and secondary data. Primary data is collected from 120 female who participated in handloom industry using multistage random…show more content… In these households, women play an important role through engagement in the most of the allied handloom activities. Women weavers have been the principal stabilization force through years of crises and problems for the handloom sector in Sirajganj. According to District Statistics-2011, there are about 14849 Handlooms weaving factories with about 129242 looms in Sirajganj district. The total operational looms are 104795, which are about 81 percent of total looms, and the rest 25447 looms are non-operational. A total of 208156 people are working in handloom sector in the district. Belkuchi upazila is the largest handloom concentrated area among the eight upazilas of the district where 49500 people are working in 310250 handlooms. More than 50 % women of this upazilas are involved in handloom industry either as weaver, allied workers in pre and post loom activities or entrepreneur. Because of some of characteristics such as labor intensity, female employment and women empowerment, and profitability, handloom sector can be considered as a priority sector for development of the study area. Considering the above scenarios, this study attempt to explore whether women of this area can empower themselves through participating in handloom