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Researcher : Mahmudul Haque Foyez
In some selected coastal areas of Noakhali district,
women members of the low socio-economic communities
are involved in making mats from the leaves of Hogla
plants. Hogla plants are easily available and grown
in these areas without any care. In most cases, women
used to do the job throughout the night causing pressure
/damage to their eyes and fingers. About 40-50 thousands
women of this district are associated with this profession.
Women, in most cases, could not market their products
directly, and those middlemen who procure the mats from
the women with nominal price. Lack of capital, absence
of any organisation of their own and absence of unity
are the main causes of exploitation. NGOs' loans are
overburdened with various conditionalities such as compulsory
rearing of poultry birds supplied by them (NGOs). Overall
objectives of the project are : (i) projecting the lives
of the women associated with mat-making from Hogla leaves
; (ii) investigating the nature of women labour and
causes of professional crisis; and (iii) identifying
the problems of this cottage industry and to assess
feasibility of conducting action research on this. Specific
objective of the project is to investigate the ways
and means for upgrading the lives of the women involved
in mat-making. The proposed project will focus on improving
the production and marketing of mats produced by these
poor women through using participatory action research.
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