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  • Title: Developing non-craft employment for women in Bangladesh.
    Author: Chen M.
    Journal: Seeds; 1984; (7):1-20. PubMed ID: 12313437.
    Abstract:
    The Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is a nongovernmental, rural development institution founded in 1972 and run by Bangladeshis to develop noncraft employment opportunities and participatory associations for poor rural women by organizing them into working groups of 20-25 members. Each group chooses 2 members to receive training in group management and leadership and 1 family planning helper. The group plans and undertakes a series of joint economic activities based on traditional or new skills, and a series of collective social actions. BRAC's field staff is responsible for organizing, each member working with the poor of 5-6 villages. Each group decides its own financial and production plans, with staff consulting on cost effectiveness and feasibility. Seeking to expand women's occupations, BRAC undertook schemes to: 1) commercialize traditional skills by creating new markets; 2) revive and adapt traditional skills to new lines of useful, marketable items; 3) train women in new or non-traditional skills; and 4) mobilize demand for women's labor by lobbing for women's participation in public employment schemes and agriculture. Between 1976 and 1984, BRAC's employment expansion schemes have been able to engage the largest number of women in rice processing (3810), animal husbandry (2344), horticulture (843), and poultry (800). Over 200 women each year have been encouraged to undertake collective agriculturl production on leased land. In 10 years, more than 20,000 women have been organized by BRAC into over 800 active groups, and 10,000 of these women are involved in viable economic activities, leading to an enhanced sense of personal, social, and economic worth and power. Lessons from the BRAC experience are: 1) begin with activities that produce quick, tangible results; 2) organize women into economically homogeneous groups: 3) begin by studying the overall economic situation, traditional skills, resources, markets; 4) build on traditional skills, occupations; 5) establish systems for refresher training and technical and managerial support systems; 6) subsidize the experimental phase; 7) technical expertise may be required from outside resouces; 8) pay in cash on delivery at a piece-rate basis; 9) borrow small amounts of working capital if needed to start project; 10) use group. Guarantee credit schemes.; and 11) place all schemes in the context of broader policies, plans.
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