Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The Northern Areas Reduction-of-Poverty Initiative (NARI) project, supported by the World Bank, aims to economically empower poor and vulnerable women from the northwestern region by facilitating their access to jobs in the ready-made garment sector.
The NARI project will offer training, transitional housing, counseling and facilitate formal employment in garment factories for around 11,000 women from five northern districts, namely Gailbandha, Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, and Rangpur.
The selected candidates will be facilitated to find employment in three Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in Dhaka, Karnaphuli, and Ishwardi where dormitories and training centers will be constructed by the project.
The dormitory designs are finalized and approved after the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology had vetted the designs.
“The garment industry in Bangladesh has played a significant role in providing economic benefits to poor and vulnerable women. Today, around 80 percent of the garments workers are women. Yet, the number of poor women from impoverished northwestern districts joining the garments sector is much lower than the number of poor women from other parts of the country,” the World Bank said in a project update on Tuesday.
Female garment workers constitute a highly vulnerable group: young, poor, unskilled, sometimes illiterate, and often single women in a society dominated by strong gender hierarchies.
The first few months in the city and at the factory are the most hazardous, as acknowledged by many studies on female garment workers. Female garment workers find limited support systems when they start living in the city.
The transitional housing and training facilities will help poor women to adjust to the migrant life and to the new found employment.
The project will also raise awareness in the selected districts, where a screening and orientation program will be in place to select appropriate candidates.
The government is also planning to undertake a feasibility assessment for the possible inclusion of Uttara EPZ in Nilphamari as a fourth EPZ in the project.
The assessment will be carried out simultaneously with the implementation of the project. The NARI project will be scaled up to different regions or industries if proven successful.
The World Bank has approved concessional financing of US$29.37 million. All credits from World Bank are interest free and carry 0.75 percent service change with 40 years of maturity period where the first 10 years are grace period.
BBN/SSR/AD-01May12-12:50 pm (BST)
