Rural development on a grand scale
March 9th, 2006
Rural development on a different scale today, with a visit to the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC). From a start in local disaster relief, BRAC has developed into the largest NGO in Bangladesh, with an operation on a scale more usually associated with government funded social services. BRAC has spun off a whole range of activities ranging from printing to banking, and Internet service provision to the BRAC University (where we met – its eighth floor gave a good view over Dhaka).
Its Aarong – “village market” – retail shops sell hand-produced goods to the local fashion conscious middle classes. The goods are supplied from BRAC’s Ayesha Abed foundation, which now employees over 17000 village producers through a network of nine centres and 300 sub centres.
A two hour drive out of Dhaka took us to the oldest BRAC centre in Manikgonj. and on to a village based silk products centre nearby. BRAC bring producers into local workshops – this one consisted of four buildings arranged in a square with a drying green in the middle. Producers carried out the full range of activities – dyeing, spinning, sample making, block printing, machine stitching, embroidery, hand finishing, checking the finished goods… The centre employs 225, and processes 22,100,000 Tk of orders for Aarong per annum.
Walking back down the dusty roads it was impossible to tell where one village stopped and the next started. The surrounding fields were growing maize, tobacco, and the ubiquitous rice. The regional centre at Manikonj carries out similar activities to the village sub centre, but on a larger scale – plus other processes like screen printing and batik. Ayesha Abed deliberately uses traditional, labour intensive methods of production – as if they are trying to pretend that the industrial revolution never happened.
A final tourist stop at Dhamrai – once the prosperous centre of a thriving metalwork industry, as evident in the once splendid but now crumbling colonial houses. One valiant individual has revived bronze handicrafts production using the ‘lost wax’ technique, where an image is carved in wax and then destroyed in the process of creating the bronze product.
Back on the Bangladesh roads for another white knuckle ride. Note for future travellers – it pays to take a window seat in the minibus, rather than look out of the windscreen. Oncoming traffic is not considered a reason for postponing overtaking. Finally back to the hotel, to be re-united with our delayed luggage. It’s amazing how small things can give such pleasure – we sent off our dirty clothes to the hotel laundry to celebrate.