DHAKA TRIBUNE

Long Form

Sunday, December 8, 2013

No childs play
How handmade toys have reimagined rural employment in Bangladesh

Farzana Nawaz n
s you make your way through the narrow, crowded, muddy and unpaved streets of Dhakas Natun Bazaar, buffeted by a mixture of smells of sewage, snack stalls, garbage and sweat of the people around you, the last thing you would expect to find here is a factory that produces beautiful, handcrafted toys that are sold at upscale shops in Europe and North America. And yet, improbably, this is the neighbourhood that houses the head office and finishing centre for Hathay Bunano, a social business that does just that. The Hathay Bunano office and production/finishing centre is housed in a modest four-story building, so modest, in fact that there isnt even paint on the walls (although, I was told that they have moved in there very recently). However, its clean, with lots of windows that let in sunlight and fresh air. Inside, one would find stacks of unfinished toy parts (a bunny rabbit with a missing face), or finished toys packed in clear plastic bags, yarn in all the cheerful colours of the rainbow. In the midst, groups of women sit at tables knitting, joining pieces and putting the finishing touches on toys with assured, astonishing speed.

necessary. For children between three and six years, preschool facilities with trained teachers are also provided on the premises. In fact, one of the loveliest parts of my visit to the Natun Bazar finishing centre was to see groups of happy children noisily participating in their pre-school classroom right next to the production floor or occasionally running over to their mothers who were working. The crche for the babies is clean, bright, with lots of toys. This is a stark contrast to the conditions in the RMG sector where its not unusual for a woman to be fired for getting pregnant and childcare facilities are provided in only a fraction of the factories. The Hathay Bunano women are paid according to the number of pieces they produce, a model that incentivises the more-skilled workers. The rate of compensation is 25 percent higher than the official minimum wage and 150 per cent higher than similar work in rural areas. Considering that living costs are much lower in rural areas, this means that the disposable income available to the women often end up being much higher than their counterparts in the RMG sector. The workers are provided free training on knitting and crochet for six weeks. Women who show particular

The Pebble childrens items are labelled Made in Bangladesh, with tags that include a Bangladeshi flag, something that surely contributes to a positive branding for Bangladesh chars, refugees and indigenous people living in the hill tracts. that many surface obstacles businesses face can be overcome if the local knowledge is consulted. The innovative business model of Hathay Bunano has received accolades and praise in the international arena, including from the Clinton Global Initiative. Samantha was awarded an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) for her work and most recently a detailed case study on Hathay Bunano was featured in MITs Innovations magazine.

Making the most of local resources

Samantha and Golam are equally critical of both traditional development projects that are overly prescriptive to their beneficiaries and of the RMG sector, which has centralised economic activity in the urban centres, forcing young women to move to the cities where the high living costs lead them to live in slum-like conditions. The Hathay Bunano approach, on the other hand, brings the work to the workers and takes advantage of one of the abundant resources of Bangladesh labour. They have opted for a labour-intensive production process that minimises investment in mechanisation but creates more jobs. For example, at the Natun Bazaar centre I saw a woman spinning organic cotton yarn by hand. This is surely a slower method than using a machine, but when asked about it the managers informed me that not only is hand-spinning cheaper, but it also preserves the integrity of the yarn better than machine spinning. Of course, it also creates a job for the spinner. Hathay Bunano has demonstrated that a distributed production model can work efficiently and profitably in spite of the meager transportation infrastructure in Bangladesh. All the raw materials and the finished parts are transported around the country on top of public buses as unaccompanied baggage. Mobile phones are put to excellent and innovative use to ensure that packages arrive safely, a method that Hathay Bunano claims has a 100% success rate thus far. When packages are checked in at the bus station at either end, a mobile phone number is provided with the package. When an employee comes to collect the package on the other end they are identified using a missed call from the registered number. The Morsheds also stress the importance of working with local people as partners so that their knowledge and innovative potential can be put to good use. One story that Samantha

Whats next for Hathay Bunano?

Since its humble beginning in 2004 with one rural centre, Hathay Bunano has steadily grown over the years and it currently employs 6,500 women in 64 rural production centres around the country. Spurred by this success, in 2010 they launched their own brand of childrens toys, Pebble, which is currently being sold in upmarket toy stores in Europe, North America, South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The Pebble childrens items are labelled Made in Bangladesh, with tags that include a Bangladeshi flag, something that surely contributes to a positive branding for Bangladesh. A new, special line of animal toys

As a social business, Hathay Bunano also makes it a point to work with the most disadvantaged and margnisalised. Their rural production model enables them to employ relatively low-skilled, sometimes illiterate women at the villages for the more labour-intensive tasks

Just like their head office, the story of Hathay Bunano is one made up of seemingly incongruent parts that still somehow come together to form a truly inspiring tale of entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and a uniquely Bangladeshi success story. Hathay Bunano is the brainchild of Samantha Morshed, a Brit, and her British-Bangladeshi husband Golam Morshed. The company was started in 2004 out of a conviction that the handicraft tradition in Bangladesh can be used to create world-class products while providing decent employment opportunities for poor rural women. On one of her first visits to Bangladesh in the mid 90s, Samantha was taken aback by the desperate poverty of rural women. Many of these women were artisans, making traditional embroidered items that were sold in the local market to tourists. However, there was little possibility that these would reach the scale where decent, sustainable income can be generated for the artisans. At the same time, Samantha was inspired by the fast-growing ready-made garment industry (RMG) in Bangladesh that was producing clothing at the scale, quality and attractiveness required for the global market. An avid knitter herself, Samantha combined these elements to come up with the idea of knitted and crocheted childrens clothing and toys that can be produced by rural women with a small amount of training. And thus, Hathay Bunano was born.

aptitude can develop and grow within the organisation by receiving further training to become supervisors or trainers themselves. Ultimately, some of these women go on to assume overall responsibility for entire production centres. Training on administrative tasks and accounting is also provided, when the role requires these skills.

Bringing employment opportunities to the most disadvantaged

As a social business, Hathay Bunano also makes it a point to work with the most disadvantaged and margnisalised. Their rural production model enables them to employ relatively lowskilled, sometimes illiterate women at the villages for the more labour-intensive tasks, whereas the more highskilled tasks, such as finishing, quality control, etc, are done at the Dhaka head office. It also works with organisations such as the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) to find

Putting the welfare of the workers first

From the very beginning, the welfare of the women workers has been at the heart of the Hathay Bunano approach. It follows a distributed production model where the basic toy parts are made in rural production centres, thus bringing the work to the women who need it. This allows the women to stay in their own communities and work within walking distance of their homes. Flexible working hours aim to accommodate the lifestyle and responsibilities of the women, such as agricultural seasons or attend school while working. Since most of the women are between 18 to 30 years of age, availability of childcare is crucial to their ability to work. Young mothers working for Hathay Bunano can leave their babies at the crche in the production centre premises until the age of three. This enables them to check up on and breastfeed their babies when

One of the loveliest parts of my visit to the Natun Bazar finishing centre was to see groups of happy children noisily participating in their pre-school classroom right next to the production floor or occasionally running over to their mothers who were working

employment for disabled women. In fact, the nature of the work is particularly well-suited for the disabled. At the Natun Bazar finishing centre I met Shima, a young woman in a wheelchair who has been working with Hathay Bunano for over five years. Shima was a patient at the CRP when she found out about Hathay Bunano and decided to come to work for them. In addition to working there, she also lives on the office premises, along with a few other disabled colleagues, an arrangement she seemed quite happy about. Hathay Bunano has also teamed up with NGOs and development organisations to bring employment opportunities to the extreme poor living on

relishes telling is, in the early days of the business they received a lucrative order where the pattern required using a cable needle (a miniature knitting needle). Samantha couldnt find this type of a needle in the local market and she despaired that the order would need to be turned down as it is too expensive to import the needles. Then, a woman working at one of the rural production centres asked her what a cable needle looked like. When Samantha showed her she said she would try to see if a solution could be found. A few days later she returned with a batch of cable needles made from bamboo (at the bargain price of Tk. 2 per piece) and the order was saved. This story wonderfully demonstrates

have been also created which features animals native to Bangladesh, such as the Bengal tiger, Tokay gecko, owl, and otter. One of the remarkable aspects of Hathay Bunanos growth is that all of it happened without external investors or debt. The owners have made it their mission statement to prove that it is possible to create market-drive rural employment in Bangladesh without donor grants or bank loans. By any measure, their effort is a success. Pebble toys are now available in a growing number of stores in Bangladesh. In line with the ethos of the company, the aim is to sell them within a price range that is affordable for the middle class customers here. Samantha is determined that the toys

are not perceived as luxury items only affordable to the very rich. The story of Hathay Bunano brings together two of Bangladeshs greatest traditions handicrafts and social business. It also shows what is possible if entrepreneurs are willing to exercise creativity to make the local conditions work for their business. But most importantly, it shows that profitability doesnt have to come at the expense of the workers and that given the chance, poor rural artisan women in the villages can create products that can compete with the best in the world. And thats no childs play. l Farzana Nawaz is a GIZ returning expert and editorial fellow at the Dhaka Tribune. She can be reached at farzana.nawaz@gmail.com.

Photos: COurtesy