Bamboo Craftsmen: Clinging to tradition, struggling to survive

People involved in producing bamboo-made crafts in different upazilas of Mymensingh are struggling to survive due to increased production cost and availability of plastic products.

The authorities concerned should take necessary initiative to improve the financial condition of the craftsmen by creating a favourable market in and outside the country, experts said.

While talking, Prof Dr Khandaker Mostafizur Rahman, dean of Faculty of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), said people still relies on some bamboo-made items for household and agricultural works as they are yet to find any perfect alternative.

Prof Mostafizur said during his stay in Germany's Stuttgart and Frankfurt he witnessed a huge demand for Bangladeshi bamboo crafts, especially shopping baskets.

A bamboo-made basket is being sold for Tk 2000, which is then barely sold at Tk 200 in Bangladesh.

Dr Mohammad Saidur Rahman, professor of Agricultural Economy at BAU, said the government should come forward and provide financial support to the craftsmen, still clinging to their ancestral profession, in order to revive the traditional crafts.

That would surely create more work opportunities and open a new horizon for non-agricultural people, he added.

It has become difficult to continue the ancestral profession nowadays as selling prices of bamboo-made products does not match with its production cost, said Pramod Karmakar, a craftsman from Biska village in Gouripur upazila.

"Though I've been involved with this profession since my boyhood, I am struggling to survive as it is very hard to earn Tk 200 daily from this profession at present," lamented the 60-year-old craftsman.

Another artisan Paresh Das of the village said a craftsman can make two medium size baskets a day and can hardly make a profit of Tk 200.

Abu Hanif of Subornakhila village in Muktagachha upazila said usually their business is comparatively better during the Aman and Boro harvesting seasons.

Hanif, however, said most of the bamboo craftsmen are unable to go for large-scale production due to lack funds and worker crisis.

Currently, some 1,000 families from different areas of Gouripur, Muktagachha, Phulpur, Tarakanda, Ishwarganj and Trishal upazilas are engaged with the profession, he added.