To be his own boss

Not everybody is cut out to be an employee. Some prefer to be their own boss. While working in a private sector job in Dhaka, Khan Mohammad Abul Kalam Azad Bitu from Bagri village in Jhalakathi's Rajapur upazila found that conforming to the regulations that inevitably apply to a jobholder wasn't for him. In search of independence, he returned home to remake himself as a successful poultry farmer.

“I found it hard to follow all the rules,” Bitu says of his job in Dhaka which lasted from the time of his graduation in 2004 until 2015. “It made me feel trapped and I had no mental peace. The whole time I dreamt of independent work and finally took the decision to resign.”

He returned home from Dhaka jobless, with the idea of establishing a poultry farm.

It was a decision his family didn't take easily. In an expression of displeasure his father, a retired police officer, stopped talking to him for a time. “It was really tough because my parents didn't support my decision and they thought farming was a dishonourable occupation for our family,” Bitu says.

Nor was it only his family who found his decision difficult to accept. Neighbours teased him for giving up his job.

Nevertheless, Bitu pursued his plan. It took Tk 40,000 to start the farm, with 100 hens. He was fortunate since from the start profits were healthy. Upon seeing the early results, Bitu's mother came around to supporting him, and later worked with her son to expand the enterprise.

Currently they have 1,500 hens, a figure they plan to double within a month.

“At the beginning of this year I was earning only Tk 5,000 per month,” says Bitu, “but now I earn Tk 50,000 monthly from the farm.” Many of the locals who once jeered and criticised, now  approach Bitu for advice on how to start poultry farms of their own.

“Bitu's outstanding success has inspired me,” says graduate and neighbour Mahadi Hasan Jasim.

“I am planning to establish a farm at my house too.”

Nowadays Bitu's mother is proud of her son. “He has used our previously unproductive land to establish the farm and build prosperity,” she says.

But for Bitu it's about more than money. “I am happy now,” he says. “I 've independence."