The success case study of Farzana, as narrated in the Prosperous Bangladesh budget book, is not fully inaccurate. The story talks about a solvent and self-reliant Farzana though the real picture shows a young girl faced with many responsibilities and scarcity of funds.
Farzana cannot get admitted to higher secondary level due to lack of money.
The story says that Farzana was selected for skill development training under the ministry of labour and manpower’s ‘Eradicate risky child labour (2nd phase) prorgramme and after getting the required skill development training, opened a tailoring shop at Lalbagh in Dhaka.
It goes on to say that Farzana is the only earning member of the family now and her income from the tailoring shop pays for the upkeep of the six-member family.
In reality, though Farzana took training and then learnt the craft from her father, she is facing financial difficulties.
Her father is suffering from a variety of illnesses but due to Farzana’s resilience, the family is surviving. The father is happy that her daughter’s life has been featured in the book.
“At that critical time, the skill development training was essential, we don’t want our daughter to face many difficulties that we had to encounter,” said Farzana’s father.
Superviser of the Eradicate Risky Child Labour (2nd phase), Jesmin Ahmed Polly, observed: “The girl wanted to learn and therefore managed to make a livelihood; we do not want her to be reliant on her husband.”