Nakshi kantha embroidery

About the business

Layering old saris or cotton cloth and running a design through them with needle and thread. Jamalpur is the centre of the craft; it is made in every upazila of the district and 'Jamalpur Nakshi Kantha' received Geographical Indication status in February 2024. Across the district there are around 400 establishments, over two thousand entrepreneurs, about 200 shops and close to two lakh women involved. The system is simple: an entrepreneur buys cloth and thread and hands it to village women, who stitch at home between household chores and return the finished piece on an agreed date. A standard kantha takes five to seven saris and one to one and a half months to stitch, and for some it takes a year. The money is the real story. Small Jamalpur entrepreneurs put the cost of one nakshi kantha, wages included, at Tk 1,600-1,800, and they have to sell it to Dhaka wholesalers at Tk 2,000. The same kantha then sells in Dhaka's big stores for Tk 4,000-5,000. The woman who stitched it for a month and the entrepreneur who bought her cloth share less than half of what the buyer pays. Lacking capital, the entrepreneurs cannot market in Dhaka themselves, and that single fact sends most of the margin out of the district.

Unit economics

What you need to start

• Needles, scissors, tracing paper and design sheets. Larger units also keep embroidery machines, but hand work is what Jamalpur is known for.Equipment
• Cloth and thread. A standard kantha takes five to seven saris. Thread was once pulled from the borders of old cloth; now blue, red and yellow thread is bought from weavers.Starting stock
• Trade licence from the municipality, union parishad or city corporation: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type, plus VAT and signboard fee. Issued in three to five working days.Licence
• The hand for dense filled-in motifs, which is Jamalpur's signature. Drawing the design, keeping the stitch even and matching colours take time to learn, and the learning happens within the family or under a group leader.Skill
• A group leader in each area who hands out cloth and collects finished work. One trader's ten-member committee covering Jamalpur Sadar, Melandaha and Nandina has each member giving work to two and a half to three thousand women.Supplier
• No separate factory is needed; the workers stitch at home. Most Jamalpur shops are simply a showroom built into the front of the entrepreneur's own house.Workspace

How the work is done

1. 1Decide where you stand: stitching yourself, or buying cloth and thread and putting a group to work. Both exist in Jamalpur and the money works out differently.
2. 2Walk the showrooms on Bakultala, Madrasa Road, College Road and Azam Chattar in Jamalpur town to see which designs and products are moving. Designs follow the market: human and animal motifs have thinned out and flowers, vines and alpona patterns are what sell now.
3. 3Buy cloth and thread. A standard kantha takes five to seven saris, and new cotton cloth has largely replaced old cloth.
4. 4Trace the design onto the cloth with tracing paper, then stitch along the lines. Wooden blocks were once used; tracing paper has replaced them.
5. 5Appoint a group leader in each area to distribute the cloth and bring the finished pieces back. This arrangement is what lets women work from their own homes.
6. 6Fix the piece rate per kantha in writing and tell the worker what it is. Agree the return date up front as well.
7. 7Do not stop at kanthas: put the same motifs on bedsheets, cushion covers, wall mats, panjabis, three-pieces, fotuas, shawls, pillow covers, bags and purses. Small items finish in five to seven days, so the money turns over faster.
8. 8Build stock ahead of Boishakh, Eid and the cold season. Before Boishakh buyers come to Jamalpur from all over the country.
9. 9Deal with Dhaka wholesalers directly and, if you can, go and sell in Dhaka yourself. Not being able to market for want of capital is the single biggest loss Jamalpur's entrepreneurs take.
10. 10Look after the workers' eyes: daylight, breaks and glasses when needed. Long hours of stitching in poor light have damaged the eyesight of many women in Jamalpur, and when the eyes go the worker goes.

Sources

• সিটি কর্পোরেশন থেকে ট্রেড লাইসেন্স প্রাপ্তির ধাপ সমূহ

  Collected: 16 Sept 2026

  Supports: Starting capital · বাংলাদেশ

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