Pens made for Tk 6 and notebooks for Tk 15, sold at Tk 10 and Tk 20; Tk 3,000–4,000 a month

A 29-year-old man from Uttar Phulia village, Gaibandha Sadar, has been blind from birth. He studied through class ten in Braille, and then from SSC up to a master's by listening to audio and using a scribe. When financial trouble nearly ended his studies, he started making notebooks to sell in March 2023, earning about Tk 1,000 a month. That October a friend told him about paper pens; through Facebook he found a woman entrepreneur in Jashore, bought 100 pens from her and learned the method, and from November he has made pens himself. A pen costs him Tk 6 and sells for Tk 10, and he can make about 50 a day. A notebook costs Tk 15 and sells for Tk 20, and he can make about 100 a day. His wife helps. The pens and notebooks made at home are sold wholesale to educational institutions and shops. He also has a small shop, 'Paper House', in Pulbandi bazaar for Tk 500 a month rent; it sells Tk 9,000–10,000 worth of notebooks and pens monthly, leaving Tk 3,000–4,000 after costs. That income does not run the household, and most expenses are met from his father's grocery shop. For lack of capital he cannot make as many pens and notebooks as demand calls for. At the district trade fair he has been given a stall for pens and notebooks at Tk 10, the rate set for entrepreneurs with disabilities and women.