Started with 27 litres of milk, now 2,200 litres of paneer a day; Tk 60,000-70,000 profit a month

When a private organisation's paneer factory in Nishchintapur, Thakurgaon town, closed at a loss, its women workers lost their jobs. A housewife's eldest son then advised her to produce paneer at that factory. She took a loan from a private development organisation and in 2012 started making paneer from 27 litres of milk, though Thakurgaon had no tradition of cow-milk paneer. Before this she had traded in old clothes and scrap iron. Her paneer's reputation spread gradually, and income and business grew. The Nishchintapur factory now turns about 2,200 litres of milk a day into paneer, with a profit of Tk 60,000-70,000 a month after all costs. Two more factories handle another 2,500 litres a day. Hotels and fast-food shops in Dhaka and elsewhere want her paneer; her eldest son handles marketing in Dhaka. More than a hundred people work for her, mostly vulnerable women, earning Tk 4,500-5,000 a month. Many dairy farmers in the area became better off by supplying milk to her factory. In 2017 she won City Foundation's Best Small Entrepreneur award.