DHAKA, March 18, 2024 (BSS) – Nokrek, the family name of Munmun, who lives in a scenic village of Veduria under Madhupur upazila in Tangail. The village is surrounded by Shal forests. All the inhabitants of the village belong to the Garo community and most of them are penniless and daily wage laborers. Munmun came from such a family too and managed to establish herself as an entrepreneur through dedication, interest and working hard.
 
After completing her study, Munmun tried to hold on to her roots through an uphill battle to revive the almost extinct handicrafts of her community (the Garos) rather than taking up a nine-to-five job. Now, she is a story of inspiration to the young women of this small ethnic group of the plains after going through many ups and downs of her journey.
 
Munmun’s mother’s name is Rosy Nokrek and father Anant Simsang. Garo people in their native Achik language call Madhupur forest areas as Abima, meaning fertile land. Her parents work as daily wage laborers on Banana and Pineapple plantations for earning their livelihood.
 
“In a situation where expecting to have three meals a day was a very hard task, thinking about study was like a luxury. But I kept on with my study in spite of all the hardship,” she said.
 
Nokrek was a meritorious student all along. After attaining SSC and HSC degrees with distinctions, she got admission at the Department of Economics of Jahangirnagar University. After completing her post-graduate, she never wanted to join any public or private job. She always wanted to do something related to her roots. Hardships of Garo youths always made her to  think. Munmun always wanted to do any such work, where not only she, her people can make a better future.
 
“I thought about many things in my initial days, but later chose to do something with our traditional handicrafts and that made me stand on my feet. I started my struggle to revive our ancient aesthetic art in the mode of micro finance. My family too extended their supporting hands in this struggle,” she added.
 
At first, Munmun opened a Facebook page named Apsan. She used to sell their traditional dresses through the page. She took an online course in graphics designing in 2018 to make her online business smoother.
 
Later, she started taking ideas about almost extinct handicrafts of Garo-dominated areas. After that, she sent her younger sister Nijhum Nokrek to Askipara area in Haluaghat upazila in Mymensingh, where the only weaving factory of the tribal community still exists. Nijhum took a four-month training at that factory and opened a small factory in their house after her return.
 
“We built a small factory in our house after taking a loan from a private bank. We set up necessary machinery and equipment there and started weaving Garo clothes there. We started posting beautifully designed Garo clothes with Garo culture and traditional imagery on our page Apsan and it got a huge response,” Munmun further said.
 
More than one lakh people of Garo community live in Bangladesh. Garo women from ancient times wore traditional dresses like Dakmanda, Dakshari, Gannamara, Batarang and Khutup. These dresses, however, are not available here, they have to import these from neighboring India. Garo women like to wear their traditional dresses on different occasions like marriage ceremony, Christmas and New Year celebration. So, the size of this traditional dress market is not that small here.
 
A large number of Garos live in Meghalaya, India. Munmun said, if we can take our production commercially, we can also export our dresses. Besides, some of our products like Punjabi, Fotua, towels are also liked by Bengalis.
 
"Because with the touch of skilled hands, our products are durable as well as the handwork decoration has a touch of innovation," she added.
 
When you go to Munmun's house, you will feel like you are in a small weaving kingdom. You would find their own design and decoration around the house. There is a variety of clothing of Garo tradition. Munmun said, apart from her younger sister Nijhum, her cousin Milan Singhsam, mother Rozi Nokrek make various types of products. She only designs and sells those products online.
 
Munmun said the demand for dresses made by them like Kurta, Fotua, Koti, Muffler, scarf, cushion cover is growing and her brand “Apsan” is also making T-shirts with paintings and screenshots of their own culture. They are also getting a huge response for blouses, tops, wooden ornaments, Garo musical instruments, fancy products made by bamboo and cane and colorful showpieces.
 
Munmun’s sister Nijhum said their days of horror are over now as they are doing very well from their family business.
 
“Once we went through extreme poverty with our parents working as daily wage laborers. Me along with all my siblings too worked at the banana or pineapple plantations. But my sister’s initiative has changed our fate completely. Demand for our products is growing day by day,” Njhum added.
 
Munmun’s proud mother Rosy Nokrek in an emotionally choked voice said once her children used to go to school after eating only wild potatoes. But now because of Munmun, their time has changed. Rosy’s elder son lives with his in-laws as per the Garo culture. Her younger son studies in school. Munmun bought a couple of cows for her father and he happily looks after those. Now we are passing our best time, Rosy said.
 
While talking about her future plan, Munmun said dresses and 11 other items produced by her brand are now getting exported in countries like the US, Canada, France, Italy, China, Japan, Australia, India, Lebanon and Tajikistan.
 
“We already opened a showroom in Mohammadpur Townhall Market in the capital. In the future, we want to open some more showrooms across the country. I want to expand our business at home and abroad,” she also said.
 
People of the Garo community are also delighted by the success of Munmun. Garo women’s organization Achik Michik Society’s President Sulekha Mrong said once their age-old culture is on the verge of getting extinct. Munmun has revived their almost extinct traditional weaving from that stage. Many Garo women are also getting employment through Munmun’s effort, she said.
 
Sulekha wants government support for many other entrepreneurs like Munmun.
 
Former college teacher Babul D Nokrek too lauded Munmun’s effort, saying the meritorious girl never went for a traditional job, but looked for doing something new, something innovative. She has made her effort to make others self-reliant as her goal and it is certainly praiseworthy.