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Cottage Industry refers to family based/owned small sized production units with small amount of capital whose production process is based mostly on local raw materials, inherited artistic skills and simple indigenous technology. These units operate in both rural and urban areas. Many of them use hired staff on full or part-time basis. Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC), the state-owned organisation for promotion and supervision of small and cottage industries in the country, defines cottage industry as small scale industrial unit run by the members of the same family either on full or part-time basis. The maximum number of workers in a cottage industry unit is 20, if it uses indigenous technology and is not run by power, and not more than 10, if it uses power-run machinery. However, for the purpose of taxation the national board of revenue has defined cottage industry as an industrial unit run by a maximum of 50 workers using local skills without adopting power-run mechanical equipment.
Cottage industries provide economic opportunities for the poor or the middle-income section of people through employment and income generation schemes all over the world, and especially in low income and technologically underdeveloped countries such as Bangladesh.
A mechanized cottage industry unit
Traditionally, cottage industries have been rural-based, but in course of time and with technological advancements, they spread to urban areas to avail of transport and marketing facilities and financial support from institutional sources. The area of cottage industries has now broadened remarkably from simple indigenous technology based and home-made produces to sophisticated handicrafts of wide varieties.
Among the cottage industries of Bengal, cotton is the most important, and has a history of at least two thousand years. During Roman times, muslin of Eastern Bengal was a passion and a fashion with the richest of Roman ladies. One of the striking characteristics of Bengal's handloom cotton textile and silk industry was their exceptional diffusion throughout the country. In pre-British Bengal, the cotton industry was organised under pure handicraft or the domestic system of production. Small but independent producers carried on the process of production with the assistance of their own families and occasionally with the help of waged labourers. Some craftsmen, artisans, and other small industrial entrepreneurs and workers were dependent on the capital of mahajans. During the Mughal era, cottage industries were allowed to flourish. Only a few weavers who worked in the royal karkhanas (factories) were affected to some extent because of Mughal rules. With the coming of Europeans, the domestic system of production of cottage industries became much more common. Then European merchants, including the English and Dutch East India Companies, financed artisans, weavers, and other handicraft workers for producing goods for export to foreign destinations. Company officials however, attempted to oppress handloom cotton textile, weaving, and other cottage industries. British rulers imposed series of repressionary regulations by which they controlled price and production of textile and other cottage industry goods. In addition, the regulatory constraints, physical torture, forfeiting of goods, seizure of property, and prosecution for recovery of advances stifled weavers and made them disinclined to work for the east india company. In fact, many indigenous artisans gave up their professions in protest.
Following the Partition of Bengal in 1947, the government of Pakistan took some measures to revive and reinvigorate the declined and damaged cottage industry sector. The government recognised cottage industry as a special sector and established a Directorate of Cottage and Small Industries under the Ministry of Industries. To provide financial assistance to them, a network of branches of the Small Industries Development Corporation was established.
During Pakistan period, capital investment in cottage industries was negligible and was restricted to simple implements. Both rural and urban cottage industries needed short-term credit. Cottage industries in rural areas were closely allied to agriculture, and included activities like poultry, apiculture, sericulture, paddy husking and manufacture of molasses. An estimated 3 million agriculturists were engaged in cottage industries. Of them approximately 65% were in East Pakistan. The main cottage industries in urban areas included handicrafts like iron work, cane-work, gold and silver ornaments and embroidery, hides tanning and leather goods, musical instruments, sports goods and brass and glass bangles. Persons employed in these industries were agriculturists as well as about 1.60 million artisans. Handloom, the most significant cottage industry of Pakistan, employed about 400,000 persons. Until 1954, the cottage industry met the bulk of the country's requirements of cloth. In the Second Five-Year Plan, the central government allocated Rs 284 million for promotion of cottage and small-scale industries. The East Pakistan Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (EPSIC) was established in 1957 by an Act of Parliament to establish and develop small and cottage industries in this region.
Like most other sectors, the industrial sector, including the cottage industries of Bangladesh, were severely affected by the destructive activities of Pakistan army during the war of liberation. The government of Bangladesh took initiatives to rehabilitate and reorganise the cottage industries as an important vehicle for enhancing employment opportunities. EPSIC was restructured and renamed Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) and given the responsibility for promotion and development of small, cottage and rural industries in the country. The corporation is also engaged in providing finance and other support services to the cottage and small industries. end of part 1
