DHAKA, May 29, 2024 (BSS) - It has long been suggested that healthy curiosity is a sign of intelligence, this has been seen clearly in the case of twenty-one-year-old Atashi at her time of crisis. Deadly Coronavirus pandemic forced Atashi to come back home from Kolkata in 2020 where she was studying music at a school in a four-year course. After returning home she was passing her time idly, finding nothing to do related to earning.
 
Getting bored Atashi unlocked her intelligence that made her curious to do business through online. She communicated with her friend at Dhaka and told her to send some three pieces and sarees. After getting those items, she first communicated with her local friends and some senior sisters at Rajshahi city. She sent pictures of her products. And surprisingly, all her items were sold out within three days. She earned Taka 3,000 while she invested Taka 15,000.
 
Atashi’s intelligence made it clear to her that Bangladesh has diverse e-business target customers as it caters to urban and rural consumers. She also found that younger generations are more likely to shop online to being more accustomed to modern technologies.  
 
Encouraged by the ideas, it was the month of July when she started the e-business. Now, she is passing a very busy time with her business. She earned Taka 60,000 last month by selling garment items.
 
A large number of women have become financially solvent through e-business during the COVID19 pandemic.
 
Most of the business and institutional establishments were shut down in the country as well as the world due to the epidemic that brought a massive change to the normal lifestyle.
 
Like other parts in the world, demand and popularity of the online as well as e-commerce business has started rising to a greater extent in Bangladesh.
 
As a result, some young entrepreneurs have built an online business platform with exceptional and diversified local products properly utilizing information and communication technologies.
 
'Women and e-Commerce Forum' has already become one of the largest online business platforms as the number of participating members in the platform has exceeded round 10 lakh making many women  successful entrepreneurs.
 
Like Atashi, 40-year-old Oly Sarker became unemployed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. She ran a dance school. But her school was shut down and her income also stopped. She fell into a deep crisis as her husband also became unemployed.
 
In the last June, she started selling food items through an online food valley. She just cooks the items and delivered those to deliverymen. In the first month she earned Taka 10,000. Now her income is increasing gradually.
 
Oly said it was very difficult to run the family as ‘me and my husband have no income’.  “Later, I’ve started selling food items. Now, I’m so busy at my kitchen,” she added.
 
She viewed that the e-business is playing a vital role in generating identity of the women which is very important in terms of women empowerment.
 
The Bangladesh e-business industry has significantly grown over the past decade, driven by increasing internet penetration, due to favourable government policies.