LocationsHow opportunity and skills are helping rural young women reshape their futures
Youth Driving Change in Rural Bangladesh
January 26, 2026
Young women participate in industrial sewing machine training under UNDP’s SWAPNO II programme, gaining skills that open pathways to formal employment and economic independence in rural Bangladesh.
©UNDP Bangladesh
By Nusrat Mahmud Ananna, Communication Associate, SWAPNO II, UNDP
I still remember meeting 19-year-old Aysha Siddik last August in Jamalpur. She was sitting quietly in a corner of the training room, practicing how to thread an industrial sewing machine. When I sat beside her, she told me something that has stayed with me ever since — “Apu, I wanted to study so much. But life didn’t wait for me.”
Aysha had been pulled out of school long before she was ready. She then had a daughter to raise, no stable income, and no control over her future. But what struck me most was not her hardship — it was the way she refused to let it define her.
She said, “If I stopped here, my daughter would end up just like me. I don’t want that.”
After completing her two-month industrial sewing machine training under SWAPNO in 2025, Aysha is now working as an operator at Jin Hong Garments in Gazipur, earning around BDT 15,000 (USD 123) a month — her first stable salary. Whenever I think of her journey, I’m reminded of how transformative a single opportunity can be for a young woman who simply needs a fair chance.
©UNDP Bangladesh
What Aysha Represents for SWAPNO’s Youth Vision
Aysha is one of 3,331 young rural women reached by SWAPNO II in 2025. What all of them share — whether they joined apprenticeships, formal jobs, income-generating activities, or entrepreneurship — is the courage to step into a future they had once thought was closed to them.
And that newfound confidence made everything that followed possible. Many of these young women are now earning a living through livestock, agriculture, and small businesses of their own. Others are learning trades through apprenticeships, some even stepping into male‑dominated professions for the first time. Many completed industrial sewing training and have already secured formal jobs in the garments sector, while others have started or expanded small enterprises using digital tools and stronger financial skills.
Why This Matters Now
Bangladesh’s youth population is large, eager, and critical to the country’s development. They must be partners in transformation — not an afterthought. And nowhere is this more visible than in the lives of the young rural women I meet through SWAPNO. When I think about what this programme truly achieves, I don’t just think of training sessions or livelihood pathways — I think of young women like Aysha. A mother who once believed her dreams were out of reach, now stands confidently on a factory floor, earning her own income and quietly rewriting what is possible for her daughter. Her journey embodies the ripple effect I see when we invest in rural young women, families grow stronger, gender norms begin to shift, and long‑underserved communities discover new resilience.
And all they ever needed was a chance.
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