Stitching freedom: How Hindu women in Sindh are tailoring a future beyond poverty

Arab News

5 days ago

MIRPURKHAS, PAKISTAN: In the quiet town of Sufi Colony on the outskirts of Mirpurkhas, the hum of 20 sewing machines fills the air each morning as women gather for work at the BRIT Women's Garment Unit.
Among them is 25-year-old Sanjana Dileep, the fastest stitcher on the floor, a divorced mother of one, and one of the four women who co-own the factory.
'In the factory we manufacture suits and jackets that are exported,' Dileep said, her voice calm but proud. 'We do a variety of sewing there.'
Launched with a Rs2 million ($7,000) interest-free loan under the Sindh government's People's Poverty Reduction Program (PPRP), BRIT has become a symbol of what financial inclusion can mean for marginalized women, especially in Hindu-majority villages where caste, religion and gender often intersect to limit opportunity.
'Earlier, we were living in poverty … But now we are doing this work that fetches us a good salary,' Dileep told Arab News, saying she now supports an extended family of eight, including a cancer-stricken uncle.
In rural Sindh, female labor force participation stands at just 10.8 percent, compared with 49.1 percent for men, according to the Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2020‑21.
In Mirpurkhas district, where the BRIT factory is located, over 1.68 million people live, more than 70 percent in rural area, with a literacy rate of just 34.8 percent among women. Social indicators show that 37 percent of children in the district are engaged in child labor, the highest rate in Sindh.
In this context, the BRIT Women's Garment Unit offering stable income and skill development represents a rare opportunity for personal and community uplift.
On average, women at the BRIT unit earn around Rs25,000 ($88) per month, a life-changing income for families in southern Sindh. The garments they stitch — cargo jeans, jackets, and other apparel — end up in supply chains that serve global brands like Izod and NewYorker, through large Karachi-based exporters such as Apex Garments and H. Nizam Din & Sons.
'We have 20 machines right now that are fully occupied as some of these females are training while others are working,' said Mohan Das, a project supervisor.
He said the unit is planning to scale up to as many as 100 machines.
'WORK WITH DIGNITY'
In Mirpurkhas district, where employment, especially for women, is rare and often informal, the BRIT initiative has opened a new path.
Hindu women, who typically work as housemaids or on farms, now have access to structured jobs and a degree of independence.
'The Hindu community here is very poor and women usually work as housemaids in the village so we thought about setting up a plant like what we have established, this BRIT female garment plant,' said Das.
Eighteen-year-old Madhu Omprakash joined BRIT a month ago. She is now one of its fastest learners.
'This job is giving a lot of [financial] support to my family and we are doing this with dignity,' she said, explaining that she took the job to help pay for her education and support her widowed mother and two younger sisters.
She dreams of becoming a doctor.
Another tailor, Kaushila, was found stitching inner linings for export jackets, her arms wrapped in traditional colorful Thari bangles.
'I am sewing about 15 to 20 pieces daily that are of different rates and fetch me as much as Rs800 [about $3] a day,' she said.
The factory currently produces around 5,000 pieces each month, earning about Rs600,000 ($2,100) for its owners. The CMT (Cut, Make and Trim) model enables them to partner with larger firms that supply pre-cut fabric and export the finished goods.
'Yes, absolutely, we produce export products,' Das said. 'We bring [cut clothes] from Karachi's big companies like Apex, Emaan, Zohra and manufacture it for further exports.'
But the global economic picture is changing.
Das says uncertainty in international textile demand, especially from the US, has affected their export pipeline.
'Our business has shrunk and that's why we have focused on local sales,' he said. 'Our female tailors don't sit idle.'
Marketing manager Lal Chand said the team is now approaching local brands such as Mama's Choice and Al Jobat Garments and exploring the possibility of building their own export platform to bypass middlemen.
'We are planning to create our own export platform and manufacture products to directly export,' he said.
Syed Shahanshah, district manager of the Sindh Rural Support Organization (SRSO), which implements the PPRP program, said BRIT is among several microenterprises the eight-year initiative helped launch before it formally concluded in June 2025.
'Our ultimate objective is to promote job creation, livelihood improvement and poverty reduction,' he said. 'The kind of awareness this community has got — we are receiving different business plans from them. This project has a future in the eyes of the government and I am sure about its expansion.'
Dileep, too, believes the project is just beginning.
'I belong to the Hindu community and we want to expand this factory as this is benefitting us,' she said.
'Earlier my father and brother used to work, but now we too are working and earning money. That really excites us.'