Recognising an opportunity amid crisis, a group of women opened a tailoring shop in Samdrup Jongkhar town. Such services in the town remained affected due to the border closure. Either the owners or majority of employees of tailoring shops in the district was Indians.
Samjong Community Pelyoen tailoring shop opened for business a week ago. With this, tailoring services in the town are back in place. All the tailors at the shop underwent training at the Community Learning Center.
Leki Wangmo, a member of the community tailoring shop in Samdrup Jongkhar said, “With the gate closed, we had to set up a tailoring shop. People are not able to avail themselves of even basic tailoring services. At the same time, it is an opportunity for us to earn some income.”
Pema Tshomo, also a member of the community tailoring shop added, “We used to work from home and no one knew about it. That’s why we opened a shop in the town. Business is better here. We already earned around Nu 11,000 to 12,000.”
But they fear the success could be short-lived. Once the gate reopens, customers will continue to prefer Indian tailors over Bhutanese. For now, their hopes to retain customers are pinned on providing quality services at affordable prices.
“We are worried about how it would run but we will work hard and provide the best services. I think people should give preference to locals rather than depending on those from outside for such services. We cannot continue with this mindset. If they support us, it will help our local economy grow,” said Leki Wangmo.
“We are focused on providing quality services although we just have a year’s experience. The foreign tailors are more experienced but we are determined to keep improving our services. At the moment, we must understand there is an outflow of our revenue,” added Pema Tshomo.
The thromde education office supported the group with the tailoring equipment. It also provided space for the shop at the vegetable market for Nu 1500 per month.
Kinley Wangchuk
