Research Artcle Journal of Advanced Research in Humanites and Social Science (ISSN: 2349-2872) Copyright (c) 2019: Advanced Research Publicatons Journal of Advanced Research in Humanities and Social Science Volume 6, Issue 1 - 2019, Pg. No. 7-15 Peer Reviewed Journal I N F O A B S T R A C T Handloom, a traditonal cotage industry in Bangladesh, has been contributng signifcantly to the rural economy of Bangladesh in terms of employment generaton and income enhancement. In Bangladesh, handloom weaving actvity is considered to be a marginally proftable business compared to other weaving optons as well as other occupatons. Therefore, the present study emphasizes on analyzing the proftability of handloom weaving units operatng in Tangail district, a handloom concentrated region in Bangladesh. To this end, primary data of 53 handloom weaving units have been collected from two Upazilas of this district. From proftability analysis, the study fnds that handloom weaving actvity in the study area is stll proftable albeit marginally. A disaggregated analysis revealed that small scale handloom units earn higher proft per loom compared to single units, medium scale units and large scale units. Contrarily, rate of return earned by large scale units is higher than that by other types of units. It is also found that handloom units, which produce higher value products earn more proft per loom than those producing lower value products. On the contrary, rate of return is lower in case of higher value products than that in case of lower value products. Extent of using family labor and economy of scale efect may have contributed to yield such diferences. Keywords: Bangladesh Handloom Industry, Proftability, Rate of Return Corresponding Author: Muhammad Rabiul Islam Liton, Department of Economics, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Bangladesh. E-mail Id: rabiul388@gmail.com How to cite this artcle: Liton MRI, Hossain ME. Proftability Analysis of Handloom Weaving Units in Tangail District of Bangladesh. J Adv Res Humani Social Sci 2019; 6(1): 7-15. Date of Submission: 2019-04-05 Date of Acceptance: 2019-04-22 Proftability Analysis of Handloom Weaving Units in Tangail District of Bangladesh Muhammad Rabiul Islam Liton 1 , Md. Elias Hossain 2 1 Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Mawlana Bhashani Science and Technology University, Bangladesh. 2 Professor, Department of Economics, University of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Introduction Bangladesh, having a populaton of 163 million, is recognized as one of the populous countries in the world. Around 65% of the populaton in the country live in rural areas, whose livelihood mainly depends on agriculture. 14 However, agriculture cannot always provide these households a sustainable livelihood, because of low per capita arable land, lower productvity of agriculture and risk and uncertaintes associated with agriculture in the country. Thus, in additon to farming, rural households ofen fnd scopes of non-farm actvites to enhance their income for earning a beter livelihood. The traditonal handloom industry, the largest non-farm economic actvity in Bangladesh since long past, comes up with such a scope for people in the rural areas through providing supplementary employment and income opportunity for farm and non-farm households. 2,5,7,10 According to various reports, a total of about one million weavers, dyers, hand spinners, embroiderers and allied artsans have been using their creatve skills in handloom industry among which around 50% are women. 1,5,8 In additon, a signifcant number of people are indirectly involved in this sector through the actvites like marketng, transportng etc. According to the report of Bangladesh