Munaseeb Hossain
Online grocery store ‘Naqia’ began its journey to ensure organic and unadulterated products for the mass people of the city. The founder of Naqia is Shaba Binte Amin, who initiated her online page by establishing Naqia. Shaba was born and grew up in Khulna. Thus, she was habituated to live on pure fresh foods. She is staying in Dhaka for about 16-17 years. In this period of time, she noticed the trouble of getting pure and fresh products.
While living in the fast-moving world, we are being deprived from authenticity. Especially our food habits is being hampered most. Though people living in rural areas can get fresh foods, city life has become very much busier. The automated lifestyle of people makes them detached from their roots, removing the cultural values from their minds. These thoughts hit Shaba a lot. Her attachment and respect to her roots compel her to do something.

Shaba started her business with products such as pure ghee and pure honey. She bought pure ghee from Satkhira and honey from Sundarbans, which is locally named “Kholisha Modhu.” The name of the page she chose, Naqia, reflects its aim. The meaning of Naqia is purity or fresh.

Shaba’s aim is to reconnect people with our tradition, and so she started her page with these traditional items. Also, city dwellers rarely get these types of pure items like ghee and honey. Gradually, more products will be added to Naqia’a menu. They now have over one hundred products like coconut oil, linseed oil, etc.

It’s been almost six years now since Naqia has started its journey. As a repository of organic and unadulterated products in the online world, Naqia is trying to be the last hope for the people. Within this long time, it has gained its aim a lot. It is one of the top-ranked organic grocery stores in the country. About one lakh people are following Naqia regularly.

Besides running this page, Shaba has also started another page in 2021, which is named after her, “Shaba.” Shaba Binte Amin is mainly working to keep people attached to the tradition of the country. For this reason, she started another page to sell hand-woven native Jamdani sari. The purpose of working with Jamdani is to present the local tradition in front of everyone.

About her vision, Shaba said, “My main objective is to introduce our rural weavers to all, to introduce my country to the world.” She also said that she wanted to keep her business online only. She thinks it is possible to connect a huge number of people by working online, and so she still doesn’t have a plan to create an outlet for Naqia. Shaba and her team have already taken a step to work worldwide to introduce our tradition internationally.