Drishtipat Funds for Garment Workers
In two day’s time, prominent human rights activist Sultana Kamal will preside over a small ceremony to recognise the courage of some garment workers who came forward and spoke about their experiences in the garment industry on film. A one-off fund has been established by Drishtipat and the film makers of Bostrobalikara. I quote from the Bangla press release below.
Asif Saleh, one of the founders of Drishtipat said: “Drishtipat
launched in the UK last year with a dance play and panel discussion on
the plight of the garment workers. This fund is an extension of our
work to continue to highlight the ongoing problems faced by these
workers who through their toil have done so much for the country.”
Tanvir Mokammel, the director of the documentary, added: ” I am
extremely pleased to be able to make a gesture, with the help of
Drishtipat, to the brave girls who came forward to speak to us on
film about their lives in the garment industry. I consider it a great
privilege that my team could film them and make their voices more
audible through the medium of this documentary.
The funds are a one-off payment and will go towards
schooling, medicines, for baby sitting provision, the relief of debt
and for a marriage celebration among other things.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
We launched the London chapter of DP with the theme of workers and their life in the garments industry of Bangladesh. Many British companies, including major brand names, buy from Bangladesh and are increasingly having to deal with a consumer backlash against sweatshop conditions. Bangladesh faces increasing pressure in saving its most important export oriented industry from possible pull out from the buyers. Here are some questions and answers about our event and its purpose.
Why the theme of garment workers?
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The garment industry is by far the country’s most important manufacturer, earning around $5 billion annually and accounting for about two thirds of all exports. Bangladesh has about 2,500 garment factories with upto 10 million livelihoods dependent on it directly or indirectly. About 80 per cent of garment workers are women. The Ready Made Garments sector has more potential than any other sector to contribute to the reduction of of poverty. Despite the phenomenal success of the RMG sector the working conditions and wages of workers in the industry are cause for serious concern. Bangladesh’s current position as a leading garments exporting nation needs to be consolidated. The economy-wide reverberations of failure would be disastrous. We believe it is in everybody’s interest to sustain this industry - an industry which changed the lives of so many people, particularly women, in Bangladesh.
What are the some of the problems?
———————————–
The problems in the industry pre-date the riots which took place just over a month ago and which were attended by deaths, injuries and the destruction of property. Over the years, hazardous working conditions have resulted in the deaths of many workers through factory fires and collapses.The Spectrum Factory building collapse of April 2005 killed 64 people, injured over 70 and left hundreds jobless. In February 2006 a fire destroyed the four-story KTS Textile Industries in Bangladesh’s port city of Chittagong again killing scores of mostly young and female workers. Workers, who are mostly young women, also face an acutely difficult working environment - wages are low, hours are long, forced labour is practised, child labour exists, sexual harassment exists, freedom is curtailed, whether it be locked doors or rights of association, and there are a multititude of other practices which go against international labour standards and codes of conduct (= non-compliance). At the level of legislation and business dealings, lack of implementation of laws, restrictive laws and unfair buying practices by buyers compound the issue of non-compliance.
What is to be done?
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What has emerged quite emphatically is that for the Bangladesh industry to survive it has to take on board the issue of “compliance” with internationally recognised social, labour and environmental standards. There are many initiatives underway - buyers have their corporate social responsibility initiatives, the government has set up task forces and fora, there are the Memoranda of Understanding with the trade unions and the manufacturers’ and exporters’ associations. There are many stakeholders, and dialogue is imperative and all important. There needs to be the capacity and will amongst all the stakeholders, and particularly the government, to take forward and develop “compliance” and create an industry with an enhanced global image and global recognition of performance.
Anything else?
———————
The Spectrum disaster of 2005 was supposed to have generated an impetus for change in the industry. The riots of May 2006 have again brought to the fore the need for urgent and meaningful change. The apparel industry in Bangladesh will face difficult challenges in 2008 when it enters a new trading environment. Aside from compliance, which is difficult enough, there are other issues of buyer practices, turnaround time, infrastructural development, trade development etc. Given this context, the urgency for change in this key and pivotal industry is considerable. This is not an option. It is a must in order to save the future of millions of Jamila’s. The story of one such Jamila, for whom its a choice between joblessness and poverty on the one hand and unfair and unsafe work on the other, is what you people heard through the dance drama. Everyone wins by having a strong industry.. The garments industry in Bangladesh needs to be sustained for the benefit of all.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
Dear Shafiur,
Thank you very much putting this up. The documentary Bostrobalika really brought out all the issues surrounding the industry really well without any slogans and we are glad to help out some of these women. Those who have not seen the film may think its a film that only highlights the workers issues but in a competetive international markets it also covered how the clients crunch the suppliers (the garments owner) on price and still expect compliance. It covered all angles of the issue really well. Similarly, in our event last year , we brought all the parties together (including the owners and the government) to highlight complexity of the problem. Our goal before the buyers are scared away for bad PR on Bangladesh, we could all work together to resolve this. We found that in BGMEA there were young and committed owners who really wanted to change the industry with a vision for the industry. But there were some who always looked for conspiracy and looked the other way thinking the problem would go away.
The fact that the problem does not go away is now apparent to see. This is exactly the scenario we wanted to avoid.
http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=2057
DS Editorial
Garments export stuttering
Special measures needed to rev it up. Here is a DS editorial from Aug 28th.
After successfully weathering the storm of the post-MFA era and recording a 35 percent export growth in apparel market in 2004-05, the garments sector is showing signs of taking a tumble. Just to understand the magnitude of the decline in the 12-month period ending June this year, the sector registered a modest growth of 16.5 percent compared with 23.12 percent in 2005-06. Translated in monetary terms, we have lost potential earning to the tune of US$ 1.5 billion on account of orders being diverted to countries like Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
Our image took a drubbing due to a sharp deterioration in worker-employer relationship marked by widespread unrest in garment factories over minimum wage and job security problems. This resulted in extensive damage to 400 factories and Dhaka Export Processing Zone being shut down twice in just eight weeks sending wrong signals to our buyers.
Given the above state of affairs, we need to take a hard look at the sector and adopt a strategy that can help revitalise it and restore its full market share. In the month of October, a surge in winter orders is expected which BGMEA should be able to cash in on. The workers, employers and the government must work unitedly to make it happen. Let them start a fresh dialogue to pull the sector out of the woods. As the first step towards a forward movement of the sector, the tripartite agreement signed between the government, BGMEA and the sector’s labour force should be implemented in full by all factory managements without ado. There is no denying the fact that if the industry continues to be in a state of turmoil and disarray with an undercurrent of discontent amongst its work forces things are bound to worsen as time progresses, even if other factors improve or remain favourable. The overall business climate will also have to be improved to dispel any misgivings in the minds of our RMG buyers.
September 10th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
I should mention that Shaifur, using his blog and his resources, has been a tireless campaigner on this issue. Jamila’s story was taken from a real life interview that he did in Dhaka for his blog at http://shafiur.i-edit.net/ He also has co-produced the film Bostrobalika and helped us with our research for dp. Your singular focus on this and other hr related issues are examplary. You are a perfect example of someone who actually puts his money where his mouth (and heart) is.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
RMG industry is an achievement for Bangladesh and the development of this sector almost happened by chance when war broke out in Sri Lanka in early 80’s and the industry had to move very quickly.
While constructive criticism is good for the future of the industry as it helps the manufacturers correct the real problems with compliance of acceptable labour practices, there is some concern with this effort which I would like to discuss.
First of all, it is good that you are working with BGMEA, because as an association of manufacturers, they are the proper body to ensure the non-complying manufacturers improve their practices.
Here are my concerns:
- Bangladesh is in a competition with different countries to procure orders from buyers, who always have a tendency to go to lowest possible bidders, because if they do not, their competitors will and the other reason of course is that they want to maximize profit
- through this kind of effort Bangladesh RMG sector gets a negative publicity by being put under the microscope, while I am not sure the same is happening for other competing countries
- even if the compliance is thorough and satisfactory, the Public Relations part of these events have a lingering memory with overseas consumers which can have an effect on buyers decisions for years to come
In order to be fair to our RMG sector, I believe the following needs to be looked at:
- an effort should be made to find all competing countries in the same sector
- an effort should be made to identify DP like human rights organizations for each of these countries
- if a certain country does not have similar organizations, then data about real situation must be collected for presentation
- when a publicity event is organized it should be organized together with ILO and it should focus on all the countries RMG or other similar sector
Just because we are from Bangladesh and its easy to go make some films and collect data, does not mean we have to publicize all our problems to the world, before we even make some corrective effort through organizations like BGMEA. After repeated efforts, if the problems cannot be corrected, only then we can bring them out to the world, but when we do it, we must co-ordinate with other similar HR organizations of competing countries, if we do not, the end result may turn out to be unfair one-sided presentation of negative facts targeting only one country while worse HR and workers rights violations might be taking place in other bigger supplier countries, specially in countries like China which have very strict rules about HR and Workers Rights activist groups.
We are in a competition and instead of publicizing our internal problems to the world, we should try to solve the problems quietly internally - otherwise the resulting negative publicity may give our competitors an edge, which can potentially reduce orders to our manufacturers and result in joblessness for the very people you are trying to save.
It is a very sensitive and tricky area and you need to tread here with extreme care. If data cannot be presented from all countries with equal detail and equal access then public events in foreign countries must be thought of with extreme reservations, as it may unfairly penalize a single country, while other competing countries may be worse perpetrators of the same violations.
So my suggestion would be, in the future, to work with BGMEA and solve them internally and not publicize, specially in consumer countries. This would be service to our country and its work force as it will function like a good communication between the workers and industry owners, which is always a positive thing, a much better situation than going for formation of formal union and CBA’s that gets politicized so easily.
I think there are some who are worried about exploitation of workers, while it is important that workers are not abused, rights are ensured, but we must remember that we can only do so much with the little Cost of Manufacturing (CM) the buyers provide, and this is due to global competition. Good and conscientious management is important from the owners end and some watchdog body is welcome, but these self appointed watchdog’s should not make these issues a vehicle for their own road to fame, exposure and publicity.
In the end, if orders are placed, the factories run, the workers have jobs, foreign exchange is earned, GDP and growth everything goes up - so lets be a positive force to help the growth of this industry and not think of it as exploitation of human beings. You will be surprised to see how little it takes to make sure proper fire exits, proper ventilation (to avoid the negative stereo type of being sweat shops) and proper payment of overtime, salary and other benefits. I can speak from personal experience, although my own factory was in shoes, an item of more complexity and higher value addition and the salary level was much higher than that of RMG sector. Sometimes it is callousness of some unscrupulous owners that gives the whole industry a bad name. And definitely BGMEA is there just to bring the bad apples in line. The current BGMEA president, Parvez bhai, is a wonderful person, as far as I have seen, I am sure he is open to all suggestions and coordination.
September 10th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
If wages and working conditions have to be raised, and cost price kept competitive in world market, then to offset wage raises, the nation must reduce costs in other areas - like improving national transport, shipping, ports & infrastructure; and reduce hartals, power cuts, paperwork, duties, corruption, etc. Those are govt responsibilities, and that is where past corrupt dysfunctional govts were so destructive in long-term sustainability of RMG.
Secondly - most buyer nations have their own backyard RMG sweatshops too. These local sweatshops raise a big outcry and negative publicity against offshore nations (specially Bangladesh), to retain their market, whenever a strike, fire or building- collapse happens in Bangladesh.
Finally, disruption itself, due to worker militancy and riots is a HUGE negative for buyer perception of an offshore industry. The HABIT of jalao-porao which keeps BD under buyers’ microscope, only shows that BD workers don’t just do a peaceful strike – but they burn and destroy when they protest. That image, culture and tendency must be severely discouraged, in order for ANY industry in BD to sustain in future.
September 11th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Khilji,
I agree that it is of a senstitive nature and where we added value is that by showing how important the industry is to our economy to the clients. What a tremendous change it has made to our country and how disasterous it will be if they turn away the industry. When these words come from a civil society group rather than an interest group like the owners, they give it more weight. At the same time we highlighted how the buyers squeeze the owners for profit and at the same time ask for compliance.
All of these came in with an understanding that all the parties have interest at stake to make this work and create a win-win strategy. If the companies turn away and the factories get shut, what will be the workers do with their rights if there is no work?
I was astounded to meet the BGMEA reps who in these discussions to represent Bangladesh. They were mostly shallow and inarticulate and came across as very defensive. What BGMEA needs is an effective campaigner. The industry lacks visionary. Also there are plenty of good owners who take care of their workers. BGMEA needs to work with them and do a better job in communicating to the world that they are working with all actively on their own.
Regarding working with other countries HR groups, I don’t think that’s feasible. Look, it is in our interest to fix the industry. Do you think it needs a PR campaign when incidents like Palashbari building disaster happen? The accidents were happening too often, there were regular western media reports on child labor etc. Sooner or later, the companies will bound to move away from the country fearing consumer backlash. So its better to act and raise awareness before its too late for our own sake.
Because of the campaign, I have had a chance to create relationships with some of the clients and they regularly want to know from me how things are going in desh and I try to give the most positive picture. Recently, I wrote to BGMEA about a tv report on Tesco’s business in Bangladesh which unfairly portrayed Bangladeshi garments owners in a very poor light in a onesided report. Not only I wrote to the channel, I asked BGMEA to see if the expats here can work with them to confront it. No response from them.
Even in the international labor industry there are some very active campaigners who really want to see Bangladesh succeed because they know how important it is to the workers and people of Bangladesh. Late last year, one of them went to Bangladesh and got a death threat. Everywhere, there is this element of conspiracy theory. Everybody is worried abuot a conspiracy about them. Even if there is some, alienating your friends away is not the best way to fight them. Only an open approach is the best way.
Yesterday I wrote to a retailer who imports a lot of garments from Bangladesh to the USA to find out what is the real reason of the downturn. She said, in her company it was nothing to do with compliance or the political stability. But rather reduction of business due to weakening US economy. That made me feel slightly better thinking that this downturn may not be a permanent thing.
Thanks for your observation. I know you had some misgivings about this. But trust me, we have the best intention in our hearts.
September 12th, 2007 at 12:16 am
Asif S.,
Thanks for addressing the issues I have raised. It seems you have a good understanding of the situation. If you did not receive good response from BGMEA, that is unfortunate. If you would like any further discussion on this issue offline or need a direct contact with BGMEA management, please feel free to email me, I will do my best to help. I really think these issues can and should be resolved through mutual discussions, as it is all of our duty to create a better Bangladesh by working together shoulder to shoulder.
September 12th, 2007 at 1:12 am
#4Khilji, #5Kgazi, #6Asif
All of you have insightful thinking on RMG. I guess three of you together touched all the points. We have problems and we have strength too.
I met a Norwegian lady when she was completing her Ph.D. in US. Her dissertation was about child labor and Bangladesh was her field for data collection. After listening to her passionate findings, I urged her to consider the other side. I plainly told her that not having the opportunity of working in exploitation filled industry, two alternatives for those ‘BostroBalikas’: round the clock slavery in a household or becoming ‘Nishikonna’. I also gave her my observation based opinion that garment industry has contributed more to the women’s right in Bangladesh than Begum Rokeya, Sufia Kamal and Maleka begum combined. No disrespect for any of those lifelong fighters.
My summarization of reading three of you:
1. We have problem in RMG of labor practice and exploitation
2. We badly need this sector for our national growth
3. We should be tactful of not providing tools (unintentionally) to the Anti-Bangladesh lobby
I agree with all the major points you guys made. I have few slightly tangential thoughts. Any documentary film has its artistic side too. Commitment of an artist to society and the truth (the way he/she feels it) can not be ignored. While I whole heartedly agree that we should not put ammunition to our enemy’s hand, I think hiding the sore is not a good practice. I heard the similar argument of national interest and national image when people talked about the extremist/terrorist growth in Bangladesh. I am aware that any or all of you may beat me up for this comment.
I agree with Kgazi, such a vital industry should not be subjected to jalao porao, but we have to put some realistic bargaining agency in between to quickly resolve issues like beating, instant firing, sexual harassment etc. without letting them to escalate. As Khilji says, it does not take much to improve some of the working conditions immediately, why are not we doing it? Let’s find a way of make them do it. While we should behave responsibly to face the competition and squeezing price, we should not let the owners build millions and let the laborers alone pay for it. I would urge do not let profiteering attitude hide behind national interest argument. I guess, I am urging the owners to sacrifice some of the profit to improve the conditions. An oversimplified gesture of caring and sharing: hourly rate of MBBS doctors is not too high in Bangladesh; most of the garments can afford having a physician for few hours a week in each building.
Allow me to end with a great humanitarian note. Early 90s or late 80s, a fire broke out in a garment factory in Mirpur. Like other cases, hundreds rushed out, but there were quite a few stuck inside and waiting for their inevitable fate. There were those innocent girls screaming from the sixth floor windows. The owner came by. Looked up, he broke through the helpless crowd, ran inside. At the end, he died inside the burnt building along with many others.
The story made major headlines, you can easily find it. We are an emotional nation with heart bigger than ocean. We need direction and inspiration.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
SC,
I agree with you in principle but then again when I talked about challenging some media reports which does not give the whole picture, you are dealing with certain foreign journalists who are looking for the next Al-Qaeda story or the next Child labor story as a great career move. You need to be able to identify those shallow ones - the FOX kind. They have little care for Bangladesh’s garments industry or those bostrobalikas. I have seen a quite a few of them.
Thank you for sharing the very humane story. I have also have first hand knowledge that the owner of the garments in Palashbari ( http://www.drishtipat.org/palashbari ) has become a big champion for compliance. He has helped the victims as much as he could and has built a new factory which is now a model factory for garments workers in Bangladesh.
September 12th, 2007 at 11:10 pm
Since 1971, the remittance industry has been the single most important sector and foreign currency source for the Bangladeshi government. The large expatriate/diaspora Bangladeshi communities in the West West originating from the Greater Sylhet region, have been the single largest contributors over the past three decades to the Bangladeshi economy. In 2005-6 alone total remittances (not including amounts sent through the informal hundi system) contributed $4.8 billion to the economy. This money has helped alleviate poverty in Bangladesh by as much as 5% as the money sent back is targeted by expatriates and foreign workers to their family members and spent in the locality. And unlike the volatile Dhaka-concentrated garments sector, there are no overhead and plant costs. This is new money coming into the country.
The contribution made by the remittance industry can be easily seen in the supermarkets, malls, highrises and land development in Sylhet city (eg. Uposhohor and Amberkhana) and the region as a whole (eg. Moulvibazar town has really grown on expat cash). The remittance industry has seen dramatic wealth redistribution unlike the garments industry where profits are capitalised by a few wealthy businessmen and foreign trading houses. The vagaries of international quota systems also serve to undermine Banglades’s progress.
Undue importance given to the retail sector based in Dhaka (and to a lesser extent Chittagong) by some groups undermines economic growth in other regions of Bangladesh. There is a growing need for greater regulation and foresight in the money transfer industry and government involvement in maximising benefits from expatriate investment by opening up the stock markets and industrial investment for NRB’s. This is just as important as the garments industry, especially as Drishtipat is an expatriate organisation.
September 13th, 2007 at 5:59 am
It might sound naive but let me try to analyze:).
If we ask BGMEA to follow best practice while treating their workers it would be like asking the Truck owners association to follow the traffic rules as a best practice:).
Shouldn’t we lobby the law makers to make the rules so that if any garments owner doesn’t conform to those there is a way to make them do so?
And for that we need to find out what the ways are to convince them to vote for that bill in the Jatiyo Sangsad (Ah well that is not there today).
Why would a company want to spend some of their profit for their employees?
1. If that helps the employee moral and improve productivity
2. if that helps them retain their talented employees
3. if that keeps them out of any punishment or if that rewards them in some way(like tax break, recognition etc)
#1 and #2 may not be applicable when there is a an abundance in worker pool, so I guess #3 is the one we can pick for now.
-sharmin
September 15th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Based on one comment on # 5 I gather the problem of Garment Industry is the garment workers and foreign media/Human rights groups. Let us punish them.
I kind of agree with you, specially when there is fire in a garment building and the outside door is locked, they should just be burnt alive. I do not think the garment workers should ask for more salary, they should rather surrender some or total of the salary so they garments owners can buy luxury cars or their family can buy more expensive things. Dont the Human rights groups do not know if an infant kid of garment worker dies in fire (when he is left alone in the slum) is not a big deal as long a the Garment owner can arrange a fun trip to Bangkok/Singapore.
How dare they ask for more salary? (we can call them Deshodrohi) They should know that the garments owner has done more for them than Begum Rokeya, Sufia Kamal or Maleka Begum. (a grand invention found in this blog- what a wonderful research finding). May be we should nominate BGMEA for noble prize (if Dr Unus can, why not BGMEA)?
Let us chant slogan, down with the Graments workers
September 16th, 2007 at 12:38 am
12 Fighter71: While I honor you for fighting in 1971 against Pak Army, insulting BGMEA, BKMEA or BTMA will get us nowhere, collectively RMG and the other allied sectors are the biggest job creators, exporters and foreign exchange earners for the country and its people. Of course Begum Rokeya, Sufia Kamal and others had their contributions in society and no one is doubting or questioning them.
Your point about owners making pleasure trips to Bangkok/Singapore while not investing in the factory for providing sufficient salary, benefits and proper safe working environment is definitely irresponsible, that is why I support having proper labor laws and their enforcement as was suggested by Sharmin in 11. BGMEA or other similar bodies will not be able to function as the sole watchdog body as its charter is to protect and safeguard the interest of the owners and shareholders of RMG industries - govt. regulatory bodies watchdog and enforcement effort is essential.
But trying to pit the workers against the owners and inciting workers revolt and anarchy will not be something that will be beneficial for the owners, the workers and the people of the country as a whole, since our economy depends on these industries so heavily. So all of us who are well wishers of our country and its people should be aware of this fact and we need to be vigilant of unhelpful activities.
And if you were the owner of a factory, you have been paying all wages and benefits regularly (according to prevailing labor market condition), have ensured a safe and comfortable working environment for the workers, have been paying taxes and have some surplus fund (profit from the industry or income from some other source) to take your family for a vacation in some other country or buy a luxury car, do I, the workers or the govt. have the right to question or stop them, is it not their legal right as a citizen to do what they want to do with their money, as long as it is not against the law of the land. We can definitely question the decency of such acts and dislike them for their extravagant ways and create some social pressure on them, but we cannot do much else, unless we want to bring in marxism or communism in our country. The uncontrolled excesses of capitalism can be tempered only with proper value systems and morals which are found in major religions all of which promote love and compassion for our fellow human beings and neighbors and teach us to be responsible.
September 16th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
Fighter 71,
You are being somewhat unfair to khilji who did not make the blanket statements that you satirically put into his mouth. His stance was that of constructive engagement and honest questioning.
khilji bhai,
Onek din dhorey bhabtesilaam apnar comment er uttor dibo. The questions you raise are extremely relevant. I believe Asif bhai has already answered a lot of your queries.
Re: China and transparency. In the future, IF we the local people working along with garments owners can assure the entire world that our factories are well run, our workers are adequately compensated and their safety is not compromised, how do you think that will look next to an opaque China? People will simply ask, “What are they trying to hide?” and people with consciences might just move their businesses away to us. Transparency is good for business, opacity is not, is my point.
NGOs and BGMEA and other business organizations should work hand in hand as BANGLADESHIS to benefit ALL Bangladeshis. Both you and I want that despite our frequent disagreements on other issues. That it doesn’t happen isn’t always the fault of the “hostile NGO community” or “a foreign conspiracy”. As Asif bhai’s story tells clearly, sometimes the business community is apathetic, to their workers’ short-term detriment and their own long-term detriment I’m afraid.