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IT may not be irrelevant to say something after the KTS garment and textile factory went up in flames in Chittagong on the 23rd of last month. Is this something routine likely to repeat?
If the fact that women in general are victims of exploitation is accepted, then naturally a question will inevitably arise: who exploits them? There is one group of people, who say that men exploit women; they utilise the reproduction capacity and household labour provided by the members of the fair sex through the process of 'marriage.' There is another group who favour the idea that it is possible to reach the equilibrium of power between men and women in a society through strife and class-struggle. Yet another group, who do not quite agree to this 'equilibrium' hypothesis, they reason it this way women are a class by themselves as even in a 'communist' society, women play the role of mothers as for them it is just natural and biological.
Apart from such unresolved and often meaningless dispute on this issue, it has been a fact that the majority of women are still being grinded by the patriarchal character of the society, which is however, gradually diminishing. Women are in utter distress, till today, due to the difference, deprivation and taboo imposed on them on the gender issue. They find it difficult to engage themselves as workers independently due to lack of liberal attitude in the society. As a result, they are obliged to engage in employment by defying the red eyes of members of the society, which in some cases includes even their landless fathers. For the same reason, the existing labour laws on legal rights as well as minimum wage, maternity welfare and entire security system for women workers are inadequate or ineffective in ameliorating the utter misery of female workers who are employed in RMG factories. Though they are the key capital for earning at least 75 per cent of total foreign currency for the country.
On the one hand, the WTO rules apply ruthlessly in the world markets, global trade, industries, factories as well as in respect of workers and consumers. Besides, WTO, particularly its agreement on trade, does not encourage production in the poor countries but rather it promotes the sale of products of developed and advanced developing countries in the markets of developing and the least developed countries.
Female workers engaged in the RMG factories of Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable. The factory owners are not much concerned about the safety of life and minimum wage required for sustainable livelihood of the workers, especially female workers. The state administration has not been serious either. The law enforcing authorities' ignorance or ineffectiveness is mixed with greed. Labourers are generally locked inside a RMG factory during working hours as if they are slaves in chain bound for a destination on an ancient ship. These resulted in repeated deaths of female garment workers since 1990. At least 338 RMG factory workers, mostly female, were burnt to death and some 1956 injured in 23 fire incidents in unplanned factory-buildings.
The numerical picture of casualties resulting from the incidents of fire in RMG factories of the country during the last 15 years is indeed depressing. We are awaiting another fire incident? Is it not a routine incident to happen? Answer is yes, until administrative weakness is removed, corporate buyers and factory-owners are made accountable for their lapses and standard RMG factories are built with self-sufficient facilities to prevent accidents with or without state support.
Once these things are done, then it will be relevant to say, regardless of gender, that our great human capital of 1.8 million female workers are safe from life consuming flames.
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The writer belongs to the NGO, Karmajibi Nari
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