The life and struggle of Garment workers“I wanted to be an artist by drawing and making handicraft but my dream is now ruined under the niddle of machine, under the rubble and sometimes by fire”- Lija a garment worker With a dream of living a better life million of workers from villages gather in workers barrack in cities. Lija, Modhumala, Shomapti, Masud, Brojesshwar are among them. Among more than 4 million workers 80% are women. Surrounding the garment industries large workers barracks have grown in Bangladesh. Workers toil from dawn to dusk for a minimum wage of BDT3000 taka a month (less than 37 $) till 2013. Government declared a new gross minimum wage BDT 5300 ( near about $66) , which is not sufficient for them to survive. This 4 million workers are not more demanding. They don’t have any dream to have car-house, even any luxury item in life. They want only coarse rice-cloth and a little roof over the head to stay anyway. They want to send their children to school. They don’t want to send their children in same profession but they don’t have alternative. How much they get from this little demand? Why their dream is being broken by struggle of daily life, by fire or by building collapse? More than 1134 workers died and several hundreds missing by building collapse on 24th April 2013, near about 112 workers died when fire broke out in Tazreen fashion on 24th November 2012. I’ve tried to portray the life and struggle of those millions of workers specially the women. |
