HEALTH AND SAFETY COMPLIANCE IN THE READYMADEGARMENT SECTOR OF BANGLADESH: PRACTICES ANDOBSERVATIONS

Abstract

Bangladeshi RMG accounts for the second-largest apparel manufacturer and
exporter after China. The readymade garment (RMG) industry is considered as
the backbone of Bangladesh’s economy and is one of the key core drivers as far
as the strength of the GDP is concerned. The key features of the RMG industry
determines three assumptions firstly, that the RMG hub is a strong buyer-driven
production chain; secondly, RMG thrives in this part of the world because of
greater availability and accessibility of “cheap” labor pool, low wages and
reluctance to unionization; thirdly, that the relations between the State and
industry are governed to some extent by clientelism. Over the last decades, the
growth of the sector has been spectacular. Currently, there are more than 5,000
garment manufacturing firms operating in Bangladesh. The RMG sector is
accountable for creating employment for more than 4 million people. The
garment industry of Bangladesh has very significant contributions to the
country’s development process in terms of foreign earnings, employment
opportunities, women empowerment and bringing various other social changes.
Despite all of these success and holistic development thanks to the RMG sector
there are grey areas which are seldom looked at by the garment owners and
policy makers, health and safety procedures are hardly given importance by the
policy makers and parties associated to this industry. The working conditions in
RMG factories have been repeatedly characterized by the Western media as
prone to the workers due to the occurrence of violence and intense workload
(Bajaj, 2010; Ethirajan, 2012; Yardley, 2012).