WUNRN
Women News Network - WNN
http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/08/08/garment-women-struggle-payscale-bangladesh/ -
Website Link Includes Video
BANGLADESH - GARMENT INDUSTRY WOMEN
CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE
WITH LOW WAGES & POVERTY, WORK
CONDITIONS, HARASSMENT +
Bijoyeta Das – Women News Network – WNN MDG
Stories
After violent protests last year the
Bangladeshi government nearly doubled the standard minimum wage for garment
workers. The minimum wage is now $43 a month but even with this increase
With a population of 150 million,
Today the garment industry produces 10 % of the
country’s GDP. And it has the lowest garment wages in the world. Most companies
don’t comply by the minimum wage rule and con $15 to $18 a month. About 80% of
the 3 million garment workers are women and children as young as 12.
Dhaka’s garment girls live in dismal conditions in
one-room hand built shanties in the burgeoning slums of
The garment workers join the garment factories
lured by dreams of financial independence but now it is nothing less than
slavery. They are made to work for more than 10 hours a day, seven days a week.
Many women complain of harassment at the
factories, both rude behavior and sexual assaults. In many cases women are
attacked when they are returning home after night shifts. There is no insurance
and no medical compensation. But the garment factories continue to lure hundreds
of thousands of young girls and children each year.
They form the most recognizable and fast-growing
class of garment workers, who disappear into the narrow lanes of
Both Lily and her husband work in the garment
factories. She says she tries hard to save by cutting down on the grocery list;
she avoids meat and fish, buying only cheap vegetables such as potatoes. “In
today’s economy, with the money we earn it is impossible to survive. Even after
working so hard, it is so tough.”
Every night either Lily or her husband works the
night shift to bring in some extra cash, but she says she still cannot feed her
family. That’s why she wants to go back to the village, maybe start up a
poultry farm and send her children to school. The dream to spend more time with
her children in her village has replaced Lily Begum’s garment industry dream.