by Rosaline Costa

The export-orientated ready made garment factories are mushrooming in Bangladesh. Over 400,000 workers are employed in these factories and millions of dollars in foreign currencies are earned. Among the 400,000 garment workers, more than 80% are women. In several factories visited by this writer, 10%-20% of the workers are children who help the machine operators with ironing and help in bringing and taking things.

During the past few years, there have been a lot of changes and improvements in the situations of these workers, but for many others, the conditions have worsened. What follows is the story of one garment factory where young girls are employed and virtually imprisoned.

Savar Upazilla is situated about 18 km. north of Dhaka City, capital of Bangladesh, in a village named Arapara in Savar is a factory named The Based Denim Apparels Ltd. Attached to the factory is a hostel which houses 130 Garo tribal girls who are employed in the factory. The girls were brought from Mymensingh District in September 1989 by a hostel manager, Humayun. Humayun had married a Garo tribal girl and made her an agent to recruit these girls.

When the Garo tribal girls were taken in, they were promised that they would earn a lot of money and would enjoy other facilities. However, after working for two full months, they were paid only Tk 100 (US$3.30) which included an advance payment of Tk 50 for the third month of work. Humayun explained that he had deducted food and other hostel charges from their salary.

The working conditions in the factory have also turned out to be back-breaking. They enjoyed no holidays, not even for weekly religious activity. They enjoyed no home leave, nor sick leave. The working hours were from eight in the morning till eight in the evening. Workers at the Finishing Department had no regular working hours. It was not uncommon to find workers working for 38 hours nonstop. Not only were the Garo paid very low, they were also paid less than Muslim girls.

As the Garo girls became very dissatisfied with the wages and working condition, fifteen of them submitted their resignation to the factory manager who refused to allow them to leave. Subsequently, they were not allowed even to go out of the hostel any time of the day. At the end of October, these fifteen girls leaped over the wall and escaped. Another four did the same thing later.

In November, ten other girls fell sick. For ten days, they were forced to work even though they were sick. Finally they decided to submit for sick leave and stayed back in the hostel for rest. But the supervisor was sent to the hostel to take them to work. When they refused, the factory owner came and scolded them. He even ordered to hostel manager, Humayun, not to give food to those who did not go to work.

Thinking of what would happen to them in the future, these nine girls submitted their resignations to the owner. Ten other girls joined them. However, their resignations were not accepted. Instead they were scolded with offensive words. When they spoke among themselves in their own language, Mandi, they were slapped and all their belongings were taken away by Humayun. They were then forced to go to work. But the nine girls were determined to leave. One day in the late afternoon, they left the hostel empty handed and walked all the way to Dhaka, arriving at 1:30 am at a relative's house.

According to one of the Garo girls, others had escaped at night because when they tried to leave in the daytime, the owner threatened to hand them over to the police. Instead, as past experiences showed, the police are often used by factory owners to threaten the workers, especially when they attempt to form unions. The owners also use other means to prevent workers from forming unions such as planting agents among them. Once a owner learns that the workers are trying to form a union, the workers are dismissed immediately. It would be very difficult for these workers to look for a job again because the owner would give their names to the association of owners.

As for the Garo girls, they are brought to work in the garment factories because the Garos are believed to be hardworking, submissive and humble. Also, they do not speak Bangla which is the official language, thus they can be doubly exploited.

Source:

Asian Women Workers Newsletter March 1990, no. 1, vol. 9
published by: Committee for Asian Women 57 Peking Road 4/F, Kowloon Hongkong