Garment Industry in Bangladesh.
The dynamic changes in technology specifically the social media has largely affected the garment industry in Bangladesh. This was greatly seen after the Rana Plaza incident where thousands of workers lost their lives as a result of the factory owners not taking health and safety measures in the factory into consideration. This horrific and traumatizing act was greatly publicized via the social media (Habib, 2016). This led to a negative perception of the industry and some of the country’s major markets pulled out and some were threating to pull out to discourage such treatments.
Due to this, the country decided that it was time to effect change in the working environment and working culture in the industry. The change started by the victims of the accident being compensated and all factories had to follow and adhere to proper measure to ensure employee safety like installation of fire extinguishers and ensure that the buildings were safe to accommodate their staff and workers (Habib, 2016).
The Bangladesh Government also improved the country’s minimum wage by 77% resulting to the new minimum wage being sixty dollars per month for all the ready garments workers (Mostafa and Klepper, 2017). The membership organization for garment Workers like the Bangladesh Centre for Workers Solidarity, an organization that stood up for the rights of the workers in the country, which was previously targeted and under the close watch of the government was allowed to operate freely the country.
The ready garment industry in Bangladesh mainly employs women. Women were mainly perceived to household workers and were bound to household chores while the men were the breadwinners of the family. The fact that the industry mainly employed and gave jobs to women was seen as a form of women empowerment in the country as they would become independent and generally raise their standards of living. The fact that women are employed in these factories at an early age has led to the decline of early childbirth and early marriages in the country (Habib, 2016).
Women mostly the sewing jobs in the industry and the supervisory jobs are left to men. This has brought up the issue of gender equality in this industry. The entrepreneurs who decide to invest in skills improvement and training in women have generally seen a difference in their output. Since the industry has decided to promote their workers on the merit of skills and job competence, women are now able to take up supervisory roles in the factories which were previously reserved for men (Mostafa and Klepper, 2017). This has surprisingly seen women performing better than their male colleagues.
The financial constraint in the garment industry has disrupted the industry from reaching its full potential and attaining the set objectives and goals. This has resulted in the industry and the country in general seeking funds to ease its day to day operations. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) form the International Monetary Fund has contributed to the industry initiating major projects like energy, power as well as infrastructure improvement in order to increase its production. This will not only benefit the garment industry but also will help the country diversify its products for exports like agricultural processing industry, shipbuilding industries as well as the pharmaceutical industry (Habib, 2016).
Investments models have been developed and invented in order to upgrade the factories in Bangladesh to ensure the safety of their workers and staff. In addition to this, the government has established programs for technical training so that employees whether male or female can get proper skills to be efficient in the factory jobs despite the level of work that they perform (Mostafa and Klepper, 2017). Investing in skilled labor has seen to improve profits and increase productivity. The action to empower women in the country has seen that most households improve their living standards as both spouses are able to financially stable.
The Bangladesh government should strive to address the issues affecting the garment industry and help improve them as this is a major contributor to the country’s GDP. The fact that the industry is able to retrace its steps and become better even after facing so many challenges shows its potential to become even better in future. Both the industry and the government have major roles to ensure the success of the industry in general.
References
Habib, M. R. I. (2016). Backward Linkages in the Ready Made Garment Industry of Bangladesh:
Appraisal and Policy Implications. The South East Asian Journal of Management, 129-146.
Mostafa, R., & Klepper, S. (2017). Industrial development through tacit knowledge seeding:
Evidence from the Bangladesh garment industry. Management Science.