Working at Factory

As Laboni puts it "Supervisor addressed me a whore and asked that, whether I am his wife or sister? Then he threw the product on my face and my face was cut down by the zipper of the product".

She said that she had to face uncountable numbers of similar incidents there. Verbal and abuse were common incident. Finally, she drooped her job and looked for another factory. Now she works in another garment factory in Savar, which I visited. This factory produces jackets, three-quarter pants, and shirts.

At present 2000 workers work there. She says that her floor is crammed with people and she hardly could move even though there are air conditions at each floor. There are only four toilets for women. These toilets remain hygienic and clean at first.

A cleaner cleans these toilets for once and rest of the day's people use these and make impossible to use anymore. Vile and unbearable putrid rancid emanates from toilets and aggravate the situation.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified writer

Proficient in: Economics

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

There are two Doctors in the factory but sometimes they are very busy with their personal practices. The main gate always remains closed. Workers very often get ill as the place is very congested.

She is working there for two years and each time the inspector came to the owner and supervisors stand by them so that they could not tell truth to the inspector. Before the inspector came, the owner threatens them not to divulge any information to the inspector.

She starts working from 8 am in the morning and finish at 9 or 10 pm at night.

When she comes back home her legs bloated up in severe pain as she has to walk to the home due to lack of money. Leave is granted on the condition of cutting payment. During the Eid, they get leave in exchange for overburdened work before and after the vacation. She does not have any slightest ideas about what trade union is.

She does not know anything about worker's rights. Her current salary is 6800 BDT. She says it is very hard to maintain her family with it. She lives in a slum beside the factory which is very dirty and uncomfortable to live in, as she could afford only this much with her low wage. Her house rent is 1600 taka.

This place is crammed with people and very scrubby. She has to share a toilet with 25 people. Her life is very hectic. She does not have any time for herself to get refreshed. Life has become a heavy burden on her. Moreover, she is a subject of aspersion and disparagement because she works in a garment factory.

During Eid vacation, she travels to her village and she loves her village which is fresh and clean. She wants to get rid of her hectic life in Savar. But she cannot find any way to extricate herself from the retreat of sufferings. After two years of working in this sector, now she is realizing that she is becoming a very weak day by day, due to the hectic and irregular life of hers. Besides, her accommodation facilities make her sick as well.

Case Study 2

Farida (pseudonym) was a village girl, whose father had some handful farmlands in Gaibandha, a country district situated in Rajshahi. They had a happy life there. But things changed dramatically. His father had four brothers and they harbored jealousy and malice towards his family as they had landed.

His father was very candid and simpleton like most of the people who reside in countrysides. In their village, a monthly hut was organized where his father and uncles went regularly. Once his father did not have any money with him and his uncle offered him a loan on the condition of having his tip mark in a local registration office.

His father gave his tip mark and got the loan. This was the undoing of their happy and simple life. His perfidious uncle swindled them and extorted everything from them. Farida then came to Dhaka in 2001 and started working as a maidservant in a house in Dhaka.

He took shelter in Korail slum in Mohakhali. After living there for some years, she joined in a garment factory at Mirpur in Dhaka as a helper. This factory later shifted its production establishment to Basila. She also came to Basila with his factory and found living shelter in Chad Uddan. In her working place, she met a man whom she married later on. Now they have two daughters and a son. Her husband no longer works in a garment factory.

Because of a health issue, he cannot afford the heavy workload of the RMG sector. Now he works as a helper in a grocery shop. She says working in a garment factory is too difficult as she had to stand on foot for 6 hours without having any rest. Farida has been working in this factory for 18 years and her salary is now 10500 BDT and including overtimes, she gets almost 12000 BDT in a month.

But she had to work from 8 am to 10 pm. She says that it is very difficult to maintain her family with this amount of money. Delay of payment is a common incident. She has no idea about trade union and provident fund let alone others rights of workers.

He says foreign buyers and auditors frequently come to visit the factory but during the visit workers kept under strict vigilance as not to leak any information of their misery which they experience in the factory. Even the workers are warned beforehand as not divulge anything to the inspectors.

They have to work on some Fridays too. Leaves are very difficult to get granted even if someone is very sick. Workers frequently catch cold and fever but they are not given sick leave. If someone becomes seriously ill, they are granted with one day leave. Workers get confined within the factory.

Authority can terminate anyone on the pretext of burglary. Farida has been working for 18 years but he could not manage to save a significant amount of money. Her main intention was to work and save some money to buy lands in her village and then return there and get involved in agriculture.

Instead of that she has become enmeshed with implicate situations of urban life. She does not have any idea about what life has in store for her. She is floating in a sea without knowing her direction. She does not have any control over her life. She gets up at 6 am in the morning then goes to work and work there till 7 p.m. incessantly. Come back home at around 9 pm and after having her dinner she gets to sleep.