Everytime I make my way into Primark, H&M, Tesco, Asda and Matalan the helpless faces of those who lost their loved ones in numerous tragedies involving the readymade garment factories in Bangladesh come to my mind. Yet I regularly visit these and many other retail outlets for the simple reason that they sell cheap clothes imported from countries like Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. Such products manifest some of the tangible benefits of globalisation available mainly to the people in the western countries. For me though they are no less than the labour of love of the garment workers who work under inhumane conditions but do everything necessary to provide us with cheap yet high quality products.
Once I bought a shirt from Primark and it cost me as little as £5. Just to clear my doubts, I took it to Kolkata, showed the shirt to many retailers and wholesalers of clothes, yet failed to get one of such quality at such a modest price. Undoubtedly, globalisation has changed the dynamics of trade fetching even more benefits to the consumers in the first world.
When Neoliberalism - a politico-economic doctrine that decimated the nation state - and trade liberalisation were introduced, capital flowed easily and swiftly from the North to the labour abundant countries of the South. Jobs and services were outsourced to places where cost of living was much less and factors of production had to be paid a fraction of the remuneration in the western economies. Large scale retrenchment and factory closures that followed caused huge resentment, yet the policy-makers assured the ordinary men saying that things like clothing, food etc. would be available at a much cheaper price bringing the cost of living down. The real ploy, one can now make out, was to keep the wages low so as to mop up even more profit for the corporate class.
On the other side of the world, sweatshops engaged in industrial production of readymade garments became the hallmark of national pride and identity. Mushrooming of readymade garment factories ensured fast buck for the traders, which also paid for the comfortable living of their political patrons. Unhindered wealth creation in Bangladesh benefited the rich and the influential but the misery of those who toiled hard to earn foreign exchanges and pride for the nation continued. The garment workers were literally locked up in dingy buildings so that their masters could deliver orders on time. They were left to die from suffocation as the country's foreign exchange reserve touched new highs. And finally, they were literally pushed to the throes of death as a building in Savar, housing at least five garment factories, caved in following a crack which was evident well ahead of the worst industrial disaster Bangladesh has ever seen.
As I sport the cheap yet high quality, trendy yet comfortable clothes exported from countries like Bangladesh, I often indulge in a cost-benefit analysis for the poor workers who work in inhumane conditions only to add to the forex reserve of the national economy so that Bangladesh could upgrade to a developing country, and to make Neoliberalism palatable for the westerners.
The readymade garment sector accounts for more than 70 per cent of Bangladesh's export earnings, yet the inhumane condition of the hapless workers in this sector and their deaths in tragic circumstances have failed to stir the nation's moral imagination. Everytime a tragedy strikes the readymade garments sector, political parties of all hues make a beeline to offer nothing more than lip service only to ensure that the perpetrators go scot free.
One tragedy after another have failed to awaken the political class from the opportunistic slumber. Awami League claims to have situated the country on a higher trajectory of growth and prosperity, but what have they done for the garment workers who lost their lives and their families. BNP is more interested in bringing back the caretaker regime before the general elections but have very little to offer to the poor workers. Jamaat-i-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam vow in the name of Islamic morality and norms, yet they are silent over the tragic killing of innocent and poor garment workers at Savar.
The ill-fated workers are neither compensated enough for the hard work they do in inhumane conditions nor are they sure to survive another day to witness a new dawn. The surplus generated through their economic and social exploitation pays for the comfortable living of the rich and the influential, yet the garment workers carry on with their labour of love - what else can one call it - day in and day out.
It is no surprise though that the international community, which speaks so highly on human rights and values, also become muted when it comes to the sufferings of the poor garment workers in Bangladesh. After all, the cheap products produced by the hard work of the poor workers in Bangladesh contribute to a lower cost of living in the West.
The dresses that I wear everyday are drenched in sweat and blood of those very people who, along with many others, lost their lives under tragic circumstances in places like Savar. It seems they are caught in a quagmire of high stakes from various quarters both within and outside Bangladesh.
Tirthankar Bandyopadhyay is a journalist and media consultant.
He can be contacted at tirthankarb@hotmail.com
All comments are personal.
The situation is really very distressing. One won’t have to be an expert of economic affairs to understand how pathetic the condition of these workers is in countries like India or Bangladesh. It only reminds us of the inhuman tales of exploitation of factory workers we read in 19th century novels. But I would accuse the unscrupulous politicians the most, without them the workers would have found out a way for themselves.
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