Economic Reporter :
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki on Sunday sought healthcare facilities for women garments workers for increased productivity for the RMG sector, which earns the highest foreign currency for the country.
“More than 80 percent RMG workers are female and most of them come from low income families and are illiterate but their competence have enabled the industry to compete with the world market,” she told a conference on healthcare delivery system for RMG workers.
She added: “If these workers remain healthy they can contribute more and therefore it is our moral and social responsibility to keep them healthy.”
Participants of the conference stressed the need for strengthening health facilities and creating proper awareness in RMG units to reduce risk of diseases saying their women workers in many cases were unwilling to go for health care services which is largely responsible for them to lag behind.
They said proper knowledge, inadequate treatment facility and service-providing agency and uncongenial working environment are responsible for health problems of the garment workers, particularly women.
BROWN University, Global Health initiative, USA and Child Health Awareness Foundation, Bangladesh organized the conference titled Healthcare Delivery System for the Garment Factory Workers: Challenges and Solutions at the CIRDAP.
Additional Director General and Director of Management Information System (MIS) of Directorate General of Health Services Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad, Former Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marica Bernicat also spoke with Professor of Brown University Dr Ruhul Abid in the chair.
“The owners of the factories are quite aware of the health issues . . . but sometimes workers also hide their diseases due to fear of loss of job,” Azad said.
State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki on Sunday sought healthcare facilities for women garments workers for increased productivity for the RMG sector, which earns the highest foreign currency for the country.
“More than 80 percent RMG workers are female and most of them come from low income families and are illiterate but their competence have enabled the industry to compete with the world market,” she told a conference on healthcare delivery system for RMG workers.
She added: “If these workers remain healthy they can contribute more and therefore it is our moral and social responsibility to keep them healthy.”
Participants of the conference stressed the need for strengthening health facilities and creating proper awareness in RMG units to reduce risk of diseases saying their women workers in many cases were unwilling to go for health care services which is largely responsible for them to lag behind.
They said proper knowledge, inadequate treatment facility and service-providing agency and uncongenial working environment are responsible for health problems of the garment workers, particularly women.
BROWN University, Global Health initiative, USA and Child Health Awareness Foundation, Bangladesh organized the conference titled Healthcare Delivery System for the Garment Factory Workers: Challenges and Solutions at the CIRDAP.
Additional Director General and Director of Management Information System (MIS) of Directorate General of Health Services Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad, Former Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marica Bernicat also spoke with Professor of Brown University Dr Ruhul Abid in the chair.
“The owners of the factories are quite aware of the health issues . . . but sometimes workers also hide their diseases due to fear of loss of job,” Azad said.
