Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque and Nasir Uddin :
Urban life in a mega city like Dhaka and its out skits is under threat. Risks and hazards as the fall outs of unplanned urbanization have bedeviled the lives of the city dwellers. Planned Dhaka city continues to be a distant dream. Dhaka skyline is growing faster like Singapore, Kulalampur, Dubai and Mumbai with a fantastic increase in the number of high rise apartments, establishments and shopping malls and apparel industries. In fact the whole city has been experiencing a vertical growth with a scanty chance of further horizontal physical expansion. Most garment industries have been housed apartments that are mostly death traps not protected from building collapse. Several multi-storied buildings in the city collapsed. The gravity of the crisis concerns lack of open spaces, mushrooming of tall buildings even in narrow lane, construction of shops and even big shopping centers either on roads fronts or the city fringes. Huge multistoried buildings are clustered together along both sides of the main or connecting roads with little space in between. The little space is inaccessible by ambulance and fire brigade.
The city must be an abode where urban citizens can lead fulfilling their lives in complete safety and equanimity. Distressingly years of neglect in addressing contemporary problem of urban governance has made the city as a death valley. Corruption has taken a heavy toll in various sectors of city management making sullying marks in the service delivery systems. Fuzzy governance in public utilities, RAJUK and City Corporation account much for sluggish implementation of development project and gratification of all illegal activities of the influential. We have a plenty of reports about pitfalls in urban administration. Managing tender for contractorship and approval of blueprints of buildings, residential and commerce, by offering kickbacks becomes proverbial. All such illegal actions in contravention of the existing rules are hardly accounted for.
Under the building and construction act, all types of buildings including dwelling units and commercial establishment require a permit from RAJUK. Haphazard construction of buildings is going on unabated. A few persons comply with building codes. On the contrary it is easy to manage permit by exerting undue influence and by exploring any connections, kinship or fictive. There are incidences of accidents in markets, apparel industries and residential buildings. We do not bother to think about the danger of violating building codes. Most builders of high rise buildings do not think in terms of ‘sound structural design’ based on ‘correct materials in correct proportion’. The city dwellers have by now experienced a terrible accident in commercial building at Savar that took man important lives and damaged property. It was a eight-storey beautiful complex accommodating banks, other institutions, shops and garments. It is a premonitory episode -a reminder to the state of indifference to the danger of unplanned urbanization.
The consequence will become catastrophic if earth quake jolts tall buildings. The builders and constructors may be advised to carefully think about structuring tomorrow. One year ago this week, the Rana Plaza building on the outskirts of Dhaka collapsed, killing around 1,130 people who had been ordered back to work even after huge cracks were discovered in its walls. Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a Washington DC-based monitoring group that helped draft the agreement behind the inspections said “In the context of the Rana Plaza anniversary, I can’t think of a more meaningful demonstration of progress. Although three-quarters of Bangladesh’s 4,000 operational garment factories have not yet been inspected. Srinivas Reddy of the International Labor Organisation said: “There are 4.2m workers in the garment industry in Bangladesh. As a result of the efforts of the last one year, one-fourth of them are now getting safer places to work.”
But there is a long way to go. Demand for ‘compliance experts’ to our garment factories has of late increased following a score of garment accident. Devastating fire hit second largest garment factory (Tazreen Fashion) at suburban Ashulia area, Dhaka, killing more than 100 workers. Fifty-two of the dead remained unidentified as the deadly blaze burnt their bodies beyond recognition while investigations were underway into the inferno amid suspicions that it was an act of sabotage, endangering the country’s key-economic sector.
The country observed national mourning day. The country’s flag flew at half-mast at most of the government buildings and nearly 6,500 readymade garment units across the nation kept their operations shut. The workers while coming up with mammoth demonstration term the clothing factory as a death valley. They protested death-trap conditions existing in garment industry barricading road in Uttara residential area. They prepared bury death bodies of the victims. National Garments Workers Federation staged a black badge protest in the city demanding compensation for the victims’ families, improved safety standards for the units, stern action ascertaining responsibilities for the tragedy and increased vigil against plots to upset the garments sector.
The owners of garments are concerned about profit. They bother much less about security of garment workers but for whose ceaseless efforts garment sector could not have contributed to huge foreign exchange. Bangladesh annually earns about dollar 20bn fro exports of garments mainly to US and Europe. They work at their own risk in inhuman conditions confined in the factory buildings that may have no enough space in the corridor to move out in times of fire accident. There should have been safe exit door. Bangladesh has 4000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. Factory building s is full of faulty engineering creating a lot of suffocation inside. Every time fire incidence takes place the government form probe committee as eye washes paying compensation to the victims’ families. The concerned authorities must think of security arrangement without which no permission should be given for the installation of garment factories.
By now the concerned authorities have been led by realization. But then the realization is belated. This is because of compelling circumstances. According to exporters, ‘almost all types of export-oriented factories across the country are in a rush to appoint ‘compliance experts’ to their factories following continuous pressure from their buyers for ensuring standard working conditions at the factories.
Local and international buying houses alike think to appoint ‘compliance experts’ to their offices’ to oversee whether the factories from where they are sourcing goods are maintaining compliances with the standards.’ Increasing demand for ‘compliance experts’ has compelled Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and Bangladesh Garment Manufactures and Exporters Association (BGMEA) to introduce new courses in their respective educational institutions. Already the BKMEA has introduced a six-month course on compliance issues at their own institute. An expert commented “The subject of compliance at the educational institutions is relatively new and the number of graduates, having proper understanding of, and knowledge about, compliance is also few in the country,” the concerned experts also fell it expedient to train the rural people to increase skilled manpower.
As long as a supplier stays open, Accord members are obliged to keep buying from it for two years even if they do not like what the inspections reveal. But Attiqul Islam of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said some Accord signatories had pre-emptively pulled over $100m of orders to avoid its demands. Ms Hoffman’s message to multinationals is: “You can’t just bail out now you realise you are facing some problems”. Ahsan Mansur, executive director of the Policy Research Institute, a Dhaka think-tank, says the risk of future disasters cannot be cut to zero. “But there have been significant changes coming out of this tragedy. The owners are not stupid.
They realise: ‘If something goes wrong, I will not only lose my business, and I will be in jail as well’. But the inspections are dividing them, too. Those “given the green signal by the Accord are like kings; buyers are lining up because they are scared of smaller guys,” says Omar Chowdhury, whose Syntex Knitwear produces for Tesco and is awaiting its Accord inspection results. “The strong will remain and the weak will get wiped out.”
Death started taking heavy toll after the collapse of Rana plaza. We now remember the tragedy. While remembering the concerned authorities should not forget commitment to material and emotional supports. There are reports about slow progress so far as rehabilitation of the victims are concerned. Only helping hands with sympathetic bent can help them out to help themselves.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor of Public Administration, University of Chittagong and Nasir Uddin, Lecturer of Public Administration, University of Chittagong)
