THE nation remembered with solemnity the victims of the Rana Plaza tragedy yesterday as the biggest ever industrial disaster had left behind over 1129 garment workers dead and 2515 as seriously injured, many of them maimed losing vital limbs. April 24 is a black day in the country’s history and on this first anniversary of the tragedy we pray for the peace of the dead and recovery to those who are still struggling to overcome the physical ailment and mental grief.
But we really feel appalled at the same time to see the poor progress over the last one year to compensate the families of the dead, rehabilitate the injured and bring better treatment to the maimed. The lack of enough progress in addressing their life and death issues is really unacceptable. We express our anguish at the lack of energetic move to resolve their problems, including new jobs to those who lost the job and passing time with families without enough financial support.
The Rana Plaza tragedy has touched the global community beyond Bangladesh and news report said donations from within the country alone spilled over to Tk 127 crore while the international buyers’ coalitions and such other agencies also made similar pledge to the compensation fund. But another statistics on the back of this mobilization of the fund showed that the government has so far distributed Tk 23.55 crore to the victims. News report said families of 173 dead persons have not received any help so far as the DNA test of the dead bodies yet to be settled. Test report on 88 has just been completed while the test on the remaining bodies is in progress. But one should understand that these families with the loss of their bread earners are having tough time and DNA report can’t be the only excuse to deny them financial support and rehabilitating the families with alternative jobs.
BGMEA, the apex body of the garment industry claimed they have so far given Tk 14.4 crore as salary and treatment cost to the injured and the maimed. But there is still huge excess fund in the banks and why they are not enhancing the level of financial and material support to the families is the big question agitating workers and their leaders in the industry.
There is a common perception that the BGMEA, the government and the labour leaders are failing to pick up a harmonized plan for the compensation, rehabilitation and treatment of the disabled workers. A third party is at work to divert the fund realized for workers welfare and compensation to other use. This is not only delaying the total bail out programme but also creating tension within the industry. In this background, the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) has suggested for setting up of an independent Commission to take care of the workers welfare including their treatment and rehabilitation. We hold the view that the industry must rise above self seeking to secure its transition to a new level by enforcing fire and factory safety and other compliances at work-place. It should also gear up efforts to resolve Rana Plaza crisis in the first place to ensure peace in the industry and achieve greater global cooperation for the industry.
