Gulam Rabbani :
Most of the garment factories are open in the weeklong “strict lockdown”. But transport facilities are available only for the upper level officials, not for the workers. That is why garment workers faced difficulty on Thursday on the roads due to the restrictions imposed by the government to prevent transmission of Covid-19.
Garment workers while fasting went to factories on foot or by rickshaws, vans and even pickup vans as there was no public transport on the road or the authorities didn’t arrange any vehicle to pick up and reach them on the second day of the ongoing strict lockdown. The workers claimed that they had to pay up to three times higher fare because there were not many human haulers.
The government in its circular mentioned that factories and industries will remain open during the “strict lockdown” but the factory owners will have to arrange vehicles to pick up and drop the workers. But the garment owners appear apathetic. Sabuj Miah and his wife Rita Akter work in a factory at Narayanganj. They go to their factory everyday from Malibagh in Dhaka. But no vehicle was arranged for them whereas they were forced to attend the office during this lockdown.
Being helpless in the arising situation, the couple started for their office after eating sehri as they have to save their jobs first. They reached the factory in the morning after being interrogated by the patrol police at three places.
General Secretary of Garment Workers Trade Union Center of Bangladesh, Joly Talukder, told the reporters that she had received at least 100 phone calls from the workers in the Thursday morning who complained that police had harassed them on the way to factories.
Like Sabuj Miah and his wife Rita Akter, thousands of garment workers go everyday to their factories in Narayanganj from Malibagh, Demra, Jatrabari, Dhania areas of the capital city. Most of them faced serious sufferings due to transport absence.
The workers of Savar and Ashulia industrial areas faced similar situation on Thursday. Garment workers of those areas started for their factories from 7.00 am, sources said. They could not maintain the health guidelines including the social distance as they were in tense of reaching the factories.
Garment worker Rakib Hasan said, “Everything is shut in the lockdown. I stay at Hemayetpur. One cannot reach Ashulia from Hemayetpur on foot. I walked some distance. Then I came by a van in which 10-15 people have been carried in the place of 6-7 people. Some of we wore masks, but many didn’t.”
Rakib alleged that he paid Tk 40 to the van owner whereas the fare is Tk 10 only during the normal situation. Now the main concern is coronavirus, added the worker.
Faruque Hassan, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association or BGMEA, acknowledged the sufferings of the garment workers due to the absence of the transport facility. He said that 90 percent of the garment workers live in the vicinity of the factories and they come to the factories on foot or by bicycle.
We have instructed the garment owners to solve the problems with rest 10 percent of the garment workers who live in distance areas, added the BGMEA President.
